The Kite Runner Analysis

The Plot

1. The novel opens with Amir as a grown man reflecting on his childhood. Provide a detailed description of the opening scene of the novel.

The Kite Runner begins with our main protagonist, Amir reflecting back to the Winter of 1975 when he “became what I am today” and mentions an event that occurred in an alleyway when he was only twelve years old and living in Afghanistan. The novel now takes place in December 2001 and Amir begins to recall a phone call that he received last summer from his friend, Rahim Khan who tells him that “there is a way to be good again” and asks him too come and visit him in Pakistan. When Amir gets off the phone, he takes a walk through San Francisco, where he now lives as a writer. He notice two kites flying near the park; one red and one blue and thinks of the past and his untoned sins. He recalls his friend Hassan, a harelipped kite runner and a list of other characters including Baba, Ali and Kabul, where he grew up. The chapter ends with another reference to 1975 and the event that transpired in the winter of 1975 “made me what I am today.”

Extra notes

Purpose of starting the novel this was

• We are emotionally preparing ourselves
• Emotional intrigue
• We are learning who is he. Sets up tension so that we look for clues in the novel of what this is
• Establishes foreshadowing language device
• We think of him as not as bad of a person because we know that he is remorseful for his actions later in life.

1. The novel ends with Amir and Sohrab in the park together. Provide a detailed description of the final scene of the novel.

The novel ends with Amir taking Sohrab, Soraya and Kamila Jan to a gathering of Afghans at a park in San Francisco (for Afghan New Years Day) on a rainy day in March 2002. Sohrab, who has not spoken in over a year since he attempted to commit suicide stands out in the rain until eventually the weather clears and Soraya points out the kites that children are flying in the park. This gives Amir and idea and he goes to find a kite seller, buying a new kite he walks over to Sohrab and asks him if he would like to fly it. Sohrab, of course does not respond, however, one he sees Amir running with the kite he follows. Amir then offers the kite once again to Sohrab, who this time gives in and takes the string. A green kite approaches Sohrab’s and Amir shows him how to fight it using one of Hassan’s favourite tricks, “the old life and dive”. Amir and Sohrab manage to cut the green kites string and send it flying across the park. For the first time since arriving in America, Sohrab smiles, if only for a brief moment. Amir asks if he can run the kite for Sohrab and he nods, Amir replies by saying “For you a thousand times over” before starting off running towards the kite.

1. Reflect on Hosseini’s intentions when framing the novel like this. Consider how the novels key themes are established and developed by these scenes. Reflect on the position the reader is placed in by Hosseini’s deliberate framing of the text in this way. 

It allows for us to see Amir’s transformation as a person. The full circle set up of this novel shows the growth and development of Amir. Readers feel conflicted when they read the novel because we experience a change in perception while viewing Amir’s character.

Hosseini’s intentions when framing the novel like this were to connect the beginning and the end of the novel together. While not all loose ends have been tied up it gives the reader hope that the future will be better for both Amir and Sohrab. In the beginning of the novel when Rahim Khan tells Amir that “there is a way to be good again”, Hosseini is telling us that Amir seeks redemption for his sins. He has been living with the guilt of his sins against Hassan, amongst these a failure to step in when his friends was being bullied and raped and framing him later for theft. Amir has had no opportunity to gain this sense of redemption, even if he had been capable of it. However, in the beginning of the novel we do not know any of these plot points, Rahim’s phone call sets us up for the main plot line, the details of which we learn later.

