Morality In The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

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Morality is one’s sense of right and wrong, but it is not something one is born with. Rather it is something he or she could learn over time. People go through life learning morality from his/her family, friends and his/her own personal mistakes. However, in some cases morality is never taken into consideration when faced with decisions that may lead to life changing consequences. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini argues that one’s social status affects his/her sense of right and wrong. He introduces three characters Amir, Baba, and Assef who are being challenged with the choice of social status/validation over morality. Hosseini argues that morality is compromised for social status/validation due to the fear of judgement from …show more content…
When Amir brings Sohrab back to America, he didn’t get much of a warm welcome. At dinner the General brings up the issue of “the communities perception of [his] our family” (360). The General cares more about what people think than the welfare of a child. He never asks how Sohrab is adjusting to America or how Soyara and Amir feel about having a child in their home; all he cares about is how the Muslim community is going to view his family for housing a Hazara, a race that is seen as inferior. Hosseini emphasizes how the General cares more about his family 's status in society than about Sohrab, when the General refers to him as a “Hazara boy.” Not only does he not care about or even show sympathy for Sohrab but he takes away his identity by addressing him not by his name but by his ethnicity. The social structure has been drilled into people so much that they began to really believe that some people are superior to others because of their skin tone. Not only does the General believe this, but Amir’s twelve year old self did also. Hosseini shows us how harsh society can be for people of lower class when Amir is debating with himself on whether or not to save Hassan while he was getting raped. He believes that Hassan “Was just a Hazara”(77), as he if wasn’t his friend, someone who is like a brother to him and is unquestionably loyal. All that went out the window when Amir is given the choice to save himself or to help an Hazara. Amir feels as if Hazara people aren’t worth in society, and not only does he think that but Assef does also. Assef feels as if “Afghanistan is[the] the lands of Pashtuns” and that they “are the true, Afghans, the pure Afghans” (40). Hosseini implies the seriousness that Assef feels about the superiority of Pashtuns in society when he uses the words “pure” and”true”. Hosseini also points out Assef’s feelings about Hazaras when he says they “dirty our

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