Course title: English A: Language and Literature

Assessment Name: Higher Level Essay

Examination Year: 2021/2022
Title: To what extent does Khaled Hosseini portray power as the defining characteristic of Afghan
culture in the Kite Runner?
Text: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Word Count: 1400

1
 Power is a substantial theme shown in The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. The events that
occurred during the novel happened due to the change of power over the country, and this showed
how much power affected the way the Afghans led their life. The leading powers demonstrated in this
novel that has been mentioned are the takeover by the Taliban and the power of Pashtuns over
Hazaras. Hosseini illustrated Hassan as an excellent example of how the Hazaras led their lives and
how every decision they had to make would affect their lives. Hassan, who was Amir’s half-brother
and best friend, never took any action against any wrongdoing that had happened to him because he
knew he wasn’t the one in power. Hassan wanted to go to school, but they weren’t allowed to go to
the same schools as the Pashtuns; however, they could participate in kite running tournaments with
them. Amir, who was in power, still required the help of Hassan, for example, in the kite running
tournament, which shows that this tournament was one thing that kept them united for a day. Assef
was always portrayed as remarkably dominating. He always considered himself in power because he
was a Pashtun. This leads to the investigation of the following line of inquiry: To what extent does
Khaled Hosseini portray power as the defining characteristic of Afghan culture in the Kite Runner?
Hosseini illustrates power as the defining characteristic by using repetition used by Assef to Hassan,
irony used by Assef to Amir, tone, and simile used by Amir to the readers.

Hassan is considered an outsider in Afghanistan; like Assef said, ‘”Afghanistan is the land of
Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be.”’1  The repetition of the adverb ‘always’ shows that
Assef is trying to throw power at Hassan because they both know that Pashtuns will always be the
highly regarded group of Afghans and that no matter who comes and rules Afghanistan, Pashtun will
remain at the top of the social hierarchy and Hazaras at the bottom. To suppress Hassan even more,
Assef continued to say ‘” We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans.”’ 2. This shows that Assef was
trying to tell Hassan that Hazaras don’t belong in Afghanistan. Due to the Hazaras being a minority
group, Assef was trying to push his power of being a Pashtun on Hassan to demoralize him if he ever
had thoughts of being someone who would be respected in the future. The adjectives ‘true’ and ‘pure’
implies that only Pashtuns are the real Afghans, and all the Hazaras don’t deserve to live in
Afghanistan and don’t deserve to be called Afghans. However, the irony in the statement, ‘We are the
true Afghans, the pure Afghans’ is that Assef does not fully belong to the Afghanistan community.
Assef was ‘born to a German mother and Afghan father’ 3. Technically, Assef does not belong to
Afghanistan. He isn’t a ‘pure Afghan’ because he was ‘born to a German mother’. This contradicts
Assef’s statement; however, he still boasted this power over Hassan because of a Pashtun Afghan
father. Since it is part of their culture for sons to carry their fathers’ names, Assef automatically
became the one in power.

1
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (New York: Riverhead Books, 2007), 44.
2
Ibed., 44.
3
Ibed., 41
2
 In addition, Hosseini presents that Amir was always very excited for the kite running tournament
during winter. This is evident as Amir’s tone has a sense of exhilaration when he talks about this
tournament to his readers. This excitement shows that kite running was a significant part of the
Afghan culture and many people, including Amir, loved participating in this tournament. A big reason
for this excitement for Amir was that the ‘kites were the one paper-thin slice of intersection between’ 4
Baba and Amir’s ‘spheres of existence’5, which makes this anticipation reasonable since Amir craves
Baba’s love and attention. This piece of evidence illustrates that the kite running tournament was the
one common thing both father and son had, and this shows how much power this one in a year
tournament had on their relationship. Besides this, the kite running competition in Kabul ‘was a little
like going to war.’6 Every boy was excited about this competition, representing how major this
activity is in Afghanistan. Simile is used when Amir mentions that the kite running contest was ‘like
going to war’ which emphasizes that the amount of violence that has taken place in Afghanistan has
had such an immense effect that he is comparing a fun activity to a violent one. Amir is trying to
convey to his readers that the intensity of the contest is so high that it kind of matches with the
intensity of war. The fact that Amir used the noun ‘war’ to compare instead of any other high-
intensity game conveys that ‘war’ is a part of their daily life and culture. The verb ‘was’ in italics
shows that the kite running tournament does not take place in Afghanistan anymore due to the Taliban
banning ‘kite flying’ and any other ‘activities offering at best a graveyard peace to a conflict-ridden
society.’7 No matter how much power this kite running tournament had held, the Taliban had a greater
power, and they took it away because they simply could. This shows that the Taliban have made big
changes in the lives of Afghans and changed their old culture proving their power over the country.

