The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

In his critically acclaimed first novel, The Kite Runner, author Khaled Hosseini tells the story of a 12-year-old Afghan boy named Amir, who seeks his father’s love but is hindered by his own cowardice. Both Amir’s cowardice and his father’s lack of attention are compounded by the people and events surrounding Amir, until they feed into each other in a vicious, never-ending cycle.

The Kite Runner is a film based on the first novel of Khaled Hosseini, which was published in 2003 and became a bestseller, thus was translated to many different languages and spread around the world, becoming a discussion topic for quite a while. One of the reasons why this book is so rich and attractive is the variety of characters, which are all born in Afghanistan and spent at least most of their childhood there, but at the same time have different views, virtues and experience. And those characters, depending on the generation they belong to, are shaped by particular circumstances, political and historical events.

The Kite Runner is a touching novel written by Khaled Hosseini, sets the story in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir is the boy that we follow throughout his lifetime, he lived with his father, Baba who was a wealthy man.

None would believe that the innocent kite flying could lead to an epic story of betrayal and redemption. However, the heartbreaking and unforgettable story of Amir, a Pashtun, and Hassan, a Hazara, was caught in the novel, The Kite Runner. The book touched millions of its readers and marked the debut of The New York Times' #1 best selling author, Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner is the best book ever written and should be lauded and shared with future generations.

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.

The first connections that one makes in life are often a result of pre-existing relationships of family members. It is most common that children growing up form their first friendships with fellow children of family friends. Khaled Hosseini’s prized novel, The Kite Runner, reveals the controversy that surrounds the relationship of two central characters, Amir and Hassan. Both have fathers who share a long history. Amir and Hassan grow up together and appear, on the surface, as close friends. Yet, there are various instances that foster doubt in regards to the authenticity of Amir’s feelings towards Hassan. For all intents and purposes, Hassan proves time and time again to be a faithful companion. Hosseini uses the veracity of Hassan’s side of their partnership to amplify the inadequacy of Amir’s misguided actions. Even before the crucial rape scene, factors of Amir and Hassan’s early friendship are revealed that certainly mark it as less than secure. For example, Amir grows up in the shadow of his father, who is a significant athlete in addition to being morally righteous. Amir comes to resent how Hassan often times fits Baba’s expectations better. This, in turn causes Amir to seek to exploit the societal advantages, such as literacy, that his heritage affords him. At the same time, Amir and Hassan continue to spend a majority of their time together, even after Amir abandons Hassan to spend time with other wealthy Pashtun children. It’s possible that Amir would have grown

Amir starts his story dating back to 1975 in Kabul, Afghanistan where he lived with a single father. Living with him was his best friend and servant Hassan, and his own father as well. Though both Amir and Hassan had been in good terms with one another for some time, there was one significant even in their childhood which caused this brotherly relationship to shatter.

The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini, is a story about a Pushtun boy who experiences a life full of guilt after consciously betraying his best friend. Several minor characters serve dramatic roles that contribute to the development of the novel. These supporting characters include Rahim Khan, Soraya, Sohrab, Sanaubar and Assef.

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

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a brilliantly crafted story about the friendship between the son of a wealthy man and the son of his father’s servant. The main character Amir, flashbacks to 26 years ago, when him and his friend Hassan, the servant’s son, were the tightest of friends, playing together even though they belong to different castes. These bullies come up and fight against Hassan, as he belongs to the Hazara sect. Life moves along and the two friends are in a kite flying competition and Hassan loses, so he has to go get the kite, but while on that, he gets abused by Assef and the bullies, and Amir acts as a silent bystander, and does nothing so he can gain full acceptance from his father, Baba. Then immediately, Amir finds a way to cut his friendship with Hassan, and keeps his guilt with him. Tough times pass by as the war is happening, and the clash between Baba, Amir’s father, and Amir become apparent and many deaths occur along the way. Many plot twists occur and Amir has two ambitions, to survive through this treacherous warfare, and to meet up with Hassan. With the help of others, he finds out that Hassan is dead but saves Hassan’s son Sohrab from abuse and harassment from the Taliban, led by Assef. The story ends with another kite flying competition, where this time Amir runs for the kite of Sohrab to erase the guilt of his past, and to lead a prosperous life in the future

In The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir is a non-athletic intellectual boy who enjoys stories and flying kites. His servant and friend Hassan has an uncanny gift for knowing where downed kites have fallen and therefore can fetch a kite quite quickly and efficiently. In the beginning of the novel, Amir thinks back on how he became such a troubled adult. Reflecting on his childhood, he contemplates how he had been scared to stand up for others. He had been the child of a wealthy man and taken what he had for granted. He had a Hazara boy that served as his best friend, figuratively and literally, yet he still delineated between the classes. One day Amir witnesses Hassan being taken advantage of in an alley following a kite flying competition. He has the opportunity to stop it, but does not. He could not accept a Hazara as his true friend, or get over the fear of embarrassment of helping a Hazara. Over the course of the novel, Amir’s Character matures greatly because of the subsequent effects of witnessing Hassan’s rape .

Symbology is defined as objects, characters, figures and colours use to represent abstract ideas or concepts (sparksnotes.com). For example the symbol of peace is merely a universal sign used in different communities for no war or hate. A symbol in literature brings out a characters personality and pinpoints their significance in the book. A symbol also grabs the reader’s attention which makes them think yet, keeps them in suspense at the same time. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a miraculous writer that continuously throws foreshadowing and flashbacks at the reader, portrays the use of symbols in an extraordinary way. Therefore, In the Kite Runner symbolism is portrayed through the pomegranate tree, the flying kite and the cleft lip.

“There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini K. 2003) a line delivered by Rahim Khan Amir’s father Baba’s closest friend, to Amir in order to encourage him to help Hassan’s son escape Afghanistan and finally free him from the guilt of his past. The quote also embodies the struggle and salvation the novel The Kite Runner attempts to bring its readers. The book taps raw human emotions about life situations that challenges a person and brings out the best and worst in him, but the book also shows the value of personal redemption.

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

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.