The Presence of Evil in The Kite Runner by Rachel Alagna Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, presents juxtaposing images of Afghanistan; a country that was once stunningly beautiful, but is now reduced to a barren land of violence and despair. In a review on the film based off of Hosseini’s novel, Kyle Buchanan states, “Director Marc Forster has been tasked with the film adaptation of [The Kite Runner], and he does a faithful job, even if it’s hard to imagine that a story involving this much rape, racism, and death could be made so palatable” (1). Hosseini’s presentation of evil is unfiltered, and readers witness the cruelties of the Taliban as well as the capability for darkness that lurks in the soul of man. In an article about himself, Hosseini tells readers that after he created Amir and Hassan, he “shattered the boys’ lives … watched the brutalized Hassan pay the price for his guileless devotion to Amir, and watched Amir grow into a brooding, haunted, guilt-ridden man in the USA … then sent Amir back to Kabul, now ruled by the Taliban, on one last desperate quest for redemption” (1). Marc Forster, director of The Kite Runner follows the formula the author describes, but alters several aspects of the novel. In the film version of The Kite Runner, Marc Forster’s decisions to eliminate Saunabar’s character, alter the character of Assef, and omit Sohrab’s suicide attempt, downplays the overwhelming evil Khaled Hosseini presents in his novel and creates a film that is accessible to a wider range of viewers. Saunabar’s character functions mainly to offer another aspect of evil in the novel. Hassan’s mother can be viewed in two ways; she is either the heartless, “beautiful but notoriously unscrupulous woman” who rejected her son because of his physical deformity, or she is a woman who was raped by one of her superiors, then abused by the Afghan community – which would also explain her distaste for a child born of such circumstances (Hosseini 8). Hosseini doesn’t describe to readers the situation in which Saunabar became pregnant; instead, scattered details of the woman are passed on by word of mouth. If Saunabar had been raped by Baba – which is quite possible in light of his place in the societal hierarchy and the fact that she was a servant – her reputation would have been tarnished, explaining the negativity of the community toward her. However, Saunabar’s “suggestive stride and oscillating hips” are not all Amir references when he is cataloguing her negative qualities (10). Readers are told that Saunabar joins her voice with the neighborhood children’s and taunts her husband, Ali. Perhaps Saunabar is the cruel temptress Amir describes, devoid of love and maternal instinct. But perhaps, Hassan’s mother taunts Ali because, as a cripple, he is unable to defend her against her assailants. Marc Forster may have felt the need to cut Saunabar’s character because he didn’t want to cast a shadow of doubt upon Baba, an enigmatic, noble character who would undoubtedly lose some of his appeal with the added dimension of Hassan’s mother. In the film version of The Kite Runner, Hassan’s mother is only mentioned twice. Once in the beginning of the film, when Assef calls Hassan a “motherless Hazara” and once at the end, when Amir explains to General Taheri, “You see, General Sahib, my father slept with his servant’s wife. She bore him a son named Hassan.” The aforementioned references are all viewers learn of Hassan’s mother and her ambiguous pregnancy. Toward the end of the novel, Hosseini tells readers that Saunabar returned to Baba’s house, and collapsed at Rakim Khan’s feet, too weak to stand. When the men carried Saunabar in and removed her burqa, they found: … a toothless woman with stringy graying hair and sores on her arms. She looked like she had not eaten for days. But the worst of it by far was her face. Someone had taken a knife to it and … the slashes cut this way and that way. Once of the cuts went from cheekbone to hairline and it had not spared her left eye on the way. It was grotesque. (Hosseini 209) Saunabar returned, seeking redemption and forgiveness from the son she abandoned; begging Hassan, he granted her this. The violence experienced by Saunabar is another issue that the director may have wished to avoid. The cruelty of the Taliban is certainly represented in the film through the stoning of the adulteress, the man who has been hung and lingers in the background behind an image of Amir and Fahrid on the streets of Kabul, and through the words of Zaman, the director of the orphanage. Forster may have felt the difficulties endured by Saunabar would have