Historical and Cultural Themes in Literature: An Analysis of Kite Runner & Exodus - Research Paper Example

?HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL THEMES IN LITERATURE: AN ANALYSIS OF KITE RUNNER & EXODUS Introduction This paper examines the historical and cultural themes in the works of Khaled Hosseini and Leon Uris in their books Kite Runner and Exodus respectively. Khaled Hosseini drove home a strong point on the history and politics of his home country, Afghanistan when the book was released. This was due to the cultural and historical theme that was inherent in the book. Leon Uris on the other hand worked as a journalist in Israel and did extensive research the founding of the modern state of Israel. His book, the Exodus gave an in-depth analysis of the Palestinian-Arab conflict, which was also inherent in the theme of the book Basic Analysis A theme is the broad idea or moral of a story (Montgomery 1) and this doubles as the interactive approach used by the writer to connect with the reader. The theme affects and is affected by the motive of the writer; thus one can say that the end a writer seeks to attain is what forms the theme of the literary work. One can imagine that there have been so many ends that have been achieved by writers throug literature. The theme therefore has an effect on the extent to which one can market his or her books to readers. Background of Authors Leon Uris was born in the United States and he moved to Israel after serving in the US Marine and in Israel, he worked as a journalist and reporter (Lambert 50). In a biography, Nadel (93) examined that Uris sought to revive his Jewish identity and that is what made him take on research into the founding of the State of Israel and most of those findings influenced his book, Exodus. Khaled Hosseini on the other hand was born in Afghanistan to an aristocratic Pusthun family around the time that the protagonist of his Kite Runner, Amir was born. Hosseini’s family had to leave Afghanistan for Europe during the Soviet invasion. They returned briefly and then went back to the United States where he has lived to this very day (Hosseini Personal Website) This therefore suggests that both writers had an inherent interest in the history of their nations and they were therefore influenced by the history and culture of their countries. Elements of History & Non-Fiction in Theme The narrations employed in the works of these authors make a person wonder if the work was actually non-fiction or fiction. Leon Uris states in the opening page that “Many events in The Exodus are a matter of history and public records. Many of the scenes were created around historical incidents and used as a backdrop for the purpose of fiction” (Uris 1). This shows evidence that Uris uses characters of fiction to portray elements of the founding of the nation of Israel, its culture and history through fiction and art. The hint that Hosseini gives in his book about the role of history in his narration is found in the opening statement he makes in Kite Runner saying “I became what I am today at the age of twelve on a frigid overcast day, in the Winter of 1975… that was a long time ago but it is wrong what they say about the past I’ve heard, about how you bury it because it claws its way out” (K. Hosseini 4). This suggests that Hosseini was using elements of narration to present a historical point of view of his people and community. Afghanistan & Israel through the Writers Khalid Hosseini & Leon Uris both bring out the historical injustices meted out to their peoples through the individual experiences of their characters to express the collective suffering and elements of their peoples’ history and culture. This is done through fast paced narrations and very rigourous and clear pictures presented by these writers. In Kite Runner, Hosseini presents Amir as a young member of the well-to-do Pushtun family who has all the privileges and luxuries and is seen to be righteous and innocent. Amir’s father, Baba is presented as a very rich aristocratic Pushtun merchant who was ready to face to advancing Soviets with courage. On the other hand, Hassan and his father, the Hazara’s are seen as inferior people. Amir and Assef treated Hassan with so much contempt because they knew that he had no rights and he was of a lower social class. This picture of Afghanistan shows the level of injustices and unfair distribution of wealth and rights in the time Hosseini was growing up in the country. Pustuns had been at the helm of affairs in the country for nearly 300 years (Shaikh 254) and they lived in the best of houses in the best neighborhoods, like Wazir Akbar Khan District where Baba and Amir lived. The Pushtun also treated other tribes like the Hazaras as inferior. This was seen in the way Assef treated Hassan so horribly by raping him. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan promised more opportunties for tribes like the Hazaras and Tajiks who were living under opression under the Pustuns. This also presented a threat to the Pushtun elites and that was the reason why Baba and Amir had to flee the country hiding in a fuel tank vehicle. Leon Uris on the other hand begins with the case of Ari Ben Canaan an Israeli secret intelligence officer, visiting the Jewish refugee camps of Cyprus in 1948 that held countless Jewish refugees who had survived the in Europe holocaust. These refugees were banned from entering Palestine because the British colonialists had placed a ban in Jewish immigration. Ari Ben Canaan therefore visits the camp and meets the nurse Kathy Fremont, Dov Landau and other young survivors of the holocaust who had lost their parents. Ari hijacks a ship Exodus and declares a hunger strike on the ship and requests for the British to lift the blockade on Palestine or they would blow themselves up. The British finally allows them to sail and this group of young Jews enter Palestine and become the pioneers for the establishment of farming comunities in Israel. In this case, Leon Uris tells about the suffering that Ari Ben Canaan had gone through serving by serving the British Army in the Second World War and the number of Jews who died fighting for the British who had now decided to refuse Jewish ships from entering Palestine because of Arab pressures. Uris also presents the case of young Dov Landau who lost his entire family in the holocaust and survived in the concentration camp as a boy because he could forge signatures for the Nazis so they kept him alive. He also discusses the story of Karen Hansen Clement who is a young charismatic girl whose family perished in the holocaust and she survived just because of a benevolent