Book Analysis: The Kite Runner Quotes

When Khaled Hosseini wrote The Kite Runner, he made several important choices involving narration. He chose to write the story in first person from a limited point of view. This is a very fitting decision because, writing in the first person adds a sense of intimacy that is crucial to this story; writing from a limited perspective allows the reader to make their own conclusions about what the characters are thinking. The way Hosseini writes The Kite Runner makes it very intimate, and feels like a person telling their life story. If The Kite Runner had been written in third person, or omnisciently, the story would not have impacted readers as much, and would have been too cold and impersonal to create emotional connections with the reader.

Hassan is a victim of discrimination, bigotry, and class structure in Afghan society. Hassan and Ali are members of the Hazaras, a minority group of Afghanis. Amir and his father are Pashtuns, the majority, who believes they are a better class than the Hazara. Religion was all that separated Amir and Hassan, as did tribe and class. Amir learned from his father that the Harara tribe to which Ali and Hassan belonged, were inferior people. Because of this bigotry and basic class structure, Hazaras are often victims of physical, emotional and psychological abuse. Thus when a crisis comes and Hassan is being attack, Amir not only doesn't come to Hassan's aid, but also allows him to be brutally abused. Morality lacks because of this class structure, which allows people to be treated as second-class citizens. Considerations towards morality and religion helps the reader to broaden there understanding of the novel and it would be impossible to appreciated the book lacking them.

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.

Although Baba and Amir have been brought up to be kind to Hazaras and act as though they were no different from themselves not all of society was taught this way therefore the Hazaras are tortured and abused. Throughout the book the divide of races is made very clear through many ways, the mistreatment of of society was taught this way therefore the Hazaras are tortured and abused. Hazara’s are subjected to severe violence and mockery in this book. The rape of Hassan not only shows how he contradicts the view that Pashtuns have about Hazaras through his loyalty to Amir, it mostly show the inhumanity of one particular Pashtun,

In Runner, Robert Newton conveys that Charlie the protagonist is bound to mature early to make completely selfless choices. When his father dies, Charlie is contrived to fill his father’s boots, meaning he had to take up his father’s role of being the financial provider of his family. Additionally, Charlie makes an altruistic choice by running for squizzy Taylor. Lastly, Charlie makes the self-sacrificing decision by gambling his large saving from Squizzy on the Ballarat Mile. In summary, Newton demonstrates that Charlie is forced into adulthood early through necessity and make self-denying decisions due to his family's desperate circumstances.

Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, is most definitely different than other authors. He uses strong, detailed words that may be difficult, at some points, to understand. His use of vocabulary is rather challenging for me. The more use of challenging vocabulary, in my opinion, makes the book even more interesting. Now, I’m not a big fan of reading, but after reading this book, I had found an interest in reading more challenging books like The Kite Runner. Not knowing a word can change the whole scene by finding out what it actually means. Now, Khaled uses a wide variety of figurative language to grab your attention.

The love and disputes between father and son. The relationship that Amir has with Baba is quite complicated. Amir constantly tries to earn Baba’s love and respect while Baba has a hard time accepting how Amir is and compares him to Hassan. While travelling to Pakistan in the back of the truck Amir felt sick quite often by which Baba was quite annoyed. “I saw it on his embarrassed face the couple of times my stomach had clenched so badly I had moaned. When the blurly guy with the beads-the praying woman’s husband-asked if I was going to get sick, I said I might. Baba looked away.”In addition to this when Amir throws up, Baba apologizes to the fellow passengers to which Amir feels guilty and annoyed that he is just 18 and the way Baba is behaving is as if car sickness is a crime. This suggests that Baba was expecting Amir to be more self controlled and strong so that he didn’t feel sick showing us the conflicts he has with Amir as he expects a lot from him.

Had Hosseini chosen to further elaborate on the story he could have only done it through historical content and facts. The plot that he wrote was enough to cover everything, he had figured that his readers coming to his book would already know the story of the exile of King Zahir Shah, of the Soviet invasion and the devastating civil war that followed, and the rise of the Taliban, since he had meant for people to read it when it was published in 2001. Another thing would be how he was vague about the culture and typical life in Afghanistan. Hosseini writes “Now if you were Americans, it wouldn’t matter. People here marry for love, family name and ancestry never come into the equation. They adopt that way too, as long as the baby is healthy, everyone is happy. But we are Afghans…” (188). He wrote enough that you could make guesses and he hinted at certain aspects such as customs that are oppressive to women, and the relations between Pashtuns and Hazaras. If you want to know more you would be able to research it on

It is not until years later in the second half of the book, and long after Amir has moved to America, that he attempts to redeem himself for his betrayal of Hassan. Fittingly, due to the cyclical structure, Amir must return to Afghanistan. He is called back by the pleading of his father’s old friend, Rahim Khan, whose dying wish is to see Amir redeemed. At Rahim Khan’s direction, Amir returns to the village from which he originally fled. He is meant to find Hassan’s orphaned son and return him to Pakistan where, supposedly, a couple is waiting to adopt him.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a criticism of the political circumstances that have existed in Afghanistan over the last 50 years. Hosseini expresses his message by using characters and symbols to reflect powerful relationships, hardships and guilt throughout the novel.

First, Amir’s relationship with his father, Baba, helped create Amir’s identity. Their intricate relationship often left Amir feeling worthless as if he could not live up to the standards of a Pashtun. This negatively impacted Amir growing up; his values constantly changed as he tried to form a close bond with his father. Baba raised Amir to believe that everyone in Afghanistan had a certain role to play in life, but they should all be treated with respect. Baba’s values made Amir think he had disappointed his father. The high expectations that Baba had for Amir showed that he cared about their reputation. Being the child Amir was, he translated Baba’s hardness as though his father were unhappy to have a child such as Amir. Amir recounts the emotion displayed on his father’s face after an afternoon together; he laments, “Mostly I will never forget Baba’s valiant efforts to conceal the disgusted

“And I could do this by going on a train because I knew all about trains from the train set, how you looked at the timetable and went to the station and bought a ticket and looked at the departure board to see if your train was on time and then you went to the right platform and got on board” (Haddon 131)

In the novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini portrays the divisions of Afghan society through the relationship of Amir and Hassan from ethnic group differentiation,

Social conditions are what shape a country. Over the years, people, not only in Afghanistan, but around the world create norms that define people’s roles in life, their future, and how they should be treated based on their gender and beliefs. Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner, comments on the social conditions of Afghanistan through telling a story about the lives of two Muslim boys; a privileged Sunni Pashtun, Amir, and his long-time friend and servant, Hassan, a loyal but disadvantaged Shia Hazara. Hosseini expresses Amir’s uncertain feelings toward Hassan which form the decisions he makes throughout the book. These choices result in Amir destroying his relationship with Hassan. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini is a commentary on the social conditions in Afghanistan as shown through the roles of women and men in society and the ideals of Afghan culture. Unfortunately, these problems are still active in most of Afghanistan.

The Pashtun posses more power and Hazaras were humiliated and made to work under them as slaves. The thought of Hassan as his servant made Amir to avoid Hassan and he thinks that if he becomes close friend with that poor hazara, he would receive the same punishment that Hazaras were given by the Capitalist. Amir has the sense of fear for other Pashtuns, resulting gap in the relationship between the two