Adoption and Women's Identity: The Dynamics of Relationship in Khaled Hosseini's novel And The Mountains Echoed

The societal pressure on women to become a mother has been exerted since time immemorial. The attainment of motherhood is said to complete a woman’s life in the eyes of her family as well as the society in which she lives. Khaled Hosseini’s fictional work And the Mountains Echoed (2013), gives a glimpse of a woman and the importance of motherhood attached to her position, besides the practice of adoption to resolve the problem of infertility. Adoption was the only alternative in the past but fertility treatments has brought significant changes in the lives of many childless couples. Hosseini depicts the bond between Nila and her adopted daughter Pari, and the cracks that appear in their relationship with the passage of time. Nila’s unsuccessful attempt to embrace motherhood through adoption does not pave the way for her happiness in life. She is unable to maintain a lasting bond with her adopted daughter who failed to understand her while she was alive. Pari yearned for her adoptive parent’s presence, and realized the importance of having a mother in her life only after she had had children of her own.