Chapter One

Introduction

Literature represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. However, it

achieves more importance when analysed more profoundly as it can be located

as a historical or cultural artifact. Literature introduces to its admirers an

assortment of new worlds of experience. One easily understands and learns

about history, culture, tradition and many more about a particular continent or

country when he flips through the pages of a literary piece. The writing itself

becomes the record of the history of a nation at a particular time as it chronicles

all the major happenings although it happens through the writer’s perspective.

The readers may even grow and evolve through this literary journey with

books.

The reader interprets the text in accordance with the reading of culture

that he has cultivated in due course. The relevance of the message in the text

can be sieved out through various methods of interpretation. When it comes to

the more important academic studies, this decoding of the text is often carried

out through the use of literary theory, using a mythological, sociological,

psychological, or historical approach.

Whatever critical paradigm a critic employs to discuss and analyze

literature, there is still an artistic quality to the works. Literature is important to

humanity because it speaks directly to them, it is universal, and it affects them.

Many authors are interested in portraying history and politics in their works.

With the novels entered into the literary scenario centuries back, it came as a

shocker for many. But later, this new mode of writing easily found a permanent

place in the hearts of the admirers. With numerous changes happening to this

‘novel’ form new variations were added. More specializations happened; a shift

from the traditional pattern to the most modern styles. The practice of

attributing labels to the literary text has been identified from time

immemmorium. With the initiation of the genre of novel, this practice gained

momentum as one can encounter different types of novels such as ‘gothic’,

‘psychological’ or ‘historical’ in the history of literature. While talking about

the history of literature, one cannot evade the fact that history and literature

have blended so resolutely even from the Old English period and the integrity

of a literary work greatly depends on its links to space and time. In the process

of shaping fictional space in an undefined time, the author attempts to create

fictional situations, which establish both spatial and temporal synchronizations.

Beginning with the elegant Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, to the great

Shakespearean plays and to the sweet versifications of Tennyson, English

Literature has witnessed some of the finest pieces of writing of the literary

world. Writers like Spenser, Milton and many other literary stalwarts who
followed had derived most of their plots from mythology, history, legends and

so on.

For almost all the writers, history remains a fascination as the raw

material to weave their stories. Writers classified as Romantics popularized the

genre of ‘historical novels’ in the 19th century. Many regard Sir Walter Scott as

the first to have used this technique, in his novels of Scottish history such as

Waverley (1814) and Rob Roy (1818). His Ivanhoe (1820) gains credit for

renewing interest in the Middle Ages. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, a

‘historical novel’ can be defined as:

A work of art that has as its setting a period of history and that

attempts to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of a

past age with realistic detail and fidelity to historical fact. The

work may deal with actual historical personages, […] or it may

contain a mixture of fictional and historical characters. It may

focus on a single historic event or a sequence of events. (155)

The historical novel is an attempt to reconstruct the atmosphere, the the

thought process and the prevailing psychology of a generation. The novelist

selects facts and arranges them according to his own choice. The main function

of the novelist is to enliven the past with maximum fidelity without making it

dull and insipid. His mind should be a storehouse of all types of events that can
be utilized in the process of writing. Actual facts of history are mixed up with

stories of love and war, to exhibit the knowledge of human nature and the

complexities of life.

The readers can approach a text from multiple perspectives but all

viewpoints tend to replicate a concern with the period in which a text is

produced or read. No "history" can be truly objective or comprehensive

because history is constantly ‘written and rewritten’; however, studying the

historical context of a work, particularly in contrast with that in which it is read,

can illuminate the readers’ biases and hopefully enable to understand the text

better. The theory of New Historicism, acquires a huge significance in this

context. The theory is based on the assumption that a literary work is the

product of the time, place, and circumstances of its composition. The main

advocates of this theory analysed the historicity of the text and the textuality of

history. The theorists, on the premises of this statement reject the autonomy of

both the creator and creation or text and argue that literary texts cannot be read

and understood in isolation. They give emphasize on the fact that literary texts

must be read and interpreted in its biographical, social and historical contexts.

New Historicism is a pedagogical tool for the purpose of understanding and

interpreting literary work which took shape in late 1970s and the early 1980s,

especially in the study of English Renaissance Texts. Stephen Greenblatt, one

of the chief supporters of New Historicism, was the first to lay claim to this

term in the introduction to a collection of essays in Genre. It can be defined as

a method based on the parallel reading of literary and non-literary texts, usually

belonging to the same historical period. In the popular text Beginning Theory,

Peter Barry comments that, “it involves ‘an intensified willingness to read all of

the textual traces of the past with the attention traditionally conferred only on

literary texts” (172). New Historicism accepts Derrida’s view that there is

nothing outside the text, in the special sense that everything about the past is

only available in textualised form. Whatever is represented in a text is recreated

from the historical background without demarcating the elements of history and

fiction. New Historicists themselves constitute another remaking, another

permutation of the past, as the play or novel or poem under discussion is

juxtaposed with a chosen document, so that a new entity is formed. In this

sense the objection that the documents selected may not really be ‘relevant’ to

the play is disarmed, for the aim is not to present the past as it really was, but to

present a new reality by re-situating it.

The writers at all times have given importance to history. Writers like

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor, Arundhati Roy and

many more belong to this category who have employed history to suit their

purposes. The latest to join this category is the young Afghani writer Khaled
Hosseini who presents the social, historical and political situations of the

tumultuous Afghanistan. The land, which witnessed several changes and shifts

in political power, had a rich culture once but got mutilated later with several

invasions.

The political history of Afghanistan begins in the eighteenth century with

the rise of the Pastitun tribes. At the beginning of the twentieth century,

Afghanistan was confronted with economic and social change, which also

sparked a new approach to literate. In 1911, Mahmud Tarzi, who came back to

Afghanistan after years of exile in Turkey and was influential in Government

circles, started a fortnightly publication named Saraj’ul Akhbar. In the field of

literature and journalism, it instigated a new period of change and

modernization. In poetry, brushing aside personalized themes and the subject of

love and romance, Mahmud Tarzi’s efforts opened the way for technical and

European literary styles, and social and nationalistic aspects were given more

importance.

Mahmud Tarzi tried to clothe new ideas and perceptions in the classical

style, and put new models of expression in the framework of old forms of

writing. Ghary Abdullah, Abdul Hagh Beytat and Khalil Ullah Khalili were the

prominent classical poets in Afghanistan at that time. In the 1930s, the Kabul

literary circle was formed publishing their own regular magazines dedicated to
culture and Ahghan literature. Those who had influenced on political and social

life also left their marks on the cultured life of society and brought their new

ways of thought and expression into the literary and social circles.

Under the rule of Aman’ ullah, an atmosphere of political and social

change developed. The people enjoyed political self-determination and

constitutionalist were managing the affairs of the country. Free publications

appeared in Kabul and spread to other cities. The press was free and the writers

enjoyed free expression. Novelists who earlier had to resort to allegories and

hints could now use a simple and direct style of narration.

