Ryan Din

Period 1
Why it Matters
Our novel, Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, contributes to the
overall literary canon. I believe that the true intentions of the book are
to shine light on the dangers presented in Afghanistan. For example, in
the book the Taliban used kids in the orphanage for sex. This
represents how bad and dangerous these extremists tend to be. The
Taliban also destroyed buildings and killed many of the Shia Muslims.
They killed anyone that stood in the way of their religion. Those who
opposed what they were doing were viewed as the enemy. One of the
characters, Hassan, is one of the Shia, which he is poorly looked down
upon. The story also has a common theme of rape. For example, my
group presented a scene during class when Hassan gets beat up and
raped by Assef. This oddly created a closer bond between Amir and
Hassan, as Amir sought out to seek revenge on Hassans rapist. It
causes its victims to have lasting emotional trauma Rape not only
represents danger, but also causes physical and emotional damage
towards its victim.
The book is worth the read. I, and my other group members,
learned a lot from this book. We witness the events in this book and it
reminds us of how lucky we are to be born into this world. We are lucky
we dont have to face all the hardships, discrimination, and danger

Hassan has to face everyday. Whether it be being in an extremely low

economic class, picking up Amirs kite pieces, or trying to protect your
physical and emotional well being, Hassan has to face it everyday.
In conclusion, the novel shines light on the dangers in
Afghanistan. It shows us how lucky we are, as Americans, to live such a
privileged life. We dont have to wake up everyday afraid that our lives
could be taken away at any given moment. It taught me to be thankful
for my life and I believe other students will get the same message I did
with this novel.