A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay

2089 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: War in Afghanistan effects on women

A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hossieni is indeed a marvelous and heart-aching story about survival in a battle-run country. Khaled Hosseini was born on March 4th, 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan (“Biography”). He witnessed first-hand the horror of war, and soon immigrated to America in 1980 (“Biography”). Khaled became a trained physician in St. Jose, California but writing still remained his passion (“Biography”). To date, he has written three novels, the first one being a worldwide sensation, The Kite Runner. Even though, his writing is fiction, Hosseini brings to light many real problems the Afghan people face in his novel. He has been awarded the Original Voices Award, Borders group for The Kite Runner in 2004 and Richard and Judy’s Best Read of the Year for A Thousand Splendid Suns in …show more content…

By now, Afghanistan was starting to catch the attention of foreign powers, as Russia could now establish a trade route with India by capturing or controlling Afghanistan because it bordered India ("History of Afghanistan"). Discussions between Amir Dost and Russia angered Britain, which ultimately caused the British to invade Afghanistan ("History of Afghanistan"). The First Anglo-war (1838) failed, as Afghan troops won, but in the second one (1878), the British won ("History of Afghanistan"). Britain had full control over Afghanistan until 1919, when the King of Afghanistan, Amanullah declared independence and war against Britain. After a month of fighting, the British approved the independence of Afghanistan as a nation ("History of Afghanistan"). Humiliated, Britain conspired with traditional religious parties who were dissatisfied with Amanullah’s attempts to secularize and reform the country ("History of Afghanistan"). This led to a civil war that eventually overthrew him. Amanullah was succeeded by Muhammad Zahir Shah in 1929 ("History of Afghanistan"). The following 40 years of Zahir’s reign was a display of power, he was seen as a tyrant by

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Redemption In The Kite Runner

    689 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even after Amir and his father flew to America one afternoon decades ago, still haunts him. Amir’s inaction that day impacts the rest of his life and leads to lies, betrayal, and guilt. He desires to be forgiven for his sin and does everything he can to find redemption. Amir is hopeful that “there is a way to be good again”(Hosseini 2). Social and ethnic tensions: The Kite Runner gives us a look at Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion and then after.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Honor In The Kite Runner

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the thought provoking and eye opening narrative, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini provides a vivid and in depth story told through the eyes of a privileged young narrator who is forced to come of age in the capital of Afghanistan. As a story told from a different cultural perspective,culture and morals in this society are different from foreign beliefs. A reader will not fully comprehend The Kite Runner without discerning the differences between social classes and understanding the importance of honor in the Afghanistan culture.

    Read More

  • Who Is Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns?

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    He is able to capture the realness of the time and setting through his words, and write for a purpose. As a result, it can be said that he uses this work of historical fiction less as a theatrical stage and more as a platform to introduce the audience to the inhumaneness of Afghanistan. He not only incorporates the Taliban’s grueling “beard lookout men,” who patrol the roads in their fancy Toyota trucks in hopes of finding “a smooth-shaven face to bloody,” but he also displays the horrific and bloodcurdling abuse of women that exists at the hands’ of men and the feelings of great despair and pain that these women face as a result. Living in a state of unbearable fear of the next beating, the next detonating bomb, and the next brutal attempt of the Taliban, the lives of these characters feel almost too real to not be true. Resultantly, the reader is left to wonder whether or not this added literary dimension of realness is actually an introspective study of individuals that Hosseini has long

    Read More

  • Khaled Hosseini is the Man Who Makes a Difference with His Novels

    814 Words  | 2 Pages

    “His people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence-forces that continue to threaten them even today” (Hower). Khaled Hosseini’s novels have brought many of his readers a different perspective of Afghanistan. Many people after reading Hosseini’s books start to notice this place more and have sympathy feelings rather negative views about it. Usually people believe the media’s information that conveys about Afghanistan as a poverty place but does not specify why they live in this conditions and how those states affect their everyday life. In the two novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author Khaled Hosseini wrote the political events that happen in Afghanistan and show how those events affected Afghans’ lives in order to show his personal values of political events and humanitarianism. Khaled Hosseini uses his and other Afghan’s personal experience to send out his mission statement to his readers. Hosseini said that his message was to get his readers be a part of “the mission of [his] foundation to reach out and help people who are exactly like the characters in [his] books” (Wrenn). Across the globe, people started to give a helping hand when they start to read Hosseini’s novels.

    Read More

  • The Kite Runner Redemption Analysis

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Kite Runner “illuminates ethnic tensions, political turmoil and Taliban repression in Afgahnistan through the story of boyhood friendship and betrayal” ('Kite Runner' Shines A Light On Afghan Sport). By intertwining the real life struggles of Afghani people and the characters of this fiction novel, “Hosseini brings us into the politically chaotic but beautiful world of Afghanistan and one man’s journey through guilt and trauma from his childhood” (Pearson 66).

    Read More

  • The 1980 Summer Olympic Games Boycott

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 1980 summer Olympics, or more formally known as Games of the XXII Olympiad, was held in Moscow in the Soviet Union. Moscow proved to serve as a sufficient location for the Summer Games, proving itself with its size and budget, it was also an opportunity to elicit new jobs into the community and to increase in tourism rates. However, in Christmas 1979, Soviet Union paratroopers landed in Kabal, capital to Afghanistan. The country was already at the grip of war and its monarchy was decreasing in power. The Prime Minister of Afghanistan, Hazifullah Amin, wanted to add a more Western culture into the country and relieve the country of its Muslim tradition. A majority of the country was angered by this because Muslim belief was common. Soon enough, Afghan residents would react by joining the Mujahdeen, a guerrilla force composed of Muslims. The Mujahdeen declared a jihad, a holy war, on the Amin government of which included Russia. The Soviet Union took action on December 27th, 1979 by murdering Amin and appointed Kamal Barbak to lead Afghanistan. Many countries were disapproving of Russia's actions and in their perspective, felt that it was both inappropriate and unnecessary in Russia's involvement.

