Introduction: Khaled Hosseini’s recurrence of violence in his novel, “The Kite Runner”, follows a time of two wars in Kabul, Afghanistan: the Soviet-Afghan War and the reign of the Taliban. The violence resulting from these two conflicts, beginning in 1979 and continuing to the present, is a reflection of events that have taken place in the country. The predominant religion of Afghanistan is Islam, which is divided amongst the predominant Sunni Pashtun and minority Shi’a Hazara Muslims. In an Islamic country with values supposedly representing peace, Afghanis and their families experience constant violence and fear daily. Hosseini uses violence in the instance of discrimination, rape, and death to express the extent in which the misinterpreted …show more content…
Throughout the beginning of the novel, it’s evident that Hassan has always been devoted and loyal to Amir as a friend and his servant. Being his servant already indicates his role in society and his relationship with Amir, which can be observed through Amir’s discriminatory actions towards Hassan. Because Hassan wasn’t able to read, he constantly asked Amir to read him stories that carried his imagination far away from the harsh reality he faced. This was difficult, however, as Hassan never actually escaped. Amir would often tease Hassan for not understanding a word to “expose his ignorance”, which often led to the misuse of the word on Hassan’s behalf as Amir would explain a fake definition to him (Hosseini 28). Not only would Amir essentially ridicule Hassan, but he would often think “What does he know, that illiterate Hazara? He’ll never be anything but a cook.”, indicating his superiority over Hassan (Hosseini 34). This mindset is particularly due to the influence of “the prejudice he witnesses in Afghan society towards Hazaras”, which explains why their relationship is heavily conflicted on Amir’s end (Nazeer et al. 747). Even when the relationship is entirely pure in Hassan’s eyes, Amir feels the need to assert his dominance due to his ethnic background. In any instance where he feels threatened by Hassan or …show more content…
The relationships between Amir, Hassan, and Sohrab are each bound together by violence in some form, typically rooting from ethnic differences between Hassan and Sohrab from Amir and Afghan society in general. The novel portrayed each relationship differently, but connected them together to symbolize important, meaningful concepts of forgiveness, hope, and redemption. The purpose of the recurring theme of violence is to connect the negative expression of Islam to the concepts revealed by the familial relationships within the novel. The Qur’an doesn’t condone violence of any kind, yet it is still seen in typical Afghan society and the primary relationships in “The Kite Runner”. Hosseini’s purpose was to demonstrate that even in the misuse of the Qur’an, a book containing God’s words, there is still forgiveness, hope, and redemption to be found in one’s relationships and Allah
Khaled Hosseini’s, The Kite Runner, is a book that depicts modern Afghanistan and all the violence as well as how “political change” (AmirDabbaghian and Solimany) “influenced” (AmirDabbaghian and Solimany) citizens in Afghanistan. Hosseini talks about a kid’s life and all the problems he went through along the way. One of the main themes in this novel was betrayal. The way Hosseini incorporates the theme in the story is by using various literary devices, tone, and conflict. To begin with, Khaled Hosseini uses a variety of literary devices to portray the theme.
In connection to this idea, but also building another aspect of Ali’s character, Hosseini then uses, in order to prevent the flow of the paragraph from being interrupted, dialogue embedded into a sentence; rather than have Ali actually say these things Hosseini tells us he said them. The line says “He would take the mirror and tell us what his mother had told him, that the devil shone mirrors too, shone them to distract Muslims during prayer,” which establishes that Ali is a religious
Hosseini reveals that Amir’s ignorance is sparked by youthhood, as he doesn’t acknowledge the seriousness of the situations he is put in. Amir grew up in a well-respected household with access to privileges denied by most others his age. Amir and Hassan, his house servant, were almost inseparable,
Amir's conscious choices to act better allow him to evolve as a person and redeem himself from his past mistakes. Since the beginning of the novel, Amir showed a shady attitude toward Hassan. Firstly, Amir’s deprivation from his father’s love affects him greatly and causes him a great deal of jealousy, betrayal, and cowardice. He exhibits these behaviors in various scenarios throughout the novel, mainly toward his friend Hassan. For instance, one specific thing that Amir did wrong was when he planted the brand-new watch Baba has offered him, and the money under a mattress, framing and blaming Hassan for stealing his things.
In “The Kite Runner,” Amir's journey is a powerful reminder of the lengths one will go to seek redemption. One of the ways Hosseini explores the theme of redemption is through the use of Religion. Throughout the novel, Amir struggles with his faith and his
Amir struggles to both face his secret and stay as far away from it as possible. “Hassan milled about the periphery of my life after that. I made sure our paths crossed as little as possible, planned my day that way. Because when he was around, the oxygen seeped out of the room” (Hosseini 88). In this quote it is extremely clear how drastically Amir goes out of his way to elude Hassan completely, for it pains him even physically to be around the boy.
