The issue of cultural identity in khaled hossein's the kite runner
1
Arranged By:
NINA FARLINA NIM. 104026000902
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
“
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
”
JAKARTA
2008
(2)
THE ISSUE OF CULTURAL IDENTITY IN KHALED
HOSSEINI
’
S THE KITE RUNNER
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for
the Strata One Degree
Arranged By:
NINA FARLINA NIM. 104026000902
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
“
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
”
JAKARTA
2008
(3)
ABSTRACT
Nina Farlina, The Issue of Cultural Identity in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. Thesis. Jakarta: Letters and Humanities Faculty, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah, September 2008.
In this research, the writer analyzes a novel by Khaled Hosseini entitled The Kite Runner. This research is focused on the character analysis and Cultural Identity. The writer uses qualitative descriptive method. The Kite Runner describes two main characters, Amir and Hassan. They come from the same background, Afghanistan, but present different ethnic and inter-religion.
The first character, Amir is a Pashtun ethnic, the majority ethnic group in Afghanistan, who believes he is a better class than the Hazara and who follows the Sunni sect of Islam. The second character is Hassan. Hassan is a Hazara ethnic, a minority ethnic group of Afghanis who follow Islamic beliefs called Shi’a. The different ethnics and inter-religions create civil war, ethnic conflict, and inter-religion conflict. Amir envies and has internal conflict toward Hassan. Amir creates everything to wipe Hassan off his life. Amir’s conflict makes him feel guilty and sin toward Hassan.
Finally, Amir can bury his past memories toward Hassan in America after bringing son of Hassan, Sohrab. In America, Amir still keeps and uses his cultural identity as the Afghan especially as the Pashtun.
(4)
APPROVEMENT
THE ISSUE OF CULTURAL IDENTITY IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S THE KITE RUNNER
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for Strata One Degree
NINA FARLINA 104026000902
Approved By:
DINI MASITAH, S.S. M.Hum. NIP. 150 317 724
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY “SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH”
JAKARTA 2008
(5)
LEGALIZATION
The thesis entitled “The Issue of Cultural Identity in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner” has been defended before the Letters and Humanities Faculty’s examination Committee on September 5, 2008. The thesis has already been accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirement for Strata One Degree.
Jakarta, September 5, 2008
Examination Committee
Chair Person, Secretary,
Dr. H. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd. NIP. 150 299 480 NIP. 150 261 902
Members:
Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum Drs. H. Abdul Hamid, M.Ed. NIP. 150 317 725 NIP. 150 181 922
(6)
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text.
Jakarta, September 5, 2008
(7)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
First of all, the writer would like to thank to Allah SWT, the Lord of the universe and the thereafter. She is sure that all she has is from Him. Peace and blessing be upon our prophet Muhammad SAW and all of his friends and followers.
On this occasion, the writer would like to express her gratitude to her family: her Dad (Nur Ali), her mom (Nur Janah), for their financial support, prayers, hope and all the contribution she need to finish her study in this university and she also wants to thank to her brothers (Fahrul, Baidi, Syauqi) for supporting her in doing her study.
Then, the writer would like to thank to her advisor Dini Masitah, M. Hum for her great patient and contributions in finishing this study. She thanks for all her advices that have been given to her, and may God bless her and her family.
The writer wishes to say gratitude to the following persons:
1. Dr. H. Abd. Chair, M.A., the Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Humanities. 2. Dr. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd., the Head of the English Department. 3. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd., the Secretary of the English Department.
4. All lecturers of English Letters Department for having taught and educated the writer during her study at State Islamic University “Syarif Hidayatullah”.
(8)
5. All of the Librarian of Faculty of Letters and Humanities, State Islamic University “Syarif Hidayatullah” as well as the Librarians in University of Indonesia.
6. Her beloved (Abanxu Ozi) for giving her some supports, motivation and moral encouragement to finish this paper.
7. Her cousin (Hannan) for giving her some supports to finish this paper.
8. All of her friends at English Letters Department, especially her classmates: Rika, Lia, Jay, Cut, Atin, Ne2k for cheering her up in any condition, give her some spirits and being her friends.
May Allah bless us. Amin.
Jakarta, September 2008 The writer
(9)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT………..i
APPROVEMENT………ii
LEGALIZATION………..iii
DECLARATION………iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ……….v
TABLE OF CONTENTS………..vii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………...1
A. Background of the Study………..…1
B. Scope of the Research………...6
C. Statement of the Problem……….6
D. Objective of the Research……….6
E. Significance of the Research………7
F. Methodology of the Research………..7
CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK………9
A. The Theory of Character………..….9
B. The Concept of Stuart Hall’s Cultural Identity ………..12
C. The Culture in Afghanistan………15
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH FINDINGS………19
A. Data Description……….19
B. Character Analysis………..22
C. The Issue of Cultural Identity……….…33
CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ………..51
A. Conclusion………..51
(10)
(11)
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
America is a destination place for immigrants from many countries. Many immigrants stay in U.S for different reasons such as studying, working, or running away from economic or politic crisis, religious conflict and warfare in their homeland. In America, the immigrants come along with their original culture. However, they face many kind of problems in the host country; they realize that they are different with the local people, by having a different name, physical appearance, culture, ethnicity, and religion among other things.
Nevertheless, they have to adopt and develop in the host country. This is proved from their success in literature. Many of them produced many literatures such as novels, essays, and short stories about their life as immigrant in their adopted country, such as Jumpa Lahiri, Shauna Singh Baldwin1 and Amir Tan. They showed
1
Shauna Singh Baldwin published her first novel, What the Body Remembers (1999), that has been translated into 11 languages and won the 2000 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for the Canada/ Caribbean region and was longlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize in Fiction. She is also the author of English Lessons and Other Stories and coauthor of A Foreign Visitor's Survival Guide to North America. Her short stories have been published widely and have won numerous prestigious literary prizes in the United States, Canada, and India. (Emily Johansen, Shauna Singh Baldwin, accessed on
September 6, 2008.
(12)
that their work is good as well as the other writers from the origin of America. The other writers who succeed become an established writer is Khaled Hosseini.
Khaled Hosseini is one of the Afghan immigrants who studied in Los Angeles and decided to become an established writer after releasing The Kite Runner.2 Khaled Hosseini gets positive respond for his novel The Kite Runner from American public. His novel becomes best-seller in 2005 according to Nielsen BookScan3. Another responds come from a famous writer who participates in front of The Kite Runner’s cover, Isabel Allende Liona4:
“A wonderful work… this is one of those unforgettable stories that stay with you for years. All the great themes of literature and of life are the fabric of this extradionary novel: love, guilt, redemption…..it is so powerful that for a long time after, everything I read seemed bland”.
Liona shows her admiration toward Hosseini that according to her can present enchantment story in the past for the readers through its themes such as love, guilt and redemption in a story.
2
Khaled Hosseini,Wikipedia. January 12, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Hosseini, p. 2
3
Ibid., p. 3.
4
Isabel Allende Liona, (born 2 August 1942), is a Chilean novelist. Allende, who writes in the "magic realism" tradition, is considered one of the first successful women novelists in Latin America. Her works are The House of the Spirits (1982), La gorda de porcelana (1984), Of Love and Shadows (1985), Eva Luna (1987), The Stories of Eva Luna (1989), The Infinite Plan (1991), Paula (1995), Aphrodite (1998), Daughter of Fortune (1999), Portrait in Sepia (2000), City of the Beasts
(2002), My Invented Country (2003), Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (2004) Forest of the Pygmies
(2005), Zorro (2005),Ines of My Soul (2006).
(13)
Hosseini’s The Kite Runner which was published in 2003 presents new idea and color, namely complexity of conflict toward friendship (characters) and other conflicts that happen in Afghanistan during colonization and post colonization era. It is very different with other writers that most of them tell about alienation, cultural shock, and depression. Hosseini can open the eyes of the readers to know Afghanistan life truly which for a long time is closed from outside. Hosseini wrote about Afghanistan before the Soviet war because that is largely a forgotten period in modern Afghan history. For many people in the west, Afghanistan is synonymous with the Soviet war and the Taliban. Hosseini wanted to remind people that Afghans had managed to live in peaceful anonymity5.
