When we are out with friends, eating a steak, most of us do not stop to think of the cow that was raised to die so there could be food on our plate. When we are buying a pair of jeans from a mainstream clothing store, we rarely stop to wonder about the slave-like conditions a worker in a developing country had to endure in during their position. In a position of affluence, we rarely think about unpleasantries unless they are unavoidable. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, we are introduced to the Afghan world and social hierarchy as Amir, a Pashtun boy born into a moneyed household but increasingly deteriorating Afghanistan flees the country. When fleeing, he leaves behind his Hazara half-brother, Hassan,who he did not protect from …show more content…
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. When in a position of dominance, one does not need to consider those below them, as no …show more content…
Fundamentally, Amir was not a deprave person so when he returned to Afghanistan with the new perspective he had gained through age and experience in America; he was able to objectively witness the social stratification and injustices that accompanied life for those left in Afghanistan. However, Amir thought the destitution within his country was a novelty that Afghanistan had acquired as a result of continuous corrupt governments, feeling “like a tourist in [his] own country”(231) after being in America for two decades. Farid, a local who was assisting Amir in his quest to rescue Sohrab, had firsthand experience with the raw Afghanistan, informing Amir that he “was always a tourist [there],...he just didn’t know it”(232). Amir had taken for granted his dominant role and consequently blinded himself from the horrors those not as well-off as himself faced. Effectively, he was not just being immoral, he was taking advantage of his birth place without putting himself in the shoes of the Hazaras so that he would not have to take direct action and face the reality that he had contributed to. Amir’s acceptance of his role in the stratification of Afghanistan came after he had taken Sohrab home, when he acknowledged that as opposed
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
“I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan – the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past – and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran.” In Khaled Hosseini’s, The Kite Runner, Amir, the young protagonist, lives a lavish lifestyle with his father, Baba. Until the Soviets invade and the Taliban become the dominant influence in Afghanistan. Amir’s sumptuous lifestyle comes to an end, and the values of not only his father but also his society begin to impact him and he realizes how much he does not belong in his own culture. Amir is taught the virtues of being a good man, however when the opportunity presents itself to demonstrate his teachings; Amir realizes how different he is from the ways of his father.
In the novel, “The Kiterunner”, the reader follows the life of a boy named Amir and we dive into his life in Afghanistan. In the beginning of the book, we follow Amir and his young life in Afghanistan with his father, Baba. Amir’s father is a very rich businessman and the two of them live alone in a large home because Amir’s mother died in childbirth with him. The only other people who play a major role in the novel are Baba’s friend and business partner, Rahim Khan, Amir’s family servant, Ali, and his son, Amir’s best friend, Hassan. The reader quickly learns that Ali and Hassan are a different type of Afghan called, Hazara. In this time period of Afghanistan Hazara people were treated poorly for their appearance and because most Hazara people have such a low status in society that they can only usually get a job as a house servant. Although Ali and his son Hassan are Hazara, later on the reader learns that Baba’s father took in Ali as his own son and cared for him, which is why Baba looks after him now like a good brother.
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.
Amir, from The Kite Runner, is no stranger to this viewpoint of America, with conscious acknowledgment of using the country as a way to forget his past sins and form a new life. One can argue that Amir needs his experience returning to Kabul to rescue Sohrab as a way to engrain appreciation for his lifestyle in America. This return is the only way for Amir to be cleansed of his sins, as stated in The Kite Runner, “‘Come. There is a way to be good again,’ Rahim Khan said on the phone just before hanging up. Said it in passing, almost as an afterthought” (Hosseini 192).
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.”
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.
There are many oversimplifications and stereotypes, even if they may be from a reality-based ideology. The ethnic group of the Hazara and the Pashtun is not entirely developed. Amir was always referred to as a Pashtun but the background of the Pashtun isn't fully touched upon. The narrator only focuses on the Mongolian-like physical features of the Hazara's, and because of this diversity, they are considered a more lowly class than Pashtuns.
Throughout his childhood, Amir conforms to society and treats his Hazara servants poorly, but he questions the morality of such treatment. When Amir’s childhood bully, Assef, confronts him, Amir thinks to himself that Hassan works only as a servant for him, and that they have no friendship. Afterward, he thinks, “Why did I only play with Hassan when no one else was around?” (41). Hosseini uses a series of rhetorical questions to accentuate how Amir questions his beliefs about his relationship with Hassan....
The first form of discrimination, most significant to the character Hassan, is done on the basis of ethnicity. As Edward Hower comments in “The Servant”, The Kite Runner’s depiction of Afghanistan is frighteningly “tense with the friction between the nation's different ethnic groups.” Representative of this prevalent Afghan culture, Assef believes in the superiority of the Pashtun people and thus the inferiority of the Hazara people, saying “Afghanistan is the land of the Pashtuns... We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose [Hassan] here”. With these statements Assef self-justifies the distinctly different and unequal actions he displays towards people of different ethnicities. Through Assef’s carefree rationalization of segregation and reason for conflict, Assef serves as a criticism by the author about modern society and how attitudes such as Assef’s can prove harmful to even genuinely good-natured people. To represent such victimized people, Hassan starkly contrasts any form of negativity and fulfills a sacrificial role for Amir’s sake, clearly noted by Asse...
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch
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.
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.
The fourth chapter will discuss the contradictory life between Afghanistan and America, how baba loses his status and how the Afghans deal with different cultures. The fifth chapter will argue how Amir and baba have different respond to the diasporic
...d to exhibit the harsh treatments many citizens living there do in recent years. Moreover, Hosseini and Amir explain the importance of having a father figure who would be support their son’s interests in life and helping them thrive for success in the careers they would like to pursue. Neither Hosseini or Amir had a father who supported their long term goals. Hosseini’s and Amir’s high social class in their hometown Kabul, made life easier for them as they were growing up because they were able to afford education which helped them a lot in the careers they pursued in. When both Hosseini and Amir came to the United States, they had a tough time learning the lifestyles of an American, but for the most part, it brought them to how successful they became. Ultimately, Khaled Hosseini creates a protagonist in his novel who serves as a parallel to his own life experiences.