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. Khaled Hosseni characterizes two important characters into the book The Kite Runner by describing the way they live because of their social class. Amir describes his estate as the most beautiful in all of Kabul and goes into extreme detail on how his father build the estate. Hosseni 4 “Some
Thought it was the prettiest house in all Kabul. A broad entryway flanked by rosebushes led to the sprawling house of marble floors and wide windows. Intricate mosaic tiles, handpicked by Baba in Isfahan, covered the floor of four bathrooms. Gold-stitched tapestries ,which Baba had bought in Calcutta, lined the walls a crystal chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling.” This quote states that Amir's estate is believed to be the most beautiful in all Kabul because of they way his father
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.
The Kite Runner is the first novel of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It tells the story of Amir, a boy from Kabul, Afghanistan, whose closest friend is Hassan, a young Hazara servant. Novel turns around these two characters and Baba, Amir’s father, by telling their tragic stories, guilt and redemption that are woven throughout the novel. Even in the difficult moments, characters build up to their guilt and later on to their redemption. Their sins and faults alter the lives of innocent people. First, Amir and Baba fail to take action on the path to justice for Ali and Hassan. Moreover, Amir and Baba continue to build up their guilt due to their decisions and actions. Although Amir builds up more guilt than Baba throughout the novel, he eventually succeeds in the road to redemption unlike his father. After all, Amir and Baba have many chances to fix their atonements but Baba chooses not to and Amir does. Baba uses his wealth to cover up his sins but never atone himself while Amir decides to stand up and save Sohrab and finally finds peace. Amir and Baba’s reaction to sins essentially indicate their peace of mind and how they react to guilt and injustice.
Growing up the way Amir did as a Pashtun, it could be easy to see him take what he had for granted. Although Afghanistan is a poor country, Baba and Amir has the approval of everyone in town that Baba “had built the most beautiful house in the Wazir Akbar Khan district” (Hosseini 4). In terms of what people could have in
Equality is something we humans crave for when we are in a time of hardship. When we are being discriminated against, we feel the utmost pain and the need for freedom. Discrimination has lingered since the beginning of time, and ending it is impracticable. A French novelist, Honore de Balzac proclaims, “Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.” Here, Balzac is acknowledging that an individual is born a free man and is just as equal as any other man. But, an individual will never be fully equal as they desire. Some parts of society will try to act superior to a certain quality of someone’s life, like their race, religion, culture, etc. This statement proves to be valid in Khaled Hosseini’s novel,
In his novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini depicts his homeland Afghanistan as a host to many different cultures and classes, such as Pashtun and Hazara, Sunni and Shiite, with this dichotomy of beliefs and attributes being powerful enough to shape diverse, sometimes negative relationships amongst the characters of the novel and their behavior to each other, as well as establish that individual’s identity. Each person interprets the impact of the role of belief and social status differently, while all living in the same setting, adding to their complexity and depth as a character in the novel with many different figures tied together by the same geographical and cultural conditions.
A man is insensible to appreciate prosperity until he has tasted adversity. Adverse situations shape an individual’s identity and play a significant role in one’s life by shaping personal values, determining one’s own potential and self worth. Khaled Hosseini conveys how hardships shape individuals identities through the characters of Amir, Baba, Hassan and Ali in his novel The Kite Runner. Like every individual they go through a series of incidents and hardships that shape who they become and how well they deal with struggles in
The Kite Runner is a film based on the first novel of Khaled Hosseini, which was published in 2003 and became a bestseller, thus was translated to many different languages and spread around the world, becoming a discussion topic for quite a while. One of the reasons why this book is so rich and attractive is the variety of characters, which are all born in Afghanistan and spent at least most of their childhood there, but at the same time have different views, virtues and experience. And those characters, depending on the generation they belong to, are shaped by particular circumstances, political and historical events.
