The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

The novel The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is the story of a young, upper class boy by the name of Amir and his friend, a lower class boy named Hassan. While Amir is a Pashtun and a Sunni Muslim, Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a muslim, which causes the main conflict between the two. Amir and Hassan learn more and more about their social status, as well as their personal friendships and problems as they grow up in Afghanistan.

People are different in many ways. Ranging from colour of their skin to their ethnic backgrounds. How society copes with these differences is what defines prejudice and discrimination. Racism, social class and ethnicity have become a never ending cycle that begins to shape the opinions of how people treat one another. The novel The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini revolves around a society constructed around two socially diverse ethnic groups the Pashtuns who practice Sunni Islam and the Hazaras who follow Shia Islam. Throughout the novel The Kite Runner, a variety of characters have made decisions that affect the overall outcome of the novel which base around ethnicity, race and social class.

Atonement is the focal point of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner as portrayed through Amir’s guilt, the repercussions of his guilt and his effort to remove this guilt by atoning his sins.

“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, is the complex story about a father and a son who struggle to find common ground. They are from Kabul during a time where danger was everywhere. Amir was a conflicted boy trying to find his place and purpose. He believed his father; Baba disliked him because his birth was the reason his mother passed. While Amir’s father favored the son of their family servant, Hassan. Amir’s friendship with Hassan was genuine until a tragic event Amir witnessed of Hassan and Amir did not step into help. Amir’s father once told him he needed to learn to stand up to people. That crime against Hassan changed Amir for the worse, something he could never let go of throughout his life. These are the main characters of the

“There is a way to be good again”(Hosseini,2). This thought represents the underlying message of the novel The Kite Runner, as author Khaled Hosseini tells a heartbreaking tale of a lifetime spent in the search of redemption for a “past of unatoned sins” (Hosseini, 1). Very often people undergo numerous internal conflicts throughout their lives, and they find that some of their problems change who they are as a person. Most people will not have the courage or the motivation to deal with and fix their problems, however, Khaled Hosseini’s novel inspires people to face and deal with internal conflicts. In the book The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir constantly struggles with guilt about his childhood mistakes and he finds it very hard to deal with them. The ending of The Kite Runner appropriately concludes the story because it portrays a journey of redemption for a childhood betrayal and ends with a hopeful message of new beginnings and freedom from past sins.

The book “The Kite Runner” is written by Khaled Hossseini. This book set during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and then the later rule of the Taliban. It is about friendship, brotherhood, and betrayal. It follows a boy named Amir who lives in Afghanistan and deals with guilt and shame because a poor childhood choice he made. During the book Amir lives with Hassan, who is their servant but have grown into half brothers.

​In the novel, “The Kite Runner”, written by Khaled Hosseini, was taken place in Afghanistan during the 1970’s to the year of 2002. Many historical events happened during this time period and Hosseini portrayed it into his novel. Kabul, the capitol of Afghanistan, was a free, living area for many Afghanistan families to enjoy the life they were given. Until one day, Afghanistan was then taken over and attacked. In the novel, Amir, the protagonist, must redeem himself and the history behind his actions because of his past decisions and make himself good again for the Afghanistan people.

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

The human body is built to attack infections, cuts, bruises, or bacterial cells as a way to repair the damages caused. The human mind will not repair the damages by itself; it usually needs an outside source to heal. One outside source that could heal a mind is the act of forgiveness. It can put a guilty conscience at peace. In the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir’s body could fix itself after the physical injuries Assef caused, but his mind took years to heal from guilt, if it ever did. Amir wished for his absolution, but it took decades to find it. “...it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out...I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years” (1). Amir mishandled finding forgiveness in his childhood by treating Hassan and Ali badly, attempting to remove them from his house, demanding Hassan to throw a pomegranate at him and then as an adult, he found relief by being beaten by Assef and having a sudden realization of tranquility.

The author of The Kite Runner is an Afghan man named Khaled Hosseini. He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 4, 1965. He wrote two other noteworthy novels one being world renowned like The Kite Runner. He writes his novels to enlighten readers about Afghanistan, his home, not simply defining it as war and terrorist but an actual place in the past filled with people and life.

“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.

Khaled Hosseini once said: “there are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.” Rape in Afghanistan is said to be an “epidemic,” but according to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of the term is “a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.” Rape in this country is viewed as something that is inevitable and cannot be stopped. Usually, rape also involves domestic violence, hence the reason they’re paired together. Contrary to common misconception, men are raped as well as women, especially children of both genders. In the Kite Runner, rape is a topic that is prevalent in and throughout the book. Bacha Bazi is even a part of the Kite Runner.

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

Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner, grew up in Afghanistan and utilizes Kabul, Afghanistan as the setting of this novel. The setting is what I found particularly interesting about this Bildungsroman. Throughout it, being able to make comparisons of Afghan culture and my own culture drew me deeper into the text. For instance, while many Americans place significant value on football, people in Afghanistan put just as much value and meaning on kite flying. Stories that delve into cultures foreign to me inspire my desire to travel and make new experiences, understandings, and social-connections that go beyond the bubble of a world I have grown up in. While the tragic twists in this story left me in a state of unease, the sublime mysteries of another culture inspire me.

Today it is as if every news headline revolves around terrorist attacks, war, and travel bans in middle eastern countries. However most of what is stated relating to such disputed issues are brought forth by reporters or writers who are not of middle eastern race. So when writers of middle eastern ethnicity use their writing to expose the reality of what is occurring in their country, people are more likely to believe the brutal truth. With a modern voice Afghan internist and writer, Khaled Hosseini, has exposed the suffrage his own people live daily in Afghanistan. The Kite Runner, being his first ever published contemporary fictional novel, brought awareness to readers worldwide the hardships of Afghan people, while exposing many barbaric