been too vivid onscreen, and difficult for viewers to bear. While Forster clearly wishes to portray the message of evil the Taliban carries, he desires to do this through a movie that will touch many viewers – not just those who are possessed of a stout heart and stomach. A staggering aspect of evil that is removed from the film version of The Kite Runner is the portrayal of Assef as a child. Forster shows viewers a sadistic young boy who cruelly beats and rapes Hassan. Assef states, “Afghanistan’s the land of the Pashtuns. We’re the true Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland. They dirty our blood.” Hosseini goes into much greater detail, illustrating for readers an individual who Amir later learns to identify as a sociopath. Assef carries brass knuckles with him in the novel, and Amir tells readers, “how Assef’s blue eyes glinted with a light not entirely sane and how he grinned, how he grinned, as he pummeled that poor kid unconscious” (Hosseini 38). Readers are also told that Assef bit the ear off of another “poor kid” who had made the mistake of challenging him over a fallen kite. Half German and half Afghani, Assef tells Amir his opinions on Hitler: “Now, there was a leader. A great leader. A man with vision … if they had let Hitler finish what he had started, the world would be a better place now” (39-40). Assef goes on to speak of pure blood and Afghans; how he believes the Hazara to be dirty. “Too late for Hitler,” states Assef, “But not for us” (40). At Amir’s birthday party, Assef brings him a gift – a biography of Hitler, which Amir quickly discards. Although the aforementioned qualities and preferences of Assef are left out of the film, in the novel they are significant in painting Assef as a social anomaly. Readers will learn later in the novel that Assef has worked both the Islamic culture and the Taliban to suit his sociopathic needs. Perhaps Forster felt the references to Hitler may have been too much for an audience to handle or that the intensity of the sociopathic Assef would alter the focus of viewers. Forster still portrays Assef as sadistic, even as an adult, but his focus is directed more toward the evil of the Taliban. As Forster had time restrictions, making too much of Assef’s character may have undermined the message the director wished to send in regards to the nature of the Taliban. In the novel, the adult Assef and his treatment of Sohrab is described in great detail: His hands slid down the child’s back … He locked his arms around Sohrab’s belly, rested his chin on the boy’s shoulder … The man’s hand slid up and down the boy’s belly. Up and down, slowly, gently … He kissed the side of Sohrab’s neck. The boy flinched a little, closed his eyes again. (Hosseini 280-282) In Forster’s version, viewers only see Sohrab’s dance and Assef putting his arms around the boy and his head on Sohrab’s shoulder. The rest of the situation is inferred and viewers are able to deduce the cruel and unnatural treatment Sohrab has been exposed to. Another difference in this scene with Assef is his explanation of why he has joined the Taliban. The movie limits his explanation to, “You weren’t here when the Communists shot our mullahs and pissed in our mosques. This country was like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage. We took out the garbage. We brought law. We brought justice.” Forster’s version of this scene indicates that those with evil tendencies and skewed social viewpoints who wished to fight back against the Communists joined the Taliban, while the rest of society feared them. In the novel, Assef tells Amir of his “epiphany” as he describes a stint in prison after Babrak Karmal took over Kabul. Assef expressed his disdain over the fact that a man with Hazara blood stood in a superior position to the Pashtun society and had the power to administer beatings to Assef and others. Assef then explains, “Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion, littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage” (Hosseini 284). The line is similar to the line in the movie; however, in the novel, Assef is referencing the brutal massacre of the Hazara people in Mazar-I-Sharif. Amir tells Assef that in the west, cruelty such as his is called ethnic cleansing. Assef replies, “‘I like it. I like the sound of it … Ethnic cleansing,’ Assef murmured, tasting the words” (285). The beating that Amir suffers at the hands of Assef is brutal in the cinematic version as well as in the novel, although Hosseini describes Amir’s injuries – which land him in the hospital – in much greater detail. The extent of Amir’s injuries and his time in the