Moayedi
Sierra Moayedi
January 11, 2019
Advanced English
Kite Runner Essay
The Role Religion Plays
The Kite Runner which is a controversial narrative novel written by Khaled Hosseini- an author of the Afghan-American heritage; is a story which revolves around the life of Amir and has set throughout events. For Example, the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan and the military intervention of the Soviet Union. This narrative clearly expressed father-son relationships, as well as for raising them with guilt, redemption, and atonement. This story itself talks about the throughout sight of the Afghani people and more into their culture. Even though it is not the main theme of the novel, religion is always there, and its influence on the lives of the characters is vivid. Khaled Hosseini approached the topic of religion from two sides; from the point of view of religious characters and from the point of view of those, who have their own understanding of religion, and, as a result, he was able to portray the process of Amir's finding his own religion amongst these two sides.
Religion is an inalienable part of the Afghani culture and is present in each aspect of the protagonist's everyday life. Throughout the narrative, you see both positive and negative aspects of religion. In the story, the negative side of religion is expressed mainly through the fundamentalists who use religious beliefs, as a tool to exert violence onto other people and to spread their control onto other people's freedom (Hosseini). Baba which is Amir's father is a respected wealthy businessman and what is peculiar about him, is that he is a freethinker who always strives to do what is right and to think for oneself. What is more, Baba is not a supporter of the fundamentalism in the Islam religion, but he does have his own moral code that he follows throughout life and tries to raise Amir according to it.
One of the first important episodes concerning religion in the lives of Amir and Baba is an occurrence when Ali, comes home from school and tells his father that he was taught that drinking alcohol is a sin. As a response, in order to teach Amir a lesson, his father pours himself a glass of whiskey (Hosseini). This scene is one of the many that contradistinguishes Baba and his views from the ones preached by a mullah. Further, Baba tells his son "I see you've confused what you're learning in school with actual education," he then proceeds and calls the mullah and others like him ‘bearded idiots', and tells Amir that it will be impossible for him to learn anything of value from them. Baba's difference from the majority and his core attitude towards the fundamentalism in Islam is expres...
