How Does Hosseini Present His Struggles In The Kite Runner

Raised in an affluent neighborhood in Afghanistan, the poor and the wealthy worked for survival, and the educated lived alongside the uneducated. In this ordinary, tranquil setting, change suddenly grasps the lives of individuals. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, the protagonist, Amir, must endure the changes that abruptly unravel in his neighborhood. As the novel unfolds, Amir introduces the readers to his profound interest in literature, the escalating tensions among the different political parties as well as the harassment of his brother Hassan. Later in the novel, he draws the reader's attention to the transformation Afghanistan undergoes, from economic oppression to the physical devastation, by constantly contrasting the past

Although before war Afghanistan seemed to be a relatively peaceful country, Hosseini saw the small political struggles underlying this tranquility. Leading to his incorporation of the mass shooting in the novel, this political instability in Afghanistan eventually caused the overthrow of King Zahir Shah, marking the beginning of the civil war, which Hosseini later describes as “a whole new country” (“Khaled Hosseini Interview” 1). In order to inform the readers about the horrific events, he dramatizes the scene of the overthrow in his novel by describing the gunfire as “a rapid staccato,” which evokes the reader's senses (Hosseini 35). Amir further explains that these “bombs and gunfire” are “foreign” to his generation of Afghan children, which signifies a major transformation in Afghanistan (Hosseini 36). Likewise, during an interview, Hosseini claimed that Afghanistan was a “peaceful and quiet” era while in retrospect “a time of polarization” in terms of politics. For Hosseini, noticing the shift from tranquility to violence greatly shaped his view towards Afghanistan, which he emphasizes through the eyes of

Although Hosseini does not elucidate whether he has felt isolated from his family, by emphasizing Hassan’s conflicts with Amir, he highlights the degree of isolation he felt as a young, innocent boy. Through this, Hosseini claims that isolation from neighborhood boys is incomparable to the bullying one faces from a family member. This is particularly evident when Amir intentionally “teases” and “exposes [Hassan’s] ignorance” while reading a sophisticated novel to him (Hosseini 28). Hosseini effectively conveys his message that although Amir and Hassan are cousins, there is a mist of separation that co-exists between them because of their religious status. These incessant harassment present in Hassan’s life reflects the portion of Hosseini’s life as a pariah in America, which was an inevitable misfortune due to his Afghan descent. For example, Hosseini was called a “terrorist,” which Hosseini passively dismissed by acknowledging his fate from the “inscrutable Afghan resignation” (Jones 1). Encountering such difficulties at a young age, Hosseini decides to dedicate a large portion of the novel illustrating the scenes through