Standing Up for What Is Right

If you were to make one mistake in you life that changed almost everything in your life because you knew that you could have done something to stop it, would you try to find a way to make up for your mistakes? In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; it is about a man named Amir and his different challenges he has to face on his way to try and redeem himself from one big mistake he made in his childhood that hunted him for years because he knew he could have done something to help out a friend.

In the book it also focuses on the poverty of the Afghan children, but it helps teach us that during was a lot more people are willing to sacrifice things they care about because they are so fearful of the head officials. So not many people are willing to stand up for what they know is right because they are scared and they are also under a lot of pressure to do certain things.

I reached again, gently, and I pulled him to me.

“I won’t hurt you,” I whispered. “I promise,” he still resisted a little.” (Pg. 320) This quote shows us how things Assef and the other men did affected Sohrab after he was taken away from them. They made him feel dirty and sinful. It also made it so it was and is hard for Sohrab to trust people and let them in to his life. During the wars many people are to sacred to stand up for what is right because they know if they were to say something wrong or just in a way that the officials or Taliban didn’t like they would be either seriously injured or killed right on the spot.

“A rumor spread that a Hazara family was living alone in the big house in Wazir Akbar Khan, so the Taliban claim. A pair of Talib officials came to investigate and interrogate Hassan.

They accused him of lying when Hassan told them he was living with me, even though many of the neighbors supported Hassan’s story, the Talibs said he was a liar and a thief like all Haraza’s and ordered him to get his family out of the house by sundown. Hassan protested… so the took him in to the street and shot him in the back of the head. Farazana came screaming and attacked them; they shot her too.

They later claimed that it was self defense.” (Pg. 219) Hassan and his wife were killed because that told the truth and stood by it not backing down, but the Talib officials didn’t want to give them a chance and actually go look and see if they weren’t lying. This is one reason why many people are afraid of the officials because even if people were telling the truth they wouldn’t get a fair chance unless they were rich or well known. In the book and in real life a lot of people don’t stand up for what they know is right because they are to scared, unlike Hassan where he actually did something good and protested against the Talib officials when they were wrong about the situation.

“I think I will live to regret this but perhaps it’s just as well. I’m damned anyways. But if something can be done to help Sohrab… I will tell you… There is a Talib Official that comes once every month or two.

He brings cash with him, a lot, better then nothing at all”. His shifty eyes fell on me, rolled away. “Usually he’ll take a girl, but not always.” “And you allow this?” Farid said… “What choice do I have?” … “You’re the director here, you job is to watch the children.” “There is nothing I can do to stop it.” (Pg 255) According to Frontline, many military leaders have Bacha Bazi’s because it shows a sense of power and if they don’t they would seem less powerful to everyone else. Some of the men have them but don’t want to use them because they know its wrong but they need to “have” them for the power it shows.” Both of these quotes show us how people do things because they are either made to or they have no choice in the matter.

But they also do it because of all the pressure they are under to have a Bacha Bazi, and most of them are just to scared to stand up for what’s right because they know what the punishment would be.

The whole book “The Kite Runner” is about the challenges that Amir and Sohrab face, but it is also about the whole Afghan society and the things they have or had to go through, like the different things they had to sacrifice to feed only half of their family, or just the kids at the orphanages. It is also about how people are to frightened to stand up for what is right because they would rather be thought of as being wrong then dying for correcting an official like Hassan did.

A lot of the characters had to go through these things in the book; when Sohrab is sexually abused and no one does anything about it because a lot of people still think it’s a tradition and they were probably also too scared to say anything. It happened with Hassan and his wife when they were killed for telling the truth. And again when the owner of the orphanage would sell the kids to the Talib soldiers for money to feed the other kids because they had no other choice and it was the only way to get money for food. The Taliban did whatever they wanted, but the things that happened there should never happen again, now or later. It needs to be stopped.