Identity In The Kite Runner

What does it mean to reach self-realization? Is it the actions or inactions that illuminate your fate? Born A Crime takes place during the racial division in South Africa; segregation. The novel follows Trevor Noah’s adversity filled childhood and how he overcame these struggles. Kite Runner takes place in Afghanistan following the protagonist Amir and the effects of his life changing decision. Though both come from diverse cultural contexts, the books Born A Crime by Trevor Noah and Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini demonstrate that finding your identity, the absence of parental figure and overcoming adversity leads to self-realization in one’s personal journey

Identity is a central theme in both novels, as characters deal with their cultural,

I spent my life looking at other people. I saw myself as the people around me, and the people around me were black. My cousins are black, my mom is black, my gran is black. I grew up black. Because I had a white father, because I’d been in white Sunday school, I got along with the white kids. I wasn’t a part of their tribe. But the black kids braced me. “Come along”, they said. “You’re rolling with us”. With the black kids, I wasn’t constantly trying to be. With the black kids, I just was.” Trevor ultimately found himself identifying as black leaving him with a feeling of belonging and totality. Amir shares this struggle with his identity as he has a complicated relationship with Baba. He constantly yearns for Baba’s affection but feels inadequate to the expectations placed upon him and that his father is disappointed in him. Amir recalls a time Baba and Rahim Khan are speaking about him and his interests in books and literature and Baba says "If I hadn't seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I'd never believe he's my son." (Hosseini, 24). This deeply hurts Amir as he sees how his father truly feels about him and doesn’t see him as his own. As a child, like any other Trevor failed to grasp the concept of apartheid, segregation and racism as a whole. He says “As a kid I understood that people were different colors, but in my head white

Amir throughout his childhood and into his adult life faces the constant feeling of regret. He failed to intervene when his childhood best friend, Hassan gets raped. Amir recalls the moment quite clearly stating “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.” (Hoesseini, 82). This feeling haunts him for the rest of his life and he fears he will never be able to get rid of it. Later in the story Amir finds out that Hassan had a son named Sohrab and that he was in an orphanage in Kabul. After all these years he finally has a chance to overcome his struggle. He ends up rescuing Sohrab from the Assef and takes him back to America and adopts him. Trevor Noah, although placed in a sea of discrimination, and adversity, does not let himself drown and instead swims his way to shore. He is ambitious and intelligent and he uses his skills as a strong communicator to work his way around. “I became a chameleon. My color didn't change, but I could change your perception of my color. If you spoke Zulu, I replied to you in Zulu. If you spoke to me