Historical Events in Afghanistan between 1973 - 2001 as Reflected in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini. This novel tells about friendship and redemption. The setting of this novel was in Afghanistan. This study focuses on the historical events that are imitated in the novel. This thesis basically uses Mimetic theory and Historical Criticism approach to limit the data only on historical events that appeared in the novel. In the process of analyzing, the researcher uses qualitative method to analyze and explain the historical events found in the novel and those were also really happened in Afghanistan, such as Hazara’s discrimination, the collapse of monarchy, the Soviet invasion, the civil war of Afghanistan, Taliban’s regime and 9/11 Twin Tower tragedy. The writer concludes that there are some historical events that are imitated in the novel. Those historical events are mixed with imagination of the author of the novel. The imagination of the author was the story of the novel itself. The way the author showed those real events was through description in conversation and narration between characters in the novel. Keywords: Mimetic; Imitation; Historical events; Afghanistan