The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This research project is focused on understanding a book, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. In addition, the project objective is to understand choices, actions, and processes of characters and what factors led them to arrive to such consequences.

The Kite runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, published in 2003 by Riverhead Books . It takes place before Afghanistan’s revolution and its invasion by Russian forces. The kite runner is a vivid and engaging story that gives a picture of how long Afghanis struggled to triumph over the forces of violence, forces that threaten them even today. In this novel , four themes have been introduced, first of all Redemption is a way to make up sins committed , secondly, Adversities contribute to a person’s personality , thirdly , Fear can lead to severe mistakes and long term consequences, before last, After pain and struggles come survival and lastly, Friendship is the essence of a bond that seek the best mutually.

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.

Amir's puts his jealousy towards Hassan and Baba’s relationship and his cowardness to the side in order to redeem himself. In the winter of 1975, Hassan was raped by Assef. This was Hassan's lowest point in his life when he needed Amir's help the most, but in fear Amir just stood there and watched then ran away like the coward he was. Amir thinks to himself, “I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan – the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past – and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran. I ran because I was a coward”(Hosseini 77). Amir’s selfish ways are a result of his father's lack of attention

-While living in California, Baba and Amir visit a flea market every weekend. At the flea market, Amir notices a girl Soraya. They fall in love. Suddenly, Baba is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. So they have their wedding quickly. After the wedding, Baba dies. Soraya and Amir try but ultimately fail to have children.

After he nearly convinces himself Hassan is “not [his] friend,” Amir is ashamed for neglecting his best friend in pursuit of his own safety. By portraying Amir’s guilt, the author displays Amir’s conflicted feelings for Hassan—the person who he has always treated “like a brother”—thus highlighting his inability to be decisive. Hosseini seems to believe that, although humans make mistakes, the following guilt can strengthen a person’s relationships in the long-term, provided they avoid making similar mistakes in the future. Later in the story, Amir and Hassan have a second encounter with Assef when Hassan is raped, but Amir simply watches the scene as a bystander, traumatized and scared to stand up for his friend. Amir continues to carry the burden of guilt for the rest of the novel and expresses his frustration by attempting to cut ties with Hassan. In chapter 9, Amir frames Hassan for stealing by placing his birthday money and his watch under Hassan’s mattress. When Baba finds out that Hassan had “stolen” from Amir—as Amir had planned— Hassan shockingly admits to stealing the watch and money, even though he was not responsible. However, Baba forgives Hassan, leaving Amir in a

So opens the pivotal event in The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini. The movie version, which is now in theatres, was nominated for a Golden Globe as best foreign-language film of 2007.

Soraya's father is very similar to Baba in his traditional culture ways, and believes that having a family, a blood family, is very important. “‘I’ll say one more thing’ he said. I could tell he was getting revved up; we were about to get one of the general’s little speeches. ‘Take Amir jan, here. We all knew his father, I know who his grandfather was in Kabul and his Great-grandfather before him, I could sit here and trace generations of his ancestors for you if you asked. That’s why when his father— God give him peace — came khastegari, I didn't hesitate. And believe me, his father wouldn't have agreed to ask for your hand if he didn’t know whose descendant you were. Blood is a powerful thin, sachem, and when you adopt, you don't know whose blood your bringing into your house.” This part of the culture makes it hard for Amir to come to grips with the thought of adoption and this divides him and his wife because they both want a child but to get one they would go against the cultural ideals of themselves and their parents. This connects back to his struggle for masculinity because in the eyes of himself and his culture a man should be able to raise his own family, and he doesn't see adopting a kid as his own until after he meets Hassans

In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini tells a notable coming-of-age story portraying the actions and thoughts of Amir, a penitent adult living in the United States and his reminiscence of his affluent childhood in the unstable political environment of Afghanistan. Throughout the novel Khaled Hosseini uses character description to display his thoughts on sin and redemption.

Hosseini also states that Hassan’s lip symbolizes the cultural and social differences throughout the novel, and how Amir's slingshot symbolizes the loyalty, their childhood, and explains standing up for what is right. The Kite Runner is a story of about an Afghan­American boy named Amir who has flashbacks that visually depict how his life was when he was just a young boy living in Afghanistan. It was a time of injustice as he searches for a redemption of his past guilts. Hosseini shows readers how Amir matures, and how he felt about different experiences during his life back in Afghanistan. The Kite Runner employs symbolism to show the experiences and moments in Amir’s life that have meaning to him and have left an impact on his life forever. By using symbolism, Hosseini makes readers think about how much earlier experiences and moments have shaped Amir’s life in The Kite Runner.

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. HIs mother taught high school and his father was a diplomat for the Afghan Foreign Ministry. They were forced to relocate to Paris, and later the United States, all because because of a communist coup in Kabul. Hosseini enrolled at Santa Clara University and graduated as a biology major in 1988. He then went on to earn a medical degree in 1993. He became a practicing intern at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from 1996 to 2004. In 2001, Hosseini began to write his first novel, The Kite Runner, and later published it in 2003.

Likewise, the “Kite Runner” is a symbol of freedom. In the novel, Hosseini, the family is full of guilt and ashamed the secrets of this historical literature theory of facts. Essentially, “The Kite Runner is a tale of sin, and redemption in which the protagonist, the Amir, is trying to redeem himself from a sin that he had committed in the past in Afghanistan” (Gunwant and Gaur 59). The historical element shows that Baba was forced to sacrifice his son Hanson for Amir and his freedom, which expressed the emotional pain of guilt that loses their innocence. In the novel, Hosseini reveals the new historical culture of experience, which the political society brings tragic events of struggling with survival, which brings the identity of honor and betrayal can lead to the loss of their

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.

Amir stumbles upon an alley. In the alley, he sees the Hassan trap by three boys named Assef, Kamal, and Wali. All they asked of Hassan is to give up the blue kite. However, Hassan’s loyalty and friendship toward Amir prevented Hassan to give up the kite. As the tension built, Assef lets Hassan have the kite, but in-return he does unthinkable. Assef rapes Hassan as Amir watched unnoticeably from the alley (Hosseini 62-66). This was Amir’s chance to prove his true friendship by stepping in to save Hassan. Instead, Amir ran “because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he could do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt. That’s what I told myself as I turned my back to the alley, to Hassan” (Hosseini 68). According to Amir, “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (Hosseini 68). “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 68).