During this period, the first novel was printed by the government owned

Marefate Ma’aref, a publication devoted to educational themes. This novel,

which was printed in installments in 1928, is called The Great War by Moulawi

Mohammad Hossain Panjabi, who earlier had to endure long imprisonment

because of his political beliefs. It is a saga of people’s resistance against

colonial Great Britain, the hero is Mohammed Akram and his courageous

struggle is the main theme of the story. Although this novel uses a more

modern writing style, at the same time it also contains elements of traditional

Persian writing.

Taswire Ebrat (1922) written by Mohammad Abdulghadere Afandi can

be considered as the first truly modern Afghan novel. It is a novel of its time
and is written in the modern style of prose. In this novel the author takes a

critical look at the contemporary society, particularly the upper class clinging to

the traditional ways of the novel, especially that of Bibi Khouri Jan, the main

charecter of the novel, is a sample of the language used in the society of the

time. The novel also contains elements of traditional prose, but because of the

clear storyline and the use of contemporary language, it becomes an enjoyable

modern novel.

The ten years between 1964 and 1973 were not only an important period

for the development of modern Afghan poetry; they were also of great

importance for the development of modern Afghan prose. During this period,

new style of prose writing developed and the influence of western literature are

quite palpable. In these years, one could easily discern the influence of soviet

literature on the Afghan scene. Afghan students studying in the Soviet Socialist

Republic, the friendly relations between the two nations and the visits of

delegations to both countries all played a role, as well as a flood of modern

Soviet literature, which became easily available in Afghanistan. These were

books written by authors such as Maxim Gorky, Michail Sholokhov, Chingiz

Aitmatov and others. At the same time, writers like Franz Kalka, Albert Camus

and Sadeghe Hedayat also exerted their own influence of Afghan prose.
 Nineteenth century Russian literature left its impression on Afghan

literature. After French literature, it was Russian literature that affected Afghan

writings the most. The influence of Iranian literature on modern Afghan prose

and poetry, especially in the second half of the twentieth century are taken into

consideration. Western literature, especially French and German, was also

much admired and influenced Afghan literature from the second decade of the

twentieth century onward.

In recent times, American literature has also gained influence.

Traditionalists insisted on their old forms and were unwilling to accept new

styles, while on the other hand the followers of the new styles. There have been

notable attempts, by novelists of Afghan origin, to chronicle the pain of their

country, like Atiq Rahimi’s novels Earth and ashes (2002) and A Thousand

Rooms of Dreams and Fear (2006). The noted Pakistani activist Feryal Gautar

made the Americal occupation of the Afghanistan the theme of her recent

novel, No Room for Further Burials (2002). Nadeem Aslam, a Pakistani

novelist who lives in England and a regular visitor to Afghanistan, has now

made his own bid for the fictional peaks. In The Wasted Vigil (2008) he ranges

across the country’s ancient and modern history, not just a mesmerizing work

of fiction, elegantly speaking for million of nameless victims of Afghan tragedy

in modern times but also a socio – political history of the country.

 Among the new generation writers of Afghanistan, it is Khaled Hosseini,

who has created a sensation. Being hailed as the the cultural ambassador of

Afghanisthan, he has captured a significant position in the recent literary world.

Hosseini, an Afghan doctor who found refuge in the U.S in the 1980s, has

made his mark with his debut novel The Kite Runner in 2003. In the first

Afghan novel to be written in English, Hosseini memorably evokes the

devastating history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years. Khaled Hosseini

was born on March 4, 1965 in Kabul the capital of Afghanistan as the oldest of

five children. His father worked for the Afghan Foreign Ministry as a diplomat,

and his mother was a high school teacher of Farsi and History. When he was

five years old, his family moved from Kabul in the historic year of 1973, when

Afghanistan became a republic. In 1976, Hosseini’s father obtained a job in

Paris and moved the family there. After the PDPA (the People’s Democratic

Poetry of Afghanistan) seized control of the government in 1978 and the

Soviets occupied Afghanistan shortly thereafter, the Hosseini family decided to

seek political asylum in the United States and their residence in San Jose,

California.

After college, Hosseini decided to become a physician. He attended the

University of California San-Diego’s School of Medicine, where he completed

his M.D in1993. He served his medical residency at the well respected Cedars-

Sinai hospital of Los Angeles and became an internist. Hossieni started writing
The Kite Runner in 2001 while he was a practicing physician. Hosseini

published The Kite Runner in 2003 to garner praises from both the critics and

the commoners. The novel is embedded with a touch of autobiography of the

writer, especially his childhood days in the Kabul although the events presented

are purely fictional. By May 2007, it had been published in thirty-eight

countries but not Afghanistan.

When Khaled Hosseini was a child, he had enjoyed reading of Persian

poetry as well as Persian translation of novels ranging from Alice in

Wonderland to Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer series. In the Kristine Huntley

review of The Kite Runner, Hosseini’s recollects the peaceful pre-soviet era in

Afghanistan. He writes, “I have very fond memories of my childhood in

Afghanistan” (6 Review of The Kite Runner). He has also used his personal

experiences with Afghanistan’s Hazara people, for the creation of his first

novel, The Kite Runner.

The Kite Runner has been lavishly praised by the critics and has

captivated the readers across the globe, and climbed steadily up the bestseller

lists. His narrative is moving and evocative that explores all the great themes of

literature and life. Moreover, it offers the readers a sweeping overview of three

decades of Afghan history. Hossieni felt estranged from the devastation in

Afghanistan, but his separation from his homeland and his “western sensibility”
combined in his fiction to bring America’s, and the world’s, attention to the

faces of Afghanistan. The themes presented by Hosseini in his novel are

universal, including familial relationships, particularly the relation between

father and son; the price of disloyalty; the inhumanity of a rigid class system;

and the horrific realities of war. The themes of friendship, loyalty and

redemption, are combined together against the backdrop of strife-torn

Afghanistan to tell the poignant story of Amir and Hassan.

Hosseini published his second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns in May

2007. As with The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns weaves together

dramas of personal struggle and regional politics. But unlike The Kite Runner

which centers on relationships between men, A Thousand Splendid Suns

focuses on those between women. Once again set in Afghanistan, the story

twists and turns its way through turmoil and chaos that ensued following the

fall of the monarchy in 1973, focuses mainly on the lives of two women,

thrown together by fate, Mariam and Lalia. The story starts decades before the

Taliban came into power in 1996, and ends after the era of Taliban rule. The

rest of this unforgettable story reflects the heart-rending sacrifices of these

women, and allows the reader to peek behind the burqa, to the heart of

Afghanistan. In the months since its release, the novel has garnered a plethora

of positive reviews.
 The Kite Runner is said to be the first novel written in English by an

Afghan. Its first printing was fifty thousand copies, it has been featured on the

reading lists of countless book clubs, and foreign rights to the novel have been

sold in at least ten countries. Reviewers admired the novel for its straight

forward storytelling, its convincing character studies that has accompanied

Afghanistan’s turbulent political scene. The novel was the number three best

seller for 2005 in the United States, according to Nielsen Book Scan. The Kite

Runner has been adopted into a film of the same name released in December

2007.