The significant of the kites in the park ties in a few major plot points. The kites represent the journey that Amir takes in gaining redemption. In the beginning of the novel these kites have a negative affiliation for Amir. They fly dominantly above him, representing his untoned sins and past regrets that he has carried with him ever since he was twelve years old. The fact that they fly above him is significant to the fact that his sins figuratively ‘weigh’ over him. At this time he cannot bear to face them as what he has done is coming back to him now after all of this time pushing them away. Later in the novel as Amir reflects back on his childhood, we see that these kites are symbolic to his childhood and friendship with Hassan. Amir would compete in kite running competitions and Hassan would run them for him. We are then told of the winter of 1975, the day of the kite flying competition. Amir is in charge of flying the kite and once he cuts the last kite, Hassan will run it for him. Before running the kite Hassan says “for you a thousand times over”, a statement that shows Hassan’s undeterred loyalty for Amir despite the way that he treats him. This is a turning point in the novel in which the kites gain a negative affiliation, they now represent betrayal, guilt and loss. The next time we see kites during the end of the book when Sohrab and Amir bond over flying kites. At this time, Sohrab has now been in America for a year and while at a gathering of Afghans in the park Amir spots kids in the park flying kites. He buys a kite from a nearby stall and teaches Sohrab one of Hassan’s favourite tricks “the old lift and dive”. Amir’s offer to run the fallen kite reflects his childhood friendship with Hassan, but significantly, Amir is now taking on Hassan’s role as the kite runner and has achieved redemption. Hassan’s childhood role was one of patience, service, and loving devotion. If Amir takes on these attributes with Sohrab, the reader has reason to hope that the future will be better for both and they can each move beyond the past that haunts them.

The key themes of the Kite Runner, betrayal, guilt and redemption are established through the kites in the novel. We see the kites represent many contrasting things to Amir from friendship and innocence in his childhood, guilt and betrayal for most of his life and finally redemption after rescuing Sohrab from Assef.

The ability to redeem ourselves in our own eyes. The only thing that matters is the way that Amir feels about himself and the ability to forgive himself. He is also trying to redeem his father as well as himself. He is never truly able to make up for his actions, he is simply balancing the scales. He cannot erase the past but he can forgive himself for his actions and that is what truly matters; the way that we see ourselves.

1. Describe three other scenes in the novel that you consider to be significant. Explain why these scenes are significant in regards to the development of character and theme development.

The kite fight in the winter of 1975. When Hassan ran the kite for Amir in the winter of 1975 and then got harassed in the alleyway by Assef. This is a symbol of redemption for Amir, it shows the development of his character and introduces the themes of guilt and betrayal. Amir has in the past been cruel to Hassan and recognised this, however, the key themes of guilt and betrayal become dominant here as well as redemption. This is where all three key themes come into full circle as the themes of guilt and betrayal are what shapes Amir as a person, as well as what he must gain redemption for. Here the theme of redemption is also developed further. Amir hopes that winning the kite fight will redeem him in the eyes of his father and that Baba will forgive him for not being the son Baba always wanted. The kite fight is significant in terms of Amir’s character development, his cowardliness and need for redemption grow at this point of the novel. Without this scene, the story does not progress, nor does it exist. We feel caught up with why Amir is so guilty even so many years later. It is a climax in the novel in which everything progresses downwards thereafter.

At the pomegranate tree in Chapter 8. Amir asks Hassan to follow him up the hill so that he can read a new story to Hassan underneath the pomegranate tree. The pomegranate tree is a symbol of the friendship shared between Hassan and Amir. Shortly after arriving, Amir picks up a pomegranate and asks Hassan what he would do if he threw the pomegranate at him. Amir then throws a pomegranate at Hassan’s chest, staining his front red. Begging him to hit back, Hassan does not retaliate and even smashes a pomegranate over his own head. At this moment, the boys’ friendship is over, and Amir proceeds to set up Hassan in an attempt to further distance himself. This moment will remain in Amir’s guilty conscience as he grows older and is important to the development of the themes of guilt, betrayal and redemption. It is yet another moment in time that shapes Amir’s obsession and guilty conscience. Shows how much our past is imbedded into the present, there is always a mark left somewhere just like the carving on the pomegranate tree which was left over there.

