Abstract
The objective of this thesis is to review the book ‘And the mountains echoed’ by Khaled Hosseini. This thesis will deal with the characters and the emotions they portray throughout the book. The book was published in 2013 and received a favourable response overall. It later on became a bestseller like the author’s other two books: ‘The kite runner’ and ‘A thousand splendid suns’. Within a short span of 5 months, it sold over 3 million copies.
Being his pattern, Hosseini drew on his early experiences in Afghanistan to create the foundation of this book. The book begins with a betrayal and ends with redemption similar to his other two books. Hosseini is perceptive and uses plainspoken family drama to convey the complex recent history and culture of Afghanistan to multitudes of readers in America and around the world. He strips away the stylish elements and reduces the tale to its emotional essence. Though one can find plenty of similarities between his 3 books, attention to detail can help us understand how he has evolved as an author. A major theme in this book is Marxism and this is heavily influenced by the concept of breaking an unbreakable caste system.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my English Teacher, Mrs Achamma, who gave me this wonderful opportunity to do this thesis and more importantly allowed me to choose a topic so relevant and interesting. This assignment brought to me, great learning. My sincere gratitude to Mrs Achamma, for her
Hosseini, uses syntax very powerfully throughout the story. He makes the reader feel the pain and feel the tension of each scenes in the book. " never mind that we taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands, or to build a fully functional homemade camera out of a cardboard box. Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites. Never mind that to me, the face of Afghanistan is tat of a boy with a thin-boned frame, a shaved head, and a low set ears, a boy with a Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile…"(25).
In his novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini depicts his homeland Afghanistan as a host to many different cultures and classes, such as Pashtun and Hazara, Sunni and Shiite, with this dichotomy of beliefs and attributes being powerful enough to shape diverse, sometimes negative relationships amongst the characters of the novel and their behavior to each other, as well as establish that individual’s identity. Each person interprets the impact of the role of belief and social status differently, while all living in the same setting, adding to their complexity and depth as a character in the novel with many different figures tied together by the same geographical and cultural conditions.
Khaled Hosseini in his novel And the Mountains Echoed shows that male authors can fight for the rights of women through their work, and create a feminist fiction. And the Mountains Echoed is a successful feminist fiction because it displays some unique female characters such as Nila Wahdati, which voices out feminism and how women are oppressed in the Afghan society. Nila Wahdati is gifted, stylish, condemned French-Afghan housewife who writes impassioned poetry about love, sex, desire, and loss in 1950s Kabul. I chose Nila because I think she is misinterpreted by many readers including myself. The first time I read the chapter focusing on Nila’s history I was not impressed by her, and although she does still does not make a good impression, she is a great example of the affluent women from Kabul during the 1950s. Furthermore, she is integral to the story, the infertile woman who buys Pari from Saboor thereby serving as the catalyst for the novel’s events.
Growing up and living in Afghanistan as a woman has its challenges. Parents choose who can marry you and they choose everything for you. In this book, Laila and Mariam both show the struggles it is to be a girl, and how much disrespect they get in Afghanistan. Both Mariam and Laila are married to the same man, and he is abusive to both of them. They also live under Taliban rule, and the rules that they set are very unfair for women. In Khaled Hosseni’s novel, he has many different themes but the most prevalent one is of woman inequality, and that is shown through multiple accounts of abuse, disrespect, and unfairness.
Had Hosseini chosen to further elaborate on the story he could have only done it through historical content and facts. The plot that he wrote was enough to cover everything, he had figured that his readers coming to his book would already know the story of the exile of King Zahir Shah, of the Soviet invasion and the devastating civil war that followed, and the rise of the Taliban, since he had meant for people to read it when it was published in 2001. Another thing would be how he was vague about the culture and typical life in Afghanistan. Hosseini writes “Now if you were Americans, it wouldn’t matter. People here marry for love, family name and ancestry never come into the equation. They adopt that way too, as long as the baby is healthy, everyone is happy. But we are Afghans…” (188). He wrote enough that you could make guesses and he hinted at certain aspects such as customs that are oppressive to women, and the relations between Pashtuns and Hazaras. If you want to know more you would be able to research it on
Hosseini begins to show the loss of innocence and the effects of the conflict with the Soviet takeover. “The generation of Afghan
Hosseini utilises Structure, Symbolism and Dialogue throughout chapter 6 to explore the characters and their relationships along with the central ideas of truthfulness and Afghanistan Culture.
