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Analysis Of ' The Kite Runner '

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The Kite Runner’s plot is centered on the story of Amir, a young boy who grew up in Afghanistan with his father, and friend, Hassan. Amir was raised without a mother, and had no womanly influence in his life until he was married. This lack of women in the storyline has caused some to argue that the novel is demeaning to women (Gomez). The vulgar language and explicit themes are seen as demoralizing towards the female gender (Schaub). In the novel the women are required to remain committed and submissive to their husbands, while the husbands are allowed to have more than one wife. This obvious “double standard” portrayed in the novel is why women have argued it to be insolent. The social difference between females and males was, and still is, part of the Afghan culture. Women are viewed as inferior to men, and Hosseini wanted to portray that part of the culture in his novel.
The Kite Runner tells the story of a culture, a country deprived of freedom and forced to become a hollow shell filled with terror. This novel can be understood on an academic level but also a sociological level. Being an Afghan himself, Khaled Hosseini presents a differing viewpoint between the life of an Afghan to the life of an American. He is able to draw from his own experiences to give a credible comparison between the western world and the Middle East. Academically it can be read by analyzing the different philosophical concepts and morals that Hosseini was trying to bring to light.

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