DOCSLIB.ORG

A Way to Feel Good Again: the Kite Runner Book Title: Afghanistan In

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Way to Feel Good Again: the Kite Runner Book Title: Afghanistan In University of Illinois Press Chapter Title: A Way to Feel Good Again: The Kite Runner Book Title: Afghanistan in the Cinema Book Author(s): MARK GRAHAM Published by: University of Illinois Press. (2010) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt1xckvr.12 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms University of Illinois Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Afghanistan in the Cinema This content downloaded from 76.77.171.72 on Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:40:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 8 A Way to Feel Good Again The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel The Kite Runner was a sleeper of a book. Pub- lished only two years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, it attracted a smattering of attention in the critical press when issued in hardcover. But in between its debut and its trade paperback publication, a plethora of Afghani- stan tales fertilized the market, from the release of Osama to the onslaught of Afghanistan documentaries, historical novels, and burqa-clad women’s memoirs. With the way paved, The Kite Runner achieved critical mass at an astonishing speed, spread by word of mouth through the reading circles of America. Hosseini’s story soon appeared on the New York Times best-seller list in 2005 and stayed there for years to come. Afghanistan in the Cinema: Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada) and Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) before the war This content downloaded from 76.77.171.72 on Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:40:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms i-x_1-198_Grah.indd 146 1/25/10 2:27:38 PM The Kite Runner 147 Almost overnight the book was adopted by universities, reprinted in sev- eral different editions (even an illustrated one), became the subject of numer- ous high school study guides, and inevitably inspired a Hollywood feature film. The book’s success was so great that it allowed Hosseini, an Afghan American physician living in San Jose, California, to give up his medical practice for an even more lucrative career as a full-time author. His next work, A Thousand Splendid Suns, was published in 2007 to warm critical response and even warmer sales. It’s not an exaggeration to say that The Kite Runner has become not only the single most important source of information on Afghanistan for American readers but also the most widely read American story ever written about the modern Islamic world. The Kite Runner’s appeal has a great deal to do with its thoroughly gripping plot, a tale of sin and fall, guilt and redemption. The two main characters are Amir and Hassan, two boys living in Afghanistan’s capital in 1978. Amir belongs to the educated elite, his father (Baba) a Westernized and affluent Pashtun Afghan with enough clout to have Ahmad Zahir play at his son’s birthday. Hassan, on the other hand, is their servant’s son, a Hazara and thus the victim of both racial and religious prejudice (the majority of Hazaras are Shias as opposed to the mostly Sunni Pashtuns). Amir and Hassan nev- ertheless ignore these differences and join together in a variety of boyhood pastimes, from reading Ferdowsi’s book of Persian legends, the Shahnameh, to flying kites in spectacular competitions. After the two friends win the citywide kite-fighting contest, a vicious Pashtun boy named Assef corners Hassan and rapes him. Amir, who witnesses the terrible crime from a dis- tance, does nothing to stop it. Tormented by the memory of his cowardice and guilt, he eventually drives Hassan and his father from his home, only to lose that home himself when the Russians invade. Baba and the child flee Afghanistan, settling in Fremont, California (the largest community of Afghans in the United States). There Amir becomes an American, marries Soraya, the beautiful daughter of an Afghan general in exile, and comes into his own as a storyteller, eventually achieving success as a writer of fiction. His father, on the other hand, cannot adapt to Western ways and soon succumbs to cancer. As the immigrant narra- tive reaches its conclusion, Baba’s friend summons Amir back to Afghanistan to save Sohrab, the son of his old and much-maligned friend Hassan. Stealing into Taliban country in disguise, Amir finds the child in the clutches of Assef, still engaging in psychopathic violence but this time as an Islamic fundamen- talist. Rescuing the boy and returning to the United States, Amir, Soraya, and Sohrab become a new family in a land of peace and opportunity. Like its literary source, the Hollywood version of The Kite Runner was also a cultural milestone. As director Marc Forster put it, the purpose of the This content downloaded