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Social Hierarchy In The Kite Runner

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“Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.” Humanity relies on self awareness of good versus bad. The nature of humanity is more easily influenced by the bad, however, especially when the corruptions begin to manifest in the mind as young children. In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the characters of Assef, Amir, and Hassan endure psychological trauma from the same event, but each in a separate and unique way. This event takes place in Afghanistan during the 1970s amid political and civil war. Social hierarchy and ethnic descent forge these young characters into the people they are into their adult lives. Because of the social order of the Afghanistan cultural instilled vices prove to negatively affect …show more content…

Political and civil war with the intervention from foreign military powers change the fate of three characters for the rest of their lives. Economic and social status govern the children of Assef, Amir, and Hassan. In Afghanistan there is a clear division of social classes. Pashtun Afghans are seen to be the “pure Afghans” (Hosseini 43) and Hazara Afghans are viewed to “dirty [the] blood” (Hosseini 43) of Afghanistan. Assef, born into a wealthy, respect Pashtun family, with ethnic connection to Germany, proves to believe he is superior to others which massively impacts the development of his character. Firstly, Assef relies and derives his superiority from not only his familiar wealth but his German ethnicity. Assef attributes Adolf Hitler with admirable qualities, expressing his likeness as “a great leader” (Hosseini 43). Assef’s ethnic connection to Hitler proves to motivate his superiority-complex. Assef prides himself on his purity in ethnicity and proceeds to “take out the garbage” (Hosseini 298) in Afghanistan. This violent “ethnic cleansing” (Hosseini 298) has been prevalent in Assef’s character since he was a small child, teasing and torturing Ali and Hassan, whose features stem from “Hazara [and] Mongolian” (Hosseini 9) ethnicity. Socio and economic status does not always result in violent ends but in the case of Assef his social hierarchy fuelled his sociopathic tendencies. …show more content…

As a young child, fuelled by his superior notions, exemplifies a number of vices, from sloth to pride. Amir, however, is frankly very different from Assef, but also very similar. Both children grew up with their ingrained sense of superiority and suffered from this. Pride plays a crucial role in Amir’s childhood. Because of deep rooted superiority Amir tries everything in his power to live up to his father’s expectations. Amir lets Hassan suffer in order to achieve this. Sadly, in this situation, Amir exemplifies both pride and sloth, two of the seven deadly sins. “[Hassan] was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 82), Amir again looks at his pride and convinces himself of something which he does not believe. Playing on that pride he reverts to idleness. This idleness then haunts him for the rest of his life until he tries to rights those wrongs. Similar to Assef, Amir lets Hassan suffer for his pride. But quite differently, in his adult life, Amir is haunted by is actions, or lack thereof. Amir will try to atone for his sins and in this he finds virtues. Thus, Amir breaks free from his vices and turns to virtues. On the other hand, Assef does not do this, once again proving his lack of morality. The nature of the Afghan culture tremendously affects children’s morals, although difficult to break free from, it is possible to be done, and Amir proves this to be

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