The central conflict for Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner is man vs society, which also causes the man vs self conflict. The protagonist, Amir, is faced with the ethnocentrism of Pashtuns whenever he and his servant Hassan, who is a Hazara, are in public. Pashtuns are believed to be the pure race of Afghanistan, and Hazaras, who are of Asian ancestry, are seen as inferior. This can clearly be seen when Assef says to Amir, "I'll ask the president to...rid Afghanistan of all the dirty, kasseef, Hazaras" (44). This Pashtun ethnocentrism is what pulls apart the friendship between Amir and Hassan. This conflict serves as the basis for the entire story. Because Amir is a Pashtun, which is a superior race, and Hassan is a Hazara, which is an inferior race, Amir is caught between the pressures that attack him inside and out. For example, Assef pressures Amir into being ashamed that Hassan is his friend when he asks him, "How can you talk to him (Hassan), play with him, let him touch you?...How can you call him your 'friend'?" to which "[Amir] almost [blurts], He's not my friend! He's my servant!" (44).
The conflict is resolved completely after Amir returns to Afghanistan after the takeover of the Taliban at the call of a dying Rahim Khan, his father's friend, who informs him that Hassan is dead. Amir is hit with the pain and guilt of his betrayal once again, but this time he is struck by the fact that he has no way to make things right again. Rahim Khan tells Amir than Hassan has a son, Sohrab, and that he wants Amir to bring him to safety. At first Amir is reluctant, and he asks Rahim Khan, "Why me? Why can't you pay someone here to go? I'll pay for it if it's a matter of money" (233). Rahim Khan angrily rebukes him, "It isn't about money, Amir!...I'm a dying man and I will not be insulted! It has never been about money with me, you know that. And why you? I think we both know why it has to be you, don't we?" (233). Amir decides to return to Kabul, his home town, and find Sohrab. Eventually, he finds Sohrab in the home of Assef. He finally stands up to Assef after many years of fear for Sohrab, who symbolizes Hassan, and fights Assef. At the end of the story, after Amir brings Sohrab to live with him in California, the Pashtun superiority is finally overturned when Amir's father-in-law (who is a Pashtun) asks him, "People will ask...why there is a Hazara boy living with our daughter. What do I tell them?" (380). Amir takes a stand for Hassan, Hassan's bloodline, and tells his father-in-law that Sohrab is his nephew. And he says, "And one more thing, General Sahib [that's his father-in-law], you will never again refer to him as 'Hazara boy' in my presence. He has a name and it's Sohrab" (380). When he stands up for Sohrab, that is when Amir's struggle with himself ends. He realizes he is not ashamed about the fact that Sohrab is a Hazara, and that he never should have been ashamed of Hassan.
This story's racist conflict is a central issue in many other stories, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli is one of the most prominent which come to mind. The conflict here is man vs society; the story is about a white boy who runs away from home and lives in the "black" part of the city. The problem is, the boy is "colourblind"; he does not see the difference between white people and black people. In fact, he does not even believe that they should be called "white" and "black", because when he looks at their skin colour, there is not a defined "white" or "black". In both The Kite Runner and Maniac Magee, the protagonists are faced with the problem of racial segregation. In both stories, the problem is solved by the main characters facing this racial segregation, and showing that there is in reality nothing to segregate.
No comments:
Post a Comment