Rescuing Sohrab from Assef. “We have some unfinished business you and I”. Shows how far Amir has come from his cowardly days as a child. He has grown as a person and earned his redemption. He was not ready until now to finally pay back his sins to Hassan. It is the most fitting way possible for him to gain the redemption that he so desperately wants. Here there is more theme development in that Amir is finally able to rid himself of the guilt and betrayal that he has had to carry with him for most of his adult life and gains the redemption that he sought after for so many years. As a child when Amir was too cowardly to stand up for Hassan, his need for redemption only grew. But now as an adult he is able to face Assef and gain redemption so that he can let go of the guilt and betrayal that looms above him like the kites in the San Francisco park. This scene shows the development of the theme of redemption, the release of guilt and the payment of betrayal. This scene shows the present and the past mixing, you cannot ever get rid of the past. The description of the fight is mixing with reflections of the past. He wanted Hassan to punish him but now he is finally getting the beating that he believes that he deserves. The slingshot that Sohrab fires at Assef, he becomes “one eyed Assef”. This is the beating that he would have gotten if he had interfered in the alleyway all of those years ago. Sohrab is the one who finishes this full circle off.

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“when its all done only one of us will leave this room alive”

“if its him you let him pass”

“Lessons are good things for boys”

“I don’t know if I gave Assef a good fight… I had never thrown a punch in my life”

“The harder I laughed the harder he kicked me”

“‘what was so funny was that the first time since 1975 I had felt at peace”

“I had been looking forward to this.”

“I felt healed, healed at last”

“A mask of lunacy”

“The cries of a wounded animal”

Character

1. Provide a description of the persona of the following characters. Identify their role in the text and locate three quotes you could use to highlight who they are. 
   1. Amir

Amir is the sensitive and intelligent son of a successful businessman from Kabul. He grows up with a sense of entitlement due to him having been given everything that he desired. He is the antihero of the kite runner and experiences some major character development throughout his life. Growing up he was selfish, self assured and deceitful. However over time, his character develops into one with the defining characteristics of selflessness, bravery and intelligence. The growth of his character is centred around his development from a selfish young boy to a selfless adult.

“I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would 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.”

“I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had. But I didn’t.”

“There was so much goodness in my life. So much happiness. I wondered whether I deserved any of it.” 

“I wished I could be alone in my room, with my books, away from these people.” 

“You’re gutless. It’s how you were made. And that’s not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you’ve never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is… God help him.” 

1. Hassan

Hassan is the son of a Hazara servant and the playmate of Amir. Hassan considers Amir to be his friend and has undeterred loyalty for him regardless of the way he is treated. He is a minority and has a facial disfigurement, however, he never allows to taunting and bullying by other children get to him and always appears happy and full of loyal. He has strong character qualities that define him as one of the most pure characters in the novel including loyalty, devotedness, kindness and innocence. It is later learned that he is the half brother of Amir and the illegitimate son of Baba. He does not experience much character development and from the very start he is a likeable character archetype and readers tend to root for him. From birth to death, Hassan’s character remains unchanged, he is always the same loyal, forgiving and good natured person. Hassan character is the driving force, also known as the catalytic character for the rest of the characters, however, mainly Amir as he is the motivation of his want for redemption.

‘For you, a thousand times over!’

‘Hassan never wanted to, but if I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me. Hassan never denied me anything.’

‘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.’

1. Baba

Baba is wealthy to-do businessman from Kabul. In both his words and his actions he sets the moral bar of the novel for Amir. He is his inspiration and the one who Amir looks up to the most, setting an example for the kind of person that his son wants to be in life. He is described as proud, independent and determined as well as sometime emotionally distant and not completely there for Amir. However, we later learn that Baba is tortured with the emotional conflict of not being able to acknowledge Hassan as his son. That his acts of selflessness including building the orphanage and his charity acts of methods of dealing with this guilt. We learn that he too is not perfect, he has committed the ‘only sin’ theft as he robs Amir and Hassan of knowledge that they are half brothers.

“A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer.” 

“Rahim Khan laughed. “Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.” 

“With me as the glaring exception, my father molded the world around him to his liking. The problem, of course, was that Baba saw the world in black and white.”

1. Assef

Assef is the main antagonist of the Kite Runner. He is the bully from Amir’s childhood the the rapist of Hassan and Sohrab. The main defining characteristics of his character archetype are a racist ideology, evil, cruel and sociopathic. As well as this he has no conscience and his character experiences no development from childhood to adulthood, remaining the same sick person. If anything his character gets worse as he grows older as he starts off as a racist neighbourhood bully and develops into a racist, rapist and sociopathic man. As an adult he delights in the notion of killing and raping people and is happy to see the pain, suffering and crying that comes from his terror.

