Cruel, hateful, sexist, and inhumane. These are just some of the words that can describe the Taliban’s revolting actions ever since they reigned power over Afghanistan. Most Afghans did not expect the Taliban’s reign to suppress Russia’s previous control over Afghanistan. While Khaled Hosseini shows how much the country has changed since the Taliban took control in The Kite Runner, the history of the Taliban’s origins is much more broad and complex as depicted in the fictional novel. The Taliban were looked at as a prospect of hope to end the anarchy left by the Soviets in Afghanistan, but only ended up strengthening the extremism for the citizens of Afghanistan, which lead to a country of mass destruction and violence with unfair enforcements and extreme punishments. Even when later weakened after the September 11th attacks, their only goal was and will always be to spread their demented beliefs.
In the year of 1994, anarchy and complete disorder was scattered throughout Afghanistan. Soviet forces, who have dominated in control since their takeover in 1979, have fled the country and left no law or order (CRF). A villageman known as Mullah Mohammad Omar emerged out of the chaos as leader of this new
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Three years prior, the Taliban’s totalitarianistic power held 90% of Afghanistan under their grip (Dugdale-Pointon). Former leader of Al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden is offered protection by Mullah Omar as the Taliban continues to grow if he agrees not to plot against the U.S and start a conflict and publicize his global jihad. Controversial to the present day, scholars are still unsure if the Taliban knew of Bin Laden’s future intentions at the time (CRF). Once the September 11th attacks on American Soil were conducted by Al-Qaeda, the Taliban refused to turn over Bin Laden or give any whereabouts on those involved in the attacks
Macbeth, the play was one of Shakespeare's bloody and goriest tragedies. It was based on a true story of the Celtic throne. It is a play about murder, power, ambition, greed and deception.
In Afghanistan, there is a divide between the Pashtuns and the Hazaras; the Pashtuns are upper class citizens who are treated with respect while the Hazaras are lower class, minority citizens who are treated poorly. Because of the contrasting history of the two groups, their responses to the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul were complete opposites. The Pashtuns “danced on [the] street,” (Hosseini 200) while the Hazaras cried “God help the Hazaras now” (Hosseini 213). The conflict between the Pashtuns and Hazaras in “The Kite Runner” directly reflects the real life issues in Afghanistan starting in the late 70’s and continuing on past 2001.
The Kite Runner is the first novel of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It tells the story of Amir, a boy from Kabul, Afghanistan, whose closest friend is Hassan, a young Hazara servant. Novel turns around these two characters and Baba, Amir’s father, by telling their tragic stories, guilt and redemption that are woven throughout the novel. Even in the difficult moments, characters build up to their guilt and later on to their redemption. Their sins and faults alter the lives of innocent people. First, Amir and Baba fail to take action on the path to justice for Ali and Hassan. Moreover, Amir and Baba continue to build up their guilt due to their decisions and actions. Although Amir builds up more guilt than Baba throughout the novel, he eventually succeeds in the road to redemption unlike his father. After all, Amir and Baba have many chances to fix their atonements but Baba chooses not to and Amir does. Baba uses his wealth to cover up his sins but never atone himself while Amir decides to stand up and save Sohrab and finally finds peace. Amir and Baba’s reaction to sins essentially indicate their peace of mind and how they react to guilt and injustice.
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.
The novel, The Kite Runner, should be challenged in school settings because it includes actual historical events to entertain readers, when relatable struggles were occurring outside of the book. For example, "Soviet troops moved into Afghanistan in December 1979" ( ICAH 1). They were led by Osama Bin Laden, who later joined the Taliban in invading Afghanistan and Pakistan. The book says, "...in December 1979, … Russian tanks would roll into the very same streets where Hassan and I played" (Hosseini 36). The author of The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, does in fact use real life occurrences in his novel and this proves it, as the reasoning for Amir and Baba evacuating Afghanistan was because of the Russian invasion. Although the author uses this as a source of setting development, this was a real-life situation, and it should not be included in a form of entertainment. Furthermore, according to ICAH, the Taliban were “...an Islamic extremist faction that captured Kabul, the Afghan capital, in September 1996.” Again, Hosseini used this historically accurate piece in his work of literature. Throughout the majority of the novel, Hosseini describes the Taliban as a group of heartless people that commit gruesome acts. When Amir first encounters them in person, he was thinking, “But here I was now, less than fifty feet from them, telling myself that the sudden taste in my mouth wasn’t unadulterated, naked fear. Telling myself my flesh hadn’t suddenly shrunk against my bones and my
The value assumption is defined as the preferences of one particular value more than another value in certain case. The value preference gives the same meaning as value priority. There are no value assumptions in the article "Life of the Closed Mind". This is because the writer, Anna Quindlen, did not tell the readers in clear words about what it is her preference. She did not give anything that make the readers know that she prefers one thing over another one.