from 76.77.171.72 on Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:40:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms i-x_1-198_Grah.indd 147 1/25/10 2:27:38 PM 148 border crossings film was to “humanize that part of the world . [to] give a face and voice to a country that’s been in the news for three decades, and create an emotional connection beyond culture or race.”1 For Americans, the film provided the first-ever cinematic view of urban Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion. John Frankenheimer’s Afghans in The Horsemen were rustic chapandaz, archetypal warriors of the Hindu Kush. Forster’s, on the other hand, are city dwellers quite comfortable with the trappings of American culture, from Ford Mustangs to 1970s plaid sports jackets. They listen to the radio, watch Steve McQueen movies, and live in sumptuous homes with marble floors, framed pictures on the walls, and heavily stacked library shelves. Most important, they don’t appear to obsess about Islam. Baba, for example, drinks alcohol unapologetically, declaring that he “pisses on the beards” of the mullahs. These moderate, sophisticated Afghans are a world away from those ofKan - dahar or Osama. Although shot primarily in the Xinjiang region of China (on the Afghan border), The Kite Runner nevertheless goes out of its way to present as authen- tic a picture of prewar Afghanistan as possible. Thus there are crowd scenes that portray, along with women in burqas, Westernized and unveiled women decked in the latest 1970s fashions. At Amir’s birthday party celebration, they dance in public without any shame to the music of Ahmad Zahir, the most popular Afghan singer of the twentieth century (who is even represented by an actor who bears a passing resemblance to him). By inserting these im- ages, the film reveals an Afghanistan in dialogue (and not even necessarily in conflict) with the world of modernity. Here for the first time, the Western viewer can watch Afghans who are literate, complex, cosmopolitan, and relatively tolerant. Even though a vast abyss exists between that optimistic past and the dismal present, this vision still holds a promise of what might be once again. Nevertheless, The Kite Runner has been criticized by some of the very Af- ghan diaspora whose vicissitudes it seeks to chronicle. At a meeting of the Society of Afghan Professionals in Fremont, Hosseini himself encountered some hostility stemming from his treatment of ethnic tensions between Pash- tuns and Hazaras.2 The anger was not so surprising. After all, Hosseini was airing the dirty laundry of Afghanistan in public at a time when it was already getting more than its share of negative press. But what galled some older- generation Afghans even more perhaps was Hosseini’s debunking of prewar nostalgia. To discuss racism against Hazaras, one must admit that all was not well in the paradise lost. Confronting this reality is essential not just from the viewpoint of history but also because in many ways these ethnic tensions have only become more exacerbated in recent decades. The racial violence between This content downloaded from 76.77.171.72 on Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:40:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms i-x_1-198_Grah.indd 148 1/25/10 2:27:39 PM The Kite Runner 149 Sunni Pashtuns and Shia Hazaras in the 1990s was, according to The Kite Run- ner’s author, “worse than anything the country endured under the Taliban.”3 Subsequently, Persian-speaking Tajiks and Hazaras used the overthrow of the Taliban to settle scores with the Pashtuns of Kabul and elsewhere. Mean- while, Pashtun insurgents perpetrated new atrocities on ethnic minorities in Hazarajat, while Hazaras themselves murdered Kuchi nomads. Of course Afghanistan’s seemingly endless war is not simply a tale of race. A great deal of the conflict has been religiously based, pitting Shias versus Sunnis, and within Sunnism the Wahhabis against the more moderate Hanafi school. At the same time, many foreign countries like the United States, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia continue playing the New Great Game, backing one faction against another. The Kite Runner, however, glosses over these tensions to present a more simplified picture of Afghanistan as an arena of civil rights struggle that closely resembles America’s own convulsions of the 1960s and 1970s. Although Marc Forster has said that he hopes to give Afghanistan a face for movie audiences, what he actually provides are two faces, a split image of Amir before and after that alters the meaning of Afghanistan in the 1970s (and by extension today).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Khaled Hosseini's the Kite Runner: Unveiling the Trauma of Adolescent Boys Trapped in Afghanistan's Culturally Legitimised P
    Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (ISSN 0975-2935) Indexed by Web of Science, Scopus, DOAJ, ERIHPLUS Special Conference Issue (Vol. 12, No. 5, 2020. 1-10) from 1st Rupkatha International Open Conference on Recent Advances in Interdisciplinary Humanities (rioc.rupkatha.com) Full Text: http://rupkatha.com/V12/n5/rioc1s9n5.pdf DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s9n5 Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner: Unveiling the Trauma of Adolescent Boys Trapped in Afghanistan’s Culturally Legitimised Paedophilia-‘Bacha Bazi’ Pallavi Thakur Assistant Professor, SHSS, Sharda University, Greater Noida Email: [email protected] Abstract Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a powerful narrative on ‘Bacha Bazi', “same-sex pedophilia restricted to adult men and adolescent boys” (Powell, 2018, p.1), prevalent in Afghanistan. When marginalisation of Afghan women became the nucleus of major studies , especially during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Hosseini unveiled in The Kite Runner, the gruesome Afghan culture of ‘Bacha Bazi’ that disintegrates a boy’s social and sexual identity. ‘Bacha Bazi’ is not consensual rather coercion hence is equivalent to rape and reflects the grotesque violation of Afghan male children’s human rights. While the world viewed Afghanistan as a land of incessant wars, tribal conflicts, violence and female exploitation, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner provided a startling insight into ‘Bacha Bazi’ and its implications on Afghan boys. The novel reveals the socio-culture domain of Afghanistan and ethnic rivalry playing an instrumental role in the existence of Bacha Bazi. In the light of the above discussions, the present paper examines the deleterious effects of Bacha Bazi on Afghan male children.
    [Show full text]
  • Penguin Teacher Guide: the Kite Runner
    A STUDY GUIDE TO THE RIVERHEAD EDITION OF KHALED HOSSEINI’S THE KITE RUNNER By LISA K. WINKLER With additional material by HEKMAT SADAT GENERAL EDITOR: JERRY WEISS 2 A Study Guide to Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................3 Summary ..........................................................................................3 About the Author .............................................................................3 A Historical Overview of Afghanistan ...............................................4 Before Reading .........................................................................................5 Introduction to the Study Guide ......................................................5 During Reading .......................................................................................6 Vocabulary Activities .........................................................................6 Reading Questions, Quotations, & References .................................6 Themes .............................................................................................6 General Reading Response Topics .....................................................6 Chapters 1-5 .....................................................................................7 Chapters 6-9 .....................................................................................9 Chapters 10-14 ...............................................................................10
    [Show full text]
  • Glimpses of Pashtunwali in Hosseini's the Kite Runner, a Thousand Splendid Suns, Hashimi's a House Without Windows and Acker
    GLIMPSES OF PASHTUNWALI IN HOSSEINI’S THE KITE RUNNER, A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, HASHIMI’S A HOUSE WITHOUT WINDOWS AND ACKERMAN’S GREEN ON BLUE A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English University of Regina By Rashid Jahan Regina, Saskatchewan August 2018 Copyright 2018: R. Jahan UNIVERSITY OF REGINA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE Rashid Jahan , candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in English, has presented a thesis titled, Glimpses of Pashtunwali in Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hashimi’s A House Without Windows and Ackerman’s Green on Blue, in an oral examination held on August 8, 2018. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material. External Examiner: Dr. Valerie Mulholland, Faculty of Education Supervisor: Dr. Dorothy Lane, Department of English Committee Member: Dr. Susan Johnston, Department of English Committee Member: Dr. Marcel DeCoste, Department of English Chair of Defense: Dr. Shadi Beshai, Department of Psychology i Abstract Writers and scholars have used a variety of approaches to understand novels written in English about Afghanistan. One approach that most of the writers have used is the sociocultural approach. My approach is quite similar to other researchers but my framework is different. My work focuses on an unwritten code of life, Pashtunwali, which the Pashtuns of Afghanistan have been practicing for centuries. This code strictly guides the lives of Pashtun people living in Afghanistan and North-West Pakistan.
