The Kite Runner, by Khahled Hosseini, starts off with the main character Amir reflecting on his life story and how everything changed in the 1970s in Afghanistan. Amir starts by describing his home and how it was nicer than the surrounding homes. When he was born his mother died when giving birth to him- which sets up this feeling of resentment from Baba, Amir's father. In the nice house in Kabul, Afghanistan, Amir lives with Baba- his father, Ali- Baba's longtime family servant, and Hassan- Ali's son. The complication of Ali and Hassan living with Baba and Amir is the fact that they are Hazaras, not Pashtuns, which at the time was thought to be the superior race within Afghanistan. It is at this point in the story where Racial inequality as a theme of the story. The story serves as a small-scale representation of current and past events within Afghanistan and how they actually affected the residents of the country. The turning point of the story is when during the winter kite races of Kabul Hassan is kite- running for Amir so he could find him the last kite that Amir took out as the winner of the kite race.When Amir is done with the race he goes to find Hassan. Hassan is found cornered in an alley by Assef and his gang of blind followers. Amir to coward to stand up to Assef to protect Hassan, so Amir watches Hassan get raped by Assef over the blue kite that Hassan wanted to present to Amir. From that point on in the story, a feeling of discontent and resentment becomes established between Amir and Hassan. This is where the theme of loyalty comes into the story- no matter what Amir does to Hassan to try and distance himself from the disloyalty he committed by witnessing his rape and not doing anything and pretending not to of seen it, Hassan never leaves Amir. This progressively upsets Amir to the point where he plants money in the shack that Ali and Hassan lived in, as to frame Hassan of stealing it even though it would have been truley out of character for Hassan or Ali for that matter to steal anything led alone money. This is a turning point in the story because it is there that Ali and Hassan leave Kabul, even against Baba's pleas for them to stay with him and Amir. Shortly thereafter the politics of Afghanistan took a sharp turn for the worst, causing Baba and Amir to escape silently and work their way towards America, the land of safety. Amir and Baba move to San Fransico and are met with a good sized Afghan culture within the city. Through the culture, Baba and Amir became involved with buying junk from garage sales and selling it for a slim profit. Through this Baba and Amir meet the general who sells stuff a couple of booths down. After months of selling Amir starts to notice the general's daughter Soraya. After Amir's desperate and sad attempts of flirting it is shared with the author that Baba is terminally ill, but will not do anything about it because he is a man and will take it like a man. Baba's last wish was that Amir and Soraya marry and be happy together. Shortly after Baba dies and Amir and Soraya start trying to conceive a child but cannot no matter what doctor they see or anything they try. Baba's oldest friend and advisor Rahim Khan calls Amir and tells him that he wishes for him to come and visit him back in the Middle East. Amir does so and upon meeting Rahim Khan, finds out that Hassan was actually his illegitimate half-brother and that Ali, Hassan's "father" was sterile. Not only that, but Amir was told that Hassan and his wife had been killed by the Taliban back in Kabul- hence leaving their son Sohrab in an orphanage there. Rahim Khan asks Amir as his dying wish to go retrieve Sorhab and deliver him to a safe family that Rahim Khan knew in the city. Wanting to atone for the many sins that Amir committed along the way, he went to retrieve Sohrab. After looking high and low for Sohrab he found him in the hands of a local Taliban leader whom he met with to discuss buying Sohrab back. Turns out the local leader just happened to be Assef and he was not about to make it easy to take Sohrab. Assef agreed to fight Amir for Sohrab, as Amir was getting the snot beat out of him he started to laugh and feel atonement for the sin of watching Hassan get abused so many years ago. Sohrab saves Amir by slingshotting a metal ball into Assef's eye, hence giving them enough time to escape. When Amir brings Sohrab back to the city it was found that there was never a family that was going to take him in, so Amir knew that he must take Sohrab back to America with him, so he could live with Soraya and him. The legality of the whole situation was sticky and forced the idea that Sohrab would not be able to come home with Amir for a long time. With that in mind, Sohrab slit his wrists so he would not have to go back to an orphanage and suffer more. Soraya back in America pulled some strings and got Sohrab to be let into America with Amir legally.
Motifs:
Eyes- windows to the soul and reflected a character and or a trait about the character.
Colors- often reflected the mood of the scene and or object.
Kites- youth and forgiveness.
Education- value that can be overshadowed in wartime, showed an honorable trait within a character.
Theme Statement:
In The Kite Runner, Hosseini uses themes of atonement, loyalty and truth to portray the oppressive turmoil in Afghanistan.
Important Quotes:
"Then he [Ali] would remind us that there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break.
Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words.
Mine was Baba.
His was Amir. My name." (34-37)
This quote is important because it sets up the household hierarchy very quickly within the book. It also foreshadows a kinship deeper than it seems to be between Hassan and Amir. It also serves to show who Amir and Hassan followed and wanted to please. This quote also serves to highlight the racial side of their relationship- even though they were brothers of a sort feeding on the same breast, there was still a divide in how Hassan treated Amir and how Amir treated Hassan. The idea of racial inequality can be seen in the fact that Hassan is a Hazara and Amir was a Pashtun who was thought, at the time, to be the superior race within Afghanistan.
"I stopped watching, turned away from the alley. Something warm was running down my wrist. I blinked, saw I was still biting down on my fist, hard enough to draw blood from the knuckles. I realized something else. I was weeping. From just around the corner, I could hear Assef's quick, rhythmic grunts.
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." (137-139)
This quote is important because this is the first true betrayal scene within the book. This part of the book shows how cowardly and selfish Amir was as a child and how he would rather watch his friend get abused than step in and risk it himself. At this point in the story, the theme of betrayal and atonement becomes prevalent. This one scene at the beginning of the story is the driving force behind the whole plot of The Kite Runner. If this had not happened that Amir would have had nothing to guilt over and atone for because if this had not of happened then maybe Ali and Hassan would have moved to America with them and the story would have been irrelevant.
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