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Discrimination and its impact on society
Discrimination and its impact on society
Discrimination and its impact on society
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A Lesser Group
Everyone knows the infamous story of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party: the oppression of the Jewish because they were a minority group. That is commonly referred to as discrimination. Many may think of discrimination as being a problem of the past, but it is still dominant in our lives and culture. It is not just as recognizable as a concentration camp. Our present discriminations seem small in comparison to an event like the holocaust. People can relive or experience past discriminations through literature. Discrimination is noted and highlighted in certain literary pieces. For instance, in the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the two characters, Amir and Assef, are used to show a presiding theme: discrimination
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permits inhumane actions. Amir is Pashtun, the majority race in Afghanistan, while his friend and servant, Hassan, is Hazara.
The Hazaras were though of as servants or less than most during this time in Afghanistan. Amir is exposed to unkindness toward Hazaras throughout his childhood. While walking on the street, Amir sees Ali being verbally harassed by Pashtun boys. The first truly inhumane action Amir decides to make occurs in the alley where Hassan is raped. Contemplating with himself Amir thinks, "He was just a Hazara, wasn't he?"(77). Amir tries to justify his decision by reminding himself that Hassan, because of his race, is less than Amir.
Assef is Pashtun-German and highly prejudice toward Hazara's. He is intrigued by Hitler and fancied the ethnic cleansing idea. Assef tries to convince his friends to rape Hassan as well. He tells his friends," there's nothing sinful about teaching a lesson to a disrespectful donkey"(77). Assef justifies his actions throughout the novel by making the Hazara race seem less human. He compares them to animals and reduces them down to toys to play
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with. Another way in which discrimination is shown in the novel is through wealth. Amir lives in an enormous house with a servant that cleans, brings him dinner, and plays the role of Amir's best friend. Amir has never had to think or complete anything on his own. His consequences are paid for him. Amir struggles to find worth in his world of material items. In searching for his father's approval, Amir uses Hassan to bolster himself up to Baba's standards. Amir wonders about what it will take to make Baba proud,"maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba"(77). In that moment Amir places his worth above Hassan in striving for his distant father's affection. Meanwhile Assef's wealthy childhood has bought him many luxuries.
Assef is able to bully not only children but also adults. He is discriminatory toward adults that he does not see as equal. When faced with trouble Assef only needs to threaten with his father's reputation and money. Assef expresses extreme malice toward Baba. Assef threatens Amir, "You're part of the problem, Amir, if idiots like you and your father didn't take these people in, we'd be rid of them by now... You're a disgrace to Afghanistan"(41). He was appalled at the idea that Baba has allowed Hazara servants to live with them. Assef shows great discrimination in times of peace and
war. The characters Amir and Assef try to justify their inhuman actions by dehumanizing the victim. The Kite Runner expresses the themes of discrimination and inhumane actions paired together. This helps exploit the brutalities of discrimination in times of peace and war. With this, people can strive for a less discriminatory world to live in. They can take preventative actions to ensure the history does not repeat itself. Maybe one day discrimination can really be a problem of the past. Work Cited Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Penguin, 2003
While Amir is a Sunni, his childhood friend Hassan is Shi’a, an inferior division of Islam. Simultaneously, Amir and Hassan belong to different ethnic groups-Amir is Pashtun while Hassan is Hazara. During his childhood, Amir would constantly mock Hassan’s illiteracy and poke fun at him. But, the pivotal demonstration of pressure from his surroundings that makes Amir commit his own act of cruelty is when he watches Assef rape Hassan for refusing to give him the kite that Hassan caught for Amir. To this, Amir describes the look of Hassan’s face to “a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb” (76). Throughout his upbringing, Amir constantly believed that his father blamed him for killing his mother in childbirth. To Amir, Hassan’s rape is a sacrifice that Hassan has to pay the price, the lamb to kill, in order to win his father over. To justify his refusal to intervene, Amir reminds himself that “[Hassan] was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (77). Amir’s surroundings cause him to have a negative outlook on people that his society deem lower. Amir knows he is morally wrong for not helping Hassan, but his need for his father’s love overpowers his friendship. Adding to his pressures, Amir believes that Baba prefers Hassan over him, a belief that further drives him to be cruel to Hassan. As a result, Amir’s motivation for validation and love from his father
Amir's mother passes away during his birth, and his left with the suspicion that his father blames him for her death. Amir longes for his father's attention and approval, but does not receive any affection as a son. He grows up with his Hazara best friend, Hassan. In Afghanistan culture, Hazaras are considered lower class and inferiors in society. Amir describes his friendship with Hassan saying, “then he would remind us that there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break."
