Wigati Dyah Prasasti, Putu Suarcaya
This paper explores in what way forced migration experienced by the two male characters in Khalid Hosseini's The Kite Runner (2003), Amir and his father, Baba, shape their respective view of the American dream which is perceived to be closely related to personal freedom. This personal freedom materialises in peaceful living and prosperity, especially individual rights to accumulate wealth. However, along the course of their life in the new land, both Amir and Baba, have their own individual dream to achieve, emerging from different individual point of views. The different dreams, originating from the ideology each of the characters holds, are formed by how each of them value their homeland, root culture and the sentimental memories they evoke. All the bitterness, contentment, obscurities, regrets, glories and happiness they experienced in their homeland are intermingled in the process of each character's construction of ideology. To analyse the point at issue, Marxist criticism and postcolonial theory will serve as the basis of analysis. Marxist criticism is employed since it views the American dream as a construct of capitalism. Postcolonial theory specifically related to forced migration in the form of refugees is employed as the two male characters are forced to leave Afghanistan due to the civil war. The two contrasting, ideologically based views of each character, diverged in some ways yet converging in others, amalgamate somehow in their father-and-son relationship, both in their roles as refugees pursuing their better lives and as ordinary human beings. © 2020 International Islamic University Malaysia. All rights reserved.
English Education Department, Universitas PGRI Adi Buana, Surabaya, Indonesia; Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha, Singaraja, Bali, Indonesia
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