hospital were most likely cut out of the movie due to time restraints. Sohrab’s suicide attempt is also cut out of the film, although likely not because of time restrictions. In the cinematic version, viewers witness the conditions Sohrab has been victim to in the orphanage, and can infer that horrifying experiences occurred when the boy was with Assef. However, other than these scenes, the child’s suffering is reduced to the lines, “He [Assef] used to come and get me in the morning before prayers. I didn’t want him to get me anymore … sometimes I’m glad [my parents] are dead … because I don’t want them to see me. I’m so dirty.” Sohrab’s suffering is supported by the fact that he remains mostly silent, even once he has arrived in America. In a review of The Kite Runner, Geraldine Pearson explains “the ways that post-traumatic shame and guilt color and influence” the lives of Hosseini’s characters (66). Issues dealing with suicide are intense; many people are in some way connected to individuals who have attempted, considered, or committed suicide. Forster may have felt the added weight of the suicide issue would have made his film too heavy for many audience members to stomach. Perhaps, as in the situation with Baba, Forster didn’t want to cast Amir in a negative light. Amir is in the process of redeeming himself when he breaks his promise to Sohrab. Sohrab literally falls to pieces when Amir suggests the possibility of his spending time in an orphanage before Amir can bring him to America: ‘Please! Please, no!’ he croaked. ‘I’m scared of that place. They’ll hurt me! I don’t want to go … Please, God! … God, oh God. Please, no!’ He was trembling, snot and tears mixing on his face … He wept into my shirt until his tears dried, until his shaking stopped and his frantic pleas dwindled to indecipherable mumbles. (Hosseini 341-342) Likewise, the image of “small, bloody feet” poking out of a sheet is a difficult image to bear (344). While reading the description of Sohrab’s suicide is emotionally taxing, witnessing such a terribly sad event might be overwhelming for an audience. Viewers might be less likely to recommend the movie to others, regardless of how well done the film is. Or, if viewers did recommend the movie, they might attach a warning in regards to the intensity of the film’s content. The visual image of a tiny arm “dangling over the side of the tub” with a bloody razor beside it, is much more shocking than reading those words on paper (357). What is lost through the exclusion of Sohrab’s suicide attempt, is the loss of trust between the boy and Amir. In the novel, the broken promise is what causes Sohrab’s silence. Amir goes through a struggle attempting to reconnect with the boy and the film portrays Sohrab’s lack of speech as a form of post-traumatic stress. Also lost with Sohrab’s suicide attempt is Amir’s return to faith. In the hospital, Amir prays for Sohrab’s life; he is praying for the first time in fifteen years. Readers learn that Amir keeps his promise to God and returns to his faith wholeheartedly by the end of the novel. Marc Forster tones down the evil presented in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, in an effort to present a film that is more easily digested by viewers. In a review of the film The Kite Runner David Ansen explains: Forster’s re-creation of the war-ravaged city is vivid: a treeless, rubble-strewn landscape where beggars sell their body parts and glum crowds are forced to witness the stoning of adulterers in the public stadium … it allows us to see a country and a culture from the inside: it puts a human face on a tragedy that most of us know only from headlines and glimpses on the nightly news. (68) Forster portrays the violence and brutality of the Taliban and sends a message of cultural awareness to his viewers. Khaled Hosseini, who returned to his native Afghanistan after writing The Kite Runner, states in regards to his trip, “On the one hand, I was hoping I’d got it right … On the other hand, what I’d written was so terrible, part of me was kind of hoping that it wasn’t quite that bad. The reality was that it was actually worse” (Grossman 68). Readers could infer from this comment that Hosseini unwittingly downplayed the evil in Afghanistan when he gave readers The Kite Runner. Marc Forster, in an effort to offer a film that an inclusive audience would be able to view, has further toned down the evil in Khaled Hosseini’s novel, enabling the message of the negativity of the Taliban to reach more people. Works Cited Ansen, David. “REVIEW.” Newsweek 150.25 (2007): 68-68. 
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