The Kite Runner was published in 2003 by Riverhead books. It is the first novel by author Kahled Hoseini. The story of The Kite Runner begins in Kabul in the 1960. The novel is about an all-male family consisting of the father Baba, his son Amir, the servant Alivant, and his son Hassan. Amir, being from the upper class, has access to a better education than his friend, Hassan, but they both suffer from similar problems. They both struggle with education, housing and or even physical or psychological abuse. This novel shows many examples between the differences in class and the conflicts between them. The characters that belong to the upper class, such as Amir and Assef, are the cause of the novel's issues amongst characters and bigger issues within Afghan and American society due to the shared belief that their superior social status forgives their offenses. In Afghanistan, people are usually divided into three ethnic classes. They are distinguished by race, religion and by earnings. The Pashtuns are the upper class. They are the largest ethnic group and are over 43% of the population in Afghanistan. Hazaras are the lowest class of Afghans. They are usually servants to the upper class and do not have many …show more content…
Assef uses his ethnic group’s power to excuse his attack on Hassan and forgive him of guilt and sin. When Assef rapes Hassan, Assef thinks his action is excused by the Hassan is a Hazara. Assef believes that Hassan as lower class should respect and satisfy him. He believes that what he is doing benefits Afghanistan and even though what he does is immoral; because the Hazaras are despised his acts are excusable. This is an example how the Taliban believes that killing who they see fit is for the greater good of Afghanistan, thereby excusing themselves for their
Amir’s childhood is quite unusual compared to most children in Afghan. Amir’s father, Baba, is a very rich and successful individual in his lifetime. This success allows Amir to live a wealthy lifestyle with access to western commodity as well as servants. In novel, Amir is risen mostly by his servants Hassan and Ali, as well
The way our friends treat us in the face of adversity and in social situations is more revealing of a person’s character than the way they treats us when alone. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, ethnic tensions, nationality, and betrayal become the catalyst that drives and fuels Amir, Assef, and other characters to embark on their particular acts of cruelty. Serving as a way to illustrate the loss of rectitude and humanity, cruelty reveals how easily people can lose their morals in critical circumstances. Through Amir, Assef, and the Taliban’s actions, cruelty displays the truth of a person’s character, uncovering the origin of their cruelty. Amir’s cruelty spurs from his external environment and need for love from his father, choosing
The history of Afghanistan influences the way Amir’s life develops by affecting his relationship with himself, Baba, and Hassan. People are greatly influenced by the culture that they grow up in, and a community’s culture is shaped by the events that they go through. Throughout the book, the reader can see that Amir struggles with his self-confidence and often-times looks down on himself as a weak and unworthy human being.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini depicts the story of Amir, a Pashtun boy raised in an environment in which worth is determined by birth. Hosseini uses the social hierarchy in Afghanistan to compare to the ideal of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Assef in The Kite Runner depicts the ideal by alluding to the Holocaust and Hitler. The allusion to the Holocaust allows Asseff to be the connection between Afghanistan and the Holocaust as a result of superiority ideal’s depicted by Elie Wiesel in Night. The comparison depicts how due to superiority ideal’s individual 's morals can be altered in which they are willing to turn on their friends; Pashtuns and Hazaras; Aryans vs Jews.
The Kite Runner, is the first novel written by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner is set in Afghanistan before the war in the city of Kabul, and then eventually in America. The novel relays the struggles of Amir (A young Shi’ boy), Hassan (a young Hazera servant boy) and Baba (Amir’s father) as they are growing up in an ever-changing Afghanistan. The young boys face difficult challenges most adults will never have to experience. Amir, Hassan, and even Baba must overcome cruelty in every aspect of their lives.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a story about a young boy named Amir that begins in 1975 in Kabul, Afghanistan. As a child, he mistreats his servant, Hassan, who is like a brother to him. After failing to intervene in Hassan 's rape, Amir lives with guilt until his late thirties when he is presented with a chance at redemption. Amir 's father’s old friend, Rahim Khan, called from Pakistan to summon Amir to him. Upon his arrival, Amir learns that Hassan is his illegitimate half-brother. Hassan had been killed and his son had become an orphan. Amir then goes to drastic lengths to find and retrieve Hassan 's son, Sohrab. During this time Amir faces the guilt of his past and finds peace with himself while saving Sohrab
Even when Amir was nasty and cruel to him, he had always been a faithful, kind soul. He never doubted that Amir was his friend and that he held a special place in his heart. When Hassan got raped, Amir did not help Hassan. 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 witnessed what had happend. There is also 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 him to throw one back. He exclaims, “You’re a coward,” (...). And what does Hassan do? He picks up a pomegranate, but instead of hurling it in Amir’s direction, he smashes it on himself and says, “are you satisfied?” (....). There is this constant pressure on Hassan and Amir’s relationship. The Afghan society would not approve of such “friendship.” Both of the boys were good, but Amir was so young when he made the mistakes that it made the reader question whether there was a way for Amir to be morally good again.