Afġânistân, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked
country that is located in south Asia. Afghanistan is a culturally mixed nation, a crossroads between the East and the West, and has been an ancient focal point of trade and migration. It has an important geostrategical location, connecting South Asia, Central Asia and Southwest Asia. In the 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in "The Great Game" played between the British Indian Empire and Russian Empire. On August 19, 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war, the country regained full independence from the United Kingdom over its foreign affairs.6
5
Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, Razeshta Sethnah’s interview, http://www.newsline.com.pk/newsnov2003/newsbeat4nov.htm. January 14, 2008.
6
(14)
Since the late 1970s, Afghanistan has suffered continuous and brutal civil war, which included foreign interventions in the form of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan, in which the ruling Taliban7 government was toppled. Besides, many conflicts reveal namely internal conflict as pressure of repression, ethnic conflict and inter-religion conflict that become dominant conflict in Afghanistan society. The economy has suffered greatly from the recent political and military unrest since the 1979 Soviet invasion and subsequent conflicts, while severe drought added to the nation's difficulties in 1998–2001.8 This history influences Hosseini to lead the writing of his first novel “The Kite Runner”. Because his memories of peaceful pre-Soviet era, Afghanistan is as well as his personal experiences with Afghanistan’s Hazara people.9
The Kite Runner reflects condition of Afghanistan society that becomes major issues such as discrimination, racialism and identity10 that undergoned by the main
7
The Taliban ("Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement") ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001. They came to power during Afghanistan's long civil war. Although they managed to hold 90% of the country's territory, their policies—including their treatment of women and support of terrorists—ostracized them from the world community. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/taliban.html. Accessed on January 6, 2008.
8
Economy of Afghanistan.Wikipedia. January 6, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan , p. 17.
9
Khaled Hosseini (2008), op.cit. p. 3
10
Identity are the interface between a private sense of self that includes conscious and unconscious feelings, rational and irrational motivations, personal beliefs and values and those factors that constitute the social context in which we experience those feelings and motivations (for example age, ethnicity and sex). (Judy Gales and Tim Middleton, Studying Culture, a practical introduction
(15)
characters, Amir and Hassan in this story. The other conflicts that appears internal conflict in Amir are ethnic conflict and inter-religion conflict in both of them. As we know, the civil war in Afghanistan caused by ethnic conflict. Afghanistan is ethnically a very diverse country, namely Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Baluch, and other small group.11 In this story, the main characters who undergone those conflicts come from a Pashtun and a Hazara ethnic. The Pashtun is described as an ethnic group that has positive attribute and exclusive, namely high social status, honourable, high class, good appearance and success men. Besides, the Hazara has negative attribute, namely low social status, poor, low class, physical defect and low job such as waiter, servant and beggar. In this case, the different backgrounds in both of them appears the issues of cultural identity12 which Amir also keep his cultural identity until he lives in America.
Based on the statement that Amir has internal conflict based on the cultural identity, the writer is interested to analyze the issue of cultural identity in The Kite Runner. This novel presents the different identities based on two separate ethnical positions, Hazara and Pashtun. These identities are given meaning through the language and symbolic through which they are represented. The writer will focus on
11
Background Note: Afghanistan, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5380.htm, p. 3. Accessed on May 24, 2008.
12
The issue of cultural identity is central to cultural studies, in so far as cultural studies examines the contexts within which and through which both individuals and group construct, negotiate and defend their identity or self-understanding. (Andrew Edgar and Peter Sedgwick, Cultural Theory The Key Concepts (New York: Routledge, 2002), p.183)
(16)
the main characters, Amir and Hassan. In this research, the writer wants to analyze the issue of cultural identity using the concept of Stuart Hall’s Cultural Identity.
B. Scope of the Research
Based on the Background of the Study above, the writer would like to limit the research in analyzing, namely the characters and the issue of cultural identity in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.
C. Statement of the Problem
Based on the Scope of the Research above, the writer would like to formulate the statement of the problem that is:
1. What characteristics do Amir and Hassan have?
2. How does cultural identity influence the life of Amir and Hassan in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner?
D. Objective of the Research
Based on the Statement of Problems above, the objective of this research is to explain the main characteristics of Amir and Hassan, and their cultural identity in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.
(17)
E. Significance of the Research
The significance of the research is to broaden up the researcher’s knowledge regarding to the cultural identity of Afghanistan.
F. Methodology of the Research 1. Method
The writer conducts the research by using qualitative descriptive method. This method collects variety of source based on the study of cultural identity and character. This method also describes and analyzes characters’ cultural identity.
2. Analysis of Data
In this research, the data are qualitatively analyzed by the relevant theory of Cultural Identity.
3. Instrument of the Research
The research employs the writer herself as the instrument by reading a novel The Kite Runner and variety of source based on the study of character and cultural identity, identifying and classifying the information related to the story.
4. Unit of Analysis
Unit of analysis is the novel of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, 2003 published by Bloomsbury.
(18)
5. Time and Place of the Research
The research was done in the English Letters Department, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta on April 2008 and would be ended on July 2008.
(19)
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Chapter II consists of the theory character and the concept of cultural identity by Stuart Hall. The theory character is used to analyze the main characters, Amir and
Hassan and the concept of cultural identity by Stuart Hall is important to analyze the issue of cultural identity in the main characters that influences their daily life.
A. Character
The term character is applied to a literary form,13 for purposes of analysis, character is someone in literary work who has some sort of identity (it need not be a strong one), an identity which is made up by appearance, conversation, action, name, and (possibly) thoughts going on in the head.14
It means that characters do some action according to their part and role in the story. We also can say that character are presented in dramatic or narrative work who convey their personal qualities such as names, physical appearances, family, social
13
C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon, A Hard Book to Literature (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986), 5th ed., p. 81.
14
Christopher Russell Reaske, How to Analyze Drama (New York: Monarch Press, 1996), p.5.
(20)
status, education through dialogue and action by which the readers understand their thought, feeling, intentions and motives.
The character in the narrative work, such as novel it self can be major or minor characters, protagonist or antagonist characters, flat or round characters and static or dynamic characters.
1. Major and Minor Characters.
Major or main character is a character that holds an important role, very dominant and always appears in each conflict. On the contrary, the character which appears only few times and takes the short portion is called minor character.
2. Protagonist and Antagonist Character.
The protagonist is the main character of the novel, the one who deals with truth and being conflicted by other characters. The opponent of protagonist is known as the antagonist or in the event that opposing force is not person, we speak of the antagonist force.15 He / she forces the protagonist character and often gives any trouble or even conflict to the protagonist character.
Besides, the antagonist character need not be a person, it can be animal, a superstition, a misconception, fate or any abstraction or force placed in dramatic conflict with protagonist.
15
(21)
3. Flat and Round Characters
According to Aspects of the Novel (1927), E. M. Forster defines two basic types of characters, their qualities, functions, and importance for the development of a novel; they are flat character and round character.16
Flat character is constructed round a single idea or quality.17 It means that he / she undergoes no change or development and tends to stay the same throughout a story. He / she is not psychological complex characters and therefore readily accessible to readers.
While round character is character encompass many idea and qualities. He / she undergoes change and development, as well as entertaining different ideas and characteristic. It presents us with more facets.
4. Static and Dynamic Character
Static character is usually a flat character. It means that character who remain stable in his attitude throughout a work. While dynamic character is like to be a round character, because a character undergoes personal development and change as he story progresses. In most fiction-even, the greatest-minor character tends to be flat instead of round.18
16
E. M. Forster, “Flat and Round Characters,”Essentials of the Theory of fiction, ed. Michael Hoffman and Patrick Murphy (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1988), p. 40.
17
Ibid.
18
X. J. Kennedy, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991), 5th ed., p. 48.
(22)
B. The Concept of Cultural Identity
Identity are the interface between a private sense of self that includes conscious and unconscious feelings, rational and irrational motivations, personal beliefs and values and those factors that constitute the social context in which we experience those feelings and motivations (for example age, ethnicity and sex)19. Everybody lives in different countries in the world, with different cultures, religions, personalities even ethnicities. These differences become his or her identity in society when they are interacting with one another. And identity is used to know the social status, such as races, ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status, etc.
