VITAL-HISTORICAL AND ETERNAL THEMES IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S NOVELS

Abstract

In the study of literature the themes of fiction are divided into vital-historical and eternal themes. Vital-historical themes refer to the conditions resulted in character upbringing in the socio-historical situation and they can’t exist outside of this certain time and place. The eternal themes indicate the repeated events in all the periods of all the nations. The combination of several themes in one work is expressed in literary studies with the concept of “thematic”. When faced with such a situation, one or two major themes may be separated, and the rest should be explored as secondary. The objective of this paper is to seek to remedy these problems by analyzing the novels “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini in terms of vital-historical and eternal themes. The data collected from the detailed analysis of the texts of Hosseini’s novels mentioned above by applying biographic method. The research results in proving the fact that the writer’s talent lies on fastening the theme of Afghanistan equally in his all three books pre-in- post Taliban periods and in addition to this he can indicate his own personal perspective towards the issues stated in the events. Hosseini could fulfill his task in describing his desire and Afghan people in each part of the world for the blessed peace that the nation couldn’t witness for a long time. Moreover, the themes of children and childhood, women and womanhood or family traditions can be found regularly in all the novels indicated above to strengthen the core meaning of what is being Afghan and what is living in Afghanistan. This study is an effort to unfold the significance of literary characteristics of the novels those mentioned above. The study concludes that Khaled Hosseini applied the vital-historical and eternal themes in his three novels to illustrate the objective picture of Afghanistan pre-in-post Taliban period.