The Problem of Ethnicity in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

Sofior Rahman Pramanik

doi:10.24113/ijellh.v8i9.10777

Abstract

Ethnicity is a worldwide matter and is based on a cluster of personality originated from some ancestry and shares some common traits like language, culture, religion, rite and rituals of the society. Belonging to the same inherited status every member of the ethnic group share same dress -style and have similar physical appearance. "Ethnicity refers to a group of people who are of the same origin, history, values , attitude and behavior[1].In every nation throughout the world, there are some ethnic group. Afghanistan is such a country where there is a large number of ethnic group like - Pashtuns, Hazara, Tajik, Uzbek, Aimak, Turkman,and Beloch etc. Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner set in Afghanistan and U.S.A. depicts the two major ethnic group of Afghanistan-Pashtuns and Hazara along with their social, cultural and religious conflict. In "The Kite Runner "the Pashtuns the largest ethnic group of the nation, run the country and have the power in their hands whereas Hazara are small in group are slave to them.

Highlights

Colonization and immigration are the root cause for the development of ethnicity
The protagonist of the novel with his wealthy father Baba represent Pashtuns ethnic group whereas their servant Ali and his son Hassan belongs to Hazara ethnic group
Amir and Hassan were two intimate friend .But as the story progress, and when Soviet invaded Afghanistan, a distance is made between this two family as Amir with his father Baba went and settle in U.S.A .In America, the father- son faced some difficulties with some American who don't have positive view towards Afghans .at last Amir becomes a successful writer .At the end of the novel, Amir returned to Afghanistan and brings Hassan's son with himself to live with his family in America

Summary

Introduction

Colonization and immigration are the root cause for the development of ethnicity. In other words, ethnicity is the outcome of colonization and immigration. The plot of the Khalid Hosseini's novel "The Kite Runner " centers around the two major ethnic group Pashtuns and Hazara. The protagonist of the novel with his wealthy father Baba represent Pashtuns ethnic group whereas their servant Ali and his son Hassan belongs to Hazara ethnic group. In Afghanistan , Hazara are treated inhumanly and look inferior to Pashtuns, but in the early part of the novel there were a harmonious relationship between this two family Baba-Amir and Ali- Hassan. Amir and Hassan were two intimate friend .But as the story progress, and when Soviet invaded Afghanistan, a distance is made between this two family as Amir with his father Baba went and settle in U.S.A .In America, the father- son faced some difficulties with some American who don't have positive view towards Afghans .at last Amir becomes a successful writer .At the end of the novel , Amir returned to Afghanistan and brings Hassan's son with himself to live with his family in America. The novel has many theme, but the present paper will analyse the problem of ethnicity in Afghan society

Discussion

Findings

Conclusion