My short story is a prequel to Khaled Hosseini's novel 'The Kite Runner' which tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, whose closest friend is Hassan. My short story precedes the events and looks into the youth of the character Baba.
My short story focuses on Baba, called Rostam, and his calamitous falling-out with Ali before 'The Kite Runner'. His name references the fictional warrior featured in the Afghanistan epic, Shahnameh, and contrasts the tragic hero's betrayal of his family with that implied in Baba's sins. Unfolding in a barren desert, my creative piece employs Rostam's narrative voice to illustrate his betrayal, internal conflict and redemptive impulse after sleeping with Ali's wife, Sanaubar.
From the start, I struggled to rewrite any particular part of Hosseini's novel, as I couldn't find anything worth improving or re-interpreting. As students, we were required to interpose our experience in the text, composing a piece worthy of the novel's merit while bringing something new to the table. Initially, I trudged slowly for two weeks experimenting with Soraya's character, yet was discouraged by the unsurmountable expectations regarding how to truly represent her. Eventually, I began ultimately anew after reading the book twice and became invested with the mystery and backstory of Baba. Intent on revealing more unbound by Amir's perspective, I composed a prequel scrutinising the core principles of a younger, more reckless Baba. Moreover, despite moving away from the prescribed text, I felt like it was essential to honour Hosseini's writing style, retaining his focus on Afghanistan culture and delicacies. From the beginning of the creation process, I planned for Rostam's conflict to be external in the form of Karim, an arrogant and greedy figure who expounded the cultural divide of the Hazara people and championed Pashtuns as higher. However, striving to highlight Rostam's tragic qualities that caused his betrayal rather than his strengths, I changed Karim to symbolise a more passive representation of Afghanistan, who acts as a precursor for Rostam's redemptive impulse. Thereafter, more focus is put on how Rostam's internal turmoil enforces his realisation of his sins, and foreshadows the distant feelings and regret he has with Amir and Hassan in 'The Kite Runner'. Instinctively, these altercations brought together a more powerful piece that challenges Rostam's character and illustrates his backstory to foreshadow the events of Hosseini's novel.
Over time, I alleviated many writing blocks by drawing inspiration from other novels, such as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Lee's deceptively sophisticated commentaries on morality and Conrad's lexically dense critique of situational evil inspired my creative focus on Rostam's recklessness, and how temptation affects our morality. Memories, in the form of surreal and exaggerated metaphors such as through "Her tempting whispers", greatly extrapolate Rostam's afflicted morality, eliciting a more subconscious impact from the viewer because of its profound description. Furthermore, Lee and Conrad incentivised many core elements of my piece's characters. Rostam's father personifies the epitome of humility, courage and power, whose reputation suffices as a totem of his character, and purposefully parallels that of Mr Kurtz from HOD. Additionally, Sanaubar, whose deceptive personality symbolised through 'An angel... A devil, more likely' acts as the catalyst for Rostam's betrayal, exemplifies evil's tempting power. Overall, I am pleased to see how these creative detours fostered a more centred approach to Rostam's aspiration for redemption.
In conclusion, the most challenging part of my writing was being led in multiple dead-end directions through my verbose and sluggish planning. However, I felt proud with my short story, for the way it encapsulated the moral strife denoting the mysterious and venerated character Baba, adding to Hosseini's novel whilst also doing its source material justice. I now know the difference between positive and negative creativity, and will in the future adorn this teaching to improve my creative pieces.
