I chose to review The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini as it offers a series of injustices layered within one another; between religions, between nationalities, between genders, between social statuses, and many more. The story opens in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1975 and follows two young boys, Amir and Hassan. Amir is considered to be the social elite, owning a large property in which a servant family, which Hassan is a part of, also live and serve Amir’s family. Hassan’s family are also Hazaras, an ethnic minority in Afghanistan at the time. While Amir knows that Hassan is his best friend and most loyal supporter, when around others Amir tends to neglect and abuse Hassan, a behavior reinforced by the societal structures and injustices towards Hazaras and people considered to be lower class. Hassan becomes a Subaltern in this novel after Amir frames Hassan for stealing his family’s money and Hassan finds himself silenced and unable to defend himself due to the societal forces in play. As a result Hassan’s family is banished from the property.
Several years later, power structures shift after Kabul became a war zone under Soviet control, and Amir and his father lose all of their possessions and are forced to flee Afghanistan. At this point, the citizens of Afghanistan can all be considered Subalterns, as their homeland is invaded and they become silent ‘casualties of war’. These shifting power structures in the novel made me begin to question the way in which injustices become intertwined with in each other, but also can crumble at the face of a greater and violent One, like war.
After their escape to Pakistan, Amir and his father spend everything they have left and go to California to start a new life. Even more injustices are revealed at this point in the novel, as Amir attends college and is faced with racism from his classmates. His father has similar experiences, and while facing this, both men struggle to maintain their connections to their culture and find others that they can relate to. This feeling of alienation despite all of the experiences of Amir and his father represents yet another injustice that is present to be analyzed in The Kite Runner.