How can knowing the historical or cultural context of a story help your understanding of The Kite Runner? If you could use some examples from the...

The first time I read The Kite
Runner, I knew little about the culture of Afghanistan. I had a rudimentary
understanding of the civil war that had been going on there, but I did not understand
the differences between the many factions that were fighting. Since my completion of the
novel, and Khaled Hosseini's follow-up, A Thousand Splendid Suns, I
have read many articles about the history of Afghanistan since the 1970s, and I
certainly would have benefited from having done this research before reading the two
novels.

Just a few examples of improved
clarity:

• Cultural differences between the
  Pashtun, Tajik and Hazara ethnic groups.


• Knowledge of the
  geographical regions of Afghanistan.


• Differences between
  the Sunni and Shi'a Muslims.


• Causes, outcomes and
  divisions of the various civil wars that took place during the
  1990s.


• Knowledge of many of the real-life political and
  military leaders mentioned.


• Anything
  Taliban-related.