The Kite Runner Symbolism Essay

Friendship and loyalty are essential to maintaining healthy relationships. Both involve thoughtful acts which not only occur from one but from both sides of a relationship. Khaled Hosseini writes The Kite Runner to express to his audience how loyalty and companionship make a tremendous impact on not just two ordinary friends, but also other behaviors and relationships in Afghanistan. Throughout his engaging novel, Khaled Hosseini shows readers an inexperienced boy’s journey of denial and redemption after he allows the brutalization of his friend. For two long decades, the main character, Amir, struggles to cope with the realization he can never regain his friend’s love and devotion. Through symbolism, the author emphasizes the one-sided friendship between a spoiled, Pashtun, Amir, and a low-class, Hazara, Hassan. Hosseini uses a kite, a slingshot, and a pomegranate tree to symbolize friendship and loyalty between a high class, wealthy boy, and low-class servant. In The Kite Runner, Hosseini’s use of symbolism illustrates friendship and loyalty and engages the reader in the novel’s dramatic journey.

As a foreword, the story of The Kite Runner focuses on a man named Amir. In his childhood, he enjoyed a high-class life in Kabul, Afghanistan, living with his father Baba. They have two servants, Ali and his son Hassan. They are Hazaras, a lower class ethnic minority in Afghanistan. In one Winter of their childhood, Amir and Hassan participate in a kite-fighting tournament; the goal is to be the last kite flying. When a kite is cut, boys chase after it as a

As some friendships pass, others hold a strong bond due to honesty and integrity, which can make a relationship last a lifetime. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, he portrays a strong theme of loyalty through his characters Hassan and Amir using examples of these acts which were never easy. While the boys grow up together and form a friendship, a life changing event splits them apart, only to take Amir twenty-six years to discover the truth of their past, their fathers, and their lives.

Amir seems to have always been in competition with Hassan for Baba’s love. Although Hassan is oblivious to this, Baba wants Amir to be more like Hassan in many ways than just one. The type of reaction we get from Amir leans more towards him doing anything and everything he can to receive Baba's approval, even if that means getting rid of his best friend, Hassan. Amir seeks his one and only open opportunity to Baba's love through the kite tournament. This was everything to Amir, there was no way he could lose. After his victory, he needed one thing, the fallen kite, his trophy. Hassan realizes how important this meant to Amir so he did everything he could to get that kite for Amir. After that night nothing was the same. Amir had done something so wrong that could never be forgiven. Guilt begins to eat Amir up, he can’t live with himself, yet his cowardness stops him from doing anything about it. All he can do is try to forget it about what he saw and to avoid Hassan at all

Amir has several intrapersonal conflicts throughout The Kite Runner. Amir has mixed feelings in his relationship with Hassan, due to Hassan’s lesser social status as a Hazara. He likes Hassan because they get along very well and they know each other better than anyone else does. Assef points out the first social conflict when he asks Amir how he can call Hassan his friend and Amir thinks, “But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant!” (41). The response that Assef evoked from him highlights the inner dispute Amir has in his childhood. Hassan also played a role in Amir’s development since he always looked out for Amir. Amir did not need to stand up for himself because Hassan always did it for him such as when Assef was about to beat both of them up. This likely contributed to Amir’s cowardice throughout his life of not standing up for Hassan and leaving his problems behind him and choosing not to tell Soraya of his past earlier. In addition to his problems with Hassan, Baba’s unrealistic expectations of Amir challenges him greatly. From the time Amir was little, he always expressed less masculine traits. He did not enjoy watching soccer as most other boys would, and he enjoyed reading and learning from his mother’s old books. This created

Amir agreed so Hassan eventually caught up with the kite and was confronted by Assef and his friends. However, Assef did not want the kite, he wanted revenge. That’s when Assef and his friends pinned Hassan to the ground in an alley and raped Hassan. Amir was already too late when he arrived and found Hassan being hurt by Assef. But, Amir had the chance to stop Assef and save Hassan, but he didn’t.

A huge turning point in the book is right after they ran the kite. Once Hassan got the kite that is when everything started to go wrong. From there there were a lot of plot twists. In almost every chapter. I feel like if Hassan would not have ran after the kite everything else that happened in the book would not have happened. Hassan wouldn't have left. Also Amir wouldn't feel guilty most of his life, which is a huge factor in the story.