    [Show full text]
  • Discovering the Kite Runner Calum Kerr
    Discovering The Kite Runner Calum Kerr Part One: Writing the York Notes on The Kite Runner In 2008, when I was working part time at a university teaching a range of English Literature and Creative Writing subjects, an opportunity arose to write a full academic textbook on twentieth- century literature. Although my application was not accepted, it led to another offer—writing the York Notes study guide for The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, which I agreed to do. I had heard of The Kite Runner, which had been published with some fanfare back in 2003, and had also been aware of the press coverage when the film was released in 2007. When I started to read The Kite Runner for the first time, little did I know that it would be the first of at least seventeen complete read-throughs. The first read-through of a book you are going to write about should be the same as the first read-through of any book. You let it take you on its journey, you ride the highs and lows, and you let it sweep you along its emotional trail to its ending. This had been true for my first reading ofThe Kite Runner, which I found to be a hugely affecting read, with every twist in the tale of Amir and his family catching and carrying me. Although I knew I was going to have to read it more times, now with a more critical eye, I first sat down to research the book to see what academic material might have been written about it that could inform my understanding and my writing of the York Notes.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Amir's Psychological Change in the Kite Runner
    English Language Teaching; Vol. 12, No. 5; 2019 ISSN 1916-4742 E-ISSN 1916-4750 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education A Study of Amir’s Psychological Change in The Kite Runner Chen Kai-fu1 1 School of Foreign Languages, Leshan Normal University, China Correspondence: Chen Kaifu, School of Foreign Languages, Leshan Normal University, Leshan, Sichuan, China. Received: March 18, 2019 Accepted: April 19, 2019 Online Published: April 21, 2019 doi: 10.5539/elt.v12n5p190 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v12n5p190 Abstract The Kite Runner is a representative novel by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini. In this novel, Hassan’s loyalty moved countless readers while Amir’s betrayal shocked and even angered many readers. In the researcher’s view, all behaviors of the protagonist, Amir, such as his betrayal, guilt and redemption, are closely related to his psychological changes. From mistrust to doubt, guilt to inferiority, self-accusation to role confusion, and from being willing to love to devotion, different psychological states lead to different emotional needs and behaviors. Admittedly, the whole psychological process is actually a journey of growth for Amir. By employing Erikson’s psycho-social development theory to analyze Amir’s psychological change in different stages, this paper aims to reveal Amir’s inner world so that we can have a better understanding of the reasons for Amir’s sin and cowardice. Keywords: The Kite Runner, Amir, psychological change, psycho-social development theory, journey of growth 1. Introduction The Kite Runner was the first novel written by Khaled Hosseini, Afghan-born American writer.
    [Show full text]
  • The Main Character in Khaled Hosseini's Novel the Kite Runner
    Proceedings of The 7th Annual International Conference (AIC) Syiah Kuala University and The 6th International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research (ICMR) in conjunction with the International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics (ICELTICs) 2017, October 18-20, 2017, Banda Aceh, Indonesia The Main Character in Khaled Hosseini’s Novel The Kite Runner: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Literary Work from Psychological Standpoint 1*Saiful Akmal and 2Sabriyati 1Department of English Language Education, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, UIN Ar-Raniry, Banda Aceh 23111, Indonesia; 2English Teacher at Islamic Senior High School in Aceh Besar, Indonesia; *Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract As one important element in novel, character takes a large space in the storyline. Therefore, in this paper, the main focus is to analyze the main character of The Kite Runner novel by referring the character types to literature and psychological concept. The Kite Runner is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini in 2003. In 2005, this novel successfully became the chart-topping book and was voted in 2006 as the reading group book of the year. In examining the main character of Amir from literary concept, we will analyze the character personality through: the main character’s background, the main character’s act, the main character’s say, the main character’s thought and how other characters react to the main character. With regard to the main character analysis from psychological point of view, we use fundamental dimension of personality of how the character gets energy, attention, decision making and lifestyle. The result of this analysis shows that many positive sides of the character that can be adapted by the reader.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of Kite's Symbolic Meaning in the Kite Runner
    ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 238-242, February 2020 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1002.13 An Analysis of Kite’s Symbolic Meaning in The Kite Runner Di Chen Chongqing Normal University, China Abstract—Marc Forster adapted the novel The Kite Runner for a movie which had won an Oscar nomination in 2008. The Kite Runner tells a story of two Afghan boys Amir and Hassan. Kite is regarded as a symbolic object throughout the movie. For sure, it plays a significant role to drive the plot. There is something more profound hidden below the surface of story strand. This paper aims to figure out the symbolic meanings of the kite at the social background, interpersonal relationship and humanity level. This way, audience can have a better understanding of this movie. Index Terms—kite, symbolic meaning, social background, interpersonal relationship, humanity I. INTRODUCTION The Kite Runner is the first Afghan novel written in English. It tells a moving story about family, love, friendship, betrayal and redemption which become one of the best-sellers in New York Times. School Library Journal reviewer Penny Stevens called The Kite Runner a beautifully written first novel. As a dark horse, it attracted some producers who have been the partner of DreamWorks. “The challenge invigorates Marc Forster, a filmmaker who in the past has approached his material like he’s examining a specimen from another planet.” (Schwarzbaum, 2008) He is in charge of the film shooting. Millions of audience is deeply touched by this movie.
