Kite Runner Outside Knowledge

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a powerful novel about two friends whose only similarity is the wet nurse they were fed from when they were little. Because the novel is not informative in purpose and as American, we know little about the history and politics of Afghanistan, its culture, Islam, the persecution of the Hazara, and the Taliban, it is vital in order to understand the novel on the deepest of levels to have background information relating to the topics previously mentioned. Without any background knowledge of Afghanistan it is still easy to understand the novel, in order to more fully appreciate the work of art that the Kite Runner is, certain information must be presented at the time of the analysis of the novel.

To understand the novel in depth, one must comprehend the viscous cycle of blood that has engulfed Afghanistan for hundreds of years. The first appearance of a not so perfect political state in Afghanistan occurs at the beginning of chapter 5 when bombs rain down on the city. Ali, in an attempt not to frighten the children, explains that people are simply hunting ducks as they do at night. From both background knowledge and from a minuscule amount of detail from the book, the reader gains an appreciation for the start of the decline of life in Afghanistan for all. In reality, there was no duck hunting at all. The truth was that while the King of Afghanistan was in Italy a coup had occurred, putting his cousin, Mohammad Khan, in power, and turning Afghanistan into a republic. He attempted to rid the country of the Soviet Influences that had been closely aligned to Afghan government since 1965. After the murder of Khan, situations in Afghanistan continued to decline. This is why Baba and Amir left Afghanistan. The Soviets had taken over through a puppet government in Afghanistan following the murder of Khan.

Afghan culture plays another important role in the novel for the purpose of understanding it on a high level. The culture is very foreign to most and can also be hard to relate to the American culture. Marriage is a huge custom very different than that of the American way. Just as in the book Baba asked Soraya’s father for her hand in marriage so is the Afghan culture, the father of the son asks the father of the daughter for her hand. Many celebrations occur during the period of announcement to marriage but some were cut short. They were cut short in the book for the reason the Baba wanted to be alive for the marriage of his. This adds emphasis, for those with background knowledge, to the importance of having the father’s participation in the wedding and how important he is in the culture in general. Another insight into the culture is with the food they eat. Several times throughout the novel it mentions the food naan. Through outside knowledge readers learn that naan is the staple food in Afghanistan and is used as a plate to put the rest of a meal on. Also, quite often in the food Baba is drinking tea, a large part of their culture similar to what coffee is to Americans.

Despite the lack of religiousness of Baba and Amir, the religion of Islam plays a huge part in understanding the text in a deeper way. Occasionally in the novel Baba drinks an alcoholic beverage. In Islam, this is an inexcusable sin. Readers with pervious knowledge would understand how great the event in the book is. It is understood in the novel that Baba is not very religious but this act shows how far to the other side of religion he truly is. Another example is when Amir waits until Sohrab is on his death bed to pray. The line in the novel stating that Amir had not prayed in nearly fifteen years is something a casual reader would just