Conflict in the Kite Runner

By looking at setting and conflict in The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hossieni, readers can see that inhumane actions lead to feelings of guilt and remorse, while when men are humane to one another there can be peace. This is because the obstacles faced by Amir, Baba, and Hassan are a cause of harsh treatment by each other and by others, which lead to guilty feelings that cannot be escaped until each find peace and redemption.

The setting of The Kite Runner directly influenced the inhumanity that was consistently taking place. Amir learned “[his] people, the Pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras…and called Hazaras ‘mice-eating’, ‘flat nosed’, and ‘load carrying donkeys’”(9), which he had witnessed countless times with Hassan and Ali. From a young age living in Afghanistan, Amir was taught that he, as a Pashtun was ‘above’ the Hazaras. Because of the society he grew up in, Amir didn’t realize how wrong it was for Hassan and Ali to have to go through on a daily basis. The discrimination against the Hazaras was “normal” for Amir, to the point where he didn’t recognize it, and never tried to stop it, though he was close to Hassan. Because of the culture of Afghanistan during this time period, it was expected that “every woman needed a husband. Even if he did silence the song in her” (178). Women were never given the opportunities that men were given, even if they were from wealthy or upper-class families. There was a double standard for women during this time period, and that made it so they weren’t allowed to be independent or do anything outside of the control of their fathers of husbands. The Taliban coming into Afghanistan made the lives of the people “worse. Much worse…They didn’t let [the afghans] be human” (200 ). When the Taliban came into power in Afghanistan, they took an already poor situation with the soviets in Afghanistan, and made it even worse for the people of the country. The Taliban took almost all rights away from the people and gave them...