Watching and smiling as red ran down his hand, slowly releasing the spool of tar and glass to raise their hopes of victory higher into the sky. And as each paper and wood prize feel under their success, only one would remain to be the prize worth such a victory, the final kite to be cut from the sky under their command. Life in Afghanistan seemed so simple in the 1970’s, but would never be the same with the later years that followed. In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, two young Afghan boys found that to be the only truth through their own experiences. The story leads you, the reader, down a path of lies, deceit, hatred and merciless ethnic cleansing from the view of Amir and his best friend and family’s servant Hassan. This novel gives a side of Afghan life, before and during the occupancy of the Taliban, which many readers may never have known about. But is this novel, written from an Afghani man, meant to be a form of propaganda to influence Americans opinion about Afghanistan after what took place on September 11th? After reading this novel I feel that it is not meant to persuade but to inform the reader of what is really taking place in Afghanistan that many Americans would not know otherwise. The novel does not use propaganda but it is understandable why some may think so. I will discuss with you in the following paragraphs, starting with the novel’s showing of how life was in Afghanistan from the 1970’s to the present from the point of view of two of the main characters, how this novel could be used by Afghan descendants to influence others opinions, and the impact that the novel had on me.
Life in Afghanistan during the 1970’s was much like our Western societies but with obvious cultural differences. During Amir’s, the twelve year old main character, life he is best friends with his family’s servant Hassan, who is a Hazara boy, who together face discrimination from others because of a growing prejudice of Hazaras in Afghanistan. Hassan faced it directly from neighborhood bullies for being a Hazara, people of Iran, in an area that has much dislike for such people, while Amir met discrimination for being a close friend to a Hazara boy. The troubles they struggled with together were symbolic of the increasing problems between people in Afghanistan that would ultimately lead to the forming of the Taliban and its tyrannical grip on the country that so many Americans believe to be the way all Afghanis are. This could easily be seen by a reader as propaganda because of its ability to convince a reader to sympathize with the characters struggle in their homeland, and it should, that was the point of depicting such scenes in the novel. This does not mean that the story was implying that you have to change your view on Afghanistan and its people, but to aid in your understanding of what has and is going on there and that not everyone living there is at fault for others actions, such as the acts of terrorism around the globe.
With so much emotion and moments of intense suffering that the characters go through, it is understandable why people of Afghanistan lineage would want others in countries, such as ours, to read and understand what life is actually like for them and their family in their homeland. Some may think of it as a form of propaganda, playing on the emotions of its readers to want to accept any and all people of Afghanistan as just as average and “good” as any American citizen, but the book also highlights characters that are not. The character Assef is a hate-filled Afghan who despises those that he views as a weaker class, such as the Hazara. The book describes times when Assef would hurt and torture Hassan and later kill innocent people while making it fun or a game for himself. This invalidates the idea that this book could be used for propaganda because it obviously tells of some people not being “good” at all, but as monstrosities of men that are still Afghan born.
I would be a liar if I did not say that this book definitely changed my view on Afghanistan, but I also have to state that I knew little to nothing about their culture or way of life to begin with. I do not feel, at any point, that I was being pushed toward any certain groups mentality or point of view that they felt I should share with them, but rather a sense of enlightenment about their people. Before reading this book I had no idea how similar their culture is to my own, but also learning the differences such as a bazaar (market) in the streets, their kite fighting games, their holidays and the terrible fighting that has taken place there in recent years. I think that this book should definitely be shared with others, not only for its well written pages, but to help reduce our country’s negative view it has on people of Middle Eastern descent. I do not feel that this novel has to be forced on people on a national scale by any means, but I do think it is a good idea to have high school and college students have it as a reading assignment, just as it was for me this semester.
The novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, is a great story portraying the life of the average Afghani from the 1970’s to the present day. Its powerful chapters give a new found perception of Afghanistan to readers who may not know the events that occur in a land so far from their own. Though some may see this novel as a form of propaganda having been written by an Afghan and being mainly based in Afghanistan it does not have the obvious signs of propaganda and appears more as a source of information than anything else.
