American Literature

While at first glance the Kite Runner might give the impression of a tale of friendship, closer introspection reveals that it is the voice of the author conveying the complex socio-political, economic and religious upheaval in Afghanistan and its gradual decay into an obscurantist country. It gives a voice to the unique, yet tragic reality of Afghanistan. While our perspectives of Afghanistan have largely been shaped by the media, The Kite Runner tells us what the actual ideals of the Afghan society were honor, friendship and unflinching loyalty. The story has a global appeal because of the universal phenomenon of immigration. We understand what it means to have a split identity, what it means to have your beliefs and values instilled on the basis of one culture and having to live in a country with a completely different culture. Its universal appeal is very well summarized in the quote The themes are universal familial relationships, particularly father and son the price of disloyalty the inhumanity of a rigid class system and the horrific realities of war.(Gaines 2003)
Hassan who is incapable of hurting anyone(Hosseini 5) has always stood up for Amir, while Amir on the contrary has proved to be a coward in testing times. In the initial chapters of the book the writer talks about the country, people and their way of living. In the book Baba has always been expecting more form his son, Baba states, A boy who wont stand up for himself becomes a man who cant stand up to anything. (Hosseini 11). This statement by the writer basically tells us why Amir felt more relaxed with the thought of moving to America. The complexities that arose between the relationship of Hassan and Amir can be attributed to the complex dynamics of traditional Afghan society.
The impression that I got from the book tells me that Afghans were traditionally conservative people but Amirs family was an exception as they lived life as liberal elites. This is evident from the bar in Babas room where Baba was pouring himself a whiskey (Hosseini 8). For Baba
 There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of     theft.When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wifes right to a husband, rob     his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth. When     you cheat, you steal the right to fairness (Hosseini 9).
This tells me that at that time, there     was at least one segment of the population that was fairly liberal. However, in the general populace, beards were not uncommon and Afghan women were not given their due place in the society. It was a close knit society and thus everyone knew each other. Amirs father was a peoples man and this is evident from his keen interest in building and maintaining the orphanage as evidenced by the following quote I heard the story through Rahim Khan. He told me Baba had drawn the blue prints himself despite the fact that hed had no architectural experience at all. Skeptics had urged him to stop his foolishness and hire an architect. Of course, Baba refused and every one shook their heads in dismay at his obstinate ways (Hosseini 7)
Having examined the complex ethnic fabric of Afghan society, I got to know that there used to live two majority communities in Afghanistan Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims (a sect in Islam) who belonged to upper society, while the Hazaras were Shia Muslims. These groups always had rivalry between them due to religious differences. I believe that the Hazara people had faced a very cruel life in the past as reflected throughout the course of the book. For the Pashtuns majority, it was very easy to differentiate between themselves and the Hazaras, because the Hazaras looked differently too. The author employs excellent symbolism to highlight this difference between the appearances of the two ethnicities. This deformity in Hassan is described by Amir And the cleft lip, just left of midline, where the Chinese doll makers instrument may have slipped or perhaps he had simply grown tired and careless (Hosseini 2). This statement serves to highlight the difference between the appearance of Hazaras and Pushtuns under the guise of the description of a simple deformity.
With the onset of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Baba saw his fortunes take a turn for the worse and he started losing his dominant position in the changing political dynamics of Kabul. With the war about to break out at any moment, an Afghan resistance force called Taliban was formed with the stated aim of kicking out the Russians and establishing Islamic rule. Afghans had only two options, either join the Taliban resistance movement or accede to Russian rule. The Russians were involved in senseless butchery of the Afghans to establish their rule and Taliban were only interested in nurturing fighters. Baba was fond of neither and hence they moved to America. This was the turning point in the lives of all the characters in the book. While Amir and Baba left for USA, Hassan and Ali had to stay back to look after their house. Because of the unique twist of events, Amir was feeling very insecure his childish wish was to somehow justify his actions. He justified them by using his ethnicity In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shia, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing (Hosseini 12).
    Marriage, Babas death and a child-less marriage all these events contributed towards the loneliness that Amir felt. I believe this was also a factor that contributed to Amirs eventual decision to visit Afghanistan. During all this time, Amir didnt know what was happening in Afghanistan, he didnt know anything about Hassan. He hadnt bothered to know which suggests that he was keen on forgetting his past. But the phone call from Rahim Khan and the sudden urge to go back to his roots reflects Amirs changing intentions he was suddenly jolted back to childhood. Amir goes back to Peshawar Pakistan, and upon learning all about Hassan, he realizes that he has a debt to pay a debt he owes to Hassan for his unflinching loyalty even under the direst circumstances. Rahim Khan tells Amir that there is a way to be good again(Hosseini 98) and Amir realizes it is time to seek redemption. He feels a sudden urge of affection for Hassans son and he decides to undertake the journey to Afghanistan. Being a man who had never faced his fears, Amir felt scared that he had led himself to his death by visiting Assef. This is expressed in the following words
    You are gutless. Its how you were made. And thats not such a bad thing because     youre saving grace is that youve never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing     wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops     remembering who he isGod help him (Hosseini 139).
Assef has been casted not just as an evil character, but I think he is also an embodiment of the true face of the Taliban, who under the guise of religious fundamentalism perpetrated their reign of terror which wasnt very different from that of the Russians. When Taliban gained control of most of Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal, the Taliban set out to purge their beloved homeland of all evil. This cleansing of the evils also included the ethnic cleansing of the Hazara population and in a major demonstration of power the Taliban conducted a massacre of Hazaras at Mazar-e-Sharif. Thus the political landscape of Afghanistan wasnt much different from what Amir had left.
The social landscape and gender relations now had an extremist edge. Talibans moral code was an extreme and myopic interpretation of Islam and this moral code was strictly implemented by their moral police. Everyone feared the moral police as they could execute anyone at will just by declaring himher immoral. Women likewise were subjugated beyond imagination and their movement was restricted in many ways. Growing beards was a compulsion and its violation carried a horrendous punishment. Thus Babas opinion that God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into their hands (Hosseini 136) with reference to the Taliban proved to be true. I believe that the ban on the traditional kite flying event and the picture of the fruitless tree is an attempt to show the sea of change that Afghanistan had undergone. It was no longer a society heading towards prosperity rather it was a hostile society. This hostile environment resulted in the killing of Hassan and his wife. The statement that Like so much else in Kabul, my fathers house was the picture of fallen splendor (Hosseini 132) symbolizes the condition of Afghanistan Whatever was beautiful and was to be valued had been destroyed.
Thus The Kite Runner is a unique story in which the changing life story of several characters tells a greater tale the tale of the demise of Afghanistan and the distortion of the values that had defined Afghan society. It also gives a historical account of how this gradual break-down took place and what factors were behind it. If Afghanistan has to progress it must remove the insecurities of the Hazara minority. While most of Afghanistan rejoiced when the Taliban took over initially, the Hazara community was scared of the consequences. Rahim Khan testifies that their concern was legitimate in the following words A couple of weeks after they seize power, the Taliban ban kite fighting. And two years later, in 1998, they massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif (Hosseini 107).
The hard journey of redemption is a major theme in the book. Amir wasnt the only one who had held grave secrets his father also kept the dark secret of Hassan being his son from Amir. However Rahim Khan tells Amir how in his opinion his father redeemed himself in the following wordsI think that everything he did, feeding the poor, giving money to friends in need, it was all a way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good(Hosseini 153). The grace of acceptance heals the wounds of brutality, for with forgiveness, anything is possible, even the wild joy of soaring Kites against a winter sky(Gaines, 2003)