Hosseiini’s devotion to Afghanistan can be seen not only in his writing

but also in his activism. He has been a goodwill envoy to the United Nations

Refugee Agency, UNHCR, since 2006 and his personal website contains links

to provide aid and to support the allies who are helping Afghanistan. According

to Daily Telegraph, “The Kite Runner is told with simplicity and poise, it is a

novel of great hidden intricacy and wisdom, like a timeless Eastern tale. It

speaks the most harrowing truth about the power of evil, personal and political

and intoxicates, like a high flying kite, with the power of hope”.

The Kite Runner can be easily considered as an historical novel that is

set in a period prior to the time of writing. Although the events of the last part

of the novel are contemporary to the time of writing, the whole narrative rests
on its historical roots. This novel gives an insight into the path that has led to

Afghanistan’s current position and attempts to explore some of the less-well-

known aspects of the country’s cultural life. Usually writers turn their attention

to history either to borrow or to seek inspiration, with The Kite Runner, Khaled

Hosseini has used the story to reflect on the historical events that surround it,

and at the same time, he utilizes this history to highlight the protagonist’s

journey. The main characters are from different Afghan ethnic groups and

economic strata, illuminating the inequitable struggles of the Afghan people. It

also provides a sense of traditional Afghan style and culture.

The dissertation titled as ‘History as Context: A Reading of Khaled

Hosseini’s The Kite Runner’, tries to evaluate the social quandary of

Afghanistan taking into account the political and historical scenario of the

nation as presented by Khaled Hosseini in his novel The Kite Runner. It also

examines the various other themes portrayed in the novel, and how it has

contributed to the lives of the people.

 Chapter Two

‘Re-writing’ a Nation

The adequate representational value of a text as a cultural product can be

seen in the theory of New Historicism, which entitles each text as the

conglomeration of both fiction and the history. The New historicists attend the

historical and cultural conditions of its production, its meaning and also of its

later critical interpretations and evaluations. A literary text is formed and

structured by the particular conditions of time and place. The artistic resolution

of a literary plot is yielding pleasure to the reader, it is an effect that serves to

cover over the unresolved conflicts of power, class, gender and diverse social

group that make up the real tension of a literary text.

Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner becomes a perfect image for the

exploration of the manner in which language articulates the personal traumas

and political psychodramas of the natives. While The Kite Runner tells the

story of Amir, Hassan and their father, it is also a tale about the proceedings in

Afghanisthan from the 1970s to the few years of the beginning of the twenty-

first century.Hosseini employs the story of Amir as the backdrop to present the

coups of Afghanistan, both intertwining and mingled. Both run really parallel

and close and hence history does not become either a backcloth or an

interruption, but an integral part of the plot and narrative.

 The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south-

central Asia. The land is an important geostrategic location, connecting East,

South, West and Central Asia. The region has been a target of various invaders

including by Alexander the Great, the Mauryan Empire and Genghis Khan. The

political history of Afghanistan begins in the eighteenth century with the rise of

the Pashtun tribes, when Ahmad Shah Durrani created the Durrani Empire in

1747 which became the forerunner of Modern Afghanistan. Its capital was

shifted to Kabul in1776 and most of its territories ceded to neghbouring

empires by 1893.

History is a stable pattern of facts and events, which can be used as the

background to the literature of an era. New historicists aim simultaneously to

understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural

and intellectual history through literature, which documents the new discipline

of the history of ideas. New historicism is a more natural approach to historical

events and sensitive towards different cultures. They claim that cultural and

ideological representations in texts serve mainly to reproduce, confirm and

propagate the power-structure of domination and subordination which

characterize a given society. New historicists tend to take a more nuanced view

of power, extending throughout society, they tried to show more willingness to

perform the traditional tasks of literary criticism.

 New historicism shares many of the same theories as cultural

materialism has. Cultural critics downplay the distinction between ‘high’ and

‘low’ culture and focus on the production of popular culture. This theory has

something in common with the historical criticism of Hippolyte Taine, who

argued that a literary work is less the product of its author’s imagination than

the social circumstances of its creation, the three main aspects of which Taine

called race, milieu and moment.

The concepts, themes and procedures of new historicist criticism took

shape in the late 1970s and early 1980s, most prominently in writings by

scholars of the English Renaissance. New historicist procedures also have

parallels in the critics of American, American and other ethnic literatures, who

stress the role of culture-formations dominated by white Europeans in

suppressing, marginalizing or distorting the achievements of non-white and

non-European people.

Stephan Greenblat inaugurated the currency of the label ‘new

historicism’ in his introduction to a special issue of Genre, vol-15 (1982).

Greenblatt’s essay entitled “Invisible Bullets in Shakespearean Negotiation”

(1988) serves this mode of criticism. Thomas Harriots A Brief and True Report

of the New Found land of Virginia, written in 1588 represents the discourse of

the English colonizers of America. Greenblatt then identifies parallel modes of

power discourse and counterdiscourse in the dialogue in Shakespeare’s The

Tempest between Prospero the imperialist appropriator and Caliban the

expropriated native of his island. The same configuration can be seen in

Shakespeare’s Henry IV 1and 2 and Henry v.

New historicism is based on the theme of power. Power is a means

through which the marginalized are controlled, and the thing that the

marginalized seek to gain. The same mode can be seen in Khaled Hosseini’s

The Kite Runner, the Talibs captured power and ruled over Afghan and

changed the whole living system. In The Kite Runner, there is the

transformation of a social order, which exploits people on ground of race,

gender and class.

The Kite Runner attained more attention in a special political scenario

especially for those who were interested in Afghanistan, especially after the

attacks of 9/11. Through a gripping tale, Hosseini has wonderfully blended the

personal and the political. Edward Homer in “The Servant” declares, “Khaled

Hosseini gives us a vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long the

country has been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence – forces that

continue to threaten them even today” (6). The Kite Runner opens up a

touching story of a family, friendship, love, betrayal and redemption against a

backdrop of intrusion, violence, war and destruction in the Russian occupied

Afghanistan. The political turmoil of the area also gets a depiction in the work.

Hosseini presents the heartbreaking struggles of the characters and their

emotional triumphs leave a lingering spell on the readers.

Hosseini memorably evokes the devastating history of Afghanistan over

the last thirty years. The first part of the name, ‘Afghan’ is the Persian

alternative name for the Pashtuns who are the founders and the largest ethnic

group of the country. This Pashtun tribal confederation is numerically and

politically important in the country. The term ‘Afghanistan’ meaning the ‘Land

of Afghans’ was mentioned by the sixteenth century Mughal Emperor Babur in

his memories. Until the nineteenth century the name was, only the kingdom

was known as the ‘kingdom of Kabul’. In the late eighteenth century, Afghan

authorities adopted and extended name ‘Afghanistan’ to the entire kingdom. It

became the official name when the country was recognized by the world

community in1919, after regaining full independence over its foreign affairs

from the British, and was confirmed in the nation’s 1923 constitution.

Afghanistan is a country which at a unique nexus point, numerous

civilization interacted and often fought, and was an important site of early

historical activity. Though the modern state of Afghanistan was established in

1747, the land has an ancient history and various timeliness of different

civilizations. Urban civilization got a move early in the 3000BC.

