The Kite Runner: Abuse of Power

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  • Created by: ea25
  • Created on: 10-04-19 16:05
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  • Abuse of political/social power
    • Taliban
      • Assef embodies the consequences of the abuse of power for power's sake & the violence & repression of the Taliban regime.
        • Assef is a sociopath who thrives in an atmosphere of chaos & subjugation.
      • Took control in 1996, totalitarian regime
      • Have double standards - banned TV and alcohol but privately indulge themselves, "big-screen TV" in house where Amir meets Assef.
    • Soviet-backed Communist regime
      • Abuse of power forces Baba & Amir to go into exile.
      • Soviet invasion represented on a domestic level through the attempted **** of a young Afghan woman by a Russian soldier, as a "price" for letting the lorry Amir is travelling in pass.
        • Baba: "tell him I'll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place".
        • "there is no shame in war"
        • Baba trying to preserve honour of woman & Afghanistan.
    • Hazaras
      • Second-class citizens in the quasi-caste system of Afghanistan.
      • Suffer humiliation for their appearance (Hassan & Ali)
        • "flat-nosed" "cleft lip"
        • "They chased him on the street and mocked him when he hobbled by."
      • When General Taheri demands an explanation for Amir & Soraya's adoption of "a Hazara boy", he echoes the discrimination against this entire ethnic minority.
      • Baba condones a systematic discrimination against Hazaras by refusing to acknowledge his son with a Hazara woman, Sanaubar.
    • America
      • USA didn't fully intervene in Taliban taking control of Afghanistan until after 9/11 - terrorist threat.
        • Has its own ideology - Bush wanted to "win the war against Terrorism".
      • Presented ambiguously - saviour in destroying the Taliban but also a destroyer.
      • Western powers didn't intervene straight away
  • Soviet invasion represented on a domestic level through the attempted **** of a young Afghan woman by a Russian soldier, as a "price" for letting the lorry Amir is travelling in pass.
    • Baba: "tell him I'll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place".
    • "there is no shame in war"
    • Baba trying to preserve honour of woman & Afghanistan.

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