Besides, Cultural Identity belongs to a particular ethnic group and how that influence one’s feeling, perception, and behavior (Dusek 1996, 162). Other definitions come from Phenny (Dacey and Kenny 1997, 191) said that Cultural Identity is that part of a person’s self concept that comes from the knowledge and feelings about belonging to a particular cultural group. From those definitions, it can be concluded that Cultural Identity is one’s feeling belongs to particular ethnic group. This matter also explains that sense of belonging is an important factor in forming identity.
According to the book Cultural Identity and Diaspora by Stuart Hall, defines
‘cultural identity’ in terms of one, shared culture, a sort of collective ‘one true self’, hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificial imposed ‘selves’, which
19
Judy Gales and Tim Middleton, Studying Culture, a practical introduction (Massachusset: Blackwell publisher, 1999. P. 32.
(23)
people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common.20 It is called as identity as being (which offers a sense of unity and commonality).21
This definition explains that cultural identities reflect the common historical experiences and shared cultural that show us a ‘one people’. For example is the language, the Afghans which lived in Kabul speak with Dari (Afghan Farsi) as their language to communicate to others. Language being use as one of the sign to describe that they as one people (Afghanistan). Since the language is the one kind of culture, it means that they all shared their culture through language.
Besides, the strength of our cultural identities involves the degree to which we see our culture as important in the way we define ourselves. We tend to see our cultures as important in how we define ourselves. We are in another culture than when we are in our own cultures. We are more aware of our cultural identities when we found ourselves in another culture than when we are in our own culture.
In addition, based on the problem that is Amir tries to apply his original culture (Pashtun) in his host country (America) in his family like his father (Baba) wants his culture still exists although they are in America. Because of that the suitable theory will be Diaspora.
20
Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”, Identity and Difference, ed. Kathryn Woodward (London: Sage Publication, 1997), p. 51.
21
Stuart Hall, Cultural Identity and Diaspora, Accessed on April 7, 2008. http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postcolonism/Hall.html. p. 1.
(24)
According to Stuart Hall, Diaspora does not refer us to those scattered tribes whose identity can only be secured in relation to some sacred homeland to which they must at all costs return.22 And also he said that Diaspora defined, not by essence or purity, but by the recognition of necessary heterogeneity and diversity; by a conception of ‘identity’ which lives with and through, not despite, difference; by the hybridist.23 That now says the cultures are hybrid, difference and diversity, because of that it is so hard to find the pure one. Diaspora identities are those which are constantly producing and reproducing themselves a new, through transformation and difference. It means that when they are at the other country they still stick with their culture and try to develop through transformation constantly.
To find what can material culture tells about Diaspora, it is important to learn much about the relationship between people and their possessions through this study. The sentimental and emotional attachment to objects is very strong in people’s motivation and desires to obtain and maintain certain objects in their possession. These motivation are combined with several outside factors, including economics and pressures from those within and outside of one’s family or ethnic, religious, or socioeconomic group to produce of pattern of consumer choice that is riddled with indicators of social status and group identity.24
22
Stuart Hall (1997), op. cit., p. 57.
23
Ibid., p. 58.
24
http://soa.il.stu.edu?anthrophologi/theses/Peterson/thesis-Final.htm#_Toc 39565785.Accessed on September 7, 2008.
(25)
C. The Culture in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is the land of many ethnic groups, which is why the country has so many different cultures yet they are all call themselves proudly an Afghan.25 The culture of Afghanistan reflects its ancient roots and position as a crossroads for invading ethnic groups and traditions.
The population of Afghanistan includes many different ethnic groups. Afghanistan has been disrupted over the past 25 years by civil wars, invasions, rule of the Taliban, and terrorist activities which have destroyed much of the country's culture, family and tribal connections, thus creating hundred's of thousands of refugees. As a result, it becomes difficult to discuss Afghanistan's culture as many of the traditions and ways of life have been ignored and overturned. However, family and tribal life is resuming, refugees are slowly returning and being resettled, and some of the traditional patterns of life are being re-established.
Afghanistan's ethnically and linguistically mixed population reflects its location astride historic trade and invasion routes leading from Central Asia into South and Southwest Asia. While population data is somewhat unreliable for
25
(26)
Afghanistan, Pashtuns make up the largest ethnic group at 38-44% of the population, followed by Tajiks (25%), Hazaras (10%), Uzbek (6-8%), Aimaq, Turkmen, Baluch, and other small groups. Dari (Afghan Farsi) and Pashto are official languages. Dari is spoken by more than one-third of the population as a first language and serves as a lingua franca for most Afghans, though Pashto is spoken throughout the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan. Tajik and Turkic languages are spoken widely in the north. Smaller groups throughout the country also speak more than 70 other languages and numerous dialects.
Afghanistan is an Islamic country. An estimated 80% of the population is Sunni, following the Hanafi school of jurisprudence; the remainder of the population--and primarily the Hazara ethnic group-- predominantly Shi'a. Despite attempts during the years of communist rule to secularize Afghan society, Islamic practices pervade all aspects of life. In fact, Islam served as a principal basis for expressing opposition to communism and the Soviet invasion. Islamic religious tradition and codes, together with traditional tribal and ethnic practices, have an important role in personal conduct and dispute settlement. Afghan society is largely based on kinship groups, which follow traditional customs and religious practices, though somewhat less so in urban areas.
Afghans display pride in their religion, country, ancestry, and above all, their independence. Like other highlanders, Afghans are regarded with mingled apprehension and condescension, for their high regard for personal honor, for their
(27)
clan loyalty and for their readiness to carry and use arms to settle disputes. As clan warfare and internecine feuding has been one of their chief occupations since time immemorial, this individualistic trait has made it difficult for foreign invaders to hold the region.
Afghanistan has a complex history that has survived either in its current cultures or in the form of various languages and monuments. However, many of the country's historic monuments have been damaged in recent wars. The two famous statues of Buddha in the Bamyan Province were destroyed by the Taliban, who regarded them as idolatrous. Other famous sites include the cities of Kandahar, Herat, Ghazni and Balkh. The Minaret of Jam, in the Hari River valley, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The cloak worn by Muhammad is stored inside the famous Khalka Sharifa in Kandahar City.
Buzkashi is a national sport in Afghanistan. It is similar to polo and played by horsemen in two teams, each trying to grab and hold of a goat carcass. Afghan hounds (a type of running dog) also originated in Afghanistan.
Although literacy levels are very low, classic Persian poetry plays a very important role in the Afghan culture. Poetry has always been one of the major educational pillars in Iran and Afghanistan, to the level that it has integrated itself into culture. Persian culture has, and continues to, exert a great influence over Afghan culture. Private poetry competition events known as “musha’era” are quite common
(28)
even among ordinary people. Almost every home owns one or more poetry collections of some sort, even if they are not read often.
The eastern dialects of the Persian language are popularly known as "Dari". The name itself derives from "Pârsî-e Darbârî", meaning Persian of the royal courts.
The ancient term Darî – one of the original names of the Persian language – was revived in the Afghan constitution of 1964, and was intended to signify that Afghans consider their country the cradle of the language. Hence, the name Fârsî, the language of Fârs, is strictly avoided. With this point in mind, we can consider the
development of Dari or Persian literature in the political entity known as Afghanistan."
Many of the famous Persian poets of the tenth to fifteenth centuries stem from Khorasan where is now known as Afghanistan. They were mostly also scholars in many disciplines like languages, natural sciences, medicine, religion and astronomy.
(29)
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDING
A. Data Description
In chapter III, having read the novel, the writer finds some statements as the corpus of the research. They are classified into two groups: characters and cultural identities. They are presented in the following tables.
1. The List of Characters in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.
No Characters Corpus Remark
1. Amir “He asked me to fetch Hassan too,
but I lied and told him Hassan had the runs. I wanted Baba all to myself.”
