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. Amir, the main character and narrator in the Kite Runner, belongs to a wealthy family in which his father is a powerful businessman. Amir is also a part of the dominant Pashtun ethnic group and Sunni religious group. Amir in the Kite Runner tells the story of his friendship with Hassan. Hassan and his father, Ali, are Amir’s servants. Hassan on the contrary is a low-caste ethnic Hazara and belongs to the minority Shi’it religious faith. This provides many of the Afghan’s who are different such as Sunni’s, who make up 85% of the Muslim faith, to persecute people like Hassan for their religion. The division between Shia and Sunni dates back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and the question of who was to take over the leadership of the Muslim nation. Sunni Muslims agree with the position taken by many of the Prophet's companions, that the new leader should be elected from among those capable of the job. This is what was done, and the Prophet Muhammad's close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr, bec... ... middle of paper ... ...mption comes up over and over. This holds true for Soraya, who needs Amir to forgive her before she can marry him and Rahim Khan, who needs Amir to forgive him for keeping Baba's secret before he dies. "I know that in the end, God will forgive. He will forgive your father, me, and you too ... Forgive your father if you can. Forgive me if you wish. But most important, forgive yourself." Amir is not able to forgive himself until the very end of the novel, and then sees and feels his redemption. Afghanistan since its beginning has been a place of conflict, despair, and at times lost hope. It has been taken advantage of and lost its sense of identity, which has had a direct effect on its people, and there own sense of what justice truly is. http://www.powells.com/authors/khaledhosseini.html http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/kiterunner/themes.html
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.
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.
Hosseini’s purpose of writing the Kite Runner was to teach the readers the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The main character, Amir, is a Pashtun and Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims, then there are Hazara’s that the Pashtuns do not get along with. Hazara’s are not welcomed by the Pashtuns because they are different social classes.
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.
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.
The Kite Runner focuses on the relationship between two Afghan boys Amir and Hassan. Amir is a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim, while Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a. Despite their ethnic and religious differences, Amir and Hassan grow to be friends, although Amir is troubled by Hassan, and his relationship with his companion, one year his junior, is complex. Amir and Hassan seem to have a "best friend" type relationship. The two boys, Hassan and Amir, are main characters in the book titled, The Kite Runner. The two boys have a relationship that is significantly different compared to most. There are many different facets that distinguish the relationship the boys possess. The boys do write their names in a pomegranate tree as the "sultans of Kabul" (Kite Runner 27) but, their friendship is not strong and it is one sided. Hassan has love for Amir. He loves him like a brother. Hassan is exceedingly loyal to Amir. The relationship between the two boys is emotionally wearing and rather gloomy for the most part. The main reason for their complicated relationship is the fact that Amir is Pashtun, and Hassan is Hazara. The Afghan society places Hassan lower than Amir. Hassan is Amir's servant. The placement of Hassan in the Afghan society disenables Amir from becoming Hassan's true friend. Amir sees Hassan as lower than human. Amir ruins the chance for friendship between himself and Hassan because he is jealous of Hassan, he thinks of Hassan as a lower human, and because Amir possesses such extreme guilt for what he has done to Hassan. Amir is an unforgivable person overall.
It has been estimated that Sunnis make up approximately 85 percent of the world’s Muslim population, with Shi’as accounting for much of the rest. When people talk of sectarianism in Islam, these two names, which are rooted in the earliest days of the Islamic caliphate, are the most often mentioned. It may be tempting to make a passing comparison here with the great Protestant-Catholic divide in Christianity. However, whereas that division didn’t occur until well over a thousand years into the life of the church, the great Sunni-Shi’a break came within the lifetime of the surviving companions of the Prophet Muhammad and was not centered on doctrinal disputes. The main reason for the existence of the Shi’a sect is directly related to the election of Abu Bakr as the first caliph of the Muslim community in the year 632. The Prophet had just passed away, and the leaders of Medina gathered to choose a political successor to keep the fledgling Muslim nation united. There was no question about doing this because the Prophet had spoken about it so often. After a heated debate, Abu Bakr was chosen to lead. Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad (he was married to Muhammad’s favorite daughter, Fatimah), was not present at that meeting, and he later protested that he should have been given a fair shot at being selected the caliph. Although Ali refused to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr for a few months, eventually he caved in and both he and his supporters took the oath. The stage was set for bad blood, however; and as each new caliph was elected, Ali’s friends stood by in anger, watching other men being given the nod while their beloved leader was passed over. Finally, in 656 when Ali was elected the fourth caliph, his group felt vindicated...
Kite Runner depicts the story of Amir, a boy living in Afghanistan, and his journey throughout life. He experiences periods of happiness, sorrow, and confusion as he matures. Amir is shocked by atrocities and blessed by beneficial relationships both in his homeland and the United States. Reviewers have chosen sides and waged a war of words against one another over the notoriety of the book. Many critics of Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, argue that the novel would not have reached a lofty level of success if the U.S. had not had recent dealings with the Middle East, yet other critics accurately relate the novel’s success to its internal aspects.
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.
... Recovering from this rescue, Amir learns that an orphanage Rahim spoke of does not exist. This leaves him with the issue of what to do with this child. Amir ponders to himself, “I wondered what I'd do with the little wounded boy on the bed, though a part of me already knew” (Hosseini, 328). Related to redemption, this quote foreshadows that Amir will adopt and take Sohrab home. For what is he to do but save his brother's son? To redeem himself of a betrayal long ago Amir knows he has to take in and take care of Sohrab. Thus, foreshadowing is a principal device in evoking the theme of redemption.
The themes of the loss of innocence and redemption is used throughout the novel The Kite Runner to make a point that one can lose innocence but never redeem it. Once innocence is lost it takes a part of oneself that can never be brought back from oblivion. One can try an entire life to redeem oneself but the part that is loss is permanently gone although the ache of it can be dampened with the passing of time and acts of attempted redemption. Khaled Hosseini uses characters, situations, and many different archetypes to make this point.
Throughout Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, the reader observes many injustices committed due to the presence of the Taliban and cultural conflict in Afghanistan. One of the most concerning issues in Afghanistan is the mistreatment and inequality that women face on a daily basis due to Taliban mandates. Women in Afghanistan are treated as inferior beings to men and are unable to stand up for themselves due the laws the Taliban enforces. Hosseini uses the wives of Amir and Hassan, Soraya and Farzana, to represent the injustices to which women in Afghanistan are subjected.
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.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel based in Afghanistan that shows the betrayal between two boys with two different social backgrounds. Four years later “The Kite Runner” was filmed by David Benioff, which shows the meaningful message that the book delivers in a movie. Throughout the book and movie, Amir the protagonist must live the rest of his life with guilt from his childhood. Although the movie gave the same meaningful message that the book delivered, the book was further developed, which had more detail and kept the readers wanting more. Ultimately these details that were present in the novel gave the readers a better understanding of the characters, which led to the relationships
In the past ten years the Afghan Government has been dealing with a number of issues that have caused problems for the country, problems such as illegal drug trade, terrorism and violence. But nowadays they are fighting a problem that has long existed between people, and quite recently has taken a whole new aspect to it. Ethnic conflict is the destructive factor that has caused problems between people for generations, often leading to fights, outbreak of violence and grudge between different ethnicities.