Colliding Cultures in The Kite Runner Essay

In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir is one of the characters that had to face the conflict of colliding cultures, particularly institutional. During his childhood, Amir had everything he wanted. His father was rich and someone very important in Kabul. When the Soviet war in Afghanistan began, all of that no longer mattered and Amirs life was turned upside down. Baba, Amirs father, experienced a cultural collision when they had to move from Kabul to Pakistan and then to the United States. Both triumphed in the face of change and were able to start new lives without losing their humanity.

Amir went from living in luxury to traveling to Pakistan in a crowded truck escaping from the new Taliban regime and finally settling down in a dilapidated apartment. Because of the Soviet war, Amir and his father were forced to leave their lives behind before them too were killed. Unlike his father, Amir was looking forward to the resettlement in America. When finally free in America, Amir embraces the culture and tries to leave his ugly past and cowardly events from Kabul. However, Hassan always remains in the back of Amirs conscience, haunting him throughout his stay in America. Amir starts college classes to work on his English and to get his degree and does this primarily to get the approval of his father, an approval that he always longed for. After his marriage to Soraya and his fathers death, Amir receives a call from an old friend telling him to return to Pakistan. His past had come to disturb him from his new life in America and as he returned to Pakistan, Rahim Khan revealed the whole truth of Hassan. Once again he had to return to his hometown Kabul where he felt like a stranger. He did not recognize the city, all of the trees were cut down and even his old home did not seem as luxurious as it once was. His trip back made him realize how different most everyone else lived. Since he was considered a part of the privileged class he never had to face the problems of poverty, which seemed to have been experienced by most other people. This overwhelming trip full of shocking blows and pain finally gave him peace after so many years. His journey to retrieve Hassans son from Assef was his way of asking for forgiveness and to become good again. Finally, Amir adopts Sohrab, Hassans son, and takes him as his own son. In the end he runs a kite for Sohrab the way Hassan used to do for him while repeating the same phrase, For you, a thousand times over. Throughout the book Amir encounters tribulations which he runs away from cowardly not expecting the repercussions from his actions and in the end found a way to face it straight on. Although Amir struggled while getting accustomed to the new culture in America, he seemed to have coped with it well, I believe this is because America was his escape to a worry-free country.

America was a place to bury my memories. For Baba, it was a place to mourn his. This quote from the book really stuck out to me when talking about colliding cultures. Unlike Amir, Baba did not embrace American culture. He had a hard time adjusting to life in a crappy apartment working at a gas station where no one knew of him. Baba would take pride in knowing all the changes he made with his contributions in Kabul. In Afghanistan Baba was a big shot that everyone in town came to when they needed help and now he felt like nobody. Amir recalls the parties he used to have back home and how the day of his graduation, Baba kept buying everyone drinks at the bar as his way of being the life of the party again. The change to a Taliban regime in Kabul really hit him hard; it made him want to return to the good old days of smoking cigars in his study with his good friend Rahim Khan. Baba not only missed the luxurious life he lived in Kabul but he also mentioned to have missed Hassan and Ali, he stated that he wished Hassan would have gone to America with them. Assimilating to American culture was definitely not easy for Baba who just wished to go back to Kabul. In the end, it seems that he gave up hope in ever returning to his country and died of lung cancer in America.

Colliding cultures can clearly be seen through the eyes of the characters, Amir and Baba from The Kite Runner. Used to luxury and mansions, the boy and his father are forced out of Afghanistan because of the Soviet-Afghan War into Peshawar, Pakistan and then to California where they must start all over. Both of these characters deal with their dilemma differently and overcome them in their own way. Amir finally finds peace after years of mental unrest while Baba at last gives in as if defeated. Both caught between colliding cultures, in the end Amir and Baba find peace.