“I envied her. Her secret was out...” “He asked me to fetch Hassan too,
but I lied and told him Hassan had the runs. I wanted Baba all to myself.”
“…we all had our reason for not
adopting. Soraya had hers, the general his, and I had this…”
“…how I’d betrayed Hassan...”
“…Courage was just one of them.”
Liar Stable
Envious Stable
Obedient Stable
Betrayer Stable
Coward Unstable
(30)
No Characters Corpus Remark 2 Hassan “…Hassan steps in and fends them
off…” “…Hassan protested. But my
neighbor said the Talibs…” “..Hassan didn’t struggle. Didn’t
whimper…” “Hassan’s reply was a single word,
delivered in a thin, raspy voice:’
yes’…”
“Then I understood: This was
Hassan’s final sacrifices for me.” “…Baba would have believed him
because we all knew Hassan never lied.” Brave Stable Defenseless Stable Loyal Stable Honest Stable
2. The List of Cultural Identities in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.
No Corpus Cultural Identities
1. “…a word for which a good Farsi equivalent
does not exist…”
“But his favorite story, and mine, was ‘Rostam
and Sohrab’, the tale of the great warrior …” “Buzkashi was, and still is, Afghanistan’s
national passion.”
“EVERY WINTER, districts in Kabul held a
kite-fighting tournament, and if you were a by living in Kabul…”
“Tomorrow is the Tenth day of Dhul-Hijjah, the
last month of the Muslim calendar,…”
Language Literature
Traditional Games:
Buzkashi
The kite tournament
Traditions:
(31)
“On Eid, the three days of celebration after the
holy month of Ramadhan…”
“…yelda is the first night of the month of Jadi,
the first night of winter…”
“…we snapped a tree branch and used it as a
credit card. Hassan and I would take the wooden stick to the bread maker.”
“The people dress in dark suit, the woman clad
in black dresses and their head covered with traditional white hijabs.”
“…-for lafz, the ceremony of giving word…” “ACCORDING TO TRADITION, Soraya’s
family would have trown party, the Shirini-khori-or “Eating of the Sweets ceremony.” “…for the nika-the swearing ceremony”
“We did Ayena Masshaf, where they gave us a
mirror…”
“Blood is a powerful thing, bachem, and when
you adopt, you don’t know whose blood you’re
bringing into your house”
“It still may not permit this adoption. In fact,
even the more moderate Muslim nations are hesistant with adoption because in many of those countries, Islamic law, Shari’a, doesn’t
recognize adoption.”
Eid-Mubarak
Yelda
Wooden stick as credit card. Funeral clothes Wedding Ceremony: lafz Shirini-khori nika Ayena Masshaf Adoption
(32)
B. Character Analysis
In Writing Themes about Literature (1977) by Edgar. V. Robert, it is mentioned that analyzing character is one of the analyses that are very popular and interesting in discussing novel. It is almost certain that a novel speaks about the characters, how the characters react towards event. Thereby the characters presence is vitally something that in novel.
In The Kite Runner, “the issue of cultural identity” is done by the main characters, Amir and Hassan. These two main characters have very important role in development of the story because these two characters are presented with conflicts and actions that build the novel. All explanations above are principal reasons why the characters analysis is important in this paper.
1. Amir
Amir is a main character of the story; he has an important role in developing the story. In the beginning of the story, Khaled Hosseini introduces his first character as a man named Amir who records his own life story from the winter 1975 in Kabul come. He remembers about his past with Hassan when he does not help Hassan, his servant get a sexual harassment that has changed his life.
Mine was Baba
His was Amir. My name.
Looking back it now, I think the foundation for what happened in the winter of 1975-and all that followed-was already laid in those first words. (Hosseini 2003, 10)
(33)
Amir is an Afghan man that lives in Wazir Akbar Khan in Kabul. He comes from a rich family. His father is Baba (Persian for father) who becomes one of the richest merchant in Kabul. His mother Sofia Akrami, died after giving birth to him. She is a highly educated woman and an English Literature teacher.
Everyone agreed that my father, my Baba, had built the most beautiful house in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, a new and affluent neighborhood in the northern part of Kabul. Some thought it was the prettiest house in Kabul. (Hosseini 2003, 4)
After his mother died, Amir lives with his father, Baba. Amir likes to be a man that loved by Baba (farther for Persian), but Amir also hates Baba inclined wish to be his father without seeing Amir’s potential. Amir is raised by Baba with the forming of Afghanistan character such as asking Amir to play soccer and hunting. In this case, Amir hates Baba who forces him to be a real man like the Afghan boys who likes playing soccer and kite, hunting and fighting. Amir likes his mother’s hobbies such as reading poetry and story that makes Baba does not appreciate with his first story.
Baba shrugged and stood up. He looked relieved, as if he too had been rescued by Rahim Khan. “Yes, give it to Kaka Rahim Khan. I’m going
upstairs to get ready, “And with that, he left the room. Most days I
worshipped Baba with an intensity approaching the religious. But right then, I wished I could open my veins and drain his cursed blood from my body. (Hosseini 2003, 27)
Because his father does not appreciate Amir’s story, Amir always compares himself with Hassan. In this case, Amir feels jealous when he sees Baba that gives his servant, Hassan present in Hassan’s birthday and asks Hassan to go out with them. It
(34)
makes their relationship inharmonious. In one side, he loves Hassan, as his loyal friend and his servant that are very kind and obedient. However, he hates Hassan, because Hassan steals Baba’s attention and affection to him. In this case, Hassan is not his friend but just his Hazara servant that gets Baba’s attention more than Amir, his son. It is caused by the similarity of their character and hobbies.
I remember the day before the orphanage opened, Baba took me to Gargha Lake, a few miles north of Kabul. He asked me to fetch Hassan too, but I lied and told him Hassan had the runs. I wanted Baba all to myself. And besides, one time at Gargha Lake, Hassan and I were skimming stones and Hassan made his stone skip eight times. The most I managed was five. Baba was there, watching, and he patted Hassan on the back. Even put his arm around his shoulder. (Hosseini 2003, 12)
The climax of conflict in Amir happens after watching the sexual of harassment that is undergone by Hassan in the kite tournament in the winter, 1975. Amir just watches this incident from long distance without giving help. Although, Hassan run the last kite to be given to Amir, to his victory.
“Inshaallah, we’ll celebrate later. Right now, I’m going to run that blue kite
for you,” he [Hassan] said. He dropped the spool and took off running, the
hem of his green chapan dragging in the snow behind him. (Hosseini 2003, 58-59)
Amir does not help Hassan because he an agreement with his friend who hates Hazaras and an agent of sexual harassment that nothing is free in the world. So that, there is someone to be sacrificed to fulfill Amir’s willingness. Hassan is sacrificed by Amir. However, Amir feels this contrary with his heart and his ambition. Hassan’s attention, loyalty and affection toward Amir makes he feels guilty because he lets
(35)
Hassan became a victim of sexual harassment. The accumulation of his guilt make Amir decides to wipe Hassan off his life by accusing Hassan of stealing his watch and money in his birthday. Amir wants Hassan to go far away from him. He takes its solution comes from Baba’s principle that a thief is the one unforgivable sin, the common denominator of all sins. (Hosseini 2003, 92). By this way, Amir can wipe Hassan off his life.
