Common Themes In The Kite Runner And Oedipus Rex

In the play, Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, an honourable and admirable Greek king named Oedipus rules the town of Thebes. He is left in mental turmoil and decay as his unknown, corrupt and immoral past is slowly revealed during his quest to find the culprit who murdered King Laius. The newly exposed past suddenly transforms his glory and respect into shame and humiliation. After he learns about his wicked past he stabs his eyes, which lead to his blindness. During the course of the play, references to blindness and vision constantly recur, giving the reader an enhanced and more insightful look into the themes of the play. Some themes that are expressed through these references include truth and knowledge, guilt, and freewill versus

What does it mean to truly see? Do those blessed with normal vision really see?

It is amazing how two literary works from different time periods and different cultures can portray the same theme. A major theme in both The Kite Runner and Oedipus Rex is the limits of free will. The way Khaled Hosseini portrays the theme in The Kite runner is the way that the majority of Pashtuns treat the Hazaras, they are either treated as objects that people can do whatever they want with, they are treated as second class citizens or they are servants to the Pashtuns. In Oedipus Rex, the way that the theme is portrayed is that Oedipus is bound to a prophecy that he heard when he was a child.

When you think of blindness you think of sight and when you think of ignorance you think of knowledge. Throughout the play Oedipus, sight and blindness imagery is very noticeable, along with ignorance and knowledge. Sophocles creates Oedipus as a character of ignorance, confidence, and good insight. The story starts out as Oedipus is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. The oracle told the parents that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. The parents refused to let this happen and sent the servant to pin Oedipus’s feet together and leave him on the mountain to die. The messenger knew this was not right and stepped in immediately to help the poor child. As Oedipus grew older he found out the truth about his life and why certain things happened. Over time, Oedipus's blindness shows him the lack of knowledge he knew about his true life story.

“Who am I?” This has become the essential question asked in each literary work The Kite Runner and Oedipus Rex. Striving to find who they are the characters, Oedipus and Amir, try to figure out what they have become through their separate journeys. Most of their conclusions rely on the fact that both characters continue to look back into their past. The constant theme in both the novel and the tragedy is continuously looking into the past. Both characters constantly look at the past in ways such as their relationship with their father, the wrong choices they have made, and the secrets that lie in the family.

The play is trying to say that human have great knowledge capability and can demonstrate incredible powers of intellectual penetration and awareness. However, it is unreliable and limited because even the smartest human being will commit an error. King Oedipus perhaps meant to show that human beings are powerless before or the gods because they are the ones that created us and sort of path our journey on Earth. Disaster and error can happen to anyone and human beings must have the best attitude toward life (Sparknotes).

The story of Oedipus the King have many symbols and metaphors that can be interpreted differently from person to person. There are many metaphors that are used as symbols in Oedipus the King, which includes sight and blindness, self-affliction, and the three way crossroad. These are the three main symbols that were used in the story, and sight means knowledge, self-affliction stems from a sense of guilt, and the three way crossroad stands for decisions.

What similarities could current fiction novels possibly have with old Greek drama? Greek dramas and current day novels have more in common than anyone realizes. For example, there are many similarities between Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. These similarities show how writing and entertainment have not completely changed despite how long it has been. One of the most important similarities is the theme. This essay will explore these two works by looking into the similar themes, how the themes are treated, and the importance of similar themes.

Themes are one of the most recognizable aspects one can collect from pieces of literature. Themes can be similar through, even in the most opposite works of literature. With The Kite Runner being a historically fictional novel and Oedipus Rex being a Greek play, one main theme can be extracted from these two very different works. The overall theme of betrayal is very apparent in both pieces. The author’s treatment of the theme is displayed directly through the character’s dialogue, thoughts, their actions. The author’s treatment of this major theme is significant because it sets the overall tone and mood for both pieces.

Discuss whether or not a hero who is tragic by trait and definition can exist within the structure of the monomyth.

Starting off with The Kite Runner, there are more clues of fate than those in Oedipus Rex’s story. For example, the simple kites in the story represent fate and prophecy pointing out themes from the beginning. Amir and Hassan had always been best friends, like brothers. They played together they had

In each of the literary works, a major event occurred in order to determine the fate of each character. In The Kite Runner after the kite running tournament, Amir begins to worry for Hassan. He finds him trapped in an alley surrounded by Assef, Wali, and Kamal. Amir witnesses Hassan getting molested, “ I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had. But I didn’t” ( Hosseini 73). The way Amir describes this event makes it life changing as he mentions his life turning out differently if he had done something to change it. In Oedipus Rex, the major event occurs when Oedipus finds his mother dead. At this point in the story, Oedipus finds out that his mother is his beloved wife. Oedipus knows about the prophecy and eventually, it all becomes true. With both of his parents died he begins to feel guilt like Amir did with not saying anything to stop Assef. Both characters in each literary work eventually take this guilt to realize what needs to be done in order to make things right.

The famed tragedian Sophocles is known for his unique ideas and intellect. Sophocles carefully utilizes of all of his intelligence and creative ability in order to make use of illuminating moments throughout the play which allow his audience to draw conclusions about free will, fate, knowledge, and power throughout perhaps his most iconic play, Oedipus Rex. the main character Oedipus experiences an illuminating moment when he gouges his eyes out at the discovery of the truth about his actions. This illumination is expressed in order to express Sophocles’ idea that fate overpowers free will.

In the play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus unknowingly murders his father and marries his mother. When Oedipus discovers this he is disgusted with himself and decides to go into exile. The Misanthrope is a play about the self-exile of the main character Alceste. Challenged in court, he refuses to take back the criticism of a sonnet written by a powerful nobleman. Alceste and Oedipus are both convicted by their knowledge of the truth. Although, the United States grants asylum to more refuges than any other country, there is one man who has decided to self-exile.

In the Greek tragedy, we see that Jocasta state that it is natural for human being to dream about sleeping with their mothers. She is right in the sense that we gain a sort of attraction and love for our parents. These natural feelings has come to be known as either the Oedipus or Electra complexes. There is a common command against incest that is both needed and jus due to the fact that it is morally wrong and disgusting. The command against incest is needed because it keeps citizens and most of all the kingdom morally in check. For someone to take their mother or father to bed and wed them is viewed in most societies as disgusting and unjust. This is portrayed in the play with the curse on the kingdom and Oedipus having no knowledge of his incestuios actions, however Jocosta knew what was going and viewed the situation as inevitable due to the wrath of the gods.