The Kite Runner Theme Essay

There are a multitude of themes discussed in both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. The shared themes include; Afghani culture and identity, cycle of hope and despair, loyalty and devotion in spite of difficulty, and human capacity for evil. The author of both works, Khaled Hosseini, was able to create two different plots with the above themes included in both. He was able to do this by changing the characters and changing the way the themes were presented. This left many similarities and differences to be found in the themes of Afghani culture and identity and loyalty and devotion in spite of difficulty. Afghani culture and identity may be found easily in both TKR and ATSS. This theme can be found in ATSS when Laila’s mother Fariba refuses to leave Afghanistan despite the violence happening …show more content…
One example of this theme in ATSS is throughout the majority of the novel when Mariam remains devoted to her husband Rasheed despite him beating and verbally abusing her. This is shown when Laila marries Rasheed. Mariam says “I wouldn’t have fed you and washed you and nursed you if I’d known you were going to turn around and steal my husband”(223). She is still obviously attached to Rasheed and feels that Laila’s marriage to him is disrespectful. An example of this theme in TKR is Hassan’s loyalty to Amir despite of what the consequences will be. This is evident in the scene of the film in which Hassan allows Assef to sodomize him so he is able to retrieve a kite for Amir. The theme is shown another time in TKR when Hassan and his wife die protecting the childhood home of Amir from the Taliban. This is in spite of the fact that Amir had always abused the power he had over Hassan as a child, such as when Amir threw a pomegranate at Hassan just to see what his reaction would be. These points undisputedly show that Hassan would and did literally give his life to