The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini essays

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini essays ?The Kite Runner is a heartbreaking novel of family, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, strength of character, relationship between fathers and sons, discrimination, racism, and class structure in Afghan society. After reading a couple chapters I quickly realized that this novel might not be as boring as I expected. As I continued to get farther into the book it became a very interesting, and very intriguing story. While reading it, I felt myself not wanting to put the book down because I wanted to find out what happened next. In this paper I will talk about two young boys ( Amir and Hassan), and how their close relationship was diminished, as ethnic and political tensions arise in Afghanistan. Amir is a Pashtun and Hassan is a Hazara. Pashtuns are some of the richest people in Afghanistan. The Pastuns have always been the upper class and the Hazaras belonged to the much lower class. They often worked for richer Afghanis (Pashtuns), trying to get by on a meager living. The story starts with a happy beginning, where Amir and his best friend and servant Hassan live together in harmony despite racial and socioeconomic differences. And, because Hassan is Amirs Hazara, or his servant, they easily get away with spending time together. Amir and Hassan are best friends, but in their society this is regularly unacceptable, and especially after the fall of the Afghan monarch, things began to change. Pashtuns and Hazaras started to act in violent, conflict ways; Kabul becomes vulgar and grim. As cultural and political tensions grow in Afghanistan, Amir and his friend begin to grow apart. Overall, their friendship was a complex tapestry of love, loss, privilege, and shame. Khaled Hosseini does an excellent job of demonstrating how social pressures and a cultural attitude towards certain ethnic groups can affect a childs mind at an early age and tear apart long-term friends. For instance, a boy named Assef (who is Pashtun), at...