“Then I took a couple of the envelopes of cash from the pile of gifts and my
watch, and tiptoed out. I paused before Baba’s study and listened in. He’d
been in there all morning, making phone calls. He was walking to someone now, about a shipment of rugs due to arrive next week. I went downstairs, crossed the yard, and entered Ali and Hassan’s living quarters by the loquat
tree. I lifted Hasan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of
Afghani bills under it.” (Hosseini 2003, 90)
When the Russian invade Afghanistan in 1980s, Amir and Baba flee to America. In America, Amir still remembers about his memories and his guilt toward Hassan in the past. The feeling over of Amir’s guilt makes him always fastens upon anything with his mistakes that he has ever done in the past. For example, when Soraya (Amir’s wife) does not get pregnant although they endure various fertility program. Amir has opinion that it is God punishment to him. (Hosseini 2003, 164). They have chosen to adopt a baby to be their breed later, but adoption process is not an easy matter for Amir and his wife that come from Afghanistan. For Afghan society, if they want to adopt a baby with unknowing breed clearly, it will evoke a problem in the future. Because in society tradition of Afghan race, background and somebody’s offspring is very important to detect from which they come and from
(36)
which ethnic breed they are given. In addition, in Islam law, Shari’a, does not permit adoption even the more moderate Muslim nations. This quotation shows his guilt that influences his thinking for not adopting a baby as his breed:
We all had our reasons for not adopting. Soraya had hers, the general his, and I had this: that perhaps something, someone, somewhere, had decided to deny my fatherfood for the things I had done. May be this was my punishment, and perhaps justly so, I wasn’t meant to be, Khala Jamila (Soraya’s mother)
had said. Or, maybe, it was meant to be. (Hosseini 2003, 164)
Amir’s conflict and guilt cannot be over because he is not able to tell about the past26 honestly with the other people, even his wife, Soraya. Amir can accept and understand about Soraya’s mistake in the past, she ran away with the Afghan boy when she was eighteen at the time. (Hosseini 2003, 143). However, he cannot do what she was done toward him. Amir compares himself with his wife who can tell the past bravely before their married.
I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with. I opened my mouth and almost told her how I’d betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out, and destroyed
a forty-year relationship between Baba and Ali. But I didn’t. I suspected there
were many ways in which Soraya Taheri was a better person than me. Courage was just one of them. (Hosseini 2003,144)
Finally, Amir can solve his problem by departing for Afghanistan. He departs for Afghanistan with the situation is dangerous, because of many foreign countries and militants enter to Afghanistan. (Hosseini 2003, 213). He wants to bring a son of Hassan in the orphanage in Afghanistan. His return to Afghanistan which the
26
As explained before in page 24-25, that Amir does not help and just watches Hassan to be a victim of sexual harassment, accuses Hassan of stealing his watch and his money and puts Hassan away from Amir’s house.
(37)
dangerous condition shows that Amir has internal conflict deeply, so that, he wants to sacrifice himself to escape from his problems.
For Amir, Afghanistan is like two sides of a coin, namely hating and missing. Those matters melt to become one, namely his willingness to atone his sin and wipe off his guilt. His trip to Afghanistan is to take a part from himself remained and to wipe off all bad memories with a kindness, with rescue a half-nephew, Sohrab.
I looked at the round face in the Polaroid again, the way the sun fell on it. My brother’s face. Hassan had loved me once, loved me in a way that no one ever
had or ever would again. He was gone now, but a little part of him lived on. It was in Kabul. Waiting. (Hossein 2003, 199)
That’s quotation imply his effort to penetrate all memories and betrayal ever Amir did towards his playfellow and all at once his half-brother, Hassan. He hopes by meeting Sohrab, Hassan can forgive himself and Amir can be human better.
From the description above, the writer concludes that Amir is protagonist character. He gets the conflict from his father and other character, Assef who hates Hassan and makes him to be evil with Hassan. Amir is presented with the internal conflict: when Baba wants him to follow his willing like playing soccer but he prefers to read novel, when Baba gives attention and affection toward Hassan, the servant boy more than Amir, he envies toward Hassan, and when Hassan becomes a victim of discrimination and sexual harassment, he cannot help so that Amir felt guilty and sin. This character also can be categorized as round and dynamic character, because Amir undergoes changes in his attitude; his envious toward Hassan makes Amir let Hassan
(38)
to be a sexual harassment and want to put Hassan away from his house. However, his guilt and his sin toward Hassan makes Amir wants to sacrifice himself to come back to Afghanistan with the dangerous situation to bring Sohrab, son of Hassan, to live with Amir in America and to atone his sin and his guilt. Besides, Amir does not want to do second mistake.
2. Hassan
In the story, Amir has a servant and also a loyal friend, his name is Hassan. Hassan is one of the important characters in the novel. Hassan’s presence also presented a Hazara character in the novel. A Hazara is a minority ethnic group in Afghanistan. Amir has conflict with Hassan in the novel that has important role in developing story.
For the first time, Amir describes Hassan’s character in physical appearance. When they were children, Amir sees Hassan’s physical appearance hidden.
We took turns with the mirror as we ate mulberries, pelted each other with them, giggling, laughing. I can still see Hassan up on that tree, sunlight flickering through the leaves on his almost perfectly round face, a face like a Chinese doll chiseled from hardwood: his flat, broad nose and slanting, narrow eyes like bamboo leaves, eyes that looked, depending on the light, gold, green, even sapphire. I can still see his tiny low-set ears and that pointed stub of a chin, a meaty appendage that looked like it was added as amere afterthought. (Hosseini 2003, 3)
As Amir describes, Hassan has round face, broad nose and slanting. His eyes are narrow and looks like gold, green, sapphire, besides, his ears is tiny and his chin
(39)
is pointed stub. Amir mentions Hassan’s character because Hassan is very different with other people in Afghanistan. Usually, people call Hassan “flat-nosed” because Hassan has characteristic as Hazara Mongoloid features. (Hosseini 2003, 8). The Hazaras are Mogul descendant and look a little like Chinese people.
Amir also mentions that Hassan was born in the cold winter day, 1964 by his mother, Sanaubar who run off with a clan of traveling singers and dancers. One year after Amir’s mother died.
It was in the small shack that Hassan’s mother, Sanaubar, gave birth to him
one cold winter day in 1964. while my mother hemorrhaged to death during childbirth, Hassan lost his less than a week after he was born..(Hosseini 2003, 6)
Hassan never knows his mother, because his mother left him after giving birth. So, Hassan never talked about his mother as if she’d never existed. Besides, he never knows what she looks like, and where she was. Hassan lives with his father, Ali, a man who had memorized the Koran. According to Amir, Ali is his father’s playmates when they are kids until polio crippled Ali’s leg, who has adopted by my grandfather into his own household. (Hosseini 2003, 21). After that, Baba never refers Ali as his friend in Baba’s stories.
Hassan grows up illiterate like his father, Ali. Despite his illiteracy, Hassan can understand the mystery of words if Amir reads poems and stories to him. Because of that Amir can write his first story in thirty minutes.
Sitting cross-legged, sunlight and shadows of pomegranate leaves dancing on his face, Hassan absently plucked blades of grass from the ground as I read him stories he couldn’t read for himself. That Hassan would grow up illiterate
(40)
like Ali and most Hazaras had been decided the minute he had born, perhaps even the moment he had been conceived in Sanaubar’s unwelcoming
womb-after all… (Hosseini 2003, 24)
Amir and Hassan always play together when they were kids such in the grass with reading story and Hassan hears the story from Amir because he can’t write and read. One day, Amir pretended reading story from the book with a scramble of codes, indecipherable and mysterious. Although, that is Amir’s words, but, Hassan understands what Amir said. Hassan also likes his story because that is the best story Amir has read to him in a long time. It makes Amir happy and makes this as his first story. (Hosseini 2003, 26). For Amir, Hassan is the perfect audience in many ways, totally immersed in the tale, his face shifting with the changing tones in the story and Hassan says that Amir will be a great writer and famous. Besides, Amir mentions that his father “Baba” Like Hassan, because Hassan has the same characteristics and hobbies with Baba such as playing a kite, soccer, hunting and fighting. Hassan is a man. He always protects and helps Amir.
“Self-defense has nothing to do with meanness. You know what always
happens when the neighborhood boys tease him? Hassan steps in and fends them off. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes... (Hosseini 2003, 20)
Hassan has self defense in him, he againsts the people who disturb him and Amir. For example, Hassan also can fight against Assef (antagonist character), a sociopath bully known for his brass knuckles and his rancor towards Hazaras when Hassan and Amir are walking through Afghanistan. However, in the kite tournament,
(41)
1975, Hassan can’t defense himself toward the other boy who wants to revenge him, when Hassan goes to fetch the last cut kite, a great trophy. Hassan tries to protect Amir's kite, but Assef beats Hassan and sodomizes him.
