preview

Analysis Of The Kite Runner

Decent Essays

When Amir picks up the phone in June 2001, he does not expect to hear Rahim Khan utter these words to him -- "There's a way to be good again" (Hosseini 1). From these cryptic words, he understands from the call that it "wasn't just Rahim Khan on the line[, but] [i]t was [his] past of unatoned sins" (Hosseini 1). These sins that Amir refers to are the actions he selfishly made when he was a young boy living in Afghanistan. In order to earn his father's love, he allowed his friend Hassan to be beaten and raped, then framed for theft; Hassan for the subsequent years has been haunted by the actions he chose. Seeing it as "one last chance of redemption" (Hosseini 231), Amir departs to meet Rahim Khan in Pakistan to here what he has to say. Beginning with his reunion with an old friend in Peshawar, the protagonist of The Kite Runner has set off on a quest, with a goal to relieve his guilt and earn his redemption. Overall, the second half of The Kite Runner includes all the components that the quest must consist of according to Thomas C. Foster in How to Read Literature Like a Professor: "(a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there" (Foster 3). First, there is the quester, and the quester in this case is Amir. The one who gives the place to go and the stated reason to go there is Rahim Khan, who as his dying wish requests one thing: "I want you to go to Kabul. I want you to bring Sohrab

Get Access