The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

In the novel “The Kite Runner” by Khalen Hasseini, one conflict that helps portray the key theme of redemption is Amir’s internal conflict due to the experiences he has had throughout his life. The key theme of redemption is understood by Amir’s experiences which include; his mother dying when giving birth to him, the rape of Hassan, moving to america, and the death of Hassan. Amir’s internal conflict is powered by his experiences.

Within any person’s life, he or she will face firsthand struggles mentally of guilt. Therefore, they want to redeem themselves of their actions. In The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hossieni, the theme of redemption is evident through Amir’s actions. Amir craves the affection and attention of his father, Baba, which he rarely gets. His mother died after he was born, and he thinks that his father’s affection is lessened because he thinks it is his fault. In the process of obtaining Baba’s affections, Amir did not realize that his actions would hurt his friend, Hassan.

The book The Kite Runner describes Amir first during his childhood; at first we are given a sneak peak into his privileged life as a callow child. The people that are in this boys life is: his father who is wealthy and who he admires tremendously, His father’s best friend cares for Amir like he is his own son, his name is Rahim Khan. Then he has a great friend and servant, Hassan and his father Ali. Then it is uncovered that Amir is more tenuous, and his Hassan relationship is not all that great. Yes, there is jealousy, cruelty and power struggles by Amir. Nevertheless there is also devotion, loyalty, and affection between the two boys. The reader soon learns that Amir has anything but a fabulous life. Amir 's mother died giving birth to him Amir feels responsible for his mother 's death because he thinks he is at fault. It is obvious that she has left a void in his life, and to fill that void he gets into poetry and writing partly because of her and her books he found. To add on to

The imagery, styles and the concerns used in the novel foreshadows the rape scene that happened in the grand kite tournament of 1975 which sets a cycle of betrayal and redemption into motion, around which the story revolves. The rape scene represents the entire novel; it’s related to Amir’s life as he spends the whole novel dealing with the incident, which affects his entire life. It also symbolises the racism in Afghanistan, and how the country is dealing with such an issue, beauty of the Afghanistan is fading just like Hassan and Amir’s friendship.

There is an almost imperceptible line between friend and enemy. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “[T]rue friendship is never serene" (Brainy Quote). In fact, the more entwined two individuals become, the greater the possibility that complications such as insecurity, jealousy and competition can arise. Friendship fulfills man’s basic need for love and security; however, it also can involve an unequal balance of needs and wants. In Khaled Hosseini’s seminal work, The Kite Runner, the two main characters, Amir and Hassan, grow up in pre-Taliban era Kabul, Afghanistan in the 1960-70s. The Afghanistan of the 1970’s is a vastly different country than the war-ravaged nation it is today. As the Taliban rises to power, our main characters mature and grow into young men who are defined by their social class. Amir, a Pashtun, grows up the son of a wealthy merchant - with all of the privilege and access that comes with it, while Hassan, a Hazara grows up in relative poverty, as a servant to Amir. The boys are half brothers but are unaware of this biological connection until it is too late. Despite their differences, the two boys develop a complicated friendship that sees them through their lives. Hassan’s second-class status in Kabul and Amir’s selfish drive to compete for Baba’s love blinds Amir to Hassan’s love and loyalty, restricting Amir’s ability to display mutual feelings toward Hassan; however, Amir’s attempts to achieve redemption, by adopting Sohrab, ultimately prove

‘Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance.’ -Richard von Weizsaecker

The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is a famous novel for its honest portrait of betrayal, and redemption. The novel is narrated by fictional character, Amir, who starts a new life in America with his wife, Soraya, and is a successful author who tries to escape from his haunted childhood in Afghanistan.. Amir is the son of wealthy Afghan businessman, Baba. The opening chapters are told by an older Amir explaining about his childhood. As a reader, one will notice that every joy experienced in his flashback is corrupted by his unatoned sin. Amir and Baba immigrate to America escaping the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1978. They leave their closest companion, Ali and his son, Hassan who worked for them as servants. After Amir immigrates, he settles as a husband and a successful author in the Afghan subculture of California. Amir eventually goes back to Afghanistan after Rahim Khan, his father’s friend, makes a phone call tells him “ There is a way to be good again.” Amir has now become a stranger to the war torn country as he does not recognize anything from his childhood. Amir goes on a journey on no man’s land to find redemption for him and his father. Betrayal and redemption come hand in hand in this novel. Khaled Hosseini applies these two themes to explain the events surrounding Amir. Khaled uses betrayal in the beginning of the novel to set the story and drives much of the novel’s action. Later on, Hosseini uses redemption as a quest to make up much

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a novel about a young Pashtun boy, Amir, and his journey to seek redemption. The Kite Runner bounces between two settings. The story is narrated in 2001, in present day California and shifts back to Amir’s childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan around 1975. Amir was born into a lavish lifestyle with everything he could wish for, except for love, affection, and acceptance from his father, Baba. Ali and his son Hassan, of are servants to Baba and Amir. They are of the Hazara ethnicity. Throughout his childhood, Hassan was dedicated to being Amir 's best friend, they did everything together. One of the many things they did together was kite running.