 After Alexander, India Maurya got power. They brought Buddhism from

India and controlled Southern Afghanistan until about 185 BC when they were

overthrown. Their decline began sixty years after Ashoka’s rule ended, leading

to the Hellenistic recon quest of the region by the Greco-Bactrians. By 1715,

Mir Mahmud Hotaki captured power. In 1738 Nadir Shah and his army

conquered the region of Kandahar. By 1747, Nadir Shah was assassinated by

one of his officers. The Pashtuns gathered and chose Ahmad Shah as the new

head of their state.

Dost Mohammad Khan captured Kabul in 1823. 1837, the Afghan army

descended through the Khyber Pass on Sikh forces at Jarmud. During the

nineteenth century, following the Anglo Afghan wars, Afghanistan so much of

its territory and autonomy ceded to the United Kingdom. In 1919, Afghanistan

gained complete independence over foreign affairs. In 1929, prince Mohammad

Nadir Shah defeated and killed Habibullah Kalakani and with considerable

Pshtun tribal support he was declared King Nadirshah.

Hosseini placed Amir’s father in this political area. Birth of Amir’s

father is concurrent to the year of King Zaher’s accession to the throne. King

Nader is father of the King Zaber, he was assassinated due to political motives

by a freedom fighter, Abdul Khaliq, a hazara student, during a football player’s

visit in the Estiqlal high school play ground. Amir’s grandfather is a judge at
this time. This judge has a close relation with King Nader. The judge is from

Pashtun ethnic group (Sayed and Sunny, the largest religious group in

Afghanistan), has completed the case of a traffic accident resulting in the death

of a Hazara couple, hit by a drunk driver in Paghman way. Only Ali, a five year

old son survived from that accident. The judge took Ali home and raised in his

house as a servant. Ali is a Hazara and Shia. Amir Says:

“As for the oraphan, my grand father adopted him in to his own

household, and told the other servants to tutor him, but to be kind to

him.That boy was Ali. Ali and Baba grew up together as childhood

playmates at least until polio crippled Ali’s leg-just like Hassan and I

grew up a generation later. Baba was always telling us about the

mischief he and Ali used to cause, and Ali would shake his head and say,

But, Agha sahib, tell them who was the architect of the mischief and

who the poor laborer?.(TKR 21)

In 1953, Muhammad Daoud Khan became the prime minister of

Afghanistan. He sought a closer relationship with the Soviet Union. During this

period Afghanistan remained neutral. It was not participated in world war

second, nor aligned with cold war. In 1978, a prominent member of the

people’s democratic party of Afghanistan (PDPA), Mir Akabar Khyber was

killed by the Government. The PDPA, led by Nur Mohammad Taraki, Babrak
Karmal and Amin over threw the regime of Mohammad Daoud, who was killed

along with his family.

In The Kite Runner, the central character, Amir is born in 1963, when

Afghanistan was under the rule of King Zahir Shah. Amir’s father Agha Saheb

is a merchant. He married with Sophia Akramia, a literature professor. She died

after giving birth to Amir. On the other hand, Agha Saheb’s friend and servant

Ali also becomes the victim of political influence. He has married with his

cousin Sanauber, who is also a Hazara and escapes after five days of giving

birth to Hassan and joined the clan traveling dancers and singers. The author

places the birth of Hassan and Amir to coincide. Amir recollects:

We are kids who had learned to crawl together, and no history, or

religion was going to change that either. I spend most of the first

twelve years of my life playing with Hassan. Sometimes, my

entire childhood seem like one long lazy summer day with

Hassan. (TKR 22)

In the beginning of the novel Hosseini talks about how the two young

boys, Amir and Hassan enjoyed their life. Amir lives a prosperous life in the

wealthy neighborhood in 1960’s Kabul. He shares the joys of childhood with

his best friend Hassan, who is more like a brother to Amir and their favorite

past time is summer kite fighting. Hosseini writes:

 Every winter districts in Kabul held a Kite fighting tournament.

And if you were a boy living in Kabul, the day of the tournament

was Undeniable the highlight of the cold season. (TKR 43)

The two boys reach a turning point in 1975 when the neighborhood bully

Aseef savages Hassan and Amir does nothing. The guilty for the betrayal, as

well as Amir’s troubled relationship with his father Baba will rule his life for

the next twenty years.

By 1978, the PDPA regime lasted and the democratic republic of

Afghanistan (DRA) came into power. The PDPA captured power and

implemented a socialist agenda. It moved to promote state atheism, which were

misunderstood by virtually all Afghans. They also imprisoned, tortured and

murdered thousands of members of the traditional elite, the religious

establishment and the intelligentsia. They introduced women to political life.

The US saw the situation as a prime opportunity to weaken the Soviet Union.

Soviet war and Civil war were the important events in 1979. In response to the

soviet occupation of Afghanistan and part of its overall cold war strategy, the

United States responded by Arming and other wise supporting the Afghan

Mujahideen, which has taken up arms against the soviet occupiers. Afghan got

support from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other nations. The Soviet occupation

resulted in the killings of between six hundred and two million Afghan
civilians. Over five million fled as Afghan refugees, mostly to Pakistan and

Iran. Over thirty six thousand made it to the United States and many more to

the European Union.

This crucial situation became a turning point in the theme of the novel

The Kite Runner. The whole life of Amir, Hassan and Agha Saheb changed due

to Soviet invation. Agha Saheb and Amir due to Social chaos and surrounding

turmoil and after changing of several servants, they were also compelled to

leave the country to Pakistan and later that into California. Amir and his father

accepted very harsh jobs during their early years of settlement. There Amir’s

father died of Cancer. Amir becomes a successful novelist in America. But the

childhood memories of betraying his friend haunt him. Amir’s second coming

to Afghanistan is a voyage to the country of blood and terror as to create

nostalgic world of love and redemption. His spatial and temporal displacement

allows for a recollection of the pre-war Afghan. Once Afghanistan was a

loveable place- a land of beautiful landscapes, color and excitement, and of life

and adventure Kite playing was a favorite sport in the land of his birth. The

boys spent idyllic days running Kites and telling stories of mystical places and

powerful warriors. Amir remembers:

After school Hassan and I met up, grabbed a book, and trotted up a

bowl-shaped hill just north of my father’s property in Wazir Akbar

 Khan. There was an old abandoned cemetery atop the hill with rows of

unmarked headstones and tangles of brushwood clogging the aisles.

Seasons of rain and snow had turned the iron gate rusty and left the

cemetery’s low white stone walls in decay. There was a pomegranate

tree near the entrance to the cemetery, After we’d eaten the fruit and

wiped our hands on the grass, I would read to Hassan. So I read him

unchallenging things, like the misadventures of the bumbling Mullah

Nasruddin and his donkey. (TKR 24)

Kites served as a centripetal force among Amir, Hassan, his father and

Assef and which in turn affected them all. Amir and Hassan had a carefree

boyhood sharing their dreams of becoming the sultans one day. The story opens

in 1975 Kabul on the brink of Soviet invasion and is structured around loss.

