In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini purposely utilizes setting to play a pivotal role in the portrayal of an important focus when narrating a post 9/11 Afghan and American novel; prejudice. The author’s deliberate incorporation of Afghan and American settings over a 3 decade time frame successfully illustrates the differences and similarities between Eastern culture and Western culture, as well as highlighting the prejudice each culture cultivates. The emphasis placed upon the discrimination of Hazaras by the Pashtuns not only informs the readers of the oppressor/oppressed socio-economic relations in Afghanistan but also addresses a parallelism of prejudice towards Afghanis from Americans. Hosseini breaks down post 9/11 stereotypes by showing that a person's socio-economic class or ethnic group does not determine their ability to form friendships, feel guilt and seek redemption. Khaled Hosseini rehumanizes a culture which has been demonized by the generalizations of many individual Americans and many Hollywood films. He does this by developing universal themes which demonstrate that Afghans and Americans have more in common than they may think. Khaled Hosseini purposely utilizes the Afghan setting to exhibit the internal and external struggle Amir’s childhood friendship with Hassan resulted in because of the difficulty involved in maintaining an interracial relationship in 1960-1980 Kabul Afghanistan. ‘Hassan and I fed from the same breast, we took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And under the same roof, we spoke our first words. Mine was Baba. His was Amir.’ This is revealing as both boy’s first words represent the people they looked up to most. Hassan’s first word symbolizes his subjective inferiority to Amir. This extract from the novel confronts the inherent role of superiority that Amir was able to enjoy as a Pashtun. The author uses this incident to foreshadow the dominant/submissive nature of Amir and Hassan’s friendship that is derived from the Pashtuns social and economic oppression of the Hazaras. However, not only does Amir and Hassan’s environment create an struggle within their friendship, it also insights an internal struggle within Amir. When questioned about Hassan by Assef, Amir almost blurts out ‘But he’s not my friend. He’s my servant.’ Although, alone with Hassan, Amir would freely say to