The Kite Runner And Oedipus Rex Analysis

He perceives Hassan as a “loyal Hazara. Loyal as a dog.” (72). Amir’s selfish nature contrasts Hassan’s total dedication to his master. The young slave often sacrifices himself for Amir, the selfish teenager who stood by and watched a raping occur to his “friend.” Menial tasks like preparing breakfast and catching the blue kite show Hassan’s self-less nature. In return, Amir alienated him and plotted his banishment from the estate. The young Pashtun’s actions left him to be perceived as a cruel master, compared to his “saint-like” slave.

Millions of people around the world are discriminated against, but Hazaras and Shias especially know the struggle of this, constantly being put at the bottom of the social class and knowing unfair treatment all too well. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the act of discrimination is portrayed throughout the novel and is the cause of many of the main events that occur in the novel. Hassan, a hare-lipped Hazara boy in the novel, feels the pain and torture of simply being who he was and endures the hardships of his ethnicity, but yet he never complains or wishes to change who he is, symbolizing his bravery. Therefore, discrimination and slander towards Hazaras in the novel gives a strong sense of unequalness among the two ethnicities, Pashtuns and Hazaras, and is not considered virtuous among societies today.

“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.

In The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir is a non-athletic intellectual boy who enjoys stories and flying kites. In the beginning of the novel, Amir thinks back on how he became such a troubled adult. Reflecting on his childhood, he contemplates how he had been scared to stand up for others. He was the child of a wealthy man and taken everything he had for granted. He had a Hazara boy who served as his best friend, figuratively and literally, yet he still depicted between the classes. One day Amir witnesses Hassan being taken advantage of in an alley following a kite flying competition. He has the opportunity to stop it, but does not. He could not accept a Hazara as his true friend, or get over

Hassan's love and kindness are easily overseen by Amir and doesn't take it into consideration. Amir knows Hassan would do anything for him “a thousand times over.” Amir would read to Hassan and when Hassan asked what a word meant he would lie and call this a “harmless prank.” Although Amir knew what he was doing and would feel guilty so he would try to repay Hassan with a broken toy or an old shirt. This shows Amir's abuse of power over Hassan. Amir Pulls “jokes” on Hassan when Hassan only shows love, then tries to make up for it with materialistic items. The effects Amir has to deal with from abusing his power is guilt and knowing he stole knowledge from someone who deserved nothing less. Also what Baba says is the greatest sin. Then in the novel, we see, Assef rapes Hassan and Sohrab we see his abuse of power. Assef wanted to show his dominance both physically and mentally because Hassan and Sohrab. Assef also idolizes Hitler's idea of racial cleansing and does not like that Hassan and Sohrab are Hazara. Hassan and Sohrab are left with feeling dirty and worthless from assefs abuse of

Similar to people of colour, the Hazaras were also extremely despised, and looked down upon in Afghanistan. They were often kept as servants, as shown through Hassan’s case, in which his family had been servants for Amir’s family, and they were considered of lower value and worth than the Pashtuns. From an early age in his childhood, Hassan has therefore dealt with racial segregation and actions expressing distaste towards him from the larger community. It was very clear that as someone of lesser authority and worth due to his ethnicity, he was merely someone who did housework for Amir. When society itself is promoting acts of racism and disdain toward the Hazaras while often keeping them as slaves, those who are of that group cannot help but feel unsafe, or unhappy with the ethnicity they were born into. The hatred towards the Hazaras can lead to the victims slowly believing these insults. This would make them hesitant to approach others for fear of being humiliated about their race. Hassan’s decrease in self-worth is evident when he

One day Asseff rapes Hassan as an act of power, and Amir witnesses the actions but acts in a cowardly matter and simply avoids the matter by ignoring it. Amir then proceeds to cut off the relationships between himself and Hassan, “I actually aspired to cowardice, but the real reason I was running, was that Asseff was right. Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara. Wasn’t he?” Amir did it because the traditional and historical beliefs were more important than friendship. This action displays how being born in a different social class can outweigh all feelings of love and friendship with one of a different social group.

Conforming to society's standards causes children to have close-minded ideas, often limiting their opportunities. The discrimination of Hazaras in Afghan society results in Amir never fully accepting Hassan as a friend. Assef brings this thought to the limelight when he taunts Hassan before raping him: "Have you ever

Assef and his pals didn’t just bully Hassan for being a Hazara, but they also bullied Amir for being associated with one. One day as Amir was walking up a hill, he came face to face with Assef. As Assef began to verbally assault poor Amir, Hassan saved the day and raised his slingshot at Assef’s eye. Although Hassan appeared to be presumptuous, Amir later says, “...I saw that he was scared. He was scared plenty,” (Hosseini.42). Hassan was terrified and was fully aware that one day Assef would get his revenge. However, Hassan was so loyal that he risked his own well being in order to preserve Amir’s.

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.

However, Amir’s father did not conform to the societal rule; the difference in the race and beliefs did not affect him and his opinions. The larger factor is likely because he did not see Hassan as a servant but his son. He never treated Amir different from Hassan; he invariably cared for them equally. As a consequence, it intensified Hassan’s love which caused him to be blind to his limits as a Hazara. Hassan showed no concern for standing up to Assef when he was bullying Amir, even though in reality he was terrified.

In “The Kite Runner,” the main character, Amir, is a Pashtun and his best friend Hassan, who is also one of his family’s servants, is a Hazara. Amir grew up very privileged due to his family being Pashtun. Hassan, however, grew up in a family of poor, lower class servants because they are Hazara. Because of the class system in Afghanistan, none of the characters in the book were able to choose or change their social class and instead were born into one which essentially predestined their future and how they were treated by others. Amir constantly took advantage of Hassan throughout the novel because of his social class and illiteracy, neither of which he had control over. Amir saw himself as superior to Hassan because Pashtuns were seen as superior to Hazaras. This belief led to the various different responses to the Taliban’s takeover of

Hassan and his family are ethnically Hazaras, predisposing them to brutal discrimination at the dregs of society. Even the intimate relationship between Amir and Hassan was not immune to these connotations, as Amir dictated the relationship by lying to Hassan about words (Hosseini 29) and speaking condescendingly to him. Eventually, Amir’s inadequate free will, like Foster described (253), accepted the rape of Hassan, as Hassan’s social standing contributed to reasoning that intervening wasn’t worth the vengeance from Assef, as Amir asked, “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 77). Unfortunately, his avoidance was ironic in multiple ways, transferring

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, addresses the issue of violence and ethnic discrimination in Afghanistan with an example of the relationship between Pashtuns and Hazaras. The novel uses Assef as a conduit to reveal the cruelty that people, mainly Hazaras, were forced to go through. He is what Amir has to come to terms with at the end of the novel, the evil and inhumanity of Afghanistan. Hassan most likely represents what is good and kind. Amir is caught between Hassan and Assef, two contradicting opposites that resemble different aspects of him.

“Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.” Humanity relies on self awareness of good versus bad. The nature of humanity is more easily influenced by the bad, however, especially when the corruptions begin to manifest in the mind as young children. In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the characters of Assef, Amir, and Hassan endure psychological trauma from the same event, but each in a separate and unique way. This event takes place in Afghanistan during the 1970s amid political and civil war.