المستخلص: |
The ominous and bleak picture that George Orwell draws in his two novels, 1984 (1948) and Animal Farm (1945), finds a strong resonance in Khaled Hosseini’s works - The Kite Runner (2003), A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), and the Mountains Echoed (2013) - in the sense that both writers endeavor to reveal the despotism and tyranny of a regime that rules with an iron fist. Totalitarianism and Islamic fundamentalism/extremism, respectively depicted in the works of Orwell and Hosseini, share the same intolerance, the same bias, and the same relentless oppression against any political insurgency, social aberration, or intellectual freedom. Though the fictitious Oceania that Orwell invents, together with the farm populated by talking animals, differs from the more realistic Taliban-ruled Afghanistan captured by Hosseini, both states/ regimes are more similar than different. Islamic fundamentalism is analogous to Totalitarianism in the sense that all citizens are subject to the same repressive rules, restrictions and bans. They are also victims of atrocious punishments emanating from unjust judicial decisions. Individual freedoms are curtailed, if not totally eradicated, and personal will is nipped in the bud. A common denominator between Hosseini’s and Orwell’s novels will be expounded in this paper, revealing, in the process, the similarities between Islamic fundamentalism and totalitarian despotism.
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