Assef knelt behind Hassan, put his hands on Hassan’s hips and lifted his bare
buttocks. He kept one hand on Hassan’s back and undid his own belt buckle
with his free hand. He unzipped his jeans. Dropped his underwear. He positioned himself behind Hassan. Hassan didn’t struggle. Didn’t even
whimper. He moved his head slightly and I caught a glimpse of his face. (Hosseini 2003, 66)
However, Hassan cannot against the other boy who sodomized him because Hassan wants to keep the kite for Amir. He does not want the kite will be taken by the other boy. Hassan wants Amir to be happy with Baba, so that Hassan sacrifices himself for his friend, Amir. He also admits that he steals Amir’s watch and money (as being told in this paper in Amir’s part p. 22). In this quotation shows how Hassan recognizes that he is a thief and sacrifices him self just for her boss, a Pashtun.
Baba came right out and asked. “Did you steal that money? Did you steal
Amir’s watch, Hassan?” Hassan’s reply was a single word, delivered in a
thin, raspy voice: “yes.” I flinched, like I’d been slapped. My heart sank and I
almost blurted out the truth. Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final
sacrifices for me. If he’d said no, Baba would have believed him because we
all knew Hassan never lied. And if Baba believed him, then I’d the accused; I
would have to explain and I would be revealed for what I really was. Baba would never, ever forgive me. (Hossein 2003, 91)
However, Hassan and Ali are not permitted to go out from his house, because they are part of Baba’s family. They lived together with Baba when they were kids. After that, Hassan and Ali live in the only house in the village that had a walled
(42)
garden in Bamiyan. Hassan has been a man in 1986 in Bamiyan with his wife, Farjana jan from a Hazara.
So, one day I fueled up the Buick and drove up to Hazarajat. I remember that, after Ali dismissed himself from the house, your father told me he and Hassan had moved to a small village just outside Bamiyan… (Hosseini 2003, 179-180)
Then, Hassan moves to live in Baba’s house in Kabul when Rahim Khan (Baba’s friend) asks him to live in there. According to Rahim Khan, Hassan is a son of Baba with Sanaubar, his mother, but Hassan doesn’t know about it. Hassan just knows that he wants to keep Baba’s house because no one stays in Baba’s house after Baba and Amir flew to America. When they live in Baba’s house, Hassan has a son, Sohrab and Sanaubar, his mother comes to him. (Hosseini 2003, 185). Sohrab become the center of their existence. Hassan teaches him to read and write for not growing up illiterate like Hassan. Hassan loves his son a lot.
In 1998, the Taliban massacre the Hazara in Mazara-i-Sharif. (Hosseini 2003, 187) Hassan and his family live alone in Wazir Akbar Khan. So, a pair of Taliban officials come to investigate and interrogated Hassan. They want to claim the house. Hassan always protests, but, the Talibs take him to the street and shot Hassan and his wife, Farzana jan. Hassan tries to struggle the Taliban to maintain that house. But, the Taliban don’t believe that they live in the big house. Because the Taliban think that Hassan as Hazara is a liar, a thief. So, the Taliban shot them. This is a final sacrifice from Hassan to Amir
(43)
….A pair of Talib officials came to investigate and interrogated Hassan. They accused him of lying when Hassan told them he was living with me even though many of the neighbors, including the one who called me, supported Hassan’s story. The Talibs said he was a liar and a thief like all Hazaras and
ordered him to get his family out of the house by sundown. Hassan protested. But my neighbor said the Talibs were looking at the big house like-how did he say it?-yes, like ‘wolves looking at a flock of sheep.’ They told Hassan they
would be moving in to supposedly keep it safe until I return. Hassan protested again. So they took him to the street-“. (Hosseini 2003, 192)
From the description above, the writer concludes that Hassan is the protagonist character. He is a hero for Amir, such as accompanying Amir to play in the backyard when Amir is alone, hearing Amir’s first story when Baba dislikes it, protecting Amir when Assef disturbs him, running the last cut kite for Amir’s victory and it makes Hassan becomes a victim of sexual harassment, recognizing that Hassan steals Amir’s watch and money toward Baba and it makes Hassan to leave Amir’s house, and protecting Amir’s house from the Talibans and it makes Hassan and his family died. Besides, this character is presented with a flat character; Hassan undergoes no change or development in his attitude and tends to stay the same throughout a story. Hassan always protects helps and cares with Amir, for his happiness in whatever situation.
B. The Issue of Cultural Identity
The issue of cultural identity in this story happened in both of the two main characters, Amir and Hassan. Their cultural identities come from histories in Afghanistan where Afghanistan is ethnically a very diverse country, namely Pashtun,
(44)
Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Baluch, and other small group.27 The culture of Afghanistan reflects its ancient roots and position as a crossroads for invading ethnic groups and traditions.28 The writer analyzes their cultural identities because they have conflict based on cultural identity eventhough they come from the same country, Afghanistan. However, they come from different ethnics. In this analyzing the issue of cultural identity, the writer uses the concept of Cultural Identity by Stuart Hall.
Cultural Identity is in terms of one, shared culture, a sort of collective ‘one true self’, hiding inside the many other, more superficial o artificial imposed ‘selves’, which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common. It is called as
identity as being.
This definition explains that Amir and Hassan’s characters reflect their common historical experiences and shared cultural that show them as one people as
27
Afghanistan's ethnically and linguistically mixed population reflects its location astride historic trade and invasion routes leading from Central Asia into South and Southwest Asia. While population data is somewhat unreliable for Afghanistan, Pashtuns make up the largest ethnic group at 38-44% of the population, followed by Tajiks (25%), Hazaras (10%), Uzbek (6-8%), Aimaq, Turkmen, Baluch, and other small groups. Dari (Afghan Farsi) and Pashto are official languages. Dari is spoken by more than one-third of the population as a first language and serves as a lingua franca for most Afghans, though Pashto is spoken throughout the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan. Tajik and Turkic languages are spoken widely in the north. Smaller groups throughout the country also speak more than 70 other languages and numerous dialects.
Background Note: Afghanistan, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5380.htm, p. 3. Accessed on May 24, 2008.
28
Culture in Afghanistan, Accessed on September 14, 2008. http://asia.msu.edu/centralasia/Afghanistan/culture.html. p. 1
(45)
the Afghan; however they have different cultural identity in ethnic. Many cultures that they have as the Afghan even they have different ethnics, namely:
1. Language
The Afghans which lived in Kabul speak with Dari (Afghan Farsi) as their language to communicate to others. Amir and Hassan live in one house in Amir house because Amir is a boss of Hassan. They usually speak with the language of Afghan Farsi as the official language to communicate in both of them even they come from different ethnic. In this case that Language being use as one of the sign to describe them as one people (Afghanistan).
“…a word for which a good Farsi equivalent does not exist: “sociopath.” (Hosseini 2003, 34)
2. Literature
Although literacy levels are very low, classic Persian poetry plays a very important role in Afghan culture. Poetry has always been one of the major educational pillars in both Iran and Afghanistan, to the level that it has integrated itself into culture. In this case, Amir and Hassan like the poetry and the other literature work such as the epic Persian heroes at the tenth-century “Shahnamah” and
“Rostam and Sohrab”. Amir usually tells the story to Hassan because Hassan is illiterate that cannot read. However, Hassan understands what Amir tells to Hassan. For Amir, Hassan is the perfect audience that can understand his first story and makes Amir can write his first story in thirty minutes. (Hosseini 2003, 29)
(46)
3. Traditions
Amir and Hassan have tradition according to Islam. In tenth day of Dhul-Hijjah, the last month of the Muslim calendar, and the first of three days of Eid Al-Adha, or Eid-e-Qorban, as Afghans call it-a day to celebrate how the prophet Ibrahim almost sacrificed his own son for God. Usually Amir, Hassan and their fathers stand in the backyard to see this ritual every year. Besides, there are some customs in Eid Al-Adha such as divide the meat in thirds, one for the family, one for friends, and one for the poor. Then, the other custom is to not let the sheep see the knife and feed the animal a cube of sugar to make death sweeter. (Hosseini 2003, 67).