Within the Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini presents the experience of conflict as a symptom of change. The idea of conflict, is shown to be necessary in order to change the future, as well as redemption of the past. The existence and experience of conflict is also shown to be evident in society at the time, in the political turmoil of Afghanistan at the time, as well as in the differing religious beliefs of the Pashtuns and the Hazaras - their respective roles in society. Hosseini presents the idea that although conflict can be a force for evil, it can also be a force for good. Within the novel, conflict is shown on a large scale in the instance of the Taliban, on a smaller scale in the case of Amir and Hassan, as well as the final conflict between
Because of this, he enjoys using his opportunistic advantages to make Hassan think less of himself. As children, Amir and Hassan enjoy reading under their favorite tree, but Amir’s favorite part is when they come “across a big word that [Hassan does not] know” and he has the opportunity to “expose his ignorance” (Hosseini 28). Amir craves so badly to be superior that he
In reality, everyone possesses a certain degree of cruelty. It is this aspect of human nature that Khaled Hosseini explores in The Kite Runner. Hosseini vividly depicts the cruelty of human nature by using anecdotes of Amir and Hassan’s childhood and by describing a Taliban-led Afghanistan. Both instances, despite the difference in magnitude, illustrate how cruelty can affect individuals and the society as a whole. Hosseini employs cruelty to serve as both a motivator as well as source of guilt for the protagonist, Amir.
Hassan would do anything for Amir, anything he asked Hassan to do Amir would do it. With this amount of power that Amir had over Hassan he was bound to abuse it. Hassan did not know how to read when he was younger, so Amir would read to him. Hassan would always ask Amir what certain words meant, and instead of telling him the truth Amir would lie and tell him the wrong definition of the word on purpose. Amir would do this so that Hassan wouldn’t ever learn the correct meaning of words and that would make Amir smarter than Hassan.
In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini portrays the dark downfall of Afghanistan through the eyes of a young Pashtun boy named Amir. The Kite runner brings the audience alongside Amir as he grows up, experiencing many life-changing events, ultimately rewriting his own unique character. Hosseini chooses to highlight the concept of betrayal and loyalty within his novel with characters such as Amir, for his actions of betrayal, Baba for his double-crossing history, and Hassan for his loyalty. By giving these characters such lively traits, Hosseini helps bring life to the story and helps the audience understand what is going through the mind of the characters with the consequences of their actions. To start, Amir’s development of
Hassan starts out at the beginning of the book, protecting Amir from the wrath of Hassan’s father, even though we all know that Amir if the main cause of the problem, Hassan has taken upon himself to protect Amir from the wrath: “Yes, Father, Hassan would mumble, looking down at his feet. But he never told on me. Never told that the mirror, like shooting walnuts at the neighbor 's dog, was always my idea” (Hosseini 4). This relationship is pretty strong. Making up lies about the actions of another person is like, way up there in friendship status, but, by the end of the reading, we learn some horrible news, after Hassan gets the surgery to repair his cleft, the last words of chapter five read: “ Because that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling” (Hosseini 47).
He resists for Amir whom he loves with his whole heart. Amir witnesses this struggle, but he does nothing; he runs away since “he was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 77). Amir has always believed, deep down, that his father favored Hassan, a Hazara, the dirt of Afghan society, over him, his own son. Seeing Hassan reduced to that level of baseness is perversely satisfying for him.
Whenever Hassan was out in public he was jeered at, yelled at, called names, and Amir witnessed that. He witnessed how nobody saw this as a problem, how nobody stepped in, because that was the socially acceptable way to treat Hazaras in that society, the society in which Amir lived for his entire childhood. The environment in which you live as a child has a big effect on how you grow as a person, and in Amir’s environment it was constantly reiterated that he was better than Hassan, so why should he risk something for someone who is only a servant? On page 28 Amir says, “That Hassan would grow up illiterate like Ali and most Hazaras had been decided the moment he had been born… after all, what use did a servant have for the written word?” Amir is abiding by society's social standards, he has started to think less of Hassan
Hassan tends to get mistreated and disrespected by Amir due to his jealousy of not gaining his father's attention. “I went downstairs, crossed the yard, and entered Ali and Hassan’s living quarters by the loquat tree. I lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it. I waited another thirty minutes. Then I knocked on Baba’s door and told what I hoped would be the last in a long line of shameful lies” (Hosseini, 2003, pg. 104).