    Read More

  • A Quest for Redemption by The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is difficult to face anything in the world when you cannot even face your own reality. In his book The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses kites to bring out the major themes of the novel in order to create a truly captivating story of a young boy’s quest to redeem his past mistakes. Amir is the narrator and protagonist of the story and throughout the entire novel, he faces enormous guilt following the horrible incident that happened to his closest friend, Hassan. This incident grows on Amir and fuels his quest for redemption, struggling to do whatever it takes to make up for his mistakes. In Hosseini’s novel, kites highlight aspects of Afghanistan’s ethnic caste system and emphasizes the story’s major themes of guilt, redemption and freedom.

    Read More

  • with guilt comes a hope for redemption

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    The world-renowned novel, The Kite Runner was written by Afghanistan born American novelist Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini was born into a Shia Muslim family in Kabul that later in life decided to move to Paris. Hosseini was unable to return to Kabul due to the Taliban take over, this cause the Hosseini family to seek political asylum in America. The actions that Hosseini witnessed of his beloved home country influenced his novel with the themes of guilt and redemption. “The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” – Victor Hugo. In The Kite Runner the theme of guilt and redemption is shown through the character development of the protagonist Amir. Hosseini used Amir’s guilt of his past to grow the impression that with regret lies a hope for redemption.

    Read More

  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    Khaled Hosseini is the author of “The Kite Runner” the first Afghan novel published in English is a story set in the mid 1970’s to the early 2000’s is about a young Pashtun boy named Amir and his friend/servant and someone who he soon realizes as his half-brother a Hazara boy named Hassan , shows us that Amir goes through man changes as a person would in real life, these changes are what people of all cultures, religions and regions experience without any boundaries stopping them from doing so this is what is known as the human experience. Many experiences such as overcoming obstacles to suffering from disease or illness are all incorporated thorough out Hosseni’s novel. He uses Amir, the main character; to show the readers that in the beginning of the novel how a young boy, naïve to all that is around him can develops into a grown man because of his experiences such as loss of family members, happiness, and friendship something that all of us can experience as human beings and make us who we are.

    Read More

  • A Thousand Splendid Suns Setting Essay

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    It’s known that in some areas of the world, girls as young as 14 years old can get a child. This fact, although it’s disturbing, can become meaningful according to the setting of a story. The locations, the culture and the historical context can sometimes clarify some events that have taken place in a book. It’s the case in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini and published in 2007 in which the setting clearly impacts the plot and the characters. First of all, let’s take a look to the setting itself.

    Read More

  • kite runner

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Justice in The Kite Runner

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the literature, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the idea and representation of justice, and its relationship to that of the treatment of women in Afghan society, the ever-changing politics of Afghanistan, and the desired results of redemption and forgiveness, become illustrated through the novel’s characters and motives. Justice can be defined as the quality of being guided by truth, reason, and fairness. The Kite Runner illustrates the power of influence from an outside power and its effects on society, and the minds and lifestyles of the people. In relationship to the Cheverus High School Grad-at-Grad profile the actions and wrongdoings that take place in the The Kite Runner and in Afghanistan prove to be injustice.

    Read More

  • A Woman's Place: The Kite Runner

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    In both of his novels, Hosseini has both protagonists and antagonists originating from Afghanistan. He depicts the flaws of the broad generalizations many people believe due to a lack of information or insight into the concerning situations occurring in Afghanistan. As awareness about the indecencies taking place in Afghanistan increases, hopefully more individuals will take action to aide those being oppressed and help solve the turmoil occurring due to the presence of the Taliban. Works Cited Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner.

    Read More

  • Similarities between Amir and Author Khaled Hosseini in The Kite Runner

    1979 Words  | 4 Pages

    War establishes many controversial issues and problems within society and can often expose an individual to many economic and sociopolitical hardships; thus creating an altercation in the way they view life. Amir, from the novel The Kite Runner and the novel’s author Khaled Hosseini, both saw the harsh treatment toward the people of Afghanistan through a series of wars, invasions, and the active power of a Pashtun movement known as the Taliban. Amir, much like Hosseini, lived a luxurious and wealthy life in Kabul. He is well educated and immerses himself in reading and writing. After transitioning from a life in Afghanistan to a life in the United States, both Hosseini and Amir faced obstacles in order to assimilate to American society. In The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, the protagonist Amir parallels the experiences and hardships that Hosseini endured in his own lifetime.

    Read More

  • Cultural Diversity In A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    A thousand splendid suns (2007) is a novel written by the Afghan-American author Khaled hosseini. The novel addresses both aspects, which he evaluates and points out to his readers. Hosseini tries to point out two young women in the following way. Mariam is an illegitimate child, and suffers from both the stigma surrounding her birth along with the abuse she faces throughout her marriage. Laila, born a generation later, is comparatively privileged during her youth until their lives intersect and she is also forced to accept a marriage proposal from Rasheed, Mariam's husband.

    Read More

More about A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay

Open Document