Furthermore, in this kite running tournament, the readers can see that Hassan had participated in the
kite running tournament and had helped Amir win not only the match but also Baba’s respect. Amir
‘handed him the spool, holding onto the string, and he spun it quickly to roll the loose string back on’ 8
which gave Amir a lot of support to keep flying amongst ‘at least two dozen kites.’ 9 The number of
kites mentioned in the previous evidence makes it evident that this was a very significant event, and
many people were there. However, no one had an obligation with Hassan helping Amir play the
match (and win) even though nearly everyone attending the competition knew that Hassan was a
Hazara. This explains that the kite running tournament had brought everyone together regardless of

4
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (New York: Riverhead Books, 2007), 53
5
Ibed., 53
6
Ibed., 54
7
Mir Hekmatullah Sadat, “Afghan History: kite flying, kite running and kite banning” Afghan
magazine, June, 2004, accessed January 6, 2022,
https://afghanmagazine.com/post/184298745584/afghan-history-kite-flying-kite-running-and-kite
8
Ibed., 69
9
Ibed., 69
3
 the religion and customs they followed. This makes the reader think that the author wanted to show
how this tournament united people from different communities, even for a day or a couple of hours.
The amount of power this competition holds in the Afghan culture appears to be greater than
education. Not only did the Taliban use their power to hurt and kill the Hazaras when they were in
control, but also the Pashtuns attacked children when they were in school, killing them mercilessly.
Bombings in schools during both free and captured Afghanistan shows that education is not highly
regarded, and it doesn’t hold prominent supremacy in the Afghan culture. Many bombings took place
in schools, and the most recent one was ‘two and a half years ago where at least 40 students, most
from Afghanistan’s Hazara ethnic minority, died as they studied’ 10. Since Afghanistan wasn’t in
control of a group like the Taliban, there is a very outstanding possibility that it was the Pashtuns who
had arranged the attack. This makes it seem that the Pashtuns don’t want the Hazaras to succeed in
their life and that instead, they want them to continue to follow the Afghan culture of the Pashtuns as
masters and Hazaras as servants.

To conclude, the novel The Kite Runner has shown power in different groups of people with the use
of it on the same group of people. The Pashtuns were constantly forcing their power upon the
Hazaras, making it evident to the readers that this is part of the Afghan culture and that the Pashtuns
will always have greater power over the Hazaras. The Taliban had complete control over Afghanistan,
and they used their power upon them to torture them; however, Hazaras were tortured more. These
uses of power portray that a part of Afghanistan will always be under someone’s power and control.
This has been happening so often it has become a part of their culture now; to be in control or to be
controlled either by using power or misusing it. The different groups showing their power fully
emphasize that someone always must be in control, which has now been unwanted or not become a
part of their culture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books, 2007

10
David Zucchino and Fahim Abed, “Even suicide bombings can’t keep these students from school”
The New York Times, last modified March 22, 2021, accessed January 12, 2022,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/world/asia/hazara-bombings-schools.html
4
 Sadat, Mir Hekmatullah. , “Afghan History: kite flying, kite running and kite banning” Afghan
magazine, June, 2004, accessed January 6, 2022,
https://afghanmagazine.com/post/184298745584/afghan-history-kite-flying-kite-running-and-kite
Zucchino, David and Fahim Abed, “Even suicide bombings can’t keep these students from school”
The New York Times, last modified March 22, 2021, accessed January 12, 2022,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/world/asia/hazara-bombings-schools.html