摘 要

《灿烂千阳》是卡勒德·胡塞尼继《追风筝的人》后的另一大作，小说出版于2007年，讲述了两个阿富汗女性玛丽雅姆和莱拉的故事，她们遭受厄运，但仍然带着爱勉力生存。本文旨在运用弗洛伊德的精神分析理论即构成人格结构理论的自我、本我和超我评析玛丽雅姆悲惨人生的挣扎和救赎。本文通过深入的分析，得出以下结论：（1）玛丽雅姆的人格结构是造成其成长过程中挣扎和最后得到救赎的原因，但并非是唯一的原因；（2）在玛丽雅姆的成长过程中，童年时代受她的本我主导，成年时期则由她的超我主导；（3）幸运的是，在人生的最后，她的自我被唤醒。就像千千万万的阿富汗女性一样，玛丽雅姆是战争时代男权社会的悲剧。然而，在她最终牺牲的背后，却是阿富汗女性的灿烂千阳。

关键词：玛丽雅姆 挣扎 救赎 弗洛伊德的人格结构理论

2. Introduction

Compared with The Kite Runner, the first novel and also an international bestseller written by Khaled Hosseini, his second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns is somewhat less known to the public all around the world. But it cannot be denied that it is indeed a masterpiece, and to some extent, the profound meaning it carries surpasses that of The Kite Runner. It was published in 2007 in New York, when Middle Eastern women were receiving more and more attention by the rest of the world. Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan-American, was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and moved to the United States in 1980. The background of Afghanistan gave him access to the deep portrait of those Afghanistan women. Mariam and Laila, the main characters of the book, were two different stereotypes of those Afghanistan women, but under the background of war, they met each other. After experiencing familial loss, domestic violence and war destruction, finally they followed a path of redemption with love.

This research focuses on one of the main characters, Mariam. She was born as a haramian illegitimate daughter, and she lived with her mother at Kolba since her birth. But when she was fifteen years old, she left her hometown to look for her father because he didn’t keep his promise to pick her up. She struggled to master her own life at that time. But her mother committed suicide after her left, and at the same time, her father’s weakness and avoidance disappointed her greatly, so she gave in. The tragedy of her life began with her marriage with Rasheed, a man who is much older than her. She suffered from children loss and domestic violence in his house. Then she met Laila, the other wife of her husband. She set up a filial sisterhood with her after those days of hostility and fighting. It was Laila’s children and their love that gave her great comfort, and in the end, she chose to sacrifice herself for the sake of Laila’s life and her future and thus, she achieved salvation.

In an attempt to fathom Mariam, the research firstly reviews some theories on this topic; Research on her growth, Freud’s theory of personality structure and other theories related to her personality and behavior, then analyzes her struggle and redemption with the three parts of the psychic apparatus according to Freud’s psychoanalysis theory, and how they act on her personality and behavior.

The findings of this research are based on the following research questions;

1. Why does Mariam struggle and how does she obtain redemption?

2. Is Mariam’s personality related to her struggle and redemption?

3. How does Freud’s personality explain her personality and behavior caused by?

2. Literature Review

The book has been studied by a lot of researchers from different angles, such as feminism, existentialism, the initiation story, narrative techniques, and theories like Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy theory. This chapter will focus on those theories and explain them with three parts which has been classified.

2.1 Research on Mariam’s growth

For getting a deeper understanding of Mariam, it is necessary to have a glance at her life experience. Zhang Liying (2014) conducted a research on the issue of Mariam’s growth from the perspective of the initiation story. She pointed out that she experienced from “confusion” to “epiphany”, and finally her self-consciousness was awakened. Truly, Mariam was in confusion in her early life when she was a child and later suffered from domestic violence from her husband, she finally had epiphany as a woman with dignity. But what determined the direction of her life? Feng Yao (2012) gave her answers. She summarized the reasons that led to Mariam’s tragedy in three aspects; male dominated society, religious extremism, and the war. Without a specific social background, it seems that it is hard to get close to Mariam and understand her struggle and the final redemption as a poor woman. It is the harsh environment that makes her life so difficult and she can hardly beat it. Stuhr R.A (2011) held a similar point of view that under the circumstance of war and upheaval of Afghanistan the two main characters struggled for their survival. Some researchers believed that it was the lack of good education that made her a tragedy. Perhaps it is true in Afghanistan at peace for Mariam and Laila live a totally different life; one lives a rural life with district mores and the other has an urban life with educational and professional opportunities. But the war makes education a less crucial thing because both Mariam and Laila live a hard life and they have to share experiences. So education has not such a great impact that some people imagine on her tragedy.

2.2 Freud’s theory of personality structure

In Freud’s theory, the id refers to the internal world of human beings. And ego is essentially the representative of the external world (of reality). The superego is discussed in terms of modifications effected in the ego during development. Based on the basic definition of this theory, a lot of researchers summarize and develop it. As a member of them, Sun Shuqiao (2010) conducted a study on personality theory of Freud. He believed Freud’s personality theory which consists of id, ego, superego and three system components, was of great value to the study of human beings. In his research, driven by instinct, id seeks immediate pleasure and gratification regardless of moral principles, such as sex. Different from id, ego follows reality principle which means it is govern by the external environment. Superego is the ideal of ego for perfection. In other words, it accommodates ego to traditional cultures, moral principle, values and social norms. In conclusion, id, ego and superego follow three different principles; pleasure principle, reality principle and ideal principle. When applying it to Mariam, it can be seen that she is constantly being tortured by the fighting among her id, ego and superego. But the problem is which dominates her mind. Is id, ego or superego? Since she has different attitudes toward life when her life changes, it is better to analyze it accordingly.

2.3 Other theories related to Mariam’s personality and behavior

There is also a theory about the relationship between the personality structure and one’s behavior. In 1991, a book named The Structure and Meaning of Psychoanalysis as Related to Personality and Behavior was published. It was said that psychoanalysis including the personality structure consisting of id, ego, and superego made contributions to one’s personality. Therefore, the personality structure reliably has something to do with Mariam’s behaviors. Both Fitri (2016) and Sumiati (2015) made psychoanalytical studies on the personality of Mariam, in which they analyzed her personality with Freud’s personality structure; id, ego and superego. Furthermore, Hu Jie (2012) vividly described the interaction among Mariam’s id, ego and superego, and Li Qingshuang (2012) found out the hope of her in plight and finally she reached redemption with love, which was the result of her ego. Through the portrayal of Mariam, Silima (2013) got the conclusion that the resistance to subjugation was her only way to salvation. Indriyany F. N’s point of view --- search for meaning of life, which explained her guts to kill her husband.

However, in Fitri’s research, with the use of Freud’s theory of personality structure, it explained Mariam’s personality as related to her behavior on the basis of the character’s childhood rather than the three parts of the psychic apparatus in her nature which is stressed in this research. Similarly but not exactly, Sumiati argued that the three parts of the psychic apparatus put forward by Freud caused the external conflict in Mariam’s character because the desire of id undesirable by superego, which forms her personality, which to some extent offers some references to this research.