The Kite Runner Essay

Colin Forbes

Mr. Sutherland

English, period 2

November 23, 2010

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, details the life of a young boy named Amir growing up in Afghanistan  during the Soviet Invasion. As a child, Amir has a strong friendship with his servant Hassan and spends his time playing with him as a boy. One day, during the Kite fighting championship, Amir wins and Hassan decides to run the kite for him. Hassan retrieves the kite but the bullies want it. Being loyal to Amir, Hassan refuses to give up his kite and instead gets raped by Assef. Amir sees the whole thing with his own eyes and does not do anything. Amir moves to America in the 1980’s and spends his life looking for redemption.

Throughout the book, Amir and Hassan’s relationship interested me. They were the best of friends during their childhood. After the rape, Amir and Hassan both begin to drift away emotionally. Amir wants Hassan to leave because of the guilt building up in him. In the back of his mind, he wants Hassan to stay because he is his best childhood friend. I think that the Author's purpose in this section of the story is to show the importance of friendship. For Amir, his friendship with Hassan has been necessary for him in his youth. Amir has trouble making friends because he is not good at many things. His father has tried many times to get him interested in Soccer and sports, but he is just not athletic, which is why he has Hassan. Hassan is illiterate but good at sports. Amir is the opposite. In this case, opposites attract. Amir is from a wealthy family and Hassan is not. They each have each other to entertain each other.

Amir frames Hassan for stealing his money and watch and tries to get him to leave because all the guilt has built up and since Hassan has been such a good friend, it is hard to live with him. Baba asks Hassan if he stole Amir’s watch.

“Yes”, Hassan says. I flinched like I had been slapped. My heart sank and I almost blurted out the truth. Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me.” (105)

In this quote, Amir feels full of regret for what he did. In his heart, he does not want Hassan to leave, yet at that moment he felt it was the best for both of them.

Amir finds out later in the book that Hassan is his brother and his father lied to him for his whole life. In our literature discussion, we discussed Amir's responsibility for Hassan's actions such as leaving and admitting to stealing the watch.

“I think that he is partly responsible because he hid the money in Hassan's room and framed him for something he did not do. Baba did not want to get rid of Ali and Hassan because Hassan was his son and Ali was like a brother to him. I think by now, Hassan has had enough of Amir not doing anything and feels he will have a better life away from him, however, he still feels loyal to Amir and misses him and they do not get to see each other again. Referring back to the part where Amir frames Hassan, i think this plays a part in leading to his death. If he had stayed with them, he would have probably lived a lot longer under the care of Baba and Amir.”

After the rape, Amir looked for redemption in many places. There were two things that fully redeemed him in his eyes. First, he saved Hassan’s son Sohrab from the Taliban and brought him to safety. Secondly, he got badly beat up by Assef. Since Hassan was raped by Assef in the childhood, Amir felt he deserved to be beat up.

In writing this book, Khaled Hosseini had a specific purpose. He wanted to show Afghan culture and the horrors of the Taliban. He says in an interview in 2007 when speaking about the Taliban that, “ In Afghanistan, under the Taliban, women were denied education, right to work, move freely, or access adequate healthcare.”

Here, he shows that women are treated horribly and he shows that in the book. He also mentioned that change needs to come from within

I think that he symbolizes the Taliban in the beginning as them being like the bullies. They are injecting fear in to society to keep certain people oppressed, just like Assef, Wali, and Kamal. They bully Hassan and Amir because they are different.

“He tipped his chin to Hassan. “Hey, flat-nose,” he said. “How is Babalu? Have you heard the news, boys, the king is gone. Good riddance.” (39)

Here he  points out differences that they have and why he his bullying them. Hassan is a Hazara and he is being made fun of for his stereotypical features. Hazaras are minorities in Afghanistan and therefore not treated as well as the majority of people. He is also ridiculed because his eyes are a little different.

He also wanted to show Afghan culture in the story. He shows that in Afghanistan and many countries, they still have some traditions that might never end.

“I want you to go khastegari. I want you to ask General Taheri for his daughter’s hand.”

Baba’s dry lips stretched into a smile. “Are you sure?”

This quote shows the traditions they have in Afghanistan. In the book, Amir has his father ask Soraya’s father for Soraya’s hand in marriage. They do not let the woman choose who she wants to marry. In Afghan culture, they have the father decide who his daughter will marry.

The evolution of Amir and Hassan’ friendship forms the core of The Kite Runner. Their closeness or distance from each other is where Hosseini delivers his most powerful messages. We also see the relationship between the bullies and the later emergence of the Taliban; it’s through these characters that Hosseini paints the backdrop of Afghani political culture. Afghan traditionas and culture are in fact on display throughout the novel, which shows us Hosseini’s true purpose: to portray his country through its struggles.