The Kite Runner: Historical
Perspective
By: Liam Schell and Vitorino Gomes
Introduction
• The historical perspective is separated into two smaller
perspectives called “the old historicism” and “the new
historicism”.
• Old historicism concerns itself with the time and place the
story takes place in. A good story is one that describes the
setting well.
• New historicism requires more than just reading the work.
New historicism requires relating the text to some historical
documents of that time.
• The historical perspective as mentioned before is related to
the idea that a good novel is one that closely follows the time
in which it was written.
• This perspective allows the reader to learn about the setting
of the novel just by reading the novel.
• The history behind a written work can teach us a lot about the
history of what is being written about.
Historical Perspective of The
Kite Runner
• The conflict between the Pashtuns and the
Hazaras actually existed and was how people
lived.
• Other historical events appear in the story such
as the fall of the Afghanistan government, 9/11
and the appearance of the Taliban.
New Historical Perspective
• Shows how the story can relate to documents
that are taken from this time period.
• Comparing real life evidence to the fictional
happenings in the story.
New Historical Perspective in
The Kite Runner
• The story takes events that we know from
watching the news or researching current events
and uses them to create conflict with the
characters.
• References the power system of the time, where
males were seen as dominant and women were
seen as less dominant than males.