Gender Roles In The Kite Runner

Once back in Kabul, Amir takes steps he would never have imagined, which truly define his character. On his venture back to Afghanistan he learns the truth about Hassan’s connection with Baba. After hearing this Amir feels robbed of the truth and is angry at how his own father could hold this back from him. Despite his feelings, Amir realizes he must not only pay for his betrayal of Hassan but for Baba’s betrayal of Ali too. Amir knows he must face his fears and he understands this when he reveals, “I remembered Baba saying that my problem was that someone had always done my fighting for me" (Hosseini 239). Following this he undertakes a personal mission to find Sohrab and finds the courage to stand up to the Taliban, nearly dying in the process. During his quest Amir comes face to face with the disturbing Assef and fights him for Sorab, the ultimate sacrifice for his dead half-brother. While he is beaten he begins to laugh, which angers Assef even more. Amir explains that, “What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace" (Hosseini 303). After successfully bringing Sohrab back to California, Amir defends his Hazara nephew when General Taheri insults him. Over the dinner

Both Hassan and Sohrab have gone through abuse at the hands of Assef, but Amir ends this cycle of abuse by rescuing Sohrab when he returns to Kabul. This shows how Amir has become nobler and made the decision to do what he feels as morally correct. When he was 12, he witnessed Hassan get raped by Assef in the alleyway and he did nothing to help Hassan. He tried

Unfortunately, Sohrab’s suffering under Assef has caused him to recede into such a depression, that he converses very little, even when Amir offers his friendship. Rahim Khan gives Amir letters from Hassan and Amir learns that the letters are old and that Hassan and Farzana were brutally murdered by the Taliban. Amir finds out about Sohrab’s existence when he visits Rahim Khan in Pakistan. “They named him Sohrab, after Hassan’s favorite hero from the Shahnamah, as you know, Amir

In the same moment, he discovers that Hassan was brutally murdered by the Taliban and that he had left orphaned child named Sohrab in his wake. In an attempt to right his past cowardice, Amir decides “(He) would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab” (255). Through this decision, Amir is allowed the growth he wasn’t able to achieve under Baba’s influence; as an adult responsible for his own choices, he doesn’t run away like when he watched Hassan’s rape in the ally. Instead, he learns of responsibility and selflessness as he risks traveling through a war-torn country to find a boy he has never met. His new resolve shows a tremendous change in his once cowardly personality - change that is dependent on his independence from his father.

Amir struggles with the weight of seeing his friend, Hassan, being raped and doing nothing to help stop the horrific event from happening. Soraya, on the other hand, struggles with her decision to run away with a boyfriend that leads to

Readers must examine Amir’s redemption to Baba. Amir feels guilty of his mother’s death, his first sin to Baba. Longing for Baba’s love, Amir knows that Baba “hated me a little… After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I?” (Hosseini 19). Amir’s day of birth starts his betrayal to Baba since his birth causes Baba’s wife to die. Furthermore, Amir continues

Eventually, Amir received a call from his old mentor, who told him to come back to Afghanistan because "there is a way to be good again." What Amir learned while he visited his mentor would lead him to what he considered redemption. Hassan had been killed, which Amir partially considered his fault, but Hassan's son, Sohrab, was still alive. With the idea of giving him to a good placement organization, Amir set out to save Sohrab. Amir found Sohrab in the possession of a Taliban member, the same man who had raped Hassan when they were children. In order to save Sohrab, Amir had to fight the man, and he was injured very badly in doing so. Despite his injuries, he felt better about himself. He felt free, at peace. He finally had the courage to tell his wife about what he had done, and that took a weight off of his shoulders, as well. Even though Hassan had forgiven him long ago, Amir refused anything less than Hassan's fate.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is set mostly in Afghanistan both before the Taliban takes control and after they take control. The main character of the book is Amir, who is also the narrator of the story. The novel’s plot centres around interactions between Amir and his friend Hassan along with the struggles they face in their lives. Even though Amir and Hassan have grown up together in the novel, there is a noticeable difference between them. Hassan's social position is solely based on his being a Hazara. It examines his relationships with people at different levels in society and different social backgrounds, and the implications of the decisions he makes.The novel The Kite Runner provides ample evidence of the oppression of the minorities

Overall Amir has changed throughout the book. He went from being a terrible kid to a not so bad man. The point of Amir going back to Afghanistan is so that he can become good and he does not let anything stop him. He is a grown man who had not even told his own wife his deepest secret in which makes him who he is. Amir going back and getting beat up makes him feel like a new man. Saving Sohrab’s life makes him an even greater man, spealily him being Hassan’s own kid. After everything that happened in Afghanistan, Amir finally owns up to himself, he tells his wife everything and he is not ashamed to say that

Khala Jamila and Soraya Taheri entered Amir’s life at the same time, so it is adequate to assume that they both play a key role in Amir becoming a man. Soraya helped Amir grow, while Khala Jamila helped their relationship blossom, “I actually liked it when Khanum Taheri was there, and not just because of her amiable ways; Soraya was more relaxed, more talkative with her mother around” (Hosseini 150). Their paired presence helped Amir flourish. Soraya also helped Amir and Baba’s relationship grow at the end of Baba’s life. With the two finally married, Baba’s only task left was to be killed by his cancer.

There are very few women in the scenes while Amir is in Afghanistan as a kid and as an adult. Soraya and her family are the only ones you really hear about when they get to America. This shows how women must live in the shadows and cannot just go out and live life like a free woman. No matter what country these women are in, after living in Afghanistan and getting ruled by a male they continue the same lifestyle because they don’t know any other way to live. In The Kite Runner, Soraya shows the mentality that Afghan women just naturally have by moving in with Amir and his father and taking care of household chores and Amir’s father.

In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, he depicts the oppression the Hazara people face in Afghanistan through his main characters, Ali and Hassan. His vivid illustration of the demeaning behavior towards the Hazara people (Ali) set the underlying tone of this novel.

Two main themes in the novel The Kite Runner are that of social class and gender roles. Everywhere that Amir, the main protagonist, turns, society is divided. From his earliest childhood memories to living in America, there always seems to be some sort of invisible line drawn between his people. There is separation between the Pashtuns and the Hazaras, between Americans and Afghans, between men and women, and between the Talibs and the people of Afghanistan.

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.

Soraya Taheri is one of Khaled Hosseini’s characters in The Kite Runner, who represents what a true woman and wife should be like. She is an example of Kohlberg’s classification of three levels of moral development in humans. Even though there is not a lot of information in the novel given about Soraya, her personality can be reviewed based on her behavior throughout the story.