Amir, the narrator returns to the scene of complex past trauma and has Farid, a

guide with him because the map of country has shifted and changed depicting a

continuing and inescapable series of ‘deterritorialisations’ and

‘reterritoriliasations’. The natural picture of Afghan had completely

changed.Amir says:

RUBBLE AND BEGGARS. Everywhere I looked, that was what I saw.

And the beggars were mostly children now, thin and grim faced, some

no older than five or six. They sat in the laps of their burqa-clad mothers
 alongside gutters at busy street corners and chanted ‘Bakhshesh

bakhshesh’! And something else, something I had n’t noticed right away.

Hardly any of the sat with an adult male-the wars had made fathers a rare

commodity in Afghanistan. (TKR 214)

Faced with mounting international pressure and great number of

casualties on both side, the Soviet withdraw in 1989. Following the removal of

the Soviet forces, the U.S and its allies lost interest in Afghanistan and did little

to help rebuild the war-ravaged country or influence events there. The USSR

continued to support President Mohammad Najibullah until 1992, when the

new Russian government refused to sell oil products to the Najibullah regime.

As a result of this fighting, a number of elites and intellectual fled to take

refuge abroad. This led to a leadership imbalance in Afghanistan. The most

serious fighting during this period occurred in 1994, when over 10, 000 people

were killed in Kabul alone.

During this time that the Taliban developed as a politico-religious force,

eventually seeing Kabul in 1996 and establishing the Islamic Emirate of

Afghanistan. By the end of 2000, the Taliban had captured 95% of the country.

During the Taliban’s seven-year rule, much of the population experienced

restrictions on their freedom and violations of their human rights. Women were

banned from jobs, girls forbidden to attend schools or universities. Zaman says:
 There is a Talib official; he visits once every month or two. He brings

cash with him, not a lot, but better than nothing at all. Usually he’ll take

a girl. But not always. (TKR 224)

Communists were systematically eradicated. The International Security

Assistance Force (ISAF) was established in Afghanistan by the UN Security

Council in December 2001, to secure Kabul and other surrounding area. In the

same month Taliban and Al-Quida retreated from war.

Through The Kite Runner, Hosseini incorporated real political and

historical events that took place during this time in order to allow the reader to

get a feel of what was going on in Afghanistan. Hossieni used symbolism to

disengage from his past to a new beginning.

When Amir returns to Afghanistan he feels like a foreigner. It has

become a war tattered country. The effect of the impossible conjunctions and

the inconceivable distortion of places take him to dead ends in a labyrinth. It is

for this reason that his search for his childhood friend’s son becomes contorted.

There is a clear parallel between the world of his meeting Sohrab and the

inhumanity of war, and the realization of a mongrel violence within which

people, or rather peoples are consumed, exhausted, deadened and robbed of

meaning. Assef also has a major figure in Taliban government. Amir appears

not as an isolated entity, but rather stands silhouetted against a larger collective.
 Hosseini is capable of scripting very touching, but unsentimental prose,

particularly about a community harassed to make a life despite gross misfortune.

He is able to meld the global political with the tapered day-by-day survival of

those caught up in dreadful upheavals and the annihilation of their country,

livelihoods and families.

 Chapter Three

Identifying the Rationale

In The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini is the articulator of the dark

corners, unspoken and untouched aspects of the horizontal and vertical socio-

cultural domains of a society that cannot be found in an official cultural, social,

geographical or political book. The writer is pointing to the most important and

crucial problem of the time in a society. This novel becomes a tool for blotting,

insulting, devaluating the real values and measures of Afghanistan or the

specific ethnic group in that nation. It also analyses financial and political

interests and benefits which became seditious and dangerous.

Socio-cultural and ethical values and measures of a society, honestly

kept during the evolution and development of the story, could be developed

progressively during the span of the story. One of the most important elements

that have its special place in this novel is the imagination on the basis of the

actual geographic, social, cultural, economic and psychological realities. This

unusually eloquent story is about unlikely friendship, the fragile relationship

between fathers and sons, humans and their gods, men and their countries.

Loyalty and blood are the ties that bind their stories into a moving and

unexpected novel.
 In The Kite Runner , Hosseini incorporates some of his memories as a

child while he was growing up in Kabul and also from his experiences in the

foreign land of America. He also incorporates real political and historical

events that took place during this period to allow the reader to get a feel of what

was going on in Afghanistan. The main character, Amir, tells the story of his

life of how he became the man of today from the events that took place through

his life time. Amir had a unique relationship with a Hazara boy, Hassan who

was the son of the servent Ali.

The intimacy between the boys binds them together despite their

different economic background, religious segments (Amir a Sunni Muslim, a

Pashtun but Hassan a Shia, a Hazara), intellectual achievements (Amir

educated while Hasssan illiterate) and individual temperaments (Amir boastful,

arrogant and jealous towards his friend while Hassan tolerant, devoted and

forgiving). The friendship between the boys is suddenly ruptured following an

awful event that changes the nature of their relationship. Hassan falls a prey to

Assef and his friends as he is kite-running for his friend, Amir. He refuses to

give up Amir’s kite for which Assef exacts his revenge by assaulting and

raping him. The timely intervention of Amir would have prevented the

horrendous act but his cowardice fails him. This event strains their relationship
and Amir further resists the efforts on the part of Hassan for reconciliation and

rebonding.

The relationship between Amir and Hassan is a strong theme in the

novel. “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. I just watched

Paralyzed (64). That is what Amir thinks in his mind before he commits the

sins against Hassan, his friend and half brother. This is also the pivotal moment

in the novel. Amir is the narrator of the story who tells about how he grew up in

Afghanistan. Hassan is the best and tolerant character in the story. He is Amir’s

best friend. He faces discrimination every day, because he is a Hazara, a

minority whom the Pashtuns treat like slaves. Often Aseef ridiculed Hassan,

“Hey you flat-nosed Babalu, who did you eat today? Tell us, you slant-eyed

donkey” (TKR 34).

The novel juxtaposes the interpersonal drama of the characters against

the backdrop of the modern history of Afghanistan, sketching the political and

economic and toll of the instability of various regimes in Afghanistan, from the

end of the monarchy to the Soviet-backed government of the 1980s to the

fundamentalist Taliban government of the 1990s.

Home ground in a war tattered country is a foreign country. The effect of

the impossible conjunction and the inconceivable distortion of places take him
to dead ends in a labyrinth. It is for this reason that his search for his childhood

friend’s son becomes contorted. There is a clear parallel between the world of

his meeting Sohrab and the inhumanity of war, and the realization of a mongrel

violence within which people or rather people are consumed, exhausted,

deadened and robbed of meaning, Amir appears not as an isolated entity, but

rather stands silhouetted against a larger collective backdrop.

In The Kite Runner, Hosseini describes the complicated and difficult

master-servant relationship and friend relationship between Amir and Hassan

effectively by using both vivid description and figurative language. The boys

are inseparable, but their friendship is fraught with tension. The protagonist

Amir’s mother died in childbirth. Amir was brought up with his closest friend,

the hare lipped Hassan, was also his servant and a Hazara. Amir’s father Baba,

was one of the wealthiest and most charitable Pashtun men in Kabul. Hassan

was very close to his father Ali, who was Baba’s servant.

