Benefits of Reading Kite Runner for Indonesian Readers

Hello, we are back! We are sure all of you could not wait for us to post this topic. Some of you might have asked, "This is a novel from Afghanistan, there is no values of Indonesia here." Oh, but it is not exactly right, Kite Runner also has some benefits for Indonesian readers. You can start reading to find out ;)

Our beloved country Indonesia is a massive country with variety of races, religion, and culture. Unity is very important and needed in controlling this country. The novel Kite Runner, also having racial, religious and cultural issues in the story plot, which in our opinion is a perfect book to be read by Indonesian, due to its similarity in terms of issues.

"They called him "flat-nosed" because of Ali and Hassan's characteristic Hazara Mongoloid features. For years, that was all I knew about the Hazaras, that they were Mogul descendants, and that they looked a little like Chinese people. School text books barely mentioned them and referred to their ancestry only in passing. Then one day, I was in Baba's study, looking through his stuff, when I found one of my mother's old history books. It was written by an Iranian named Khorami. I blew the dust off it, sneaked it into bed with me that night, and was stunned to find an entire chapter on Hazara history. An entire chapter dedicated to Hassan's people! In it, I read that my people, the Pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. It said the Hazaras had tried to rise against the Pashtuns in the nineteenth century, but the Pashtuns had "quelled them with unspeakable violence." The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and sold their women. The book said part of the reason Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras was that Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi'a. The book said a lot of things I didn't know, things my teachers hadn't mentioned. Things Baba hadn't mentioned either. It also said some things I did know, like that people called Hazaras mice-eating, flat-nosed, load-carrying donkeys. I had heard some of the kids in the neighborhood yell those names to Hassan." (2.23)

Those quotation from “The Kite Runner” above have shown us that racial issues also happen in the other part of the world, not just in Indonesia. Being the minority like the Hazaras means they have no right at all, which show us no humanity at all. The fact is, every people is equal, means there should be equality among human being. This one told Indonesian reader that equality is very important and they should not put it aside. “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” the national identity of Indonesia, which mean ignoring the difference but unite as a nation. Amir and Hassan is the perfect role model of the unity of a nation, Javanese, Chinese, Sundanese, Maduranese, some of those main ethnic group consisting the Indonesian, should live in harmony, by being like Amir and Hassan.

There was a plot in the story when Amir do nothing when he saw Hassan got raped, this experience always give him the feeling of guilty everytime he saw or even just thought about Hassan. Amir always thought that there is no way he could redeem this “sin”, until Hassan died and left his son alone in Kabul. To make him feel better, Amir save Sohrab, Hassna's son, with much risk to face, this is the way he chose to redeem his “sin” toward Hassan past years ago. In this case, just assume the “sin” Amir did is the past tragedy in Indonesia (for example 12th May Tragedy), and Indonesia as Amir, there is always a way to redeem your “sin”. The writer, indirectly thought us from the story about how , Indonesian, that there is a way to redeem our “sin” in the past toward other ethnic, religion and culture. In our opinion, Redeem of Indonesian can be achieved by various way, such as not calling other ethnic with certain name, act the same toward all races in Indonesia, and every positive act you can think about toward others. The risks I meant in this parable, is the risk of facing your inner thought, being brave enough as a “man” who can stand up and control your own perspective toward other races with equality.

The Kite Runner had actually thought many life lesson, especially to Indonesian who live in different races and religions. Differentiating races, religion, and culture won’t give any positive effect in life, but actually give conflict, troubles, and other negative vibes as the result. We, Indonesian, should act like a “man” who can stand up against those difference and accept equality among human as our life value. We shared a same history, a same fight in taking our rights from the colonialist back then. This history made us family. We fought together, we fell together, we stood up together. So why now we look at each other with "you are different with me" looks? Why do we try to take each other down just for our own benefits? 

The novel clearly told us to help each other. To give our hands for those who needs it, no matter what is their religion or their race. We are HUMANS. We ate the same food, we stood on the same ground. 