Assef is the character responsible for Amir’s guilt. He is the one who raped Hassan and if he did not, the story would be changed drastically. He is the source of evil in the novel. The sociopathic qualities he demonstrates are very evident. Assef if very different from the other characters in the sense that he never feels guilt and has no conscious. Baba and Amir both are able to redeem themselves but Assef has no remorse after his actions. Assef believes that “Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns … we are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-nose here. His people pollute our homeland.”(40) Assef bullies Hazara’s such as Hassan as he believes people like him should not be in Afghanistan. His actions are very rude and he never apologizes
Assef had showed hatred towards Hazaras, as he furthermore compared himself to Hitler. Assef stated, “Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be.” (Hosseini pg. 43) This quote has settled the fact that he had strong feelings of hatred towards Hazaras, and feels the need to remove them from Afghanistan. Therefore, not only did he rape Hassan as an act of revenge, but he wanted to show his assertion that Pashtuns have power over Hazaras. In addition, not only did Assef want to feel authoritative, he wanted to make Hassan feeble. This is a common effect of rape, as the person who is being raped feels powerless and helpless. It was Assef’s form of revenge, after being threatened by Hassan with a slingshot. As well, he wanted Hassan to remember it forever, as he stated, “... so it will always remind you of what I’m about to do.” (Hosseini pg. 78). Furthermore, he stated, “And there’s nothing sinful about teaching a lesson to a disrespectful donkey” implying that he showed no remorse for what he was about to do. Also, this specific event was not the only time rape was brought up in this novel. When Amir and Baba were fleeing Afghanistan, a young Russian soldier nearly raped a woman as “a payment to let them pass.” When Karim was translating the words that the Russian soldier spoke, “He says… He says every price has a tax” (Hosseini pg. 121), he was implying how the Russian soldier was
Within the last forty years, Afghanistan has seen a lot of turmoil and despair. Racism has been a major part of history, which still affects the lives of many people. Racism cuts though a person’s feelings like a glass-covered kite string cuts down another kite. An example of racism occurring recently is in Afghanistan. Social groups desperately try to cling on to the reasons why they are different from each other in order to preserve social order. The reasons for difference depreciate greatly between the Sunnis and the Shias with each and every passing days. A Sunni, Amir discovers this after years of not knowing his Shia friend, Hassan, is actually his brother. While there are many themes in Hosseini’s, The Kite Runner, racism best represents the novel by setting up the antagonist, Assef, while also contributing to the many conflicts Amir faces between he and Hassan.
Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner, grew up in prejudiced Afghanistan during the 1960’s as a middle-class Pashtun living with Hazaras working for his family. His move to America after the Communist Coup proved difficult for his family, especially his father. In his novel, Hosseini writes through a young boy, Amir, very similar to himself, who grows up with his father and two Hazara servants in Afghanistan at the time of the Taliban attacks. Both Amir and his father, Baba, treat their servants, Hassan and Ali, like family. Society, however, does not approve of such relationships between Pashtuns and Hazaras. As Amir hides and watches horrified, another Pashtun boy rapes Hassan. This leads to the continuation of Amir’s internal conflict about the treatment of Hazaras by the public, and also makes him feel guilty and self-conscious throughout his entire life. In addition, Amir strives for affection and attention from his rather indifferent father. Amir’s outward conformity to societal values in his relationships with both Hassan and Baba, as a result of his inner struggle and guilt, contribute greatly to the significance of The Kite Runner.
It is notable that the highest class of people in Afghanistan in the novel are the Pashtuns as they are also the least likely to be treated poorly and live in the harsh reality of Afghan poverty. Hosseini deliberately describes the Pashtuns in an exaggerated way “my Baba [who] had the most beautiful house in Wazir Akbar Khan”. This hubris about the lifestyle the Pashtuns are accustomed to is short lived as they are forced to flee the Soviet army and arrive in America with very little. It is notable that although a racial divide causes the Pashtuns to treat the Hazara as second-class citizens, in 1979 the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan led to many of the citizens fleeing to the more peaceful Pakistan, and they all had to flee from a threat as one unit. The racial divide was pushed aside momentarily so
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a fiction story about two young boys named Amir and Hassan that grew up in Kabul. Amir, who betrayed Hassan and fled to California as Kabul was being controlled by the Russian, was still being haunted by his betrayal. As Amir heard that the Taliban’s murdered Hassan and his wife, Amir returned to Kabul to save Hassan son, Sohrab.
Hosseini paints the Afghan social structure as eminently stratified, where even as a child, Amir was aware of his fortune over that of Hassan, witnessing “people… [call] Hazaras mice-eating, flat-nosed, load-carrying donkeys”(10), but becoming conscious of the ubiquity of the dynamic through one of his deceased mother’s books which stated that the Pashtun people “had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras”(10) and because of this, Hazaras were consequently discriminated against and forced to work as indentured servants in Afghanistan. This relationship is present between Amir and Hassan, Baba and Ali; where even though the latter of the two sets were servants of the former, there was a sense of brotherhood between the boys and men. As a result of this, Amir had an inkling that it was wrong to take advantage of Hassan’s devotion. However, in his eyes, “[he] was a Pashtun and [Hassan] was a Hazara, [he] was Sunni and [Hassan] was Shi’a, and nothing was going to change that”(25). Amir’s affluence never truly provided him with the insight to ponder why it was that he was educated and could have everything he wanted while Hassan had to work all day to support him.
One’s upbringing and status ultimately affects their behavior and authority in society. The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, shows the difference in power between the Hazaras, who have been persecuted throughout Afghani history, and the Pashtuns, who hold superior status. The novel is set against the backdrop of a class-based society structure in Afghanistan. The hierarchical society determines occupation, status, and power in the social structure, and defines the social interaction amongst members of different classes. Using the Marxist lens to analyze this novel reveals the impact of different socioeconomic classes and offers a more comprehensive view of what life was like during a time of great political anarchy in Afghanistan. By