How Does The Kite Runner Represent The Divisions In Afghanistan Society
The Kite Runner is a brilliant book by Khaled Hosseini. This novel tells the story of a Pashtun family and their Hazara servants. Amir, who is the narrator, witnesses an event that becomes a pivotal moment in his life that leaves him with a vast amount of guilt. After Ali and Hassan leave, Baba and Amir escape to America in hopes of having a better life. Amir is forced to grow up much faster, so he can take care of his father, and meets the daughter of General Taheri, Soraya; eventually they get married.
It is apparent that both novels are in tune with the theme of division of social class in the society. The Kite Runner examines the whole spectrum of racism; Hassan who was treated disrespectfully by his peers who are the majority, Sunni Muslims because he is the minority, the Hazara (Shi’a Muslims). This leads to nasty discrimination based on physical features and religious beliefs. Significantly, Hosseini mentions in the novel that Amir is reading, "the Pashtuns had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras” from his mother’s history book which can be found on page 9. Additionally, Ali, who is a Hazara, is ridiculed by the neighborhood people on page 10 coupled with Assef’s mocking, calling Hassan flat nose.
The Kite Runner describes the life of Amir. Before the war, he lived in Kabul with his father Baba, their servant Ali and Ali’s son Hassan. Hassan and Ali are from a lower class than Amir and Baba, but Amir and Hassan are best friends regardless. In this essay the assertion ‘Amir is selfish and
In The Kite Runner, there are two main ethnic groups; Hazaras and Pashtuns. Amir and Hassan both come from
The Kite Runner Perfect Paper In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini shows many elements that foreshadow Hassan and Amir’s brotherhood. The truth about their brotherhood reveals and changes many parts of the book, and the meanings behind it. In the early chapters, Amir would say “I never thought of Hassan and me as friends” (Hosseini 19) because they have always had a brotherly bond since birth. Hassan belongs to the Hazara ethnic group, whereas Amir belongs to the Pashtun ethnic group. They looked at Hazaras as inferior; therefore, they often served the Pashtuns.
In The Kite Runner, two boys, Amir and Hassan, grow up together in Kabul. Amir and Hassan already face a problem because Hassan is a Hazara (lower class), but Amir does not mind. Amir and Hassan come across a group of three boys one day. The leader of the group, Assef, threatens to “beat” Amir for “hanging out with a Hazara,” nonetheless Amir does not listen because he sees no difference (Hosseini 41). Months pass by and the two boys are at a kite fighting tournament.
Amir’s home life in Afghanistan is very privileged with him not only being able to attend “school” but also being able to ride to school in a “black Ford Mustang”(27). While Amir is at school learning, Hassan must stay at home helping Ali with chores due to the social hierarchy of Afghanistan. Amir is privileged enough to get an education and he uses it to take advantage of Hassan’s ignorance, by teaching him the wrong definition of “imbecile” and then calling him one(29). His manipulation of Hassan enables him to believe he is superior to Harazas, especially Hassan, thus proving privilege leads to superiority.
This discrimination has become built into society and effects everyday life. As Pashtuns, Amir and Baba have the opportunities to receive an education and start their own business. While the Hazaras, Hassan and Ali, may only work as servants. This discrimination brought on by social hierarchy causes isolation, violence, and guilt, to those surrounded by it throughout the book. These ideas are caused by discrimination and are explored through Amir’s experiences in the book.
In The Kite Runner during the twentieth century, there is a great divide between the muslim citizens of Kabul. The Hazaras are considered inferior to the respectable majority of Pashtuns. Hazaras are persecuted and oppressed, simply because they are Shi’a muslims and Pashtuns are Sunni muslims. Throughout the novel, Hazaras are called various derogatory names such as “[...] mice eating, flat-nosed, load-carrying donkeys.” (Hosseini 10) Because of his cultural background, Hassan becomes a victim of racism, as he has run-ins with bullies, is raped and is constantly told that he is not nor ever will be an equal to Amir.
Amir and Hassan represent a clear division in Afghanistan Social classes have been present in society for a long time since there are humans in the world, making divisions among people in arbitrary ways. One of those social features that marks this distinctions is the economy aspect, like if you have more money you are more important, and in the other hand if you are poor you also are less important than other. This is also present in the Khaled Hosseini´s ‘’The Kite Runner’’, a novel that among other things, shows the division between two ethnicities in Afghanistan: Pashtuns and Hazaras. To explain this division in a deeper way, we can describe the way both of them live.
The Kite Runner scrutinizes the whole scope of racism: blatant hatred, religious rationale of racism, nonviolent but still nasty racism, racism which coincides with charity and thoughtfulness, and internalized racism which reveals itself as self-loathing. Hassan is a Hazara, an ethnic group that the majority of Afghans (who are Pashtun) deem inferior, though Hosseini makes it coherent that Hassan is Amir’s equivalent and in numerous ways morally and intellectually superior. Despite racial tensions, the plot proposes, the very ethnicity that Pashtuns treat so poorly is closer to them than they may think- Amir finds out that Hassan, a member of the ethnic minority, is his half-brother. When Amir spots Assef violate Hassan in the alleyway, he dwells on if he really needs to save Hassan from the immediate danger because “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?”
He resists for Amir whom he loves with his whole heart. Amir witnesses this struggle, but he does nothing; he runs away since “he was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 77). Amir has always believed, deep down, that his father favored Hassan, a Hazara, the dirt of Afghan society, over him, his own son. Seeing Hassan reduced to that level of baseness is perversely satisfying for him.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, tells the story of a boy named Amir and his story and journey throughout his life. In Afghanistan there are two major ethnic groups. These two ethnic groups are very different. The Pashtuns are the upper class and the Hazaras were much lower than them. Most Hazaras worked for Pashtuns, in this case, Amir is a Pashtun and Hassan is a Hazara that works for him and his father.
Amir and Hassan were born into two different social classes that warred against each other for years. Hassan being a lowly Hazara who lived as a servant in, “a modest little mud hut...dimly lit by a pair of kerosene lamps,” (6) while Amir lived
The book pretends to enclose the entirety of Afghan culture and history, as seen when the main character expresses “to me, the face of Afghanistan is that of a (…)”1 before describing, in two lines, his jovial friend, and servant; who, like him, never saw more of Afghanistan than the wealthy Kabul and its surroundings. Moreover, when dwelling into historical events, the books estimates it more important to further character development through fictional, story-telling events, rather than explain or detail in any way said historical events which the characters have been placed into (Russian, Taliban, and American Occupations, etc.). Thus, any competently critical reader with a sense of Afghan history, will place in doubt the portrayal of Afghanistan the novelist implicitly claims to have made; for example, some might think it a way to occidentalize Afghan culture for the masses, whilst others might deem it a brilliant way to put in question the narrator’s remarks, and thus expose the main character’s biased narration. In any case, the reading will change, and with it, the interpretation of the novel’s message. Outside the book itself, however, and within the novelist’s context, we can again find more facts that might change the readers’
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