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
In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini tells a notable coming-of-age story portraying the actions and thoughts of Amir, a penitent adult living in the United States and his reminiscence of his affluent childhood in the unstable political environment of Afghanistan. Throughout the novel Khaled Hosseini uses character description to display his thoughts on sin and redemption.
Reading a text through a Marxist lens can expose one to another layer of depth not initially seen by the average reader. Marxism is a methodology used to analyze class conflicts, especially in capitalism. In Marxist thought, the upper class, the bourgeoisie, is oppressing and using the working class, the proletariat, for their own profit. This strife between the classes will eventually lead to a revolution, bringing a socialist or communist economy. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the main character, Amir, struggles with the issue of class, specifically when dealing with the son of his father’s servant, Hassan. Throughout the novel Marxist ideology can be applied but it’s especially relevant in Amir’s perception of Hassan and their
First, Amir’s relationship with his father, Baba, helped create Amir’s identity. Their intricate relationship often left Amir feeling worthless as if he could not live up to the standards of a Pashtun. This negatively impacted Amir growing up; his values constantly changed as he tried to form a close bond with his father. Baba raised Amir to believe that everyone in Afghanistan had a certain role to play in life, but they should all be treated with respect. Baba’s values made Amir think he had disappointed his father. The high expectations that Baba had for Amir showed that he cared about their reputation. Being the child Amir was, he translated Baba’s hardness as though his father were unhappy to have a child such as Amir. Amir recounts the emotion displayed on his father’s face after an afternoon together; he laments, “Mostly I will never forget Baba’s valiant efforts to conceal the disgusted
Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a remarkable coming-of-age novel describing and revealing the thoughts and actions of Amir, a compunctious adult in the United States and his memories of his affluent childhood in the unstable political environment of Afghanistan. The novel showcases the simplistic yet powerful ability of guilt to influence decisions and cause conflict which arises between Amir’s childhood friend and half-brother, Hassan; Amir’s father, Baba; and importantly, himself. Difference in class The quest to become “good again” causes a reflection in Amir to atone for his sins and transform into the person of which he chooses to be.
Illiteracy and poverty are highly connected. This is well known. A child who grows up impoverished in a developing country is likely to be illiterate. An illiterate and impoverished child has an incredibly low chance of succeeding as a person. If those chances weren't low enough, imagine that child is growing up being discriminated against because of his or her religious affiliation and cultural background. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the character Hassan exemplifies the poverty stricken illiterate child. He has grown up as a servant and never acquires a useable skill and never makes a live able wage. Conversely, the character Amir has had access to school, is a member of the dominant religion of Afghanistan, and is supported by a wealthy father. Because he was born into a family with money and privilege, he is likely to be a competitive member of the economy and will follow in his father's footsteps in that way. The future of each of these characters can reliably be traced back to one thing: their ethnic backgrounds.
“Whoever controls the means of production in society controls the society.” (Martin) Marxism can be used to explain and inspect actions, characters, settings, and ideas in a multitude of texts. In the novel The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini, the Marxist views on the class system, religion, and the ownership of goods are prominent and introduce an interesting and captivating perspective to the story.
A person’s ethnic and economic background is like a summary in the back of a novel — both serve as a tool to get a better understanding of what is hiding in the complex minds of people. Most people are familiar with the term “Marxism,” or at least the majority can name a few words they associate with that term: class conflict, oppression, and communism. The literary Marxist approach, however, consists of more than just those few definitions. Marxism, in theory, is a way to create a utopian society by eliminating class conflict. The core principles of Marxism are illustrated in the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The main character Amir, a wealthy Pashtun and Sunni Muslim, is faced with numerous internal conflicts which are caused by how his social status influenced him to interact with his servant half brother Hassan. Being raised among wealth and power determined the higher value of Amir’s relationship with Baba in comparison to his relationship with Hassan, while the lifelong self-accusation of his role in Hassan’s fate is the result of Amir’s bourgeoisie class consciousness.