Analysis Of Khaled Hosseini 's ' The Kite Runner '

When you were a child, do you remember ever making a promise to be loyal to a friend? Maybe you exchanged cute heart necklaces or pendants or carved your names into a tree. In Khaled Hosseini 's The Kite Runner, two kids, Amir, and Hassan seem to have a strong friendship, represented in their names carved into a pomegranate tree. However, Amir reveals weakness in their friendship when he betrays Hassan by not intervening when the town bully, Assef, sexually assaults Hassan. In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck describes two types of mindsets. One is the fixed mindset, which is the belief that a person has a fixed amount of intelligence, and one cannot see growth in error, and a growth mindset, which is the belief that

The Kite Runner is the first novel of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It tells the story of Amir, a boy from Kabul, Afghanistan, whose closest friend is Hassan, a young Hazara servant. Novel turns around these two characters and Baba, Amir’s father, by telling their tragic stories, guilt and redemption that are woven throughout the novel. Even in the difficult moments, characters build up to their guilt and later on to their redemption. Their sins and faults alter the lives of innocent people. First, Amir and Baba fail to take action on the path to justice for Ali and Hassan. Moreover, Amir and Baba continue to build up their guilt due to their decisions and actions. Although Amir builds up more guilt than Baba throughout the novel, he eventually succeeds in the road to redemption unlike his father. After all, Amir and Baba have many chances to fix their atonements but Baba chooses not to and Amir does. Baba uses his wealth to cover up his sins but never atone himself while Amir decides to stand up and save Sohrab and finally finds peace. Amir and Baba’s reaction to sins essentially indicate their peace of mind and how they react to guilt and injustice.

Best friends typically have loyalty that comes with the friendship, and Hassan was all about the loyalty, whereas Amir had trouble giving Hassan what he deserves. For instance, after Amir had won the kite race, Hassan had caught his kite to then be met by a bully, Assef, and his friends in an alley way. Amir is a bystander to what would be the raping of Hassan and Amir tells it as “I could step in to that alley, stand up for Hassan-the way he’d stood up for me…” to then finish with, “In the end, I ran.” (Hosseini 77). Amir immediately regrets his self-proclaimed cowardly decision. As Amir grows older, the circle of life catches up to him and he has the opportunity to stand up for Hassan’s son, Sohrab, against Assef. Revisiting the experience, he had of standing up for Sohrab, he admits “That was the first time I’d fought anyone.” (Hosseini 288). Amir is aware that he messed up with his opportunities with Hassan, in turn he ironically is the first to stand up for Sohrab who was up against the same person that troubles Hassan.

Later, Baba comments it’s “Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie”. The section closes demonstrating clearly the jealousy Amir had of Hassan when Amir states “That was the thing about Hassan. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him”. (pg 51)

Even when Amir was unloyal to Hassan, Hassan was loyal to him until the day he died. He took care of Amir’s old house in Afghanistan and kept the house updated and clean. Hassan’s last loyal action to Amir was when he wrote letters that explained his life and what he had missed. He said he forgives Amir and does not want him to regret his actions(,) but learn from them. Hassan would forgive Amir for any wrongs he did to him. He would not hold grudges against Amir for not standing up for him in the alley; he would forgive Amir and still do anything Amir would ask.

Amir has shown to Baba that he is not a reflection of him, which makes Baba believe that it is not necessary to develop a connection with his son. This makes Amir feel guilty of himself which leads him to pursue a series of events where he attempts to win Baba’s love, even if those decisions put Hassan’s life in danger. After winning Baba’s affection and creating a stronger bond with his father in America, Amir still feels guilty for betraying his best friend in the winter of 1975. Amir’s guilt is not tearing his life apart as much as it did when he lived in Kabul, but it still affects him negatively. He is willing to do anything to let go of his guilt, even if it means putting his life at risk. After finding out Hassan is dead and he is Amir’s half-brother, Amir heads back to his childhood home during a time when the country is run by a terrorist organization, so he can rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, and finally be able to find peace in his life. Everyone makes mistakes in their life and even if those mistakes might have destroyed another person’s life, there is always a way to earn redemption and that is by letting the guilt that one carries lead to something

“That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” (Hosseini 1-2) Khaled Hosseini published the book The Kite Runner in 2003. This book includes the characters Amir, Hassan, Baba, Rahim Khan and many more. This book is mainly about Amir’s childhood in Kabul, his move with baba to California, and lastly his return to Kabul. Amir is also someone who falls in the shadow. He doesn't really know who he is because of the things that happened to him in the past. In this book he also gives the reader an understanding of what

