Setting in The Kite Runner Essay

As we read through the story, the audience witnesses the invasion of the Soviets into Afghanistan. Amir and his father had fled the country without telling their servants they were leaving because, You couldnt trust anyone in Kabul anymore. For a fee or under threat people told on each other, neighbor on neighbor, brother on brother, and servant on master (112). The setting, Afghanistan, proves to be very important to the story because it shapes not only the novel but also Amirs life. If this story had not taken place in Afghanistan, it could have changed the entire book completely as Amir may have never left home.

When the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan, many people tried to flee the country to a better place. Amir and his father went to extreme measures to escape. One by one, we mounted the idling trucks rear deck, climbed the rear access ladder, and slid down into the tank (121). This shows just how desperate they were as they climbed into an oil tanker where they sat shoulder to shoulder so that they could leave the country. The Soviets came into their homeland which they loved and left it a barren place where few would like to live. This quotation is important to the story because if the Soviets had never invaded Afghanistan, then Amir and his father would have never had to flee.

One ordinary day while Amir is in America, he receives a phone call which asks him to come to Pakistan. When Amir arrives in Pakistan he meets an old family friend who gives him a letter which was written to him from Hassan. In the letter, Hassan informs Amir that the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan and, the Afghanistan of our youth is long dead. You cannot escape the killings anywhere. In Kabul, fear is everywhere, it is part of our lives (216). From this letter we are able to see how dramatically the area changed in what Amir once called home. If the setting had not been in Afghanistan which was run by the Taliban, Hassan would have never died the way he did and Amir would have stayed in America. This quotation proves how essential the setting is to the story.