Once Assef also realized it was Amir, he said that they will fight in front of Sohrab in a small room, and whoever comes out alive can leave with him. Amir describes the fight as redemption for what he has done in the past. Sohrab feeling bad for Amir takes the slingshot, puts the brass ball in it and slingshots Assef in the eye. Assef’s grudge against Hazaras leads to him losing his eye. Likewise, Assef would still have his eye, if he had not used the stereotypes to describe Hazara’s. Therefore, Assef’s act of race and social class affects the overall outcome of the novel and his own decisions. Next, judging a person of his social class changes Farid’s character and overall outcome of the novel. Farid’s assumption of Amir coming to Afghanistan is to, “Sell this land, sell that house, collect the money and run away like a mouse. Go back to America, spend the money on a family vacation to Mexico” (Hosseini 249). Farid is implying that even though Amir has lived in Afghanistan most of his life, he has never experienced the problems that normal people have faced. Farid thinks of Amir has a rich individual, so believes that he has come to Afghanistan to sell land and make money. However, he realizes the truth that he has come to save
Assef being a proud Pashtun has a strong dislike for all minorities in Afghanistan. He tells Amir “we are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans”(Hoseini 40). The word pure represents that all others are fake. Assef believes in the ideal of a master race superior to all others, going as far to support Hitler in all he did. According to Assef “if they had let Hitler finish what he had started, the world would be a better place now”(Hoseini 40). Assef resembles Hitler in many ways beyond their shared ideals. Assef has a way with words able to to control and deceit those around him. Even with his parent “he was the parent, and they his children”(Hoseini 95). As the story progresses the idea of superiority is lost to Amir but not to Assef whose actions have grown rampant in Afghanistan. Assef is now a Hitler in his own right, commanding mass murders at will. Assef showing no remorse for [leaving hazaras] for the dogs, [describing it as], dog meat for dogs”, this depicts modern Afghanistan filled with individuals accepting the superiority complex and letting atrocities happen just as they did in the Holocaust. Assef describes Afghanistan “like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, [which] someone has to take out”(Hoseini 284). Assef taking on the role of Hitler, who desired to create a master race by genocide, by “taking out the
He made a sweeping, grandiose gesture with his hands. " Afghanistan for Pashtuns, I say. That's my vision." (40) Assef rapes Hassan went they are children and later Hassan’s son Sohrab. He also stones people to death for fun and people see him as a hero for it.
How would you like it if someone walked up to you and berated you based on the color of your skin? A characteristic like that isn’t even something you can control, so an insult of that nature can leave one furious and oppressed. Discrimination is inevitable in any culture, throughout history, in modern times, and even in ancient times. For example, the oppression and murder of 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust, the African Slave Trade which occurred for multiple centuries, and more recently, the “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya people in Myanmar, brought on by the government of the Asian nation, all of which are tragedies doomed to happen when history repeats itself and people do not learn
...h him; another part to this is because he believes Hassan is just a dirty Hazara boy. “I'd chase the car, screaming for it to stop. I'd pull Hassan out of the backseat and tell him I was sorry, so sorry, my tears mixing with rainwater. We'd hug in the downpour (Hosseini 109).” After Amir causes Hassan to leave, he laments about letting, more like making, his best friend leave him. He sees the dirty Hazara boy as his best friend at that moment. In both of these stories, the main character realizes how similar they are to the other social or religious group.
