Analytical Essay: The Kite Runner

“There is a way to be good again” (2). This is the line that rolls through Amir's mind over and over throughout Khaled Hosseini's novel, The Kite Runner. This is the story of a mans struggle to find redemption. The author illustrates with the story of Amir that it is not possible to make wrongs completely right again because its too late to change past. In this novel Hosseini is telling us that redemption is obtainable, and by allowing us to see Amirs thought process throughout the novel, Hosseini shows us that it guilt is the primary motivation for someone who seeks redemption. Hosseini also uses not only the main character, but other secondary characters to show how big of a part that guilt plays in the desire for redemption. In this

“ For you, a thousand times over”. This one sentence sums up the immense love, loyalty and friendship Hassan had for Amir.

The Kite Runner is a novel that is considered to be a fictional memoir throughout the life of the main character, Amir. Starting in 1975 Afghanistan, the sentiments between the Hazaras and the Pashtuns were very negative and violent. Afghanistan as a country was experiencing a lot of hardships as the two main races and religions that resided in the country began to fight, eventually leading to the war that is still going on today. As a nation, Afghanistan has a long and interesting history. The Kite Runner itself is written by an Afghan man, Khaled Hosseini, who himself lived in Afghanistan throughout these years. Growing up in Kabul, Hosseini grew up in an area later to be considered as more fortunate and more wealthy than those who lived elsewhere in the country. Khaled’s father worked as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, and his mother worked as a persian language teacher at a high school for girls. Later on, after his father got a job in Paris, France. Hosseini’s family moved to France and were unable to return to Afghanistan due to the saur revolution, the initial segment leading to the Afghan civil war. The Kite Runner was written in California as Hosseini was studying in medical school, in order to become a doctor. The book itself is fictional, however much of the occurences in the novel are influenced based upon real-life scenarios and situations that occur during parts of the war. Specifically, this is portrayed via the arguments between the

“There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 2). Rahim Khan’s first words to Amir in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner set in motion Amir’s attempt to mend his scarred past. A mentally tormented man until Khan’s call, he has repressed memories from his childhood for decades.

    In 2001, 16 year old Dawn runs away from her foster parents’ unhappy home in California to NYC to meet her real mom.  After the 9/11 bombings kill so many innocent Americans, Dawn starts to realize that she loves her foster mom.

In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir grows up a lot of his life, not knowing the truth about himself and his family. Being close to someone and finding out what tragedy has happened to that person before and also after he went to the United States put him in a trench and knowing what has happened to everyone in his life was devastating. Amir did not like what happened to his home country when he returned from not being present in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, Amir and Baba thought that they weren’t safe.

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.

In The Kite Runner, the bond between the stories’ two central characters is almost identical to the history of the two key groups within Islam, the Sunni and the Shi’a. While, Amir is Sunni and Hassan is Shi’a, one’s heirloom of power over the other shows the historical difference among the religious groups. What comes next is a look at how this religious separation shakes up Afghanistan, and then how it has impacted the whole Muslim community. Either way you look at it, one can see how this division is a major part in The Kite Runner.

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a remarkable coming-of-age novel describing and revealing the thoughts and actions of Amir, a compunctious adult in the United States and his memories of his affluent childhood in the unstable political environment of Afghanistan. The novel showcases the simplistic yet powerful ability of guilt to influence decisions and cause conflict which arises between Amir’s childhood friend and half-brother, Hassan; Amir’s father, Baba; and importantly, himself. Difference in class The quest to become “good again” causes a reflection in Amir to atone for his sins and transform into the person of which he chooses to be.

“I dream of a big bird, bigger than me: that I can ride it and fly away.”

In the first few chapters of the The Kite Runner multiple questions came into my mind. One question that I can’t stop thinking about is, how did Ali maintain a relationship with Amir’s father for so many years. In Afghanistan there were many differences between the two ethnic groups of muslims, the shia and the sunni. It was rare that the two would get along together. It is weird since Ali is only considered a low class worker who is shia for Baba’s sunni family for 40 years. In those years Ali’s family grew up with Baba’s. However they did not grow up as equals such as how Baba and his business partner Rahim Khan did. Another question that it brings into my mind is did Ali’s family do something for Baba like save him from danger or help to get them out of trouble that Baba is indebted too. I also love the idea of the friendship between Hassan (Ali’s son) and Amir. It could be an example of how Ali and Baba were as kids. I predict that later in the book that some event will be revealed about Baba’s childhood or maybe even a dark secret.

The film, The Kite Runner directed by Mark Foster takes place primarily in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States. The film starts out with its focus on the friendship between two young boys, one Afghan boy named Amir and the other a Hazara boy named Hassan whose father was Amir’s father servant, named Ali. The boys did not care that they were from different ethnic groups or that Hassan was technically a servant like his father, for Amir’s family. They were best friends, they spend their days in Kabul flying kites, going to the movies and roaming the streets. However, Amir felt as if his father, Baba, loved Hassan more than him because he was tougher.

This book was really enjoyable for me but somewhat unsatisfying. I guess after doing research on the book and figuring out that there was 374 pages in the book but turned out to end with 328 pages put me off guard. Especially when the book ended where Amir was chasing a green kite for Sohrab recalling the time when Hassan went off to claim the blue kite for Amir. I was honestly disappointed to discover that there was no sequel to this story, it would be nice to know how Sohrab turn out to be in the future. Yes, he smiled at the end but was that enough to get back on his feet? It seemed like the author just gave up continuing this story and went on to the next.

One major theme that is evident in The Kite Runner is that scars are reminders of life’s pain and regret, and, though you can ease the regret and the scars will fade, neither will completely go away. We all have regrets and always will, but though it will be a long hard process we can lessen them through redemption. The majority of The Kite Runner is about the narrator and protagonist, Amir. Almost all of the characters in The Kite Runner have scars, whether they are physical or emotional. Baba has scars all down his back from fighting a bear, but he also has emotional scars from not being able to admit that Hassan was also his son. Hassan is born with a cleft lip, but for his birthday Baba pays for it to be fixed, which left a small scar above his mouth. Hassan also has emotional scars from being raped. The reader is probably shown the emotional scars of Amir the most. Amir has emotional scars because he feels that he killed his mother, and also because his father emotionally neglects him. In the end of the novel, Amir receives many physical scars from getting beaten up by Assef, when rescuing Sohrab. Though scars will never go away and are a reminder of the past, not all scars are bad.

The expression "riddled with guilt" is a good way to describe the main character's life, Amir, in the book The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner is a story about an Afghan boy, Amir, who has many hardships throughout his life as he grows from a boy living in war-torn Afghanistan, to a successful writer living in America. Amir experiences many events that caused him to carry a great amount of guilt throughout his life. So much guilt that it even turned him into an insomniac. He needed to find a way to make amends which would allow him to forgive himself and hopefully, one day, be able to sleep soundly again.