Propaganda in The Kite Runner

As an African-American female I am definitely one susceptible to racial profiling. It is easily said that Blacks and Latinos have been the biggest victims of racial profiling in the United States for the past few decades. Of course for us today racial profiling still exists, but now there is another main target to add to the list. Since 9/11 our society has had a negative view on people of Middle Eastern descent, more specifically from Afghanistan. Regardless if one is an Afghani or not, if they look like they could be they are treated differently. It is the American way to always make someone as a victim and unfortunately for people of Middle Eastern descent they have been targeted. Since September 11th, 2001, many of us have been ignorantly mistaken that all Afghanis are responsible for the terrorist acts of that horrible day. But this is not the case. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses propaganda to persuade readers to change their view of Afghanis.

In the book there are two major uses of propaganda. The first use being that Hosseini tries to depict the lives of Afghans as regular people or as the “common man”. Whereas Americans may have thought that they were very different than other cultures, they actually do have a good number of similarities with us and others. They too have close relationships with their friends where they feel closer to them than they do to their family. They have fun on their regular outdoor adventures with their best friends. They are also similar in the less romantic way, being that they too have classes and racism amongst them. In their own country they are racially profiled and treated differently for being different. Not to say that classism or racism is the American way, but it is a struggle that many countries go through and have gone through in the past. So he uses propaganda by relating the Afghan people to others so that we can sympathize with them by making them seem like the “common man”.


The second use of propaganda is a kind of “demonizing the enemy.” He uses the book to teach us that there is a difference between the “regular” Afghan and the terrorists, the Taliban. He starts this by using symbolism in Assef. When Amir and Hassan are young boys they were often bullied by Assef, a Pashtun boy who found joy in making their lives difficult. He intensifies Assef’s wickedness by having him idolize Adolf Hitler for his ideas about purifying his race. Assef even gives Amir a book on the biography of Adolf Hitler for his birthday. The symbolism is that Assef is always picking on someone and it even seemed as if his own parents may have been a bit scared of him. Obviously in the book, Amir has a big impact on the unhappiness of everyone around him. The one event in which he did not stand up for his friend Hassan was followed by a series of evil-doing because of his guilt. Although Amir is the main reason why the lives of his loved ones changed, it is actually Assef who is the root of all evil in the situation. If it hadn’t have been for him, there is no telling how their lives would have ended up, but unfortunately their lives couldn’t be picture perfect. Hosseini also depicts the Taliban as being evil by showing the contrast of Amir’s hometown of Kabul from when he was younger and how it has changed due to the Taliban. It turned into a very dangerous place where people were tormented and done wrong by these terrorists for no reason.

Obviously I feel that the book is one full of propaganda but I feel that it is a “good” propaganda. The book allows people to open their eyes to what is really going on in Afghanistan and lets us know that they may not be so different from us after all. I think any book that educates people on other’s lives and helps to stop stereotypes is a great book. So the use of propaganda in the book is good because the intended outcome is bettering society. Even with this I can’t say that my opinion of Afghanistan has changed after reading the book. Before reading The Kite Runner I had an impartial view of Afghans. I had no prejudice towards them. I honestly wouldn’t be able to point out an Afghan from any other person of Middle Eastern descent. But now after reading the book I am glad to have been educated on the culture of the people.

Hopefully this book will reach people outside of San Jose State University so that more can be educated on Afghanistan. Right now racial profiling of Afghans is a big deal in the United States and hopefully people will take the initiative to educate themselves about this overwhelming problem. Unfortunately since we, as a culture, are often afraid of anything different than us, who knows if this book will ever get to the majority of society. African-Americans have been in this country for centuries and we are still racially profiled. People still look at us as being criminals or uneducated rather than looking at us as being people full of as much potential as the next person. Of course things have changed, but not enough. However instead of me being bitter about the matter, I just hope better for the next. The next at this time is Afghans, and I hope that they will get their chance to educate people of the false stereotypes before the problems of racism get any worse for them.