Danish family’s help. Through this, Uris gives a vivid firsthand account of the holocaust and the need for the establishment of the state of Israel. In the Second Part of Kite Runner, Hosseini turns his focus to the life in exile for Amir and his father in Freemont, California. There, he shows signs of the integration of Baba into a foreign culture and the changes in their circumstances. However, there are still ethnic slurs and exchanges between Amir and Baba and even General Taheri which indicates that the problem of discrimination was so much instituted in Afghanistan that it was a stereotype that the older generation could not get over (Schmoop 3) The second part of Exodus focuses more on the entry of the ship to Palestine and the new life for the refugees, including Karen, Dov (who was still not socializing because of the trauma) and the other children. The story then shifts to Ari Ben Canaan’s family, made up of his father and uncle (Barak and Akiva respectively). They had fled the Pogroms in Russia on foot to Israel at the turn of the 20th century. Uris uses this as an opportunity to explain the stages Jews had gone through living in Eastern Europe for generations. He exhibits the injustices that his people had had to endure and this justifies the need for a homeland for Jews as no nation can accommodate Jews fully. He turns the story to Zionism. In Kite Runner, Amir marries and fails to have children until he is called by an ailing uncle to Pakistan and he is told about the death of Hassan and the presence of Hassan’s only son, in an Afghan refugee camp. This portion of the book gives the reader a clue on how life is like in Pakistan. It shows Pakistan as a heavily populated Muslim country that has so many challenges with infrastructure ad basic amenities. Also, the reader gets an idea of the conflict in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion and the tribal feuds that occurred between the Soviet armed Hazaras and Tajiks (Mark 149)against the remaining Pustuns which led to the formation of the Taliban and the influx of foreign fighters in Afghanistan (Noor 148). This clearly indicates how the nation, Afghanistan ended up in ruin by a civil war. Leon Uris went on to focus on the interaction between Jews in Palestine and the British colonialists who saw the Jews as a threat to their stay there as well as the local Arab farmers. He uses characters to show the lobbying efforts by the Jews for support in the creation of a homeland for Jews. At this point, Ari was protecting a Kibbutz in the north of Palestine. This gives vivid accounts of life in Jewish Palestine and how they put things together to declare their nation independent. After the British pullout, Israel declared itself independent and this led to a war which Ari had to fight against a well equipped Arab village nearby. Ari was successful in defending his hold but most of the young men in his unit dies from the war. In Kite Runner, Amir takes the perilous trip across the border to Afghanistan to look for Hassan’s son. He is very much moved by the fact that Hassan was his own brother and he had no child of his own. In Afghanistan, he reveals the state of the destruction of the country in vivid details of stoning, hanging and decapitation in public places. He finally finds Sohaib. However, he meets Aseef, one of the bullies who knew Amir from his youth who raped Hassan. He had also been radicalized to a very extreme essence and he tries to kill Amir but he escapes narrowly. In Pakistan, Sohaib shows his devout commitment to Islam by visiting a mosque early in the morning. Fearing that he was missing, Amir chases Sohaib and finds him praying. He joins in and does his religious duty in a typical Pakistani mosque that shows the communal status of people in the country. Sohaib also confides in Amir that he has forgotten what his parents looks like, this is clearly an echo of so many orphans in Afghanistan. Leon Uris goes further to tell the story of Dov Landau recovering under Karen’s help and support in Israel. Dov Landau gets a scholarship to study engineering in the United States, a reflection of many student interchange between USA and the then young state of Israel. However, Karen refuses to go with Dov and she dies in an Arab attack of her Israeli settlement. This clearly shows the dangers young Israelis have to face on a daily basis. Limitations Although the scope of these two books seem to be authoritative sources for the reader who has no knowledge of the history of these nations, there are some people who do not agree with these authors. For instance, Zureik (118) states that the historical accounts of Leon Uris are not so accurate. However, on the Internet Critic Site, Mouth Shut, there were 11 reviews and 10 attested to the accuracy of leon Uris whilst one accused him of bias. This therefore implies that although these writers use literature as a tool to portray their culture, they are still doing non-fiction and in some cases, there is the issue of subjectivity that can crop up. Conclusion Kite Runner and Exodus are both books with strong historical and cultural themes that make them more like non-fiction. They narrated social injustices against the people involved through the characters to create a conception of the collective situation in the mind of the reader. However, some people accuse some of these authors of bias. Works Cited Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Riverhead Books, 2004. Print. Hosseini, Khalid. Biography. 22 May 2011. 22 May 2011 . Website. Lambert, Joshua. American Jewish Fiction. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2009. Print. Mark, Graham. Afghanistan in Cinema. Illinios: University of Illinios Press, 2010.Print. Montgomery, Paula Kay. Approaches to Literature Through Theme. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1992. Print. Nadel, Ira. Leon Uris: Life of a Bestseller. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010. Print. Noor, Ronny. "Review: [Untitled]." World Literature Today Vol 78 314 (2004): 148. Journal. Schmoop. The Kite Runner: Schmoop Bestseller. California: Shmoop University Inc, 2010. Print. Shaikh, Nemeen. "Good Again? Imperialism & Salvation in the Kite Runner & Cache." Shaul, Oboe Annalisa & Bassi. Experiences of Freedom in Postcolonial Literatures & Cultures. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2011. 254 - 275. Print. Site, Online Critic. Mouth Shut. 11 December 2010. 22 May 2011 . Website. Uris, Leon. Exodus. New York: Bantam Books, 1958. Print. Zureik, Elia. "Review of Leon Uris' Exodus From Reason." Journal of Palestinian Studies Vol 13 No 4 (1984): 118 - 121. Journal. Read More