Assef is the same guy that rapes Hassan. Amir runs into Assef, who is now apart of the Taliban, while trying to get Sohrab. Amir says, “I’ll pay you for him, … I can have money wired” (282). Amir is trying to buy Sohrab from Assef, but Assef doesn’t need the money. His parents are rich and live in this gorgeous place called Rockingham. He says, “Have you ever heard of Rockingham? Western Australia, a slice of heaven… So if I need money, I’ll have them wire it to me” (282). If Assef needed money, he would just have his parents send it to him. Assef wants something else from Amir. Assef wants to settle some ‘unfinished’ business with Amir. Assef fights Amir, but really he ends up just beating him with brass knuckles. In the end, Amir feels better. He says, “My body was broken-but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed” (289). Amir feels the pain of Assef continuously beating him, but he also feels like he is at peace, because when he wanted Hassan to hurt him back, he wouldn’t. He laughs because he is feeling at peace. Now that he has finally gotten what he has been waiting for and what he thinks he deserves. By Amir getting beaten feeling peace, he is finally fulling
Nothing”(Hosseini 25). Hassan and his father, Ali, are discriminated against because of their religious beliefs and physical features. He is bullied because some believe “Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns.the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here”. His people pollute our homeland, our water. They dirty our blood”(Hosseini 40).
Hassan is a Hazara boy, this being an ethnic group that is looked down upon by Pashtun citizens of Kabul. “In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that.” (Hosseini 25). Throughout his childhood, Amir is put down regularly by neighborhood kids for befriending Hassan because of his ethnic background. Amir realizes that no matter what he may do, or no matter how Hassan may try to alter the situation, Hassan would always be too different for people to accept.
Amir takes advantage of Hasan because he is a Hazara and his servant. “When it comes to words Hassan is an imbecile” (29). This is when Amir first starts to belittle Hassan knowing that he is a Hazara therefore illiterate. Instead of helping his friend, Amir chooses to instead downplay him and mock Hassan. “What would you do if I hit you with this?” (92). Amir pelting Hassan with the pomegranate after he asks this question continues his betrayal because Amir knew Hassan would not do anything about it. “A loyal Hazara. Loyal as a dog” (72). Assef of all people acknowledged that Hassan was loyal to Amir. This in some ways makes Amir as disgusting as Assef but it there are worse instances of betrayal by Amir.
Hassan defends Amir from being beaten by Assef, who has a reputation in Kabul of being a psychopath. When Assef threatens them, Hassan does not hesitate to respond saying, “You are right, Agha. But perhaps you didn’t notice that I’m the one holding the slingshot. If you make a move, they’ll have to change your nickname from ‘the Ear Eater’ to ‘One-Eyed Assef,’ because I have this rock pointed at your left eye” (45-46). Later on, Amir stands up for Sohrab, Hassan’s son, as Hassan stood up for Amir countless times before.
In the book, Hassan and Amir’s social statues are different. Amir is a Pashtun, which is the majority group of Kabul. Amir is well respected because of his father and he doesn’t get verbally abused due to his race. However, Hassan is a Hazara, which is the minority group in Kabul. Hazaras are looked down upon and used as servants. Hassan is verbally and physically abused due to his race. Assef is the antagonist of the book and he tortures Hassan by calling him “flat-nose” and raping him. Race is one of the main themes of separation that shows how social classes are separated due to race. Amir also looks down on Hassan for being a Hazara. In the book, Amir never shows his friendship with Hassan when in public. Hassan is ridiculed thought out the book but remains loyal and friendly to Amir.
Throughout the novel, racism is a prominent form of the abuse of power. Particularly, in the novel, as Amir is reflecting on his relationship with Hassan he realizes that he doesn’t consider Hassan to be a friend regardless of all their adventures, similar to Baba and Ali. He concludes that, “In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi'a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.” This realization highlights the deep roots of racism that are accepted as a society. Through Amir’s reflection, the audience becomes aware of the societal norms and overwhelming presence of racism during daily life. In order to understand the prominence of racism, it is essential to understand the psychological aspects that
There were ultimately two options: step up to the bullies and rescue Hassan, or run away. Even after hearing Assef say how Amir would never do the same for him, about how he would never stand up for him, he still chose to run away and pretend like he did not just witness what had happened. There is also a scene where Amir is feeling guilty and both the boys are around a pomegranate tree. Amir just starts pelting Hassan with pomegranates and threatens to throw him back. He exclaims, “You’re a coward,” (.).