Afghanistan and the World: The Development of a Theme

As far as the plot of the The Kite Runner goes, the United States and the western world have yet to play a major role. Upon deeper examination, however, it can be seen how Khaled Hosseini portrays the changing relationship between the West and the Islamic world. Very early into the book, Hosseini plays with our perception of Islam when Amir enters Ali and Hassan’s hut. “The walls stood bare, save for a single tapestry with sewn-in beads forming the words Allah-u-akbar”(6p). With that last phrase, my mind initially had the reaction desired by Hosseini: could Ali be a terrorist or part of the Taliban? Western culture strongly associates the “Takbir”, the name of the Arabic phrase “Allah-u-akbar”, with radical jihadists, a fact that Hosseini looked to juxtapose. That fearful reaction may have been what Hosseini wished us to have, yet he goes on to show how completely unbased that reaction is. As I would quickly realize, Ali and Hassan are no terrorists. They are honest and hard-working, yet Hosseini has quietly, sublimely, called Americans on their treatment of Islam. The relationship between Islam and Afghanistan, and the western world continues to be slowly developed as the novel progresses. At the beginning of the book, Amir and Hassan went to watch American westerns. Interestingly, they thought the actors were Iranian, an indication of how sheltered their culture was. This goes hand in hand with Afghani economics at the time, as The Kite Runner mentions how sheltered the economy was. As time progresses, the movies change from American ones to Russian ones. The switch to Russian movies is a significant one. The story takes place during the Cold War, where the Soviet Union and the United States vied for power. The change in movies indicates how Afghanistan is caught in no-man’s-land in between the two premier world powers at the time. Both these countries would eventually invade Afghanistan, with the Soviet Union doing so in the near future of The Kite Runner. The novel starts in the present with Amir in San Francisco, indicating a dramatic change in the future where the U.S. gets more involved with Afghanistan (no real secret as to what that could be). This tense interaction between Islamic Afghanistan, and the Soviet Union and the United States is a theme that must grow as the book continues judging from the approaching events yet to unfold in Afghanistan’s history.