Corruption In The Kite Runner

Corruption surrounds mankind, from biblical stories to modern day political governments. Because human nature is undeniably flawed, people and their communities may fall to immoral and faulty behavior. In his historical fiction, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini depicts the privileged and cowardly Amir growing up in peaceful Afghanistan and betraying a valued friend. Through Amir and his country’s demise, Hosseini shows how people are shaped by their environment and that the interaction between the two greatly influences the health of each. The corruption of man intertwines with the corruption of the nation and those surrounding him, therefore the combined influence of nature and nurture contributes to the downfall and struggle of each as well

as the journey for restoration.
A privileged environment of peace and luxury has the potential to fall as well as cause the inhabitants to develop complacency and flaws in their character. Amir is a prime case of falling victim to the negative effects of his nature but also his upbringing. His personality is naturally cowardly and ridden with failure to stand up for himself, as noted by his disappointed father, “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up for anything’” (Hosseini 22).

Although Amir does not have control of his innate nature and tendency to rely on Hassan for protection from bullies, he has the potential to build a more courageous character with proper nurturing. However, Baba, ridden with his own corruption and past mistakes, provides Amir with an unfortunately neglectful and disapproving parenting that further weakens Amir’s natural cowardice. Perpetual feelings of incompetence for his father such as, “I didn’t want to disappoint his again” errode Amir over time and eventually cause him to associate his worth with Baba’s approval of him (17). This leads to Amir developing his goals towards pleasing Baba solely and prioritizes this above all else, instilling an imbalance to Amir’s moral compass. Alongside Baba’s poor execution of raising Amir, peer influence and observational learning from others greatly impact Amir’s view on the Hazaras. Young children often learn through seeing and mimicking. Therefore when Amir sees Baba “in none of his stories...refer to Ali as his friend”, it is likely that Amir will mirror similar behavior of refusing to see Hassan as a friend because of the servitude boundary between them (25). By

not acknowledging Hassan’s love and devotion to Amir as friendship, Amir’s character is revealed to have taken on the similar prejudices that plague his country against the Hazara people simply due to their race.

Bullied and ridiculed for playing alongside a Hazara, Amir devolves even greater into complacency and adjusting his views to match that of his society. When Assef declares intensely racist views, “‘Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be...not this Flat-nose here. His people pollute our homeland’”, followed by a baffled “‘How can you call him your ‘friend’?”, Amir internally becomes ashamed of his close relationship with Hassan and reflects on the need to hide his friendship “I play with Hassan only when no one else was around” (40-41). This shows how willing Amir is to conform to avoid rejection and disdain for his actions, such as striving to please Baba and rejecting Hassan to paradoxically evade rejection. Consequentially, Amir’s repetitive shame associates Hassan with it, showing that Amir’s gradual devaluing of Hazaras is driven by societal norms. Amir becomes a citizen, perhaps out of many, that take the stable and peaceful monarchy of King Zahir Shah for granted. Hosseini portrays the exposition of the book in pre-war so “that the

book also serves as a reminder that Afghanistan was not always the ravaged nation now featured on the evening news. A lot of people forget that Afghanistan lived in harmony and peace for decades” (Cowan). By lack of care for a thankfully just government, citizens’ apathy helps allow the government to become of lesser importance and eventually, by lack of citizen support and static acceptance to Hazara oppression, be seized by corrupt leaders of ill intentions. Amir is guilty of this mistake, where on the night of the monarch’s coup, he selfishly declares “We let him wrap us in his arms and, for a brief insane moment, I was glad about whatever happened that night” because the shooting and the coup results into Baba giving him a rare dose of affection he craves persistently (36). Amir is also blessed with a household run with Hazara servants, which causes him to turn a blind eye to the issue of oppressing Hazaras and the cruel racism surrounding them because he is already adapted to the notion that Hazaras like Hassan and Ali will always serve Pashtuns like him and Baba. This reveals the large extent to which Amir is susceptible for his ingrained superiority over Hazaras to take a drastic, damaging turn that results in great harm to them. For corruption to run so deep in a nation that young adolescents take part indicate that the nation has reached the tipping point of harmony because “The tribe-based racism that motivated Assef's attack and then allowed Amir to eliminate from his life a child who was his closest friend, is for Hosseini the key to Afghanistan's self-destruction” (Conlogue). Amir breaking a life-long bond to his deepest friendship in the face of racism shows the severity of Afghanistan’s Hazara persecution because it affects young children enough to cause justified rape and lack of intervention.
The refuge to a safer environment causes reflection of one’s corruptness and past mistakes and the healing of others’. Awareness of one’s flaws increases with time and inhabitation of a comfortable, fortunate lifestyle. Amir expresses continual guilt after he moves to San Francisco, California, for refuge from the Taliban, “For me, America was a place to bury my memories” of betraying Hassan, revealing that Amir’s new environment far away from that of his sin serves not just a refuge from a toxic government, but from haunting childhood events