In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, discrimination and prejudice is everywhere and nowhere. The Talibans do not seem to care who they are beating, torturing, or even executing. The novel The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini tackles the issue of ethnic discrimination in Afghanistan with an example of the relationship between Pashtuns and Hazaras. For several centuries, the Pashtun majority is treating the Hazara population as second class citizens, who are unworthy of education or decent employment because Hazaras are a minority ethnic group; this leads to many Hazaras suffering. The social and economic conditions in Afghanistan demonstrate the imbalance between the superior Sunni Muslims and the inferior Shi 'a Muslims and how people discriminate against each other because of their physical features and religious beliefs. The estrangement between the two causes many deaths. Furthermore the significant distinction between Hazaras and Pashtuns in Afghanistan is the major factor because it determines not only Amir and Hassan’s role in Afghan society but also determines how Hassan himself suffers and dies because of his religion. The physical and emotional division of prejudice between the Pashtuns and the Harzaras in the novel The Kite Runner is destructive and results in death because of the suffering the people endure.

Before I read The Kite Runner, I had looked up a summary of it online as a preview for what was to come. That was not the best idea because after having read the summary, I began to make assumptions about the book. I had thought that it was going to be a very historically factual book about Afghanistan in the 1960s and 1970s when the Soviet Union invaded and the Taliban regime took over. I was expecting a plot line similar to Night by Elie Wiesel: a book about a boy and his father’s experiences during World War II in Nazi German concentration camps. As someone who is not a history enthusiast, I was then not very thrilled to read Khaled Hosseini’s book. However, I was incredibly surprised after reading it. There were certain parts that discussed different political events that occurred during that time, specifically with the Taliban. In addition, there were examples of traditional Afghani cultural events like the kite flying tournaments and the wedding ceremony. Although Khaled Hosseini used historically accurate experiences from his life in Afghanistan as inspiration, he also created a character with his own childhood, friends, family, and story. The Kite Runner is Amir’s, the protagonist and narrator of the novel, retelling of childhood events in Kabul that “made [him] what [he is] today” (Hosseini 2) and his present journey to amend his mistakes from the past.

The annual kite-fighting contest comes around and Amir is competing. When a kite loses the fight kids chase it down and try to find it, which is called kite-running. Amir wins the tournament and Hassan leaves to find the losing kite. Later that night, Amir runs into Hassan who is being raped in an alley. Amir is unsure of how to handle the situation and the only way he can cope with it is by distancing himself from Hassan. This shocked me because I expected Amir to not let it change their relationship or he could have even supported him. Amir and Hassan go through some hard times, such as Amir setting up Hassan to get kicked out from their house, and eventually Ali and Hassan move out. This is the event that Amir says changed him so greatly.

Plot summary: Amir flashbacks to when he was twelve years old in Afghanistan. He lives with his father, Baba, and has two servants, Ali and Hassan, who are also a father and son duo. The latter two are Hazaras, Afghan’s minority, and as such, are subjected to racial slurs and cruelty. Amir and Hassan are playing when Assef, Kamal, and

“There is a way to be good again.” (Hosseini 334). This quote given by Rahim Khan to Amir holds a great amount of force and symbolism. In theory, this quote symbolizes the beginning of Amir’s path to redemption. The eye-opening Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini tells about the struggles of Afghanistan before and during the Taliban, and one’s struggle for redemption and acceptance. With regards to the opening quote, some see Amir’s actions as selfish. However, others may believe that Amir truly changed and grew to forgive himself and others, and learned to effectively climb over brick walls that kept him down for years.

If Amir participated in and won a kite tournament, his father would be proud of him for once in his life. After triumphantly winning this tournament Amir catches a glimpse of Baba “pumping both of his fists.” (Hosseini 66) This was very significant to the character because this was confirmation that Amir had finally done something right in his father’s eyes. To ultimately gain his father’s approval he had to bring home the kite he cut, so Hassan faithfully vouched to retrieve it for him. Unfortunately, Hassan crossed paths with the protagonist, Assef and his friends, and consequently gets raped to keep the kite, he promised to bring to Amir safely. Amir witnesses the atrocious event and runs off only to meet up with him right after. He was trying not to compromise the condition of the kite or permanently lose it; so Amir steps back from the rape, which leads to his guilt and suffering. After that day, Hassan did not return to his normal self and says nothing about it to Amir, which only makes him feel worse. He felt as if he deserved some kind of punishment to make all his actions justified, but he never got one; at least not from Hassan. The severity of the conflict was too intense for either character to recover from; it would be something Amir would have to live with for the rest of his life unless

This is an analysis of the book The Kite Runner by the Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It was published in 2003, by Riverhead Books. The novel is claimed to be the first Afghan novel written in English and has become an international bestseller, that has been published in 40 countries. This amazing story has one of the familiar themes such as race, religion, forgiveness, love, betrayal, and friendship. In this essay, my main concentration will be on one of the themes, which is a betrayal. I will mention examples of betrayal between the characters throughout the novel.