With the tales of these three individuals told, it is hard not to feel a sense of pity and uncertainty about Afghanistan and especially the United States’ role in Afghanistan. With the consensus of entering Afghanistan originally being to stop terrorism, throughout Gopal’s book it seems that the goal, or better yet, the idea of wiping terrorism away had certainly been lost. No longer does it seem that the United States is helping, rather that the U.S. is one of the main problems in the country. The details and facts listed in the book open a
The Kite Runner is a historical fiction book written by an Afghan-born American, Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini, the son of an Afghani diplomat, was born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he lived until the age of eleven. In his novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini shows the path from guilt to redemption for Amir, the son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul. It shows Amir’s struggles and successes in finding and staying true to himself. Hosseini changes setting many times throughout the course of the book. He uses this element extraordinarily well to help the reader understand how life changed for Amir, to help the reader understand the emotions of the characters, and to help the reader relate to some of the circumstances that Amir encountered.
The US led Afghan war ignited soon after the 9/11 attacks on America, killing approximately 3000 US citizens in New York City at the time of George W Bush’s presidency. The tragic attack was brutally carried out by a prominent Al-Qaida Leader Osama Bin Laden, who had just fled his hometown in Saudi Arabia and was living in Afghanistan’s rugged mountains of Tora Bora. The Taliban Government heavily dominated Afghanistan at the time Osama Bin Laden carried out attacks on US soil, and he claimed responsibility for the attack subsequently. As a result, US requested the then Taliban leaders Mullah Omar to hand over Osama to the US authorities since he was responsible for the ferocious inhumane attacks on the US soil, killing thousands and damaging millions of dollar worth of property for revenge and retaliation purposes. The then Taliban leader rejected the US’s offer and denied giving up Osama to the US authorities considering him a special guest, and giving up guest was significantly against cultural code and values for the Taliban, especially for Mullah Omar – the leader. Therefore, George W Bush declared war on Afghanistan, sending thousands of troops and attacking the country. However, taking revenge, retaliation from Osama, and even demolishing Taliban’s terroristic domination over Afghanistan was a reasonable excuse for the US to take immediate action, but sending thousands of US soldiers who some didn’t make it back home, spending billions of US dollars, which also caused
For over 2 centuries, Afghanistan has known virtually no time without war. Beginning around 326 B.C. with the conquests of Alexander the Great, to the Persians, British, Russians and most recently, America and our NATO allies, Afghanistan has been cultivated into the country that it is today through a trial by fire. Regardless of this relentless onslaught of foreign military power, the Afghan people have tirelessly defended their homeland with no outside power ever being able to subdue them completely. Following the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in 1989, the country fell into civil war, torn even further apart by fiercely dedicated tribal warlords. This power vacuum led to the rise of a group called the Taliban. Led by a one eyed man
With the Taliban beginning its reigns on Afghanistan, darkness took over the nation. Terror became a more common installment into the minds of the citizens. Hearing the rumble of the jeeps, the bangs of the AK-47s, and the bombs setting off can send a shiver down anyone’s back. Families are torn apart, children forget what play time is, schools are destroyed. The injustice that the Taliban brought is defined through the cruelest of actions. “There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.” (Hosseini, 1) With their regime, the Taliban established radical rules that limited the country to all but making the essential function of speaking, barely legal. The effect of the Taliban begin to spread specifically towards Amir and his family. With the beginning the war, Amir sees his
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.
One major theme that is evident in The Kite Runner is that scars are reminders of life’s pain and regret, and, though you can ease the regret and the scars will fade, neither will completely go away. We all have regrets and always will, but though it will be a long hard process we can lessen them through redemption. The majority of The Kite Runner is about the narrator and protagonist, Amir. Almost all of the characters in The Kite Runner have scars, whether they are physical or emotional. Baba has scars all down his back from fighting a bear, but he also has emotional scars from not being able to admit that Hassan was also his son. Hassan is born with a cleft lip, but for his birthday Baba pays for it to be fixed, which left a small scar above his mouth. Hassan also has emotional scars from being raped. The reader is probably shown the emotional scars of Amir the most. Amir has emotional scars because he feels that he killed his mother, and also because his father emotionally neglects him. In the end of the novel, Amir receives many physical scars from getting beaten up by Assef, when rescuing Sohrab. Though scars will never go away and are a reminder of the past, not all scars are bad.
In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, he depicts the oppression the Hazara people face in Afghanistan through his main characters, Ali and Hassan. His vivid illustration of the demeaning behavior towards the Hazara people (Ali) set the underlying tone of this novel.
Throughout Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, the reader observes many injustices committed due to the presence of the Taliban and cultural conflict in Afghanistan. One of the most concerning issues in Afghanistan is the mistreatment and inequality that women face on a daily basis due to Taliban mandates. Women in Afghanistan are treated as inferior beings to men and are unable to stand up for themselves due the laws the Taliban enforces. Hosseini uses the wives of Amir and Hassan, Soraya and Farzana, to represent the injustices to which women in Afghanistan are subjected.