Racial Bigotry in Postcolonial Literature
A Study of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18034/abcjar.v12i1.764Keywords:
Racism, Bigotry, Hazara, Pashtun, Discrimination, The Kite Runner, FearAbstract
This article aims to unveil the caustic reality of racial bigotry that is the root of suffering for the people of minority races. Racism is not inherently benign, but the presence of a sense of superiority, one of its defining characteristics, exacerbates the situation. The novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini delves at the discriminatory actions between Pashtuns and Hazaras, portraying racism as a construct that arises solely from human distinctions. This article argues that racial discrimination leads to depression, helplessness, and low self-esteem among people of the weakest races, while on the other hand, it encourages people of superior races to boast about their own rigidity and principles. Khaled Hosseini portrays a dystopian society, and the lives of its inhabitants revolve around one thing: fear of intimacy. The qualitative method is adopted to mirror the conflicts, both internal and external, that force the so-called superior and inferior races to maintain an invisible but impenetrable wall between them. This article delineates the harmful side of racial bigotry, which leads people to judge others and develop a tendency to justify destructive actions that make people's lives miserable. This article also tries to show how racial bigotry, the legacy of colonialism, has grasped the minds of the people and made them follow only the hollow principles of racism, which are seen through their behaviours and distorted thoughts.
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