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. Hassan’s Mother and Rahim Khan's Girlfriend were disrespected because they were both immoral Hazaras. Like Hassan, Sanaubar “was a Shi’a Muslim and an ethnic Hazara,” meaning that she was part of the Afghan servant class (8). Amir notes that she “lived up to her dishonorable reputation” and “tempted countless men into sin” (8). In Afghan culture it is unacceptable for a women to commit such sins unless you are married, therefore many of her peers looked down on her and disrespected her. When Hassan and Amir go to the movies, a soldier talks ill of Hassan's mother even though it has been years since she ran off. Her reputation of being immoral lasted on and impacted Hassan, demonstrating that she was disrespected due to her unscrupulous actions and social class.
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.
The Kite Runner is a novel that is considered to be a fictional memoir throughout the life of the main character, Amir. Starting in 1975 Afghanistan, the sentiments between the Hazaras and the Pashtuns were very negative and violent. Afghanistan as a country was experiencing a lot of hardships as the two main races and religions that resided in the country began to fight, eventually leading to the war that is still going on today. As a nation, Afghanistan has a long and interesting history. The Kite Runner itself is written by an Afghan man, Khaled Hosseini, who himself lived in Afghanistan throughout these years. Growing up in Kabul, Hosseini grew up in an area later to be considered as more fortunate and more wealthy than those who lived elsewhere in the country. Khaled’s father worked as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, and his mother worked as a persian language teacher at a high school for girls. Later on, after his father got a job in Paris, France. Hosseini’s family moved to France and were unable to return to Afghanistan due to the saur revolution, the initial segment leading to the Afghan civil war. The Kite Runner was written in California as Hosseini was studying in medical school, in order to become a doctor. The book itself is fictional, however much of the occurences in the novel are influenced based upon real-life scenarios and situations that occur during parts of the war. Specifically, this is portrayed via the arguments between the
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.
These two ethnicity groups both contain Afghan people but there is a division between them due to their difference in ethnicity and their physical appearance. As Afghanistan is a pashtun majority, Hazaras are oppressed as they are the minority.When is made fun of with being friends with a hazaras who is Hassan, he only wants to play with hassan where he is not seen public because he values social class more than his loyalty to Hassan .We find evidence of ethnic oppression in the ways the Hazaras are discriminated on the basis of their external features. “It also said some stuff I did know, like that people called Hazaras mice-eating, flat nosed, load carrying donkeys. I had heard some of the kids in the neighborhood yell those names to Hassan.” (Hosseini 9). Hazaras are the proletariat essentially in the afghan society which
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.
In the novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Amir’s relationship with his servant, Hassan, is a result of the class division between the Pashtuns and Hazaras. In Afghanistan during this time, the Hazaras were thought of as the lower-class people whose sole reason to live in life was to serve the Pashtuns; Hassan was Amir’s Hazara servant. Societies views on the Hazaras impacted Amir because in Afghanistan it is unacceptable to be seen hanging around with a servant, so although Amir spends quality time with Hassan in his house, he can not in the outside world. When a bully begins to make fun of Hassan for being a Hazara, Amir feels like he is supposed to defend his friend, yet does not. He thinks to himself, “But he’s not my friend!...He’s
The film version of The Kite Runner omitted a scene from the book that vividly described a suicide attempt by a child. This scene was likely cut due to time constraints and the reality that a suicide attempt by a child would be very upsetting to many viewers. A scene as harsh as child suicide is not something that can be quickly processed and move on to the next scene. I believe the audience would require ample time to absorb what happened from beginning to end through the emotions of the characters; no doubt this scene would be too lengthy to include as a side-note to the main story. In addition, the scene might be so disturbing to some people they may not wish to see the film at all.
His personality is altered because of this and as he grows, he changes. This also exists amongst the opposing Pashtun youths, for example, Amir, who grows up with Hazara workers. As he grows up, his mentality alters to the thought that Hazara individuals are not to be befriended but are only there to work. This adjusts his personality as his behavior towards them changes. Sanaubar, Hassan’s mother, went her whole life with her feelings being tortured after cheating on her husband.
The role women play in this novel demonstrates a significant part in how Afghanistan is portrayed. The first most important part of a woman’s life shown in The Kite Runner is her reputation. The level of respect they get is dependant on their reputation of being a proper woman. Maintaining a good social status for Afghan women is a lifelong restriction because when they do something against the role of a good woman, their reputation is tarnished. One example of this shown through the reputation of Soraya Taheri in the novel. Soraya runs
He is a Pashtun boy, part of the majority and powerful of Afghanistan. While Hassan, his dear confidant, is a Hazara boy, part of the minority and powerless of Afghanistan. The two are looked upon disparately, with Amir being much more adored because of his ethnicity. For over a century, the Hazaras have been subject to unethical abuse from the Pashtuns, and this point connects to the story, collectively verifying a compelling stand. Racial prejudice against the Hazaras in Afghanistan must be abolished as it promotes human rights violations, formulates additional conflicts, and ensures the demise of many existences, ultimately lessening the contentment of the Hazaras.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a story of a boy as he unravels his journey throughout his life. The novel consists of multiple themes such as love, friendship, betrayal, guilt, , secrets, loyalty, and redemption. As the main character, Amir recalls his past events, all of these themes start to unravel specific events that occurred in his life. “There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 2) is where the novel unfolds the deep dark life of Amir’s regret and guilt, Baba’s secret, and Hassan’s devotion. The book is a true masterpiece which keeps the readers glued to the story as it unfolds. One of the reasons, the story attracts many readers is due to The United States recent conflict with Afghanistan. However, the story has a personal
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.
Soraya, daughter of the war hero, General Taheri, was hit especially hard by this gossip, and it traveled with them to Los Angeles. Though she tells Amir about the horrible past she has, Amir still pursues marriage with her, loving her all the same. “How could I, of all people, chastise someone for their past?” This shows a common double standard in the Afghan culture that also exists in our culture, to an extent. “Their sons go out to nightclubs looking for meat and get their girlfriends pregnant, they have kids out of wedlock and no one says a goddamn thing. Oh, they’re just men having fun! I make one mistake and suddenly everyone is talking nang and namoos and I have to have my face rubbed in it for the rest of my life.” To add to the extremity that Afghans see this sin as, after he made Soraya come home, Soraya’s father sat her in a chair, handed her a pair of scissors, and
First, Amir’s relationship with his father, Baba, helped create Amir’s identity. Their intricate relationship often left Amir feeling worthless as if he could not live up to the standards of a Pashtun. This negatively impacted Amir growing up; his values constantly changed as he tried to form a close bond with his father. Baba raised Amir to believe that everyone in Afghanistan had a certain role to play in life, but they should all be treated with respect. Baba’s values made Amir think he had disappointed his father. The high expectations that Baba had for Amir showed that he cared about their reputation. Being the child Amir was, he translated Baba’s hardness as though his father were unhappy to have a child such as Amir. Amir recounts the emotion displayed on his father’s face after an afternoon together; he laments, “Mostly I will never forget Baba’s valiant efforts to conceal the disgusted