Amir is quiet, bookish and jealous of the attention his father bestows on

the athletic, courageous Hassan. Angry and frustrated, he plays cruel jokes on

his friend, guilty of justifying them on the basis of Hassan’s low status:

“Because history isn’t easy to overcome. I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara

and nothing was ever going to change that” (36). Hosseini deftly turns Amir’s

struggle with race into a parable for Afghanistan. Amir’s prejudices contribute
to his downfall, much as the Afghan’s rigid adherence to tribalism led to the

country’s implosion after the Soviet withdrawal.

Despite their differences, Amir and Hassan were inseparable. Hassan

was ready to do anything for Amir, his first word was even ‘Amir’. Amir read

stories for Hassan. After school Amir and Hassan go near the pomegranate tree

on the hill top and carve their names on it: “Amir and Hassan, the sultans of

Kabul” (24). But sometimes Amir teases him by showing his ignorance.

Amir looks askance at his father showering all love for Hassan. As a boy

he never realized that Hassan is his half-brother and, as such, longs for

Hassan’s eviction and forces him leave by means more foul than fair. Amir

believes he can gain his father’s love by winning an annual kite-flying contest,

where boys battle for supremacy armed with kite strings coated in ground glass.

He longs to present his father with the best kite fall: “I’d make a grand

entrance, a hero, prized trophy in my bloodied hands. Then the old warrior

would walk up to the young one, embrace him, acknowledge his worthiness”

(59). Amir wins the battle and dispatches Hassan to capture the fallen kite.

Hosseini has a remarkable ability to imprison the reader in horrific,

shatteringly immediate scenes. Hassan is caught by a group of bullies who

make him an offer: leave the kite or pay for it with his body. Bound by loyalty,

Hasssan chooses the kite. Amir stumbles upon the scene and watches mutely,
too cowardly to stop them raping his best friend. “Looking back now”, he

muses from golden gate park, “I realize I have been peeking into that deserted

alley for the last 26 years” (1). Like Amir, the reader watches the suffering and

does nothing. Hosseini turns that shared guilt into a subtle condemnation of a

world that watched the rape of Afghanistan, first by the Soviets, then by

regional warlords and the Taliban.

Allthough the novel The Kite Runner, there are various references to

Muslim tradition and beliefs, there is an instrumental role of Islam in the story

and its characters. Religion seems to be many things to many people in this

narrative. Baba is celebrated for his exceptionally secular ways in a traditional

society. Amir exercises it in an entirely private way, as if his faith were more

repentance than conversion. Hassan is a victim of discrimination and bigotry

and in Assef’s Taliban rendition; Islam is essentially just a pretext for his

pathological cruelty. Assef’s nature can be seen in his words:

Well, Daoud Khan dined at our house last year. How do you like

that, Amir? Do you know what I will tell Daoud Khan the next

time he comes to our house for dinner? I’m going to have a little

chat with him, man to man, mard to mard. Tell him what I told

my mother. About Hitler. Now, there was a leader. A great leader.

A man with vision. I’ll tell Daoud Khan to remember that if they
 had let Hitler finish what he had started, the world be a better

place now. (TKR 35)

Loyalty and friendship are the two main themes in this novel. After Amir

and Hassan win the kite flying competition, Hassan tells Amir they will

celebrate later and takes off after the blue kite as a trophy for his beloved

master. Amir calls out “Hassan, come back with it” and Hassan responds with

his enduring loyalty, ‘‘For you a thousand times over’’ (59). This shows

Hassan’s loyalty towards his master. During kite flying, Amir says “I turned

my gaze to our roof top, found Baba and Rahim Khan sitting on a bench, both

dressed in wool sweaters, sipping tea. Baba waved. I couldn’t tell if he was

waving at me or Hassan”. This shows that Amir is jealous of Hassan, and also a

good example of vivid description that shows the reader what is happening

inside the kids mind.

The metaphor, comparing Amir and Hassan with the rulers of Kabul,

Hosseini used in Hassan’s dream to emphasize the powerful relationship that

Hassan want to have between his master and him “They change the name of the

lake after that and call it the ‘lake of Amir and Hassan, sultans of Kabul’, and

we get to charge people money for swimming in it” (53). Although Amir is

cowardly and selfish, he loves Hassan. When Amir’s kite cut the blue kite, the

last one Amir shouts, “We won! We won”(58). The feeling of Amir is revealed
here: that he wouldn’t have won without Hassan’s help. The sins committed

against Hassan. Being raped by Assef while Amir does nothing to help him –

are immediately forgiven, because he loves Amir so much. Through his,

Hosseini masterfully crafts a good example of friendship that crumbles the

frontiers, even though one is master and another is servant.

Even though Hassan thinks Amir as his master and also his friend, Amir

never thinks Hassan as his friend. “But in one of his stories did Baba ever refer

to Ali as his friend. The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as

friends either” (22). This is the comparison Hosseini made to show that master

never think his servant as friend in Afghanistan. Religious tolerance was not an

issue for Hassan, who takes for granted the position in life that his family

enjoys. For Hassan, his position in life is due to religious tolerance and is

something he lives with on a daily basis. Amir refers an article by Khorami

about Hazars:

An entire chapter dedicated to Hassan’s people! In it, I read that

my people, the Pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the

Hazars. It said the Hazars had tried to rise against the Pashtuns in

the nineteenth century, but the Pashtuns had ‘quelled them with

unspeakable violence’. The book said that my people had killed

the Hazaras,driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and
 sold their women. It also said some things I did know, like that

people called Hazaras mice-eating, flat nosed, load-carrying

donkeys. (TKR 08)

As a boy, Amir never known that Hassan is his half brother and as such,

longs for Hassan’s eviction and forces him leave by means more foul than fair.

To this end, he frames Hassan as a thief and latter, on his part, accepts the

charge with malice towards none. Baba forgives him, despite his frequent and

firm assertion that “theft was the one unforgivable sin, the common

denominator of all sins […] there is no act more wretched than stealing” (48).

Hassan’s father, Ali feels humiliated and leaves the house along with Hassan

against Baba’s extreme sorrow and frequent pleading. Hassan has to pay a

heavy prize for Amir’s foul play, but the latter’s moral realization of his deceit

is a saving grace.

The new political upheaval in the nature of the Soviet invasion of

Afghanistan forces Amir and his father flee to Pakistan and then to America,

where Amir becomes a successful novelist. But the childhood memories of

betraying his friend haunt him. Amir’s second coming to Afghanistan is a

voyage to the country of blood and terror as to create a nostalgic world of love

and redemption. Amir’s spatial and temporal displacement allows for a

recollection of the pre-war Afghan. Once Afghanistan was a lovable place – a

land of beauty, color and excitement and of life and adventure. Kite playing

was a favorite sport in the land of his birth. The boys spent idyllic days running

kite and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors. Kites served

as a centripetal force among Amir, Hassan, his father and Assef – and which in

turn affected them all. Amir and Hassan had a care free boy hood sharing their

dreams of becoming the sultans one day. The pomegranate tree up the hill

epitomized their bonding in the childhood. The children’s lives clearly mirror

the ambiguities of affirmation and rejection, love and jealousy, and hope and

disenchantment characteristic of the country at large. The story also peeps into

the psyche of a child who wants to be loved more by the father, if not at least

equal to his own friend.

