War and Violence in the Kite Runner, Essay Example

In The Kite Runner, the author tells a story in which negative events are described in a manner that is violent and warlike. Even though the main character Hassan is an innocent individual, he is forced to live though sad experiences, such as when he is raped for trying to protect the honor of his friend. As such, Hassan’s innocence can be used to illustrate to an understanding of war. When war strikes, no one expects it and in the end, even the innocent are brought to suffer. In this manner, the violence that is taken against Hassan is meant to parallel the war in Afghanistan. Because of Soviet intervention in the region, the refugees of the war have their innocence taken away from them and are forced to live a life of struggle that forever changes their experiences. The Kite Runner shows the reader that all that violence ever leads to is even more violence. In this book, Hassan, Amir, and Baba demonstrate how violence has impacted their lives.

Hassan is impacted by violence because his innocence is forever altered for simply wanting to defend his friend Amir and make him happy. When Hassan gets raped, we observe firsthand how war can take an innocent and caring individual and ruin his life. Even though becoming involved with Assef was not Hassan’s fault and it was apparent that Assef meant to either do him or his friend Amir harm, Hassan was harmed because he wanted to protect his friend. Before becoming a victim of rape violence, Hassan was a person that was extremely dedicated to those that he served. In spite of his poverty, he was happy because he loves Amir and his family and enjoys doing work for them. This is why when Amir loses his kite, Hassan does all he can to get it back for him. Hassan’s innocence was betrayed for the first time when Amir decided that having the kite back was more important than the safety of his friend. The second time is when Amir showed that he cared more about the relationship with his father, who occasionally appears distant to him, than his good friend Hassan. Amir has admitted “It wasn’t often Baba talked to me, let alone on his lap”. For Amir, this line demonstrates the necessity he feels with regards to getting his kite back. Getting the kite back would mean that Amir would be able to get the approval of his father (Hosseini 40). Thus, Amir becomes indirectly responsible for the violence that Hassan suffers, and feels the guilt. Because Amir can no longer face Hassan, he develops an elaborate plan to have Hassan removed from his house. Thus, it is apparent that not only is Hassan a victim of violence, this violence and negativity continued by the lack of caring that Amir had toward his friend by thinking only of his own guilt and not what he should do to help Hassan.

Later in the story, we see how violence has impacted Amir, who is faced with the violence of war following the Soviet invasion. According to the author, “We stayed huddled that way until the early hours of the morning. The shootings and explosions had lasted less than an hour, but they had frightened us badly, because none of us had ever heard gunshots in the streets…Huddled together in the dining room and waiting for the sun to rise, none of us had any notion that a way of life had ended. Our way of life” (Hosseini 78). In this passage, Amir is showing how war has not only changed his life, but the lives of everyone around him have changed as well. Prior to this point in time, Afghanistan was considered a relatively peaceful nation and attacks of this intensity had not been observed before. Thus, Amir is showing us that warfare has permanently altered his sense of culture, community, and safety. He was no longer free to do whatever he wanted. Instead, he was forced to hide in fear, with worry that he or those he knows might die, or that the events of the war would become worse with time.

War creates so much additional violence that it is challenging for the individuals that are required to face it to feel safe in even their own homes. At this point, it is clear that no characters in the book, Hassan, Amir, or Baba, feel safe in their own environment. While we only see this story though the lens of the narrator, we begin to worry for the safety of the individuals that we had met earlier in the story.According to the book, “under threat, people told on each other, neighbor on neighbor, child on parent, brother on brother, servant on master, friend on friend. […]. The rafiqs, the comrades, were everywhere and they’d split Kabul into two groups: those who eavesdropped and those who didn’t” (Hosseini 231). In this section, we learn that facing war firsthand makes everything feel unsafe. Home is supposed to be a safe haven that makes people feel that they are not threatened at all. However, in this instance, there is violence in this community, which has manifested as a consequence of the war and the sides that have formed as a consequence. To avoid facing the severity of war, it is important for people to understand that fighting is not necessary to resolve differences. If people fight in order to obtain peace, then achieving peace is never really possible.

The permanence of war as a theme in The Kite Runner also highlights the concept that all that war does is create more war. We can assume that Baba is particularly impacted by this as an individual with a relative amount of power in his society before the war. According to the book, “By then – that would have been 1995 – the Shorawi were defeated and long gone and Kabul belonged to Massoud, Rabbani, and the Mujahedin. The infighting between the factions was fierce and no one knew if they would live to see the end of the day. Our ears became accustomed to the whistle of falling shells, to the rumble of gunfire, our eyes familiar with the sight of men digging bodies out of piles of rubble” (Hosseini 258). Thus, while it is likely that Baba had power before the war, even he would not be safe in such an environment. Even after it seemed that it couldn’t get worse, the war continued in a manner in which too many different groups started to fight so there was no end in sight. Out of good intensions came a series of groups that wanted to take control for either benevolent or malevolent reasons. However, individuals that purposefully enact violence and suffering against others should not be trusted. Since violence was started by the Soviet Union, this violence was continued by the groups who were impacted the most significantly by it. Thus, violence works to help other violence go and cannot simply be stopped by further negative action.

At the end of the story, the narrator shows us how past wars are connected to modern ones. Because history is doomed to repeat itself, Hassan, Amir, and Baba continue living life in worry in a manner that is reminiscent of previous conflict. According to the book, “The trek between Kabul and Jalalabad, a bone-jarring ride down a teetering pass snaking through the rocks, had become a relic now, a relic of two wars. Twenty years earlier, I had seen some of the first war with my own eyes. Grim reminders of it were strewn along the road: burned carcasses of old Soviet tanks, overturned military trucks gone to rust, a crushed Russian jeep that had plunged over the mountainside” (Hosseini 301). Furthermore, the narrator recounted that “The second war, I had watched on my TV screen. And now I was seeing it through Farid’s eyes” (Hosseini 302). In this report, the author is showing that history is doomed to repeat itself. If we are not careful, we can make the same mistakes that have contributed to fighting and conflict in the past. Overall, the author is showing is that war and violence is never good and even though it is challenging to see the reasons why in light of our own concerns, it is important for us to find ways to solve our problems without conflict.

In conclusion, The Kite Runner shows us that it is important to avoid resolving conflict with more conflict. Hassan, Amir, and Baba were all impacted by the war in various ways. Their struggle shows us that peace is the only answer. When Hassan was raped, Amir did wrong by actively trying to get his friend kicked out of his house. Amir learned this lesson when Afghanistan was under attack and the impacts of the disaster kept worsening. Thus, violence breeds violence. While it seems localized at times, it impacts everyone in reality. In order to put an end to this, it is important for us to use alternatives to violence, such as conversation and debate, to quell these differences that drive mankind to madness. Doing so it our responsibility to the future of society.

Works Cited

Hosseini, K. The Kite Runner. Riverhead Books, 2013.