Kite Runner Setting

Khaled Hosseini in his novel Kite Runner creates a portrait of the beauties and horrors of his hometown Kabul, Afghanistan. The novel is based on real-life events. Hosseini depicts the racial, religion and class issues in Kabul. The setting and social milieu drastically changed from the early 1970’s when the country was western and had not undergone warfare to the late 1970’s when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and violence and instability began. The Soviet Union’s invasion created violence and increased the inequalities between social class and religion. Hosseini shows how the novel’s setting and social milieu in Kabul directly influence and shape the relationship between two young boys Amir, an upper class Pashtun, and Hassan, his servant’s

Amir comes from a wealthy family and lives in a beautiful home in an affluent neighborhood in Kabul. Amir is also a Pashtun, a Sunni Muslim. Sunni’s were the majority and they were respected and valued as human beings. On the contrary, Hassan was the servant’s son. He was poor. Unlike Amir, he was a Hazara, a Shia Muslim. Shia’s were not respected. They were degraded by society. Although Amir and Hassan were identified differently, they were raised together and became close friends. Given the setting, Amir and Hassan’s relationship was not approved by everyone. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, society became worse and their friendship took a toll. Hassan was bullied and insulted for being a Hazara. Assef, the bully in the novel says “Afghanistan is the land of the Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here” (Hosseini, 40). Assef demonstrates the views of many people in Afghanistan. Those who were not Pashtuns were oppressed. Assef says that Hassan’s people “Pollute our homeland and dirty our blood” (40). Assef represents people like the Taliban. The Taliban were the fundamentalist who acted in violence. They had political movements that caused war. These views caused a division between both social classes and religions. People like Assef and the Taliban did not want the Hazaras to exist, so they turned to violence to try and get rid of them. The social milieu often led to negative events in