References:
Hoesseini, Khaled. 2004. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead
(unknown) http://www.academia.edu/4174946/The_Kite_Runner_Who_is_courageus_enough_to_run_with_i
tunknown (2008) http://ucsdmag.ucsd.edu/magazine/vol5no1/features/kiterunner.htmReferences:

Races and Religion in Kite Runner 

All of you who have read or watched Kite Runner might be asking what are the races and religions in this novel, or you just might want to know more about them. So this time, we have the opportunity to tell you more about the races and religion from Kite Runner. Please enjoy :)

Hazara and Pashtun

Hazara is a one of the races in Afghanistan which is supposed Mongol origin. It is estimated that there are 6-10 million Hazara in the world. Most of the Hazara is Shiia Muslims and they speak a distinct dialect of Persian, with certain Turkish and Mongol Influence in the language. They look Asiatic with some Caucasian mixture, some looks like pure Mongols or Chinese.

Pashtun has a very different culture than the Hazara. They are the majority compared to Hazara since there are 42 million Pashtun in the world. The majority of Pashtun religion is the Sunni Muslim.  Pashtun speaks Pashtu, which is one of the two official languages in Afghanistan. They look overwhelmingly Caucasian.

Left: Hazara, Right: Pashtun

        Pashtun and Hazara people have had an ongoing conflict between them for a long time. Pashtuns and Hazara do not get along because they had been brutally conquered by the Mongols previously.

Races in Kite Runner

        Races play a great role in the novel Kite Runner. Pashtuns are discriminating the Hazaras in the novel.  The Hazaras are being called by names because of their physical appearance.

“They called him "flat-nosed" because of Ali and Hassan's characteristic Hazara Mongoloid features. For years, that was all I knew about the Hazaras, that they were Mogul descendants, and that they looked a little like Chinese people … The book said a lot of things I didn't know, things my teachers hadn't mentioned. Things Baba hadn't mentioned either. It also said some things I did know, like that people called Hazaras mice-eating, flat-nosed, load-carrying donkeys. I had heard some of the kids in the neighborhood yell those names to Hassan.” (2.23)

           Even though Amir and Hassan are close friends, Amir still has discrimation thoughts:

”... Never mind any of those things. Because history isn't easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi'a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.” (4.4-5)

This proves that race is an important thing to decide whether you will be discriminated or not in this novel.

What is Islam?

          Islam is the second largest religion in the world with over one billion followers. The world “Islam” itself means “surrender” or “submission”, this means submission to the Will of God. Islam teaches the God (called Allah) is the source of all creation and that human beings are the best of His creation. Islam also teaches that human beings are born pure and sinless. No one is responsible for, or can take responsibility for the sins of others. The doors of forgiveness are always open for those who repent sincerely. 

Islam was founded by Mohammed in the seventh century. Mohammed was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in the year 570 AD. Muhammad was a very truthful and honest person. At the age of forty, Allah asked him, through the angel Gabriel, to proclaim the religion of Islam publicly. 

People who follow Islam are called Muslims. The Muslims have two major thoughts, the Sunni Shia and the Muslim (also called Shiite) Muslim. This split originates after the death of the Prophet Mohammad in 632 AD over who should lead the Muslim community next.

Who are the Sunnis?

          The majority of Muslims are Sunnis. Sunnis are estimated to be dominating around 85-90% of the muslims.

          After the death of Mohammed, Sunnis think that Mohammed’s successor should be chosen by the community, thus they think that the successor should be the caliph, the head of state. Since Sunni is the majority, so the successor chosen is Prophet Mohammad's close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr, became the first Caliph of the Islamic nation. 

         Saudi Arabia is one of the countries in the world with the largest portion of Sunni Muslims.

The distribution map of Sunni and Shia

Blue: Sunni, Red maroon: Shia

Who are the Shiia?

The term “Shiia” is shortened from the historical "Shia-t-Ali," or "the Party of Ali."Shia wanted the successor to be from Mohammed’s family. The shiias did not recognize this new leader and chose Mohammed’s son-in-law, Ali.

These differences caused some disputes between the sunnis and shiias. Most of the shiias imam met violent ends at the hands of the majority, Sunni Caliphs. Imam Ali’s son, Hussein, became the victim of beheading at that time and is still marked as a major event shiaa muslims.  Ali himself was killed as a result of intrigues, violence and civil wars.

