Pride In The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

Following your cultures ways while also maintaining your presence within your cultures life is like finding a needle in a haystack. It is hard and tedious to do both, but others still show signs of contempt when we are unable to do so. Through Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, we witness how the protagonist has his own sense of pride that goes against his culture and how that subsequently affects his identity. Throughout the book Amir is exposed to his cultures views and how the people within his culture act. But despite knowing his culture's expectations Amir goes against them while also showing his own sense of pride, and this results in others despising him. As the novel progresses Amir shows more of the tendency to keep on going against

Although Amir is a Pashtun he continuously associates himself with Hazara's which affects his pride based on the religious beliefs of the people around him. Hossaini opens up the story with a boy named Amir who lives in Afghanistan with his father and their servants. One of his servants, Hassan, was born at about the same time as Amir and although they might be considered worlds apart, they act as if they are close friends. Early in the book Amir is hanging out with Hassan near a pomegranate tree when they are confronted by a notorious bully named Assef. Assef soon starts to ask Amir questions about why he is friends with a Hazara when he is a Pashtun. To which Amir almost responds with, “‘But he’s not my friend!’ I almost blurted. ‘He’s my servant!”’ (41). Through this quote we are able to see how Amir is acting differently when he is exposed the others from his culture that are outside his immediate family. By almost using the phrase “my servant” Amir displays how he wants to show his true feelings for how he thinks of

Amir can not seem to get away from the grip that his culture has on him. In his mind he feels his pride lies with associating with everybody regardless of their social status, but others obviously don’t see it that way. Near the end of the novel Amir has finally been able to bring Sohrab back to America after facing some difficulties along the way. A few days after arriving back General Taheri comes over to welcome back Amir and have dinner with his family. While eating the general suddenly brings up Sohrab asking Amir, “So, Amir Jan, you’re going to tell us why you have brought back this boy with you. They will want to know why there is a Hazara boy living with our daughter?” (360). Through the general's words we understand that Amir’s pride is being questioned. The phrase “living with our daughter” displays how the general sees it as socially unacceptable to have a Hazara boy living with Pashtuns. The general is hoping to keep his pride within the culture and to do this he is questioning Amir’s pride, while also asking him how they can both sustain their pride. The reader can infer that the general may indeed feel that Amir is starting to break away from his culture. Living is usually used in relation to the pursuit of a lifestyle in a safe and trusted environment. From this the reader can also infer how the