    [Show full text]
  • First, Congratulations on Registering for AP English Literature and Composition
    April 17, 2019 Dear 2019-2020 AP English Students: First, congratulations on registering for AP English Literature and Composition. I hope that you will find the class to be challenging and enlightening. Next year, you will approach literature in a different way. It will not be enough to know what happens in a novel or play; you will analyze why things happen and how the author conveys his ideas to the reader during your exploration for universal themes. You will also make plenty of connections between literature of the past and contemporary society. AP Literature focuses on reading, writing, analysis, and discussion. This course is considered reading and writing intensive. This means that you will read about 30-50 pages a week while writing 2-4 pages of written work per week while responding to texts regularly. This equates to about 3 hours of homework a week in AP Literature. You must be prepared to work hard, share your own interpretations, work with others and have a good time. By the time this course is over, you’ll have a much greater appreciation for the purpose of literature in society, you’ll be a stronger reader, and you’ll grow considerably as a writer. During your first class in September, we will discuss the specifics of what an AP English Literature class requires, but suffice it to say that having a wide reading experience is fundamental to your success. In addition to continuing to read a wide variety of literature, it is important for you to be introduced to some literary terminology.
    [Show full text]
  • Afghanistan Civil War in “Kite Runner” Novel by Khaled Husseini ; Historical Approach
    Cordova Journal / Jurnal kajian Bahasa dan Budaya terbit 2 kali setahun Vol. 10, No. 1, 2020 https://journal.uinmataram.ac.id/index.php/cordova/index AFGHANISTAN CIVIL WAR IN “KITE RUNNER” NOVEL BY KHALED HUSSEINI ; HISTORICAL APPROACH Ardiansyah a, a Putera Batam University, [email protected] Abstract This journal point on the analysis of history in “Kite Runner” novel by Khaled Hosseini in 2003. Many countries ever happened civil war, then the author pour it into literary work, it likes Afghanistan civil war in this novel. The story in this novel told about the beauty of Kabul was replaced by disturbance of the conflict that destroyed Afghanistan. Furthermore, the object of the research is history of Afghanistan civil war in “Kita Runner” novel by Hosseini in 2003 viewed from H. A. Taine phrase. As basic concept and framework thinking, the researcher used elements of race, milieu and moment from historical approach purposed by Taine in Guerin et al (2005). Qualitative descriptive method used as method presenting result, also used primary and secondary data as method to collect data. The researcher found that Afghanistan civil war in this novel is real history occurred in Afghanistan from 1978 until present. From the analysis, it can be concluded the novel of “Kita Runner” by Khaled Hosseini in 2003 is compatible to analyze by used historical approach. Keywords: civil war, Afghanistan, kite runner, historical approach. Copyright © 2020 by Cordova Journal 1 | Vol. 10, No. 1, 2020 Cordova Journal / Jurnal kajian Bahasa dan Budaya terbit 2 kali setahun Vol. 10, No. 1, 2020 https://journal.uinmataram.ac.id/index.php/cordova/index INTRODUCTION.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
    Reading Group Guide The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini In brief In The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini explores the nature of friendship, of forgiveness and of redemption, set against the turbulent background of his native Afghanistan In detail The son of a rich and popular merchant, Amir leads a privileged life, wanting only to please his beloved but demanding father, Baba, and to play with Hassan, the child of Ali, Baba’s lifelong servant. Both Amir and Hassan are motherless. They spend almost all their time together, playing games and sharing stories in their favourite pomegranate tree. An encounter with Assef, the local bully, in which Hassan springs to Amir’s defence, has appalling consequences, destroying their friendship and driving Amir to desperate measures to rid himself of Hassan, measures which result in a puzzling reaction from his father. When Ali and Hassan decide to leave of their own accord, Amir’s