Amir and his father fled Afghanistan after the Russian invaded and takes

his tragic memories to America to start a new life. Unfortunately, his debt to

Hassan must be paid and he returns to his country to find Hassan’s orphaned

son, Sohrab, and rescues him. There he discovers that Sohrab has become the

sexual plaything of Assef. Ultimately, Amir defeats Assef in a physical battle

and takes the damaged Sohrab out of Afghanistan and tries to help him repair

his spirit. Even though Amir commits the sins against Hassan, this time he

sacrifices for Hassan, this time he sacrifices for Hassan by fighting Assef to

help Hassan’s son, Sohrab.

 Throughout the novel, Hossieni provides the account of historical events

as well as the contemporary realities pertaining to the nation and how the

people from different social groups are treated by the dominant. Hosseini gives

the reader information about how a wealthy man from Afghanistan comes to

the United States and is now part of the lower class. He discusses historical

events that have taken place along with social differences between a lower and

upper class. Hosseini also used the mirror image in this novel. He began his

novel with Amir and Hassan flying kites in the winter of 1975 in a Kite

tournament and he ends his novel with Amir flying a kite with Hassan’s son

Sohrab in the United States.

The kite is the key image, representing Amir and Hassan’s brotherhood.

Kites are present when Amir gets the call from Rahim Khan to “be good again”

(198). And the kite is present in the end, signaling that what was last was

beginning to be restored. Character’s attitude about religion says a lot about

them, from Baba’s unintentionally prophetic words- “Piss on the beards of all

those self-righteous monkeys. God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into

their hands” (115)- to Amir’s typical lying about a devout Muslim.

In The Kite Runner, there is also a religious parallel. The biblical

Abraham had two sons, the legitimate Issac and the illegitimate Ishmael. But

the parallels are there, especially when Hassan (Ishmael) is sent away from
Amir (Isaac). The Kites represent ascension to heaven, with the pure Hassan

being the only one capable of discerning where the blessing will come back

down again. Hassan himself is an angelic figure, a self-sacrificing servant who

constantly turns the other check. His very presence convicts Amir of his sin, as

if Hassan were in fact a messenger of God. But ultimately, the redemption is

that his devotion to Amir never wavered and that’s what finally drew Amir

back to Afghanistan.

Redemption is a major theme in this novel. In many cases redemption

becomes a basic necessity because it is contingent on our fundamental

humanity and more importantly our fundamental human need for survival. In

Amir’s case, the opportunity to “be good again” has several connotations. His

adulthood is defined by his desire to immerse himself in American culture and

pursue the ideals of the American dream. The novel is partially

autobiographical. There is also self-denial stemming from the shame and self –

alienation he associated with his Afghan identity, which is represented through

Hassan. The idea of Amir as a superior Pashtun and Hassan as a lowly Hazara

is merely a social construction that Amir follows. Essentially it is the

unequivocal suffering of both the innocent, the corrupt and the guilty that is

necessary to redeeming the human condition, whether it be in a time of war or

peace, that is reflected in the last passage of the novel. The idea that a tortured
soul, like Sohrab, has the ability to smile with hope, even if , as Amir

emphasizes it is only faint, brings Amir’s to his pinnacle point of redemption,

which is aptly reflected in the poignancy of his final words “For you a thousand

times over” (323).

The novel plunges directly into the bizarre-the traditional aristocratic

family of Baba and Ali, his servant. It juxtaposes the good old days of Kabul’s

monarchy where the boys share the space between school, snows, American

cowboy movies and neighborhood bullies with violent geographies and

traumatized psyche of Taliban occupied land. Amir’s story does not establish

an unbroken continuity; it nevertheless proposes something like a leitmotif

which connects different layers of genealogy. The Afghan seems to be living in

an age of nostalgia. Hosseini’s contemplation of the past and the present thus

offers a dialectical picture. The repeated allusions to the fall of Afghan do not

imply a narrative of continuity or implied teleology of events from pre-war

Afghan to the war-frayed land, rather the momentary intelligibility of the past

which stands contrast to the present.

Hossieni’s distinctive manner of interweaving autobiography and

narrative shows that the tale attempts a blending of art and life. Hosseini was

eleven when his family left for America and sought political asylum there.

Hosseini grew up in Kabul more or less on similar socio economic status as the
protagonist of the novel. Both went to the same school, flew kites as kids and

loved film. Like Amir, Hosseini was also a writer and started writing even as a

boy. The short story that Amir writes for Hassan was one that had written as

early as 1974. Later both of them turned out to be immigrants in the United

States. The scenes in the flea market are intensely personal. The parallel are

prominent but not always similar. Though his writing focuses on the personal

and the private sphere of experiences, he waves contemporary historical events

into the fabric as also posits an inextricable connection between the narration of

war and the experiences of daily living.

 Chapter Four

Conclusion

The Kite Runner celebrates impurity, intermingling and transformation that

comes of unexpected combinations of human beings, cultures, ideas and

politics. It clearly identifies the value of loyalty, devotion and the fragile

relationship between friends because of the class difference between them. The

novel also shows the relationship which is like a cycle. First, Hassan sacrificed

for Amir by leaving the house. Latter, Amir is overwhelmed with guilt and he

sacrificed for Hassan by saving Hassan’s son. Thus Hosseini presents the

relationship between Amir and Hassan as complicated and difficult.

The Kite Runner throws a few twists and turns, that were unexpected but

that’s what made the book furthermore interesting. It fears the absolutism of the

pure and recognizes that political intrusion in Afghan has neither ended

ethnocentrism nor been conductive to dilute the differences between a Shia and
Sunni. The Afghan, unfolded in the pages of the novel, emphasizes on the

communal identity. An enthusiastic valorization of the Afghan as an agent of

disruption can be said to characterize Assef, the character with German

genealogy. This notoriously violent boy with Nazi sympathies blames Amir for

cultivating friendship with Hassan, a Hazara, an inferior race to be confined in

Hazarajat. His differentiation of the Shia from the Sunni and the consequent

extension of the idea of purity and superiority lead to violent acts intent on

disfiguring the body of the so-called inferior and impure individual. To the

novelist, writing and dialogicity are strong-holds against dogma and

fundamentalism.

Hosseini’s narrative is fast-paced, and his sensitive portrayal of childhood

with all its fears and tensions is particularly striking. The glimpses of Afghan

family life and values are captivating, particularly because they have been

virtually unknown in American fiction, but it is the author’s focus on the

humanity of the characters that gives the novel its universality and great appeal.

