Middle Eastern Literature
The way of life in Afghanistan is very different from life in America. The conflicts, transformations, and aspects of human condition from the excerpts of The Kite Runner as well as the articles and poems discussed in class provide a deeper understanding of what life is really like in the Middle East.
A conflict in literature is defined as any struggle between two opposing forces. The Kite Runner is filled with both internal and external conflicts that gives the reader insight into the main character, Amir’s, life and thought processes. The first prevalent internal conflict is Amir’s mother’s death during his birth and his battle with “the way [he] ached for the mother [he] had never met.” This ache affected him psychologically as he struggled to cope with her loss his whole life, well as affected the relationship he has with his father, who he calls Baba. The second internal conflict is that Amir feels like he cannot relate to Baba and that he and his father are very different-minded people. The first example of Amir feeling unconnected from Baba is when he was young and Baba would shut him out of “the smoking room” during “grown-ups’ time” and Amir would “sit there for an hour, sometimes two, listening to their laughter, their chatter.” This lead Amir “to wonder why it was always grown-ups’ time with him.” The first time we see that these two are different-minded is when the bus is stopped at the checkpoint in Mahipar and the Russian soldier wants
When Khaled Hosseini wrote The Kite Runner, he made several important choices involving narration. He chose to write the story in first person from a limited point of view. This is a very fitting decision because, writing in the first person adds a sense of intimacy that is crucial to this story; writing from a limited perspective allows the reader to make their own conclusions about what the characters are thinking. The way Hosseini writes The Kite Runner makes it very intimate, and feels like a person telling their life story. If The Kite Runner had been written in third person, or omnisciently, the story would not have impacted readers as much, and would have been too cold and impersonal to create emotional connections with the reader.
One of the summer reading books was called Kite Runner, but there was more than just kites to this story. The Kite Runner had so much depth to it that I felt that question number two (If you had to identify one major conflict in the story, what would it be? How does the conflict drive the plot or develop characters through the story.) The story of the Kite Runner follows a boy who becomes a man and this man is named Amir. The conflict in the book is man versus self because Amir feels guilty and this drives Amir to cleanse himself thus driving the plot of the story.
The novel The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is the story of a young, upper class boy by the name of Amir and his friend, a lower class boy named Hassan. While Amir is a Pashtun and a Sunni Muslim, Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a muslim, which causes the main conflict between the two. Amir and Hassan learn more and more about their social status, as well as their personal friendships and problems as they grow up in Afghanistan.
In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the reader experiences two different methods of tradition. Baba shows the readers a new way of tradition while General Taheri expresses old tradition. Baba and General Taheri see life through a different lens than one another. They convey their beliefs of tradition through how they lead as prominent social figures, carry out their lives, and through their unique relationships with their children.
Religion tends to be followed by many citizens but may be interrupted differently amongst many people in societies. The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, illustrates how individuals may hurt other with their own personal choices and beliefs. The book portrayed how the characters were divided into two major sects in Afghanistan, Hazara’s and Pashtun’s. The culture classified the nation into two groups which elucidated the society. When distinguishing between the two major casts, being a Pashtun meant that their respect and pride is valued and is kept with them. However, being a Hazara meant the society is lower class who are treated with hate and are unaccepted by their standard way of living. Although the two sectors follow the same
People are viewed differently throughout their lives. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini portrayed Baba as a great man. Baba didn’t tell Amir his son that he had a half brother that was his best friend growing up in Hassan. Baba only tells one man named Rahim Khan who has to tell Amir the news after he had passed away. Baba is the most morally ambiguous he’s shown as a great man but does all of his great deeds to make up for his past sins.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini was a touching book that revolved around loyalty within a friendship. The friendship between Hassan and Amir had some difficulties. A true friendship can be hard to find(,) but can be one of the most vital things to being truly happy. Both Hassan and Amir had proven their loyalty to each other by the end of The Kite Runner. Loyalty was a crucial part in Hassan and Amir’s friendship.