In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini purposely utilizes setting to play a pivotal role in the portrayal of an important focus when narrating a post 9/11 Afghan and American novel. The author’s deliberate incorporation of Afghan and American settings over a 3-decade time frame successfully illustrates the differences and similarities between Eastern culture and Western culture, as well as highlighting the harm each culture cultivates. The emphasis placed upon the discrimination of Hazaras by the Pashtuns not only informs the readers of the socio-economic relations in Afghanistan but also addresses a parallelism of harm towards Afghanis from Americans. Hosseini breaks down post 9/11 stereotypes by showing that a person's socio-economic class or ethnic group does not determine their ability to form friendships, feel guilt and seek redemption. Khaled Hosseini rehumanizes a culture which has been demonized by the generalizations of many individual Americans and many Hollywood films. He does this by developing universal themes which demonstrate that Afghans and Americans
powerful and moving story about two brothers, however it also does an outstanding job at portraying the culture and norms of Afghanistan; both the positive aspects and the negative aspects. Hosseini directly and
Khaled Hosseini’s sophomore novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, shares a setting with his previous novel, the turmoil of the recent decades of Afghanistan 's existence. However, despite similar themes, Hosseini once again manages to craft a story that is as engaging as it is poignant, as compassionate as it is critical, and as thoughtful as it is visceral.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini takes a solid focus on the lives of two young women, Mariam and Laila, who grow up in a struggling and turbulent Afghanistan. This book emulates the lives of those who have actually been affected by the extreme changes of power within their culture. From the Soviets to the Taliban, these people are caught in a war they cannot win but must deal with the consequences of. The lives of Mariam and Laila are consumed and silenced by those with power over them, namely males with traditional values. The book conveys the idea that even with an immense amount of destruction and terror wrought throughout Afghanistan, underneath lies a beauty that has been muted but it still provides hope for the future.
Throughout Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, the reader observes many injustices committed due to the presence of the Taliban and cultural conflict in Afghanistan. One of the most concerning issues in Afghanistan is the mistreatment and inequality that women face on a daily basis due to Taliban mandates. Women in Afghanistan are treated as inferior beings to men and are unable to stand up for themselves due the laws the Taliban enforces. Hosseini uses the wives of Amir and Hassan, Soraya and Farzana, to represent the injustices to which women in Afghanistan are subjected.
Social conditions are what shape a country. Over the years, people, not only in Afghanistan, but around the world create norms that define people’s roles in life, their future, and how they should be treated based on their gender and beliefs. Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner, comments on the social conditions of Afghanistan through telling a story about the lives of two Muslim boys; a privileged Sunni Pashtun, Amir, and his long-time friend and servant, Hassan, a loyal but disadvantaged Shia Hazara. Hosseini expresses Amir’s uncertain feelings toward Hassan which form the decisions he makes throughout the book. These choices result in Amir destroying his relationship with Hassan. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini is a commentary on the social conditions in Afghanistan as shown through the roles of women and men in society and the ideals of Afghan culture. Unfortunately, these problems are still active in most of Afghanistan.
The story is based on the life and journey undertaken by Amir, the protagonist. Hosseini expresses essential ideas in his novel through the themes of redemption/atonement, the relationship between father and son and lastly, the theme of degradation/discrimination. The author expresses these themes through the setting and characterization. Hosseini presents characters from different social status in Afghanistan and how this affected their childhood. Amir despite coming from a privileged class had to work hard for his atonement by going back to Afghanistan to face his demons as well as to mend his relationship with his father who had rejected him since his birth. On the other hand, Hassan, from the minority class suffered because of his social status after he was abused and mistreated by those in power. The Kite Runner is a story about two boys who grew up in different worlds because of the presence of various social classes in
“His people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence-forces that continue to threaten them even today” (Hower). Khaled Hosseini’s novels have brought many of his readers a different perspective of Afghanistan. Many people after reading Hosseini’s books start to notice this place more and have sympathy feelings rather negative views about it. Usually people believe the media’s information that conveys about Afghanistan as a poverty place but does not specify why they live in this conditions and how those states affect their everyday life. In the two novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author Khaled Hosseini wrote the political events that happen in Afghanistan and show how those events affected