“We left the bodies in the streets for days, and if their families tried to sneak out to drag them back into their homes, we’d shoot them too. We left them for the dogs. Dog meat for dogs”

“What mission is that? … Stoning adulterers? Raping children? Flogging women for wearing high heels? Massacring Hazaras? All in the name of Islam?”

“Ethnic cleansing. I like it. I like the sound of it … Ethnic cleansing, Assef murmured, tasting the words”

1. Sohrab

Sohrab is the child of Hassan and his wife and the half nephew of Amir. During the end of the Kite Runner, Sohrab’s character role was an extension of Hassan’s. Now that Hassan is gone he acts as part of Hassan that carries on living. He exhibits the same character qualities of his father in his youth of innocence, bravery and loyalty. He is traumatised by his experiences including witnessing his father and mother die, being put into an orphanage and then being sexually harassed by Assef. After he tries to commit suicide he remains weary of the world due to the hardships that he has faced and shuts everybody out and gives up. In the end of the novel the reader has hope that there will be a better future for Sohrab and Amir as they get older living in San Francisco.

“That’s how children deal with terror, they fall asleep.”

“And so it was that, about a week later, we crossed a strip of warm, black tarmac and I brought Hassan’s son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty.”

“One time, when I was really little, I climbed a tree and ate those green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I’d just waited for the apples to ripen. I wouldn’t have become sick. So now whenever I really want something. I try to remember what she said about the apples”.

1. Identify three key relationships in that are developed in the text. For each, explore what is ‘key’ about them for the characters involved and what kind of impact the relationship has on both characters development.

Amir and Hassan. Amir and Hassan’s relationship is built on the basis of male friendship and brotherhood. They were both fed by the same nurse and grew up like brothers “They say there is a brotherhood between people who’ve fed from the same breast”. The two boys grew up in a time where you were treated differently for your race, their relationship defies this. While Amir is the privileged son of a Pashtun, Hassan is a Hazara servant, friendship shared between these two races was frowned upon. The two boys had a bond that was only openly acknowledged by Hassan, making their relationship strained from the beginning. Amir’s constant denial of their bond and teasing of Hassan stems from their different cultural and ethnic backgrounds more than anything else. However, Hassan’s loyalty to Amir remains undeterred throughout all of this “Amir Agha and I are friends”. They even carved their names into the trunk of the pomegranate tree “Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul” however, all of the friendly activities that they do together are done in private. At times Amir even wonders to himself “Why did I play with Hassan when no one else was around”. Eventually their relationship is broken with Amir’s betrayal of Hassan by allowing him to be raped by Assef and at the pomegranate tree when Hassan crushed the fruit that Amir wanted him to throw at him over his own head. In terms of character development, even when betrayed Hassan remains unchanged, his loyalty never faltering for Amir. However, their relationship causes major character development in Amir, however, only after Hassan dies. His betrayal of he and Hassan’s relationship is his main motivation for redemption and ultimately leads to him feeling guilty for much of his life because of it. When Baba’s relationship with Amir and Hassan is considered, the relationship between the two boys only complexes further. Baba’s affection towards Hassan and lack thereof for Amir puts more strain of their relationship and causes jealousy to become a dominant factor. Ultimately, the relationship between Hassan and Amir cannot truly be described as a friendship but rather one of betrayal and inequality.

Amir and Sohrab. Sohrab is the child of Hassan, the two sharing many similarities in both their appearances and personalities. rescuing Sohrab is Amir’s way of gaining redemption, forgiving himself and repaying Hassan for his betrayal of him and years of abuse that he inflicted upon him. The relationship between Amir and Sohrab is based on redemption, forgiveness and repaying past sins. Sohrab is described as a piece of Hassan that keeps on living. While Sohrab never knew of Amir’s betrayal of his father, he redeems the crime that was done to him by being rescued by Amir. Sohrab represents Amir’s second chance to make up for ruining his relationship with Hassan. He is an outlet for redemption, repaying past sins and for Amir to forgive himself. By rescuing Sohrab, Amir is thus able to atone for his past sins and finally have a child, and Sohrab able to live a better life in America, