The Kite Runner Marxist Analysis

Hassan is a victim of discrimination, bigotry, and class structure in Afghan society. Hassan and Ali are members of the Hazaras, a minority group of Afghanis. Amir and his father are Pashtuns, the majority, who believes they are a better class than the Hazara. Religion was all that separated Amir and Hassan, as did tribe and class. Amir learned from his father that the Harara tribe to which Ali and Hassan belonged, were inferior people. Because of this bigotry and basic class structure, Hazaras are often victims of physical, emotional and psychological abuse. Thus when a crisis comes and Hassan is being attack, Amir not only doesn't come to Hassan's aid, but also allows him to be brutally abused. Morality lacks because of this class structure, which allows people to be treated as second-class citizens. Considerations towards morality and religion helps the reader to broaden there understanding of the novel and it would be impossible to appreciated the book lacking them.

The expression "riddled with guilt" is a good way to describe the main character's life, Amir, in the book The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner is a story about an Afghan boy, Amir, who has many hardships throughout his life as he grows from a boy living in war-torn Afghanistan, to a successful writer living in America. Amir experiences many events that caused him to carry a great amount of guilt throughout his life. So much guilt that it even turned him into an insomniac. He needed to find a way to make amends which would allow him to forgive himself and hopefully, one day, be able to sleep soundly again.

Throughout the world marxism has been adopted through government. This is the case with the novel The Kite Runner , this novel is about a young Pashtun boy named Amir and Hassan, a Hazara who is Ali's servants son, they fight kites in the city of Kabul. Hassan is a successful "kite runner" for Amir; he knows where the kite will land without watching it. Amir and Hassan have grown up together yet in two different social class. Marxist criticism is focusing on social class and how their government functions. Marxism plays an important role in the novel The Kite Runner because the book illustrates how different you walk the world as a Pashtun and Hazara. Amir’s is a Pashtun and Hassan a Hazara.

The novel didn’t really have the best satisfaction between characters, its atmosphere was really awkward, unsettling and funny at times; it is basically a mix of all that. I felt there was no connection between Andy, Connor and Kajsa, and Ethan for the majority of the novel. The three got along well, and Ethan didn’t, which made things awkward in a minute. Ethan wouldn’t help out in setting up tents/putting tents down (“You have to help break camp,” Andy said sternly. “I have to do nothing I don’t want to do,” I replied. “But we’re a team,” Kajsa said. “We’re a team?” I said. “I’m not wearing any uniform. I didn’t join any team” 117; 20-25). Ethan would also play mind games at times, chapter fifteen is an excellent chapter to see how Ethan

An individual tends to treat another inadequately when they believe they are more superior than the other. This is sometimes caused by the act of influence. In this book, Amir being a Pashtun makes him “superior” compared to Hassan as he is a Hazara; this causes Amir to do and say uncivil things. However despite all the bad behavior Amir has portrayed, throughout the book he has shown love and care for Hassan, Amir specifies that “history isn't easy to overcome -- “I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara,” (Hosseini C4) Prior to this Amir was talking about how Baba and his relationship with Ali.. He is implying that “history” is referring to Baba, as he never referred Ali as his friend. Amir may have gotten influenced to not consider Hassan a friend

In the book The Kite Runner, original social status is proven to create barriers in life regarding the aspects of friendship, mindset, and adaptation to change as we observe Baba’s and Amir’s life journeys in order to discover how it affects these aspects. Amir’s friendship with his hazara servant’s son Hassan takes a sudden toll as he ultimately comes to believe that traditional and historical beliefs outweighed true friendship as he was a young child. The mindset of Baba does not adjust when he and Amir are forced to move to America, as he still believes he possesses the same amount of power as he did in Afghanistan. While living in America, Baba never fully adapts to the American culture and way of life as he continues to live and

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

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

Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional representation of many problems faced by the world in the past and present. It follows the life of Elphaba, who later becomes the “Wicked Witch of the West”, a result from her life experiences as a rebel against the Wizard of Oz, her unfortunate appearance of green skin, and several other trials she’s faced. Maguire was born in Albany, New York and lost his mother in childbirth. His father was a writer, but was very ill at the time of Maguire’s birth, so he and his three older siblings had to stay with family and Maguire even spent time in an orphanage before moving back with his father and his new wife. His family

Social status allows the powerful to gain more power, while pushing the struggling deeper into a hole. Hazaras are an ultimately low class in Afghanistan with very minimal rights. In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini the protagonist Amir is a higher level Afghan citizen who is best friends with Hassan, a lower level Hazara. Throughout the book Amit gradually begins to treat Hassan more like a Hazara is treated by the majority of the population. Assef bullies Hassan to show him his place as a minority in Afghanistan. Due to Hassan being a Hazara, Baba avoids social embarrassment by not exposing the truth of Hassan being his son. Hassan later on gets killed for being a Hazara. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini shows that an individual's social status affects their future through the way Hazaras are treated in Afghanistan.

This is shown when Amir describes Hassan or other “normal people” in his life. Despite their ethnic differences, Amir and Hassan “fed from the same breasts”, took their “first steps on the same lawn”, and it’s learned later in the novel that they are half brothers (11). Countless hours of their childhood consisted of them playing pretend, flying kites, reading stories, and just talking with one another. This definitely falls in the parameters of friendship, but Amir “never thought of Hassan and [him] as friends” (25). In moments of chaos, Amir finds Hassan expendable in order to protect himself and his desires. When Hassan refused to give up a kite that Amir desperately wanted, Hassan was attacked and raped while Amir hid. Although Hassan was taking the beating for him, Amir thought that “he was just a Hazara” so there is no need to go out into harm’s way (77). This way of thinking can be traced back to the large majority of the people surrounding Amir viewed Hazaras as subhuman. Amir described a boy named Omar as “a pretty good guy” but refers to Hassan as “your hazara” and insults his “tight little eyes” (68). This perception of Omar being a good guy despite his degrading comments towards Hassan shows how much Pashtuns had influenced Amir. A Marxist, however, would say that Amir supported the dominant ideology thus keeping the bourgeoisie at the top.

The society in which one is brought up in can affect and influence even the strongest of people. This is clearly established in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner not only through the actions of one but the mindset of many. Amir’s Baba in The Kite Runner is clearly a man who believes in individual opinions and doing what is right and yet even he allows himself to be a victim of the influence of others. Readers are exposed to this as Rahim Khan explains that “‘ It was a shameful situation. People would talk’” (Hosseini 235) as the only reasoning behind the duplicity in Hassan’s heritage. Baba did not tell anyone about Hassan because he was afraid of the repercussions of gossip on his reputation. His actions not only caused a boy to not know his true identity but readers to understand that in their society reputation is given more power than blood. The influence of word of mouth is further proven as Hosseini depicts the image of the life-altering shame women in society are pushed to feel for the most trivial reasons. With the entering of Soraya in Amir’s life, the audience is forced to see the

Dog meat for the dogs” (277). Viewing the Hazaras as subhuman, allows Assef and the Taliban, the group he identifies with, to easily attempt to annihilate them, in the ways Hitler, “a man with a vision,” attempted to rid Germany of the Jews (40). Moreover, wealthy Pashtuns are privy to an education while Hazaras are mostly prone to menial and simple household chores. As a Pashtun living in the wealthy neighborhood known as Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, Amir has the privilege of receiving an education and gaining literacy, while Hassan remains illiterate, cooking and cleaning with his father Ali, in Baba’s home. In spite of illiteracy, Hassan’s shrewdness can be seen when he finds a plot hole in one of Amir’s short stories. Amir himself acknowledges, however, the superior and cold voice within which states, “What does he know, that illiterate Hazara? He’ll never be anything but a cook. How dare he criticize you” (34)? The discrimination between Pashtuns and Hazaras is a strong undertone which advertently and inadvertently affects the relationship between Amir and Hassan.

No matter what, Hassan bravely stands up for Amir. However, when the roles are reversed, Amir cannot do the same due to Hassan’s social class lurking in Amir’s mind. When Assef started to harass Hassan while simultaneously trying to evoke a response in Amir, it almost gets Amir to look beyond Hassan's social class. “Assef narrowed his eyes. Shook his head. When he spoke again, he sounded as baffled as he looked. ‘How can you call him your ‘friend?’’ But he is not my friend...he’s my servant!” (41) Amir thought, showcasing the opinion he created about Hassan. Working for Baba and Amir as servants, Hassan and his father are put below their bosses on the social hierarchy.

The idea behind social ranking is that one’s values as a human are based on the class one belongs to. In the Afghan culture, there are two main classes: the Hazara and the Pashtun. Hazaras are Shiite Muslims and Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims. The Pashtuns believe that the Hazaras are lower people because they are not native to Afghanistan. Amir, the narrator of the novel, is the son of a wealthy businessman living in the city of Kabul. Amir is a Pashtun. His best friend is the son of one of his family’s servants, a young boy named Hassan. Hassan is a Hazara. Though these two characters Hosseini is able to identify the subjects of child abuse and suffering in Afghanistan. Although Amir and Hassan are raised as brothers and do everything best friends and brothers