"two new flowers had unexpectedly sprouted in her life, and, as Mariam watched the snow coming down"

Hosseini shows irony within the sentence where flowers represents a new beginning with the coming of spring, Mariam watches snow representing death of winter, the dead season. Metaphorically, the two flowers also represent Laila and her daughter Aziza but it can also represent love and hope. Hosseini shows that Mariam was hesitant in the beginning to accept Laila and Aziza as he describes Mariam having an emotion of "unexpectedly" towards the two "flowers" in her life. With Mariam hesitation, it shows that Mariam prior was unable to accept any true feelings of love demonstrating the idea of isolationism. As Mariam begins to welcome the "flowers" in her heart, she watches snow slowly come into her life as though saying the "snow" or death is slowly creeping upon her thus foreshadowing how the Laila's plan to runaway will not come true. Just as "flowers" and "snow" are opposites of one another, where Laila represents "flowers" and Mariam "snow," Hosseini uses foil to contrast Mariam and Laila. Mariam grew up in a shabby mud hut away from the city and deprived of education while Laila grew up in a love-centered city with a loving father that encouraged education above all else. This shows how education is able to shape one's life within the Afghan society and help differentiate everyone's social rank from that of another's.