relief is short lived; he knows that his cowardice has been detected. Baba and Amir are soon in flight themselves when the Russians invade. They flee first to Pakistan, then to America, where Baba’s old life of influence and power is at an end. They make a new life for themselves, embracing the San Francisco Afghan community, one of whom Amir eventually marries. But Amir remains haunted by his failure to protect Hassan, unable to enjoy his success as a novelist and his marriage to Soraya, convinced that their inability to have a child and his father’s death are punishments visited upon him. Amir is rescued by a phone call from Baba’s old friend, Rahim Khan, who offers him the chance of redemption.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kite Runner and the Problem of Racism and Ethnicity Hosseini, Akram Sadat; Zohdi, Esmaeil
    www.ssoar.info The kite runner and the problem of racism and ethnicity Hosseini, Akram Sadat; Zohdi, Esmaeil Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Hosseini, A. S., & Zohdi, E. (2016). The kite runner and the problem of racism and ethnicity. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 74, 33-40. https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.74.33 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY Lizenz (Namensnennung) zur This document is made available under a CC BY Licence Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden (Attribution). For more Information see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.de International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Submitted: 2016-07-08 ISSN: 2300-2697, Vol. 74, pp 33-40 Revised: 2016-08-31 doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.74.33 Accepted: 2016-09-07 © 2016 SciPress Ltd., Switzerland Online: 2016-11-30 The Kite Runner and the Problem of Racism and Ethnicity Akram Sadat Hosseini1,a*, Esmaeil Zohdi2,b *1M.A. Scholar, Department of English Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Vali-e-Asr University, Rafsanjan, Kerman, Iran 2Assistant Professor, Department of English Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Vali-e-Asr University, Rafsanjan, Kerman, Iran Email: [email protected], [email protected] Keywords: Racism, Ethnic, Afghans, Pashtun, Hazara, Kite Runner. Abstract. Racism is a worldwide matter that is based on the physical characteristics of people possessed by certain people, their ethnicity, nationality and so on which make some people superior and some inferior.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini
    The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini About the Author Khaled Hosseini was born in ________________, Afghanistan in 1965. His mother was a ________________and his father a ________________. His family left Afghanistan for a posting in Paris in 1976, well before the Communist coup and the Soviet invasion. They intended to return, but sought political ________________in the US in 1980. He now lives in ________________, where he works as a doctor. Afghanistan An ethnically ________________country. As of July 2007, there are approx. 32 million people estimated to live in Afghanistan. ________________and ________________are considered the official languages of Afghanistan and are spoken by 85% of the people. ________________ other minor languages are also spoken in Afghanistan. About 99% of the population is ________________, and of these, 84% belong to the Sunni sect. There has been a long history of an ethnic hierarchy within Afghanistan. It has created ________________in wealth, influence and education within its society. Traditionally ________________have dominated the country because they are the presumed majority of the population. As a result, many of the other ethnic groups have not had a strong ________________within the society. Ethnic Groups Pashtuns: • ________________ethnic group at 42% • Highest ethnicity on the social ladder and ________________governmental bodies • ________________is their native language • Consist mainly of Sunni Muslims Tajiks • ________________of population • ________________largest ethnic group • Identified with agriculture and town life • Mainly inhabit the fertile eastern valleys • A group that is considered to have low income and like many Hazaras, they are not the highest on the social ladder. However there are Tajiks that are successful and important members of the government.
    [Show full text]