Literary Criticism Of The Kite Runner

Thesis: Betrayal leads to feeling of guilt which forces the person in search of redemption either directly or through indirect actions and gestures.

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.

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.

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

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 Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini can be seen as a great book but at the same time one that is too simple and easy. In discussions of The Kite Runner, one controversial issue has been the inner levels of the novel. On one hand, many people believe that the novel is filled with numerous themes that are deep and make one think about the human experience and will leave you thinking long after you finish reading it. On the other hand, there are also many literary critics who contend that opinion and say that the novel is overly sentimental and simplistic. The view I obtained while reading The Kite Runner would be in agreement with the first statement. I also believe that the novel is deep and makes one think

Khaled Hosseini’s novels, The Kite Runner (year), and A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) both explore the idea that a significant individual can inspire a course of action, which may result in a change of self.

Group is a non-governmental organization that helps minority groups and indigenous groups receive the rights they deserve and work in over 60 countries to help achieve their goal. They have been doing this for over 40 years. They share detailed information about about the history, the culture, and current issues about each particular group. Hazaras are a minority group, one that has repeatedly been dehumanized and has constantly struggled for basic human rights. They have not only been targeted throughout history by stronger forces, particularly by the Taliban in 1893 and the 1990's, but have also been oppressed by the other tribes of Afghanistan. Throughout all of this, the population has decreased significantly from 67% to around 9%. Hazaras are typically Shi’a Muslims, which is one of the reasons they are disliked by the Sunni Muslim community. Knowing about the history of the Hazaras emphasizes the cruelty that Hazaras in The Kite Runner face and adds a historical context to the story, one that I found helped me gain a better understanding of the novel.

What would it be like if your best friend/acquaintance did not stand up for you when you were in trouble? This question is great for how the two protagonists Amir and Ralph lose their innocence after their closest relationship dies. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Lord of The Flies by William Golding can be associated with one another in many ways. The first way that they are similar is the loss of innocence that is evident in each novel. Both Amir and Ralph experience a loss of innocence because of events that take place throughout the novel. This loss of innocence change Amir and Ralph in positive and negative ways. Some ways the two novels can be compared with regards to loss of innocence is firstly, how a death of a friend affects them, secondly, how Ralph and Amir deal with it and finally how they mature after their friends' deaths.

Baba never really confronted his mistakes, yet he seemed to live a fairly full and whole life. Amir and his father, Baba have a very distant relationship, they seem to be two very different people. “I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I?”(Pg. 18) In this quote Amir talks about his relationship with his father and how difficult it is. Although, he doesn’t know that the distance between them was because of Hassan, not the death of

“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

How does Hosseini use symbolism in ‘The Kite Runner’ to present key relationships? You should consider different reader responses and the extent to which your critical approach assists your interpretation.

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.

Through the portrayal of a society where politics are ethnic-based, masculinity being amplified is only one of the few thematic ideas that are present, others include the atonement of sins, resentment, immigration, expectations in a father-son relationship and barriers between different classes or castings. Concentrating primarily on subject of immigration, another significant parallel is present. In a biography of author Khaled Hosseini, Great Neck Publishing discusses Hosseini’s life, “The family subsisted on welfare during their first year in the country, with Hosseini 's father working at a flea market for extra income before finding a job as a driving instructor”. Relating back to the revelation of multiple themes, Hosseini depicts the struggles immigrants face while adapting to a new culture and environment of an unknown abode in The Kite Runner, similarly as he did himself, through Amir and Baba’s life abroad in America. Although Baba was a well reputed man back in his homeland, he too struggled, like Hosseini’s father, to being financially stable, which is evident through his job at the flea market, ultimately representing how they had to start over. Hosseini conveys the struggles of his characters in a fictitious text as a portrayal of his real life experiences which quite pointedly makes the novel more influential for readers to grasp onto the events that take place around the world thereby acknowledging the minorities, such as the