Orwell misleads the reader through the characterization of O’Brien who at first is presented as a fellow rebel and a member of the Brotherhood but is revealed to be a zealous member of the Inner Party. The conflicting ideas posed through this character reflect the inability for Winston to trust what he knows. During Winston’s first acknowledgement of the other man he mentions his “coarse brutality” as well as his “delicacy of gesture.” These contrasting descriptions form the first images of ambiguity surrounding this character. Through the conflicting ideas presented we are led to trust Winston’s interpretation of the situation, despite the effect of unease that the contrast prompts. The narrator later considers O’Brien’s facial expression, “Perhaps it was not even unorthodoxy that was written in his
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel about life in Afghanistan that follows a boy named Amir, his father Baba, and their two servants Hassan and Ali. Amir and Baba are wealthy Pashtuns, and Baba is well respected. Hassan and Ali, on the other hand, are Hazara, an ethnic minority in Afghanistan. The Hazara people are oppressed and seen as inferior to the Pashtun people. Baba, however, doesn’t treat them as inferior:this way, he shows kindness towards Hassan, instead ofunlike Amir. Throughout Amir’s childhood, he is constantly ignored by Baba because he does not fit Baba’s idea of the son he wants. Baba’s general disapproval and disinterest in Amir shows that he is a bad father to Amir, especially because he shows the opposite emotions to Hassan.
Throughout the story The Kite Runner an important central theme displayed by the other is the idea that it is important to be able to confront your past mistakes or else those mistakes will torture you for the rest of your life. Many of the main characters came face to face with this idea and each of them dealt with their mistakes in different ways. Despite this, it was made clear that the characters that were able to deal with their problems ended up much better off mentally than those of them that were unable to. Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, teachers the reader that confronting past mistakes is better than running from them through Amir’s feelings following his betrayal of Hassan, how Soraya felt after telling Amir about her past, and Amir’s reaction to finding out Baba was Hassan’s father.
Throughout The Kite Runner, Amir is faced with many challenges; some he runs from, some he must face head on. The book is all about life lessons and how lessons will repeat themselves until they are learned. Khaled Hosseini, the author, portrays Amir, the main character, as a privileged young lad who grows up to be a man who doesn’t fight his own battles. One of the novels reoccurring life lessons is sacrifice for others, how putting someone else’s wants and needs before your own can turn out for the best. Amir must learn how to surrender himself his messy past, “because the past claws its way out.” (1)
“I thought about Hassan’s dream, the one about us swimming in the lake. There is no monster, he’s said, just water. Expect he’d been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake… I was that monster.” When looking at this quote some may wonder who would be considered the monster; and in this case Amir would be. The idea of him redeeming himself from being a monster is a recurring theme in the story and the movie.
Women in every culture still struggle to be equal to and respected by men. In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, every woman featured is oppressed by Afghan gender stereotypes. Both Hassan's Mother & Rahim Khan's Girlfriend are disrespected due to their social class as a Hazara and lack of morality. On the other hand, Amir’s mother, Sofia Akrami, is respected because of her virtue and social class. Although Soraya is from a respected family, she is considered immoral by the Afghan community because she previously had a boyfriend. Women in general are expected to be submissive to men; however, the amount of respect they are given varys by the woman's social class and their ability to conform to Afghan culture.
Social conditions are what shape a country. Over the years, people, not only in Afghanistan, but around the world create norms that define people’s roles in life, their future, and how they should be treated based on their gender and beliefs. Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner, comments on the social conditions of Afghanistan through telling a story about the lives of two Muslim boys; a privileged Sunni Pashtun, Amir, and his long-time friend and servant, Hassan, a loyal but disadvantaged Shia Hazara. Hosseini expresses Amir’s uncertain feelings toward Hassan which form the decisions he makes throughout the book. These choices result in Amir destroying his relationship with Hassan. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini is a commentary on the social conditions in Afghanistan as shown through the roles of women and men in society and the ideals of Afghan culture. Unfortunately, these problems are still active in most of Afghanistan.
As a book of a refuge, “The Kite Runner” brings a new point of view of Afghanistan as views of those from the news and other outsiders by giving personal descriptions and emotions on the events and adjustments occurring with the Afghan refugees. We are also given the lessons learned by Amir (the main character) as he struggles through his life of transition and heartbreak.