“Political and social protest writing explores conspiracy within communities, families and societies.”
(25)
Within the Handmaid’s tale and The Kite Runner, conspiracy as a theme interlaces with the tumultuous political and
social foregrounding of each text. Conspiracy is understood to mean the act of misleading the masses away from
the truth on a societal level. On a communal level, conspiracy could be the introduction of brutal tactics in order to
achieve what the elite view as a ‘perfect world’ or a utopia, without considering who they harm in the process. On
a family scale, conspiracy could be the act of keeping secrets and plotting against specific individuals. In these texts,
the withholding of information on an individual or national scale informs the balances of power that shift between
characters and groups, such as the ranks of women in the Handmaid’s Tale and the racial divide between the
Pashtuns and the Hazaras.
On the one hand, in light of the statement it could be argued that social and political protest writing explores
conspiracy within societies to a large extent. In Khaled hosseini’s 2003 debut novel The Kite Runner, we see how
the strategies employed by the totalitarian theocracy of the Taliban to achieve a utopia. Often these tactics are
cruel and breed corruption, winding up creating a dystopia in the process. An example of an abuse of power within
the kite runner can be seen in chapter 21 where the Taliban use ghazi stadium as an outlet for “educating” the
masses on a societal scale where they stone and execute people who have been accused of adultery. The talibs
read out scripture such as “every sinner must be punished in a manner befitting his sin!” and use this to justify
brutal slaughter, where Amir describes how the man was a “mangled mess of blood and shredded rags.” This
section of Amir’s first person narrative serves to exemplify the horrors Afghanistan has faced under the regime of
the Talibs. Hosseini evokes sympathy in his readers, which demonstrates his authorial motivation in authoring the
Kite Runner, which was to “humanise a region”, which so often is depicted in western media outlets as war torn
and hopeless. Hosseini, as an Afghan man who sought political asylum in America as a child, hoped to reconcile the
image of Afghanistan as a place of violence with the true Afghanistan, which is a place of great tradition and diverse
culture. Amir also reflects this idea in his childhood where Afghanistan appears as an idyllic pastoral Eden, with
pomegranate trees and kite fighting tournaments. Hosseini points out the beauty and awe that Afghanistan can
evoke when not dominated by corruption. This text is full of social realism, a convention of social and political
protest genre, and this is seen numerically in how the sales of The Kite Runner tend to increase when Afghanistan is
under conflict in the real world. Most recently, in 2021 sales of the Kite Runner went up due to the decision from
America and her allies to end the 21 year long occupation of Afghanistan and withdraw. In a matter of days, the
Talbian were able to regain control of Afghanistan and reinstate shariah law, and extremist ideas such as banning
women’s education. Therefore, the corruption shown in the Kite Runner through Hosseini’s factional tale remains
relevant today due to its easy to understand portrayal of a nation’s complicated history. The kite runner has great
value to a western audience to understand the nation as a victim, and to not be a bystander (like Amir was to
Hassan’s rape) when it comes to conflicts such as these. Therefore, the misguided and hypocritical representation
of the Taliban fuels the reader's sympathy for the citizens and children of Kabul (who the book was dedicated to).
Readers may ask how any group that calls themselves religious can reconcile using violence and fear mongering
with scripture and a benevolent God. Therefore, conspiracy serves as a crucial theme in the Kite Runner and is
explored on a large scale.
Furthermore, in the handmaid’s tale conspiracy is explored to a large extent through the structure of the novel.
Offred creates a sense of claustrophobia and paranoia through her narration. Under Gilead, it is clear that the
hierarchy of women has been designed to force women against each other so that they may never present as a
united front and escape the clutches of Gilead. However, this changes overtime, such as when Offred says “they
