Life in Afghanistan

The Kite Runner was a way to exhibit “what it means to be from Afghanistan” (Bloom 1) and the struggles Afghans’ had to deal with during this time. In many ways, you could say that this story was inspired by Khaled Hosseini’s childhood because of the similarities between the characters and their situations. He also lived in Afghanistan and had a best friend who was a Hazara and looked down upon. What Hosseini was trying to teach his readers was that they should be grateful that they are not scared for their safety every day where they live or adapting to a new way of life once someone else takes over.

By exploring the imaginary lives of two young boys from Afghanistan, Hassan and Amir you can see how this fright controlled their entire lives. Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner analyzes the setting through the protagonist by depicting his changes from Afghanistan, Pakistan and adaptand to the United States.

Once Afghanistan had become Soviet territory, many things changed and this had a major impact on Amir as a character.

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The move after wasn't entirely forced but it also wasn't voluntary, because Baba knew the only way to keep both of them safe was to leave once the Soviets had invaded. The new environment here made Amir somewhat of a foreign outcast. He is no longer the Pashtun boy who was known as Baba’s son or for his family's wealthy background. He is now viewed the same as everyone else living there, which is an escaping Afghan refugee.

Amir is now living somewhere that is unusual for him, and he’s not used to the surroundings. To the reader's surprise, Amir is somewhat grateful for this new beginning because he feels like he can leave behind the secret he has kept all along. Which he fails to realize will haunt him forever and he won't be able to just erase it so easily unless he finally confesses to what he did. Nothing's the same as it use to be in Afghanistan and life is gonna take some getting used to. Hosseini uses this situation because he also went through the same circumstance when his father got a job in Paris and the Soviet Union invaded so they were forced to move to San Jose, California.

Even though Amir and his father didn't spend much time in Pakistan because they were just there to escape home, Hosseini still used it as a way to show Amir's changes as a character. Amir and his father left in the middle of the night leaving everything behind and started their journey to Pakistan. Through all their troubles of waiting and having to find someone who would travel the distance, they someone who ended up traveling in a dark fuel truck tha was filled with gas fumes and little oxygen carried several refugees. “What I remember next is the blinding light of early morning as I climbed out of the fuel tank. I remember turning my face up to the sky, squinting, breathing like the world was running out of air...thankful for air, thankful for light, thankful to be alive.” “We’re in Pakistan”, (Hosseini 107) here is where Amir also realizes how serious their situation is now that they have m, halfway and reminisces on his childhood.

Later on in the story Amir and his father move to Fremont, California where the rest of his childhood and adult life took place, which was one of their most drastic changes. This new Western setting quickly empowers Amir as a young character. They were now half way across the world from their actual home in Afghanistan. “Baba loved the idea of America. It was living in America that gave him an ulcer” (Hosseini 132), reflects how Baba was viewed as a very wealthy man in Afghanistan who everyone looked up to but now he's a part of the lower class in America because he had to start all over, which caused him great stress. Life in America is nothing that these two are accustomed to so they have nothing, Baba gets a job at a gas station and sells things at a local flea market to try to make ends meet while Amir continues school. It didn't take an extended stay for these two to eventually lose character traces of Afghanistan that connect them to their culture and their home. The new change powers Amir to begin writing classes which is something Baba would have been ashamed of back at home. “Amir has no interest in sports or other physical activity, nor does he exhibit the courage and bluster for which the demanding Baba is known. Instead, he is a dreamer who enjoys reading rather than roughhousing” (Bloom 2) showing that even with all the changes Amir doesn't change who he wants to become or what he is passionate about. While in California Baba is now becoming weaker and we soon find out that he is dying of terminal cancer. During this time Amir is growing as a character and finally finding himself and owning up to the secrets he kept as a child, which was what he needed to now let go of the past.

The setting plays the most important role in Amir's character. Khaled Hosseini wrote this novel in a way that makes Amir not only adapt to these different settings physically but also mentally. He was forced to withstand major changes and even lose who he has been all along. The theme of a haunting past was reflected through the setting because Afghanistan, which once was Amir’s home always reminded him of Hassan’s secret he kept, and in each place he had moved to, he thought of it as running away from his past. The setting is depicted through his changes while moving to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then to the United States.