The Kite Runner addresses the grim reality faced by children in Afghanistan. Ongoing violence has resulted in many cases of death in children or their parents, turning the children into orphans. The Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood observes that the size of orphan populations is affected by societal marriage practices, as well as environmental concerns such as war, famine, or epidemics (Brunet). Violence has greatly lowered the quality of life for children in Afghanistan, especially in regards to healthcare and education. The country has an extensive number of child victims each year due to the constant fighting. Hosseini includes this tragic aspect of life “[Farid] lost his two youngest girls a few years earlier in a land mine blast just outside Jalalabad, the same explosion that had severed toes from his feet and three fingers from his left hand” (Hosseini 230). Such conditions described in The Kite Runner continue in modern Afghanistan. When children in the actual Kabul Orphanage were interviewed, sixteen year-old Nurullah said “Conditions are not at all good
Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965 (Sova). When asked how much of his personal experiences impacted the novel, Hosseini stated “My childhood and Amir’s mirrored each other in many ways, so I’ve long known how life can inform and shape fiction…” (Hosseini, Foreword). It is clear that Hosseini draws on his own adolescence when discussing the main character Amir’s social and economic status. The position that Hosseini’s father held as an Afghan foreign diplomat allowed the family to live a comfortable life in Kabul (Sova). Much like the author, Amir came from a wealthy and powerful family, who lived in “…the most beautiful house in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, a new and affluent neighborhood in the northern part of Kabul" (Hosseini 4). In an interview with RadioFreeEurope, Hosseini
The peaceful Afghanistan that Amir was born into is no longer in existence; rival groups now fight amongst each other. “There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little children”. Throughout The Kite Runner, there is tension on account of religious, ethnic, and economic factors. Amir, a privileged Sunni, struggles to understand his relationship with his Shi’a servant, Hassan. The boys grew up together, but “in the end, [Amir] was a Pashtun and [Hassan] was a Hazara, [Amir] was a Sunni and [Hassan] was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that.
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 writes, “ ‘How many orphans live here?’ Farid asked. ‘More than we have room for. About two hundred and fifty, ‘Zaman said over his shoulder. ‘But they’re not all yateem. Many of them have lost their fathers in the war and their mothers can’t feed them because the Taliban don’t allow them to work. So they bring their children here’ ”(253). An orphanage owner, Zaman, describes the current problems for the children of Pakistan. This scene shows the high verisimilitude of The Kite Runner. Conflicts with food and housing for orphans is a real problem; as well as, parents giving up their children so they can eat. This is all caused by the Taliban and the previous war raging in Afghanistan. The Taliban do not give opportunities for work or food to the parents who are still left to fend for their children. Fear is felt by all Afghans who even come in close contact with a Taliban member because the treatment Afghans have been given. Hosseini writes about the orphans to show that these problems can and will keep happening. Hosseini wants to prove how real his book can
The way our friends treat us in the face of adversity and in social situations is more revealing of a person’s character than the way they treats us when alone. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, ethnic tensions, nationality, and betrayal become the catalyst that drives and fuels Amir, Assef, and other characters to embark on their particular acts of cruelty. Serving as a way to illustrate the loss of rectitude and humanity, cruelty reveals how easily people can lose their morals in critical circumstances. Through Amir, Assef, and the Taliban’s actions, cruelty displays the truth of a person’s character, uncovering the origin of their cruelty. Amir’s cruelty spurs from his external environment and need for love from his father, choosing
“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.
The novel is told by Amir, one of the novel's main characters. Amir is an Afghan man living in Fremont, California remembering his childhood in Kabul in the 1970s.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, follows the maturation of Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, as he discovers what it means to stand up for what he believes in. His quest to redeem himself after betraying his friend and brother, Hassan, makes up the heart of the novel. When Amir hears that his father’s old business partner, Rahim Khan, is sick and dying, he travels to Pakistan to say his goodbyes. Rahim Khan tells Amir about Hassan’s life and eventual death; the Taliban murdered Hassan while he was living in Amir’s childhood home. As his dying wish, Rahim Khan asks Amir to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from an orphanage in Afghanistan. Although Amir refuses at first, he thinks about what Rahim Khan had always told him: “There is a way to be good again…” (226), which gives him the incentive he needs to return to Afghanistan and find Sohrab. Hosseini draws parallels between Amir’s relationship with Hassan and Amir’s relationship with Sohrab in order to demonstrate the potential of redemption.
“It is easier for a father to have a child than for a child to have a real father”; a quote from Pope John XXIII that sums up the relationship between Baba and Amir. Fathers are important in children’s lives, however occasionally a father is not emotionally connected to their child. Relationships are important for learning, especially those with parents. In “Kite Runner”, Amir’s character is shaped and colored by many people. Baba is most responsible for how Amir was shaped.
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).
Amir’s childhood is quite unusual compared to most children in Afghan. Amir’s father, Baba, is a very rich and successful individual in his lifetime. This success allows Amir to live a wealthy lifestyle with access to western commodity as well as servants. In novel, Amir is risen mostly by his servants Hassan and Ali, as well
When someone has experienced trauma, it's hard for that someone to let go of that experience and just simply forget about it. Often, trauma can influence the way a person would think and act. Though there are similarities between the different people dealing with past injuries, there are also contrasting traits. In Toni Morrison's Beloved and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner touch on past experiences of trauma and how those actions can influence a person in what they do.
The Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. The novel is about a Pashtun fellow, Amir, who realizes his childhood mistakes and begins a journey to emend them. Hosseini commenced inditing the novel in 2001 while practicing medicine (source). Therefore, his cognizance regarding health care is limpidly reflected in the novel by his writing style, and the conflicts in the lives of characters. For instance, Ali, who is a servant in Amir’s house and his father’s childhood friend, suffers from congenital paralysis of lower facial muscles and polio. Author’s description of his leg as “twisted, atrophied …. sallow skin over bone with little in between except a paper- thin layer of muscle“ shows his deep knowledge about diseases and symptoms (10). Moreover, these conflicts not only have noticeable impact in the development of the plot but also reflect on the miserable condition of healthcare in Afghanistan. Amir’s mother die during childbirth reveals the pathetic status of neonatal care in Afghanistan. Amir witness several health related issues and consequences in the lives of other characters throughout the story. Thus, the author utilizes him to highlight important themes relative to health care in Afghanistan like maternal death, child mortality, disability, addiction due to excessive drug use and deformities. In essence, the novel prompts certain questions like “What factors are downsizing the population of afghanistan? What is the overall condition of hospitals and healthcare professionals? Why do women face health care crisis? What home remedies are available as a substitute for poor health care conditions and are they truly helping people to recover?” Thus, this research...
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.
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.
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