The Kite Runner

Kurban Said portrays the city of Baku as both Eastern and Western like the identity of his two main characters. Baku is a city that is influenced more and more by European culture where both Ali and Nino grow up and meet, she is Georgian and he is a Mohammedan. Nino is brought up with more Western culture (European) while Ali is more of an Eastern (Asiatic) culture. Baku is one city, but it has two identities best described by Ali as desert (East) and woods (West). Said also portrays Baku as Eastern and Western by the religions of Ali and Nino, Ali is a Mohammedan, Shiite, in the interpretation of Imam Dshafar and Nino is a Christian of Greek Orthodox. Through out the novel they are struggling to see which side they will choose and eventually
Baku has many different people living there and trying to invade it. The Russian, Europeans, Turks, Armenians and Persians are mentioned as enemies to the Mohammedans because they have all killed each other and that will never change. Ali and Nino are in love with each other however Nino is more afraid of the consequences of marrying Ali. She knows that she doesn’t want to convert to his religion and does not want to follow all the different laws they have for women. However eventually they do get married and manage to keep their religions. It is a struggle for the two of them to live in harmony because there is a war occurring and because they have cultural
When they are in Iran Ali has an easier time to adjust to life there because it is similar to life in Baku, but it’s not quite the same. In Iran he is expected not to spend more than an hour of time with his wife they are treated like objects. He has seen this in his own religion however in Baku he was at least allowed to walk with his wife around town and she didn’t have to wear the veil. In Iran it would be a major crime if a woman was to show any part of her body or face. Ali noticed how miserably bored Nino was because she could not go outside, could not talk to anyone or do anything that she was accustomed to being able to do. Ali tried his best to comfort her he would buy here everything he could think of, but he knew deep down that Nino was not happy. Then when they finally moved back to Baku under a new government it was no longer the same as it was Baku was now under European rule and Nino was extremely happy. She began to decorate the house European style she began putting dry wall, tables, chairs, paintings of horses and a rug. Ali was not comfortable with all these new changes however he wanted his wife to fell comfortable she was bearing his child. He succumbs to her European ways, however he sometimes