Besides on Eid, three days of celebration after the holy month of Ramadhan, Kabuli dressed in their best and newest clothes and visted their families. People hugged and kissed and greeted each other with “Eid Mubarak.” Happy Eid. Children opened gifts and played with dyed hard-boiled eggs. In this moment, Hassan gets the gifts from Baba and he plays together with Amir. (Hosseini 2003, 38).
In Afghanistan, yelda is the first night of the month of Jadi, the first night of winter, and the longest night of the year. As was the tradition, Amir and Hassan used to stay up late, their feet tucked under the kursi, while Ali (Hassan’s father) tossed apple skin into the stove and told them ancient tales of sultans and thieves to pass that longest of nights. Besides, if the people ate watermelon in the night of yelda, they wouldn’t get thirsty the coming summer. In addition, yelda was the starless night tormented lovers kept vigil, enduring the endless dark, waiting for the sun to rise and
(47)
bring with it their loved one. (Hosseini 2003, 125) 4. Traditional Games
In Afghanistan, Buzkashi is a national sport that is similar to polo and played by the horsemen into two teams, each trying to grab and hold of a goat carcass. It takes place on the first day of spring, New Year’s Day. In this moment, Baba ever took Amir to watch Buzkashi from the upper bleacher.
“Buzkashi was, and still is, Afghanistan’s national passion.” (Hosseini 2003, 18)
Besides, when they were children, they usually play the traditional games of Afghanistan such as chasing each other between tangles of trees in Baba’s yard, playing hide-and-seek, cops and robbers, cowboys and Indian, insect torture, flying kite and running the kite. Before the kite tournament, they sat under the kursi and played panjpar as wind-rattled tree branches tapped on the window. In this case, Amir never thinks about Hassan’s cultural identity that comes from a Hazara.
The kite-fighting tournament is an old winter tradition in Afghanistan. It is started early in the morning on the day of the contest and does not end until only the winning kite fly in the sky. In this moment, all of the boys from different ethnic come gather on sidewalks and roofs to cheer for them who follow competition. The streets are filled with kite fighters, jerking and tugging on their lines, squinting up to the sky, trying to gain position to cut the opponent’s line. Besides, every kite fighter had assistant. In this case, Hassan is Amir’s assistant who held the spool and the fed line. It shows that Hassan is inferior character that accepts everything for his boss, Amir.
(48)
For Amir, Hassan is the greatest kite runner in Afghanistan that always gets the spot the kite would land before the kite does, as if he had some sort of inner compass.
EVERY WINTER, districts in Kabul held a kite-fighting tournament. and if you were a boy living in Kabul, the day of the tournament was undeniably the highlight of the cold season. (Hosseini 2003, 43-44)
However, in the winter of 1975, the internal conflict which Amir envies toward Hassan happens in both of them that makes their cultural identity is different (superior and inferior). Amir comes from the superior ethnic who always does everything to wipe Hassan off his life like letting Hassan to become a victim of sexual harassment and accusing Hassan of stealing his watch and money. Besides, Hassan comes from the inferior ethnic who always accept everything from the superior ethnic, Amir.
Baba came right out and asked. “Did you steal that money? Did you steal
Amir’s watch, Hassan?” Hassan’s reply was a single word, delivered in a
thin, raspy voice: “yes.” I flinched, like I’d been slapped. My heart sank and I
almost blurted out the truth. Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final
sacrifices for me. If he’d said no, Baba would have believed him because we
all knew Hassan never lied. And if Baba believed him, then I’d the accused; I
would have to explain and I would be revealed for what I really was. Baba would never, ever forgive me. (Hossein 2003, 91)
Their cultural identity is very strong that cannot be changed by anything. It can be seen when Hassan always gets the cruelty from superior ethnic, especially from Amir. He cannot against what Amir does toward him. Hassan only accepts it and Hassan also recognizes that he is just a Hazara. He is a minority ethnic group in Afghanistan.
(49)
Hassan identity is like his father, Ali, as a Hazara and Shi’a Moslem. The Hazara kinship is organized in lineages; descent is traced through the male line. The male in specific area consider themselves descendants of common ancestor.29 A Hazara has physical appearances that are very different with a true Afghan, the Pashtun.
I can still see Hassan up on that tree, sunlight flickering through the leaves on his almost perfectly round face, a face like a Chinese doll chiseled from hardwood: his flat, broad nose and slanting, narrow eyes like bamboo leaves, eyes that looked, depending on the light, gold, green, even sapphire… (Hosseini 2003, 3)
Hassan has a round face, a face like a Chinese people. He has broad nose and slanting, narrow eyes like bamboo leaves, eyes that looked, depending on the light, gold, green, even sapphire and tiny low-set ears. His characteristics are Mogul descendants. The Hazara are thought to have several affinities with the Mongols, including physical appearance, language, and kinship system. In addition, the term
‘Hazara’ is a Mongol-Persian blend.30
Besides, the Hazaras has attribute completely negative, like: low social, poor, low class, has defect in body such as Hassan has harelip and Ali has leg polio, and only move in low job area likes waitress, beggar, and servant like Ali and Hassan as servants. In addition, most Hazaras is illiterate like Hassan and Ali that cannot read the books. Because they do not have money to attend school. So, most Hazaras had
29
John Middleton and Amal Rassam. “Hazara”Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Middle Africa and the East. Vol. IX. (New York: G. K. Hall and Company, 1995), p. 1
30
(50)
been decided to illiterate the minute he had born. From that’s description, the people have stereotype for the Hazara “Poor and illiterate”. Because Hassan has negative attribute, the other boys have epithet name to Hassan such as Flat-Nose, A loyal Hazara. Loyal as a dog. In this case shows that Hassan is inferior that always accepts everything from the other.
And on days when he felt particularly inspired, he spiced up his baddering a little, Hey, you flat-nosed Babalu, who did you eat today? Tell us, you slanted-eyed donkey. (Hosseini 2003, 34)
Besides, Amir is a Pashtun boy and Sunni Moslem. His identity is inherited by his father as Patriarchy.
Never mind any of those things. Because history isn’t easy to overcome.
Neither is religion. In the end I [Amir] was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I [Amir] was Sunni and he was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change
that. Nothing. (Hosseini 2003, 22)
Amir recognizes his identity as a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim. His identity cannot be changed by anything, because history is not easy to overcome. Amir as a Pashtun is different with the other boys especially his servant, Hassan, a Hazara in physical appearances, religion, ethnicity and personality. The differences make him as superior, better class in Afghanistan. Besides, it can be seen from the different in his physical appearances with the other as in this quotation:
Never mind that to me, the face of Afghanistan is that a boy with a thin-boned frame, a shaved head, and low-set ears, a boy with a Chinese doll face perpetually lit by hare lipped. (Hosseini 2003, 22)
(51)
Amir has a thin-boned frame, a shave head, and low set ears. His face shows that he is a true Afghan. The most of the Pashtun is the richest people and successful man that has respected job, such as Amir can attend school and his father ‘Baba’ who is the famous businessperson in Kabul such as building carpet exporting business, two pharmacies, and a restaurant and building an orphanage in Kabul.
So Baba proved them all wrong by not only running his own business but becoming one of the richest merchants in Kabul. Baba and Rahim Khan built a wildly successful carpet-exporting business, two pharmacies, and a restaurant. (Hosseini 2003, 13)
Amir has the same vision to sweep the Hazaras from his homeland with the other Pashtun, because the Hazaras are considered to have dirty blood. The similarity makes him one true self and show that they are Pashtun. They recognize that they are the true Afghan because Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns, not the flat-nose like Hassan.
Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghan, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood. “He made a
sweeping, grandiose gesture with his hand. “Afghanistan for Pashtuns, I say.
That’s my vision.” (Hosseini 2003, 35)
The term "Afghanistan," meaning the "Land of Afghans," was mentioned by the sixteenth century Mughal Emperor Babur in his memoirs, referring to the territories south of Kabul that were inhabited by Pashtuns (called "Afghans" by Babur)31.
