American Dream In The Kite Runner

In the novel The Kite Runner written by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, he explores the relationship between father and son while tackling the ultimate goal of achieving the American Dream. As a bildungsroman, the novel follows the young Amir and his father Baba, throughout their lives as they adjust their lifestyles while transitioning into a foreign country. By definition, the American Dream is the ideal that every U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. People come to America in hope of building a better life for themselves. Its because of this that Amir and Baba made the move to America. The American Dream creates an impossible standard to reach along with the idea that there are

From 1933-1973 Afghanistan was a peaceful monarchy led by King Zahir Shah. However, during the summer of 1973 Zahir’s cousin, Daoud Khan seized power for six years. The People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), a communist party, soon violently overthrew him and created a whole new system. As a communist party, they were in close communication with the Soviet Union. It’s during the year 1979 that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan that Amir and Baba decided to flee the country. Afghanistan became an unsafe place in which religious freedom was now frowned upon. Amir goes on to state “We stayed huddled that way until the early hours of the morning. The shootings and explosions had lasted less than an hour, but they had frightened us badly, because none of us had ever heard gunshots in the streets. They were foreign sounds to us then.” He’s speaking of his first time hearing gunshots. This is when the transition in the novel occurs and they decide to move to a safer area; America. As they idealize about their American Dream, they construe ideas about being safe and having a better