Amir had many thoughts of betraying Hassan for his father’s love and acceptance that he thought would bring him happiness. Khaled Hosseni (Amir) comments “If I changed my mind and asked for a bigger and fancier kite, Baba would buy it for me - but the he’d buy it for Hassan too. Sometimes I wished he wouldn’t do that.Wished he’d let me be the favorite”(51). This is a sign of jealousy, he doesn’t want Baba treating Hassan and him as equals. He feels like he should be above Hassan

From the beginning of The Kite Runner, we begin to understand the main character, Amir, and his perspective of his loved ones. We learn he is a privileged boy in Kabul, specifically because of his father, Baba. Baba is a well respected man who is known for his accomplishments and reputation of simply being a man of his word. Amir’s friend Hassan, is the most humble, loyal person Amir knows, given that it is one of the many qualities of a Hazara. On the other hand Amir has always been rude to Hassan and has definitely proved his disloyalty as his friend. As young boys, they were the best of buds, inseparable, like brothers. The irony of it was, Amir is Pashtun and Hassan is Hazara, that creates a dispute between the two that forbids that they be friends. What the two of them did not know was Hassan is Amir’s half brother, Baba’s other son.

“I actually aspired cowardice… Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.” (Hosseini, 77) Nobody would ever believe that something innocent as kite flying or kite running could lead into an epic tale of betrayal and redemption, however Hosseini, in his novel The Kite Runner, manages to weld this activity with the journey that a man has to make from his betrayer to his redemption. Though Amir is the protagonist in this novel and we’re supposed to want him to come through as victorious, it’s hard with a character like Hassan under his wing. Their situations almost make you hate Amir, without Hassan being so pure, readers might be able to relate to Amir yet his

In chapter 7, Amir thinks to himself “ I had one last chance to make a decision…to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan-the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past-and accept what would happen to me.” There has always been a part of Amir who saw Hassan like a brother, even though he did not admit it, not even to himself. There have been so many times that Hassan has saved him and Amir is thinking about repaying that favor. There is a part of him that wants to save Hassan; however, he knows that there will be consequences.

At a young age, Amir of The Kite Runner begins to grow up jealous of Hassan as he yearns for Baba 's love and affection. Amir travels through his early years with Hassan by his side to protect him. However, this leads to Baba favoring Hassan because he, unlike Amir, stands up for himself (Hosseini). Amir hears this conversation between Baba and Rahim Kahn, and so Amir decides that he will change to prove that "Rahim Khan had been wrong about the mean streak thing" (23). Amir is determined to feel strong, and so begins his search for power. Amir finds that it is easiest to exercise his power on Hassan; Amir admits that "When we came across a world he didn 't know... I 'd tease him, expose his ignorance" (28) Amir takes advantage of any way he can possibly be better than Hassan, and he uses them to suppress his insecurities. Hiding behind a false mask of slighting strength is a boy ridden with fear and cowardice as Amir loses sight of his once inseparable friendship with Hassan. Hassan is raped and Amir only runs away. This, however, only stirs turmoil within Amir, and soon Amir finds himself lying to Baba in order to protect his now somewhat "manly" face. He drives Hassan out of his life and never

In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini tells a notable coming-of-age story portraying the actions and thoughts of Amir, a penitent adult living in the United States and his reminiscence of his affluent childhood in the unstable political environment of Afghanistan. Throughout the novel Khaled Hosseini uses character description to display his thoughts on sin and redemption.

From generation to generation, the constant struggle for males to live up to the expectations of their fathers often affects the choices made and actions taken by the sons. Perhaps, the overbearing testosterone levels claim responsibility for the apparent need for sons to impress their fathers, but not all boys consider the realistic consequences of their decisions. In Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner, young Amir's admiration for his father Baba, coupled with the constant tension in their relationship obscures his mind from making clear decisions as he strives to obtain his father's love and approval.

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, follows the maturation of Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, as he discovers what it means to stand up for what he believes in. His quest to redeem himself after betraying his friend and brother, Hassan, makes up the heart of the novel. When Amir hears that his father’s old business partner, Rahim Khan, is sick and dying, he travels to Pakistan to say his goodbyes. Rahim Khan tells Amir about Hassan’s life and eventual death; the Taliban murdered Hassan while he was living in Amir’s childhood home. As his dying wish, Rahim Khan asks Amir to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from an orphanage in Afghanistan. Although Amir refuses at first, he thinks about what Rahim Khan had always told him: “There is a way to be