31
(52)
What they are done is like in the book written by an Iranian, Khorami tells that there is repression toward the Hazara that done by the Pashtuns in the nineteen century. The Pashtun had persecuted and oppressed the Hazara. And the Pashtuns had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and sold their women. The reason of Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras that Pashtun is Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras is Shi’a. (Hosseini 2003, 8). It shows that the Pashtun has stereotyped as “bellicose” eventhough he has done that intentionally.
Moreover, Amir intends to bury his memory with Hassan and his sin toward Hassan that comes is over. So, he wants to start a new life with his father, Baba in America when Russian invades to Afghanistan and to get his future as the famous writer.
For me [Amir], America was a place to bury his [Hassan] memories.
(Hosseini 2003, 112)
Besides, Hassan always becomes the target of the Pashtun ethnic who is dominant group in Afghanistan. It makes Hassan’s life frightened. He cannot live free. Where he lives, he always undergoes discrimination such as from Amir, Assef and the Taliban which follow a radical Islam but this is also Pashtun-dominated. For example in 1998, the Taliban massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif. Talibans who come from the Pashtun ethnic do the cruelty toward the Afghans that break the law or shari’a law that their made. The Hazara become a target of the Taliban who hate the Hazara ethnic.
(53)
A few weeks later, the Taliban banned the kite fighting. And two years later, in 1998, they massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif. (Hosseini 2003, 187) These internal conflicts also represent the ethnics and inter-religion conflict. These conflicts appear in both of them that are based in ethnic and inter-religion. In this story, the inter-religion conflict has relation with the ethnic conflict, namely the Pashtun is Sunni Moslem and the Hazara is Shi’a Moslem.
The reason of Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras that Pashtun is Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras is Shi’a. (Hosseini 2003, 8)
It also can be seen that the Pashtun is dominant in Afghanistan and as majority group because Afghanistan is the land of Pashtun. Besides, the Hazaras is minorities group that always get discrimination from the Pashtuns. So, the civil war happened in both of them and symbolizes the two opposite struggles in Afghanistan, one by the Pashtuns, and the second by the Hazara, minority’s ethnic group in Afghanistan.
When Russian invades to Afghanistan, most of the Pashtuns, especially Amir and Baba flee to America to save them from several invasions from foreign countries. It shows that the Pashtun is the richest ethnic. It is very different with Hassan just lives in Afghanistan with the dangerous situation that lives in small village in Afghanistan. For Amir, He flew to America to bury his past memories and to start a new life in America. In America, Amir lives in California where the Afghans immigrants live there. Amir and Baba still keeps their tradition and their habits as the Pashtun ethnic. They wants their culture still exist although they are in America. It is
(1)
because they have to run and get the last kite. In this story, the boy who can run and get the last kite is Hassan. For Amir, Hassan is the best runner in every kite tournament. (Hosseini 2003, 46)
(2)
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
The Kite Runner is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini, one of famous Afghanistan American authors. The situation of Afghanistan American inspired him to write The Kite Runner. It tells about someone who runs to catch a kite. The kite is struggle source among Amir, Hassan and Assef as a trophy of honor. It is a symbol of victory for the Afghan boys in Afghanistan. When they succeed to cut the last kite that fly in the air, their victory is incomplete yet because they have to run and get the last kite. In this story, the boy who can run and get the last kite is Hassan. For Amir, Hassan is the best runner in every kite tournament
The first thing, the writer analyzes in this research is the two main characters in the novel, Amir and Hassan. Their character have important role in development of the story, because they are performed with the conflict through their dialogues and actions that build the story in this novel.
Besides, the writer also analyzes their cultural identity because they have different cultural identity even they come from the same country, Afghanistan. It has the purpose to find out the issue of cultural identity in both of them. Their cultural
(3)
identities influence their life that creates many conflicts such as internal conflict, ethnic conflict and inter-religion conflict.
The first character is Amir. Amir comes from the richest family and the reputable family in Kabul. He is a pashtun and Sunni Moslem. A Pashtun is majority ethnic group and superior ethnic in Afghanistan that always does cruelty toward the minority ethnic group. His father is successful man. Besides, his mother is literature lecturer. However, Amir lives with his father and Baba’s friend, Rahim Khan because his mother died after giving birth him. When Hassan becomes a victim of racialism and discrimination that happen in Afghanistan, Amir could not defend him. It makes Amir undergoes an insomniac and feel guilty until he lives in America and becomes a great writer. When Amir does not get a baby, Amir thinks that this is his punishment to him from his mistake in the past toward Hassan.
The second character is Hassan. He is a Hazara and Shi’a Moslem. His identity has stereotype as ‘poor’ and illiterate. Hassan comes from poor family because his half-father, Ali, is a servant in Amir’s house. Then, he grows up illiterate and harelips. The Hazaras in Afghanistan have negative attribute from the other ethnics group such as low job, poor, defect in body such as Hassan. His identity make him always becomes a victim of discrimination and racialism from the Pashtun and the Taliban. So, the Hazara is inferior ethnic in Afghanistan.
Amir and Hassan have the cultural identity that is stable and cannot be changed by anything. Hassan always accepts anything from the Pashtun. Then Amir
(4)
still sticks his cultural identity even Amir lives in America. He undergoes Diaspora like he wants to marry. He chooses a woman that comes from the Pashtun. He wants to keep alive his ancient standard of pride and honor. Then he uses the Afghan wedding and he does not adopt a son from other breed.
B. Suggestion
From the analyses and the conclusion above, the writer would like to propose the following suggestions:
a. For the researchers who want to understand the story of the novel, to know about the characters because they are the important elements that can develop a story.
b. For the researchers who are interested in doing the same research particularly concerning about cultural identity and literary work to read more various theory to get more wide knowledge and deep analysis.
(5)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Novel:
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. London: Bloomsburry, 2003. Books:
Anonymous. Literature for Composition Essays, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. New York: Longman, 2003.
Edgar, Andrew and Peter Sedgwick. Cultural Theory The Key Concepts. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Farkhan, Muhammad. Penulisan Karya Ilmiah. Jakarta: Cella, 2006.
Gales, Judy and Tim Middleton, Studying Culture, a practical introduction. Massachusset: Blackwell publisher, 1999.
Hoffman, Michael and Patrick Murphy, eds. Essentials of the Theory of fiction. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1988.
Hogman, C. Hugh and William Harmon. A Hard Book to Literature. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986.
Kennedy, X. J. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama . New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991.
Middleton, John and Amal Rassam. Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Middle Africa and the East. Vol. IX. New York: G. K. Hall and Company, 1995.
Rahman, Mushtafa Abd. Afghanistan di Tengah Arus Perubahan. Jakarta: Kompas, 2002.
Reaske, Christopher Russell. How to Analyze Drama. New York: Monarch Press, 1996.
(6)
Rutherford, Jonathan. Identity: Community, Culture, Difference. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990.
Sutrisno, Mudji and Hendar Putranto., eds. Cultural Studies: Tantangan Bagi Teori- Teori Besar Kebudayaan. Jakarta: Koekoesan.
Woodward, Kathryn., ed. Identity and Difference. London: Sage Publication, 1997. Websites:
Afghanistan. Wikipedia. Accessed on January 6, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan
Background Note: Afghanistan. Accessed on May 24, 2008. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5380.htm.
Economy of Afghanistan. Wikipedia. Accessed on January 6, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan.
Hall, Stuart. Cultural Identity and Diaspora, Accessed on April 7, 2008. http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postcolonism/Hall.html. Hammond,Philip. Cultural Identity and Ideology, Accessed on April 7, 2008.
http://myweb.lsbu.ac.uk/philip-hammond/1999b.html. Isabel Allende Liona. Wikipedia. Accessed on January 12, 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Allende .
Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, Razeshta Sethnah’s interview,
http://www.newsline.com.pk/newsnov2003/newsbeat4nov.htm. January 14, 2008.
Khaled Hosseini. Wikipedia. Accessed on January 12, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Hosseini,
Rais, Rasul Bakhsh. Conflict in Afghanistan: Ethnicity, Religion, and Neighbours. Accessed on January 12, 2008.
http://www.Afghanistan-%20Rais,ESR,Jan%201999.pdf The Taliban. Accessed on January 6, 2008.