After the kite fighting competition Amir began to ignore Hassan and began having headaches when talking with him. This was exemplified when one day Amir said to Baba “‘Baba, have you ever thought about getting new servants’” (Hosseini 89). Baba was disgusted, and responded, “‘Forty years Ali’s been with my family. Forty goddamn years. And you think I’m just going to throw him out?’” (Hosseini 89). Self-centeredness is shown by Amir because he would rather kick Ali and Hassan out of the house than face the consequences of his poor choices. This shows his selfishness because he would prefer to make several other people, namely Ali, Hassan, and Baba suffer for his decision instead of enduring the repercussions. As Amir aged, his personality developed and his egocentrism turned into altruism. An example of this is when Amir decided to go to the war-torn country of Afghanistan to try to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab. At first, when Rahim Khan asked Amir, Amir would not go because he was afraid for his safety. At the point of the novel Amir had developed mentally, and despite the risks he decided he needed to do this. Amir told the reader:

The Kite Runner, a book telling a story of betrayal and redemption, is griping work that can make its readers quite emotional and thrilled. In this book, Amir and Hassan, two boys who are close friends to other, both are interested in kite flying. They live in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul. All they want is to win the kite-fighting tournament, by which Amir will win his father's love. However, war begins in Afghanistan. Life becomes extremely dangerous in there. In this war, Amir is forced to betray his best friend Hassan, which will bother him in the rest of his life. Amir’s father takes him to fly to the United States.

We are all told to look at the bigger picture, and not focus on the small and seemingly insignificant details. While reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the small details are what make up a majority of the themes within the novel. The three most notable symbols in The Kite Runner belong to the Eid sacrifice, the pomegranate tree, and the kites. Each symbol represents the major themes and development of the novel; they support the development of the central concerns, such as betrayal, redemption, guilt, and the loyalty that comes with friendship.

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.

If the relationship between the two young men seemed bad, it was about to get a whole lot worse. By the time Amir and Hassan were young men they had been through a lot, but they had somehow still remained friends, but this would soon be put into question after Amir betrays Hassan on multiple occasions. Amir had just won the kite competition and Hassan, a fairly fast runner, was chosen to be his kite runner. Everything was going as planned, Amir had won the competition, Hassan had found the kite that Amir beat, but moments later events would take place which would change the course of the story dramatically. Asseff, a town bully, had found Hassan and he wanted the kite which belonged to Amir, but Hassan was loyal to Amir and was not willing to do so, this lead to Hassan sacrificing his own dignity and getting raped just so Amir could have the kite he had won. What made matters worse was that Amir saw the whole altercation and didn't have the courage to step in and defend a childhood friend who had practically given up everything for him. This would be the turning point of their friendship, Amir felt guilty, Hassan felt betrayed, but no one said a single word. This would be a burden on Amir for the rest of his life, he would never apologize to Hassan, and even after

In this quote the author brings back the symbolism of the kite. The author shows how the kite brought joy and happiness to Hassan and his son, even in times of trouble. When readers see that Sohrab also loved the kites it shows that Hassan did let what happened in the winter of 1975 affect his love of kite running. Hassan did not let his past affect him, instead he passed and his his love of the kites with his son. In this quote we also see that Amir’s past is coming back once again, the mentioning of Amir remembering, “what a good kite runner Hassan was”, because the last time that Amir had flown a kite with Hassan was the winter day in 1975 where it all changed. The author uses the retelling of the past to change the line of the plot. This quote also re enforces the idea that Hassan was a key component that shaped Amir’s entire life.

    First of all, Amir learns the qualities of being a true and real friends. Amir considered his friend and half-brother, Hassan like his own servant. According to The Kite Runner, just before Hassan got raped  by Assef, he claimed “Amir agha won the tournament and I ran this kite for him. I ran it fairly. This is his kite”, “Amir agha and I are friends” (Hosseini 77). Hassan was always loyal to Amir, always stood up for Amir if he was in trouble. The book states about how Amir made fun of Hassan when they were young, “My favourite part of reading to Hassan was when we came across big word that he didn’t know. I’d tease him, expose his ignorance” (Hosseini 30). In the end of the story,

Amir is a selfish, self-centered individual and is not accepted for who he is but more judged by his actions/interest. He thrives for acceptance from his father, Baba who likes Hassan better. Amir’s best friend, Hassan is always there for him whether it be helping him or standing up for him. However, Amir is jealous due to Hassan’s qualities: nice, courageous and brave. He uses his advantages towards Hassan who is illiterate when reading. Amir says “Imbecile. It means smart, intelligent. I’ll use it in a sentence for you. When it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile” (Hosseini 29). Instead of being a true friend and telling Hassan the correct definition of the word ‘imbecile’, Amir lies. After Amir wins the kite flying tournament in the winter, Hassan runs to retrieve the last fallen kite of the tournament (trophy of honor) for Amir. On the way, Hassan approaches Assef; He is beaten up and raped in the alley. As this is happening, Amir’s weakness starts to appear. Amir has two choices: either he can go home and let Hassan get raped while fighting for the blue winning kite from Assef which is his ticket to Baba’s acceptance or stand up for Hassan like Hassan stands up for him. This choice changes Amir intensely, changes his character. Throughout the novel, the readers can infer that Amir is a dynamic character.