Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Essay Example

just as the average Canadian child his age would be. The Afghanis are people filled with love, and patriotism for their mother land, but even then they had to leave their country out of fear.

As he prepares to leave his homeland, “Baba climbed halfway up the ladder… emptied the box and picked up a handful of dirt from the middle of the unpaved road. Kissed the dirt. Poured into the box” (128). This illustrates Baba as a patriotic man, just like most of the other Afghanis. By kissing the soil, and pouring some in his box, Baba shows respect and love for his country.He is always going to keep the memories of his country alive with him.

The lack of safety causes him to leave to hope for a better life in the U. S. The corrupt government in the novel is displayed through the treatment of Hazaras, the minority of the nation. A civil war on the basis of class and race is promoted by the corrupt government of Afghanistan.

The government advertises a civil war, by expressing hatred towards the ethnical minorities in Afghanistan, primarily the Hazara. Pashtuns are taught to hate the Hazara because of the history and slight religious difference the two people have, despite both being Afghans.As Amir’s curiosity about Hazaras grows, he thinks, “School textbooks barely mentioned them… I found one of my mother’s old history books… people called Hazaras mice eating, flat nosed, load carrying donkeys…”(10). The corrupt and biased government has erased the Hazara nation from the school textbooks, and curriculum. Both, Pashtun books and people don’t have pleasant to things to say about the Hazara;

who by some aren’t even considered to be humans.

When the new government took office in 1996, many people celebrated, but the Hazaras know their fate in Afghanistan.In a letter from Hassan, he writes, “We all celebrated in 1996 when the Taliban rolled in… Hassan in the kitchen. He had a sober look in his eyes… God help the Hazaras now… two years later they massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-I – Sharif”(224). When the Taliban came into power all the Pashtuns celebrated, they had false hope of an end to their problems. The Taliban eventually become the worst thing to have happened to Afghanistan. The Taliban’s hatred for the Hazara is even more severe than the past governments of Afghanistan.

They massacre innocent civilians just because of their ethnical background.By depriving people of their right to safety, and oppressing the Hazara the Taliban lead the country into turmoil. The once-flourishing nation of Afghanistan falls victim to the corrupt hands of the Taliban, who steal from the people any chance of a brighter future. The Russian military presence and events after that have forever changed Afghanistan. The country has been injured by a scar that is yet to heal.

As Hassan reveals the horrors of the land, he recalls, “The Afghanistan of our youth is long dead. Kindness is gone from the land and you cannot escape the killings…”(228).The corrupt government has led the country into moral regression. It is no longer the place that Amir once called home. Kabul could have been something a world apart from what it is now if the government had allowed it to be.

Upon comparing his homeland, Amir thinks,

“If Peshawar was the city that reminded of what Kabul used to be, then Islamabad was the city Kabul could have been someday” (326). The military presence has prevented Kabul from reaching its potential. It could have resembled a modern Middle Eastern city like Islamabad. The fate of Afghanistan is very similar to that of the pomegranate tree, mentioned in the novel.

Afghans are paying the consequences for a corrupt government; they are stranded in a land they themselves are not familiar with. The problems that a corrupt government brings with it can result in the violent downfall of a once blossoming nation. The corrupt government and military presence strip Afghanistan of an opportunity to be a prosperous and peaceful country, and Afghanis their right to a safe home. The regressive mindset of the Taliban is a threat to innocent people all around the world.

Afghanistan and its brave people are still recovering from the negative effects militarism and corrupt government has on them.