Amir’s betrayal of Hassan is believable and understandable in human terms,

apart from culture, and his long-term remorse is not surprising. Hassan’s

nobility in the face of his trauma, born from both his unwavering acceptance of

his role as a servant and his genuine affection for Amir, gives him a saintly

aspect which he has simply accepted the role he’s been given in life. Baba is
almost larger than life, and though he never knows exactly what it is that Amir

has done, he is sensitive enough to be disturbed by it when it occurs, especially

since he fears that it may signal weakness. It is only much later that Amir

discovers that Baba, too, has kept some secrets.

The guilt at the roof of this narrative is perhaps obvious-despite of all loss

and betrayal, something rock-like remains, something that has survived the

violence and exploitation and thereby demonstrates the salving possibility that

all can be made whole again, that new maps can be drawn on fresh paper, and

that the legacy of war and violence can be erased. Here indeed are history and

geography ionized and passed through the grid of memory, sifted down through

time. Whether and to what extent this constitutes a cure for culture and social

trauma is a crucial topic. But then the maps that inform the background for his

novel serve to depict the paradisal fantasy of a remembered country as against a

war frayed and blood soaked land.

The novel depicts panoply of maps and a treasure chest of imagined

geographies. Geography seems to be a key to his realization of his homeland

and his present plight for alienation. His gradually descending through a series

of locations- the mountain sides filled with poplars and pomegranates, the red-

brick drive ways, the cratered road whirling its ways up and down the

mountains and the restaurants smelling Afghan dishes is an attempt to

reconstruct Afghanistan with its traditional culture, customs and cuisine. But

the war brought about terrible changes and ravished the beautiful land beyond

recognition. Hosseini’s novel traces the history of disaster with a series of war,

bombings, homelessness, starvation, life-destroying struggles etc. He finds that

the land to which he wishes to return is no longer there. The text is replete with

geographical descriptions that it provides us with a kind of ‘geo-graphics’, a

kind of graphics or writing that attempts a reinvention of geography. Amir

explains an event that happened in Ghazi Stadium:

Two Talibs with Kalashnikovs slung across their shoulders helped the

blindfolded man from the first truck and two others helped the burqa-

clad woman. The woman’s knees buckled under her and she slumped

to the ground. The soldiers pulled her up and she slumped again. When

they tried to lift her again, she screamed and kicked. I will never, as

long as I draw breath, forget the sound of that scream. It was the cry of

a wild animal trying to pry its mangled leg free from the bear trap. Two

more Talibs joined in and helped force her in to one of the chest-deep

holes. The blindfolded man, on the other hand, quietly allowed them to

lower him in to the hole dug for him. (TKR 235)

 Arnold Oganov believes that artistic creation “strives towards maximum

sensory tangibility in artistic depiction” (240). Hosseini conforms to this by

relying on his intensive visual memory and photographic retention to record

details that would ordinarily have been lost to aesthetic presentation. His

narrative design endows art with an inexhaustible means of cognition and a

grasp of the country with its socio-political conditions. The means and mode of

cognition within the narrative help us arrive at an aesthetic interpretation of

reality. The narrative, via a simulation of cinematic techniques, provides a

marvelous ocular itinerary of the transgressive possibilities of hitherto

unrepresented communities.

Afghan cultural traditions, which stress pride, honor and a sense of

hospitality towards strangers, add color to this narrative, and when scenes

involving the Taliban are presented in the last part of the book, the true horror

of their repression of a living culture, in addition to their repression of

individuals, becomes obvious. By following two families, one in the U.S and

one in Afghanistan, the contrast becomes even clearer.

Focusing on the novel’s complex intersections of different beliefs as well as

time and space, this reading seeks to show that the text posits an ethic of

hybridity as a stronghold against fundamentalism. Even as his novel accepts the

division of spaces along religious lines, it does not ignore the manner in which
historical and political circumstances have irrevocably altered the human

topography of Afghanistan. The dissident presence of the intruders in the form

of Russians, is powerfully suggested, if not described. His tale presents an

invaded land depicts the social pathology of one forced to inhabit an Afghan

where many of their long cherished values are questioned. The reader is

subjected to repeated incursions to the politics of an old and rigidly conforming

order struggling to survive in a frayed and aimless political situation.

The novel is repeatedly outlined with recourse to a spatial metaphor, which

can be considered to be the effect of the transmission of the exile, or the

occupation of in-between spaces. The novelist seems to endorse the view that

the loss of cultural roots simultaneously opens up imaginary homelands and

enables narration and writing. For this exile, who has lost his history, writing is

a means of constructing a new story and a new home. Memory helps him to

recreate his homelands by drawing on fragments and shards of remembered

things. This, however, can never be wholly congruent with the real home, since

the access to the original truth is always barred so that the exile writer is forced

to reflect the world in fragments of broken mirrors.

Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner becomes a site for the exploration of the

manner in which language articulates the personal traumas and political

psychodramas of the native. The ex-centric writer confronts the totalizing

narrative of the nation by interrupting it with, to borrow Bhabha, “...a

supplementary movement of writing” (305). Bhabha is accurate in pointing out

that the exorbitant power enacted via the metaphoricity of migrancy reveals the

tenuous ideological and temporal cohesion necessary for the narrativitisation of

nation by putative autonomous subject. The primary inspiration of the migrant

and the exiled writer Hosseini is to atone for his monstrous betrayal and in that

process anchored in his homeland. This dual focus, however, creates a few

structural problems for the author at the end of the novel.

According to Vincent Netto, “in The Kite Runner Hosseini memorably

evoks the devastating history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years”. The

Kite Runner is all about the pain of leaving one’s homeland, rediscovering our

true selves, and a hope for a better tomorrow.

 Preface

Khaled Hosseini belongs to the new generation writers of Afghanistan who

has made his mark with his debut novel The Kite Runner. Hosseini writes in

straight ahead, utilitarian prose and creates characters that have the simplicity

and primary coloured emotions of people in a fairy tale or fable.

The Kite Runner, is the story of strained family relationships between a

father and a son, and between two brothers, how they deal with guilt and

forgiveness. The novel also records the political and social transformations of

Afghanistan from the 1970s to 2001.It celebrates impurity, intermingling and

the transformation that comes of unexpected combinations of human beings,

cultures, ideas and politics.

This dissertation tries to sketch the social and political turmoil of

Afghanistan and its influence on new generation. The introductory chapter

deals with the brief political history of Afghanistan along with author

introduction.

The second chapter ‘Rewriting a Nation’ examines the theory of new

historicism and it also gives a concise analysis of the cultural and political

influence over Afghanistan. The third chapter ‘Identifying the Self’ narrates the

theme of love, friendship, betrayal, war and redemption. The concluding

chapter provides a summation of the ideas discussed in the work.

 Works Cited

Colonna, Mary and Gilbert, Judith. Reason to Write. New York: Oxford

University Press, 2006.

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. London: Bloomsbury Publishing

Group, 2003

Netto, Vincent. Imagining the Past: Personal and Political Anchoring in

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. Littcrit, December 2009.

Noor, Ronny. Review of The Kite Runner, in World Literature Today,

vol.78,September-December 2004.

Hower, Edward. ‘The Servant’, in the New York Times Book Review,

August2003.

Stevens, Penny. Review of The Kite Runner. School Library Journal,

November 2003.