There are large Shia communities in Afghanistan, India, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

Religions in Kite Runner

Throughout the novel, Amir And Baba do not really put too much attention to religion. Amir is known to be a Sunni Muslim. Amir was listening to mullah’s teaching at first and checks them with Baba’s actions. On the other hand, Baba himself is not a really religious man, he has his own philosophy. This can be seen when Amir asked Baba whether drinking alcohol is sin (as it is against the Islamic law) but Baba said that the only sin is theft.

After Hassan was raped, Amir distances himself from his religion because of guilt. However, after rescuing Sohrab, Amir feels redeemed and started to reestablish his relationship with his God again. 

Despite these differences in opinion and practice, Shia and Sunni Muslims share the essences of Islamic belief. Moreover, not all Shiia and Sunni Muslims hated each other all the time, there are Shii and Sunni Muslims who befriends each other. We can also see from the nove Kite Runner that Amir as a Sunni Muslim and Hassan as a Shiia Muslim can live in peace in the same house. In fact, most Muslims do not distinguish themselves by claiming membership in any particular group, but prefer to call themselves simply, "Muslims."

References:

Boeree, George(unknown) http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/sunnisshiites.html

Hoesseini, Khaled. 2004. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead

Morency, Dana and Jason Hogue(unknown) http://uwf.edu/bookclub/splendidsons.html

Reem(2009) http://insideislam.wisc.edu/2009/09/sunni-shia-or-just-muslim/

(unknown) https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~laurice/project/Racism2.html

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Hello everyone!

Before we start to talk about this amazing novel, we're gonna introduce ourselves first. 
We are three students of Food Technology class C in Pelita Harapan University, Joanina, Samuel Jusuf, and last but not least, Tiffany Nathalie. We are reading this novel because it was an assignment given by our lecturer of American Literature class, Mam Clara Evi Citraningtyas. After reading Kite Runner during our American Literature class, we are finding a topic that is intriguing to be discussed. It is about the religion and race in Kite Runner. So, in this chance, we are going to discuss more about the religion and race in the novel itself and how it is a beneficial read for Indonesian readers. We hope this information can help you in many ways :)!

Before we discuss the main topic of this blog, we're gonna tell you all a summary of this novel, in case there are some of you who are forget about this novel or haven't read it before.

The Kite Runner, a historical novel by Khaled Hosseini, tells a story of Afghanistan people, which mainly divided into two groups, Pashtuns, the group which is in control and Hazaras, the weaker ethnic group. The main character in this novel is Amir, a Sunni Muslim. Amir has a childhood fried, Hassan, the son of Amir's servant named Ali who is a Shi'a Muslim. Amir didn't have a close relationship with his father. When he won a local kite fighting tournament, he finally earned Baba's attention. Amir witnessed how Hassan was beaten and raped by Assef, feeling guilty and distanced himself from Hassan and finally made Hassan and his father left the house. 

Hassan (left) and Amir (right) reading a book

As the time goes by, Amir and his father are forced to flee Afghanistan and moved to California, America due to the Uni Soviet military interverens. Amir views coming to America as an opportunity to leave his past behind. Amir graduated from San Jose State University. At a flea market in San Jose, where Amir and Baba sold used goods, Amir met Soraya Taheri and her family. Amir developed a feelings towards Soraya and finally married to Soraya and settled in a happy marriage shortly after Baba died. After fifteen years of marriage, Amir got a phone call from Rahim Khan who was dying and he asked Amir to come to Peshawar.

The wedding of Amir and Soraya

As Amir flied to Peshawar, he met Rahim Khan and found out that Ali was killed by a land mine, and Hassan along with his wife were killed by the Taliban. Rahim Khan then revealed that Hassan was Amir's half brother and he told Amir to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, from an orphanage in Kabul. With a help from a man named Farid, Amir was looking for Sohrab but found out that a Taliban Official took Sohrab. Amir then met a Talib and to his surprise, the Talib was Assef. Sohrab was kept in Assef's house and Assef said that he would release Sohrab if Amir can beat him in a fight. When Assef beat Amir badly, Sohrab shot Assef with a slingshot and with Farid, the three of them ran away. Although it takes a really long time but finally Amir managed to adopt Sohrab.

Amir (left), Sohrab (middle), Amir's wife (right)

That is the end of the summary, it a touching story that teaches us great lessons in life. We will posts our next topic soon, please wait patiently :)