Arthur Miller said that “the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his ‘rightful’ position in his society.” In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, discrimination and bigotry is a major theme in the novel. Religious, political, and ethnic issues in Afghanistan from 1963 to 1981 and family backgrounds made upward social mobility impossible and racial intolerance common.
The Kite Runner is set in Kabul, Afghanistan, a society where social classes are determined by ethnicity and religion. Two ethnic groups and Muslim sects are focused on in this novel; the Pashtuns are the dominant ethnic group and Sunni Muslims, and the Hazaras are the minority group of Mongolian descent and Shia Muslims. The fighting between Sunnis and Shias, Pashtuns and Hazaras has continued for centuries; the Hazaras have been constantly oppressed, and limited to lowly positions in society like servants and slaves. It is evident that social mobility is nonexistent in Afghanistan because religious and ethnic tension is deeply ingrained in society. Assef’s words represent the view of the majority of …show more content…
Hassan’s mother is a promiscuous woman who ran off with a group of dancers abandoning her son at birth. Hassan’s father, though he fulfills all the moral requirements of Afghan society in having memorizing the Koran and being soft spoken, is adopted and crippled. Being adopted, Hassan and his father are left no inheritance or possessions, and being crippled, the kids in the streets call him names (Hosseini 10). Hassan’s family background places Hassan in an unfortunate position since his mother defies Afghan society’s morals and his father has no inheritance. To conclude, parents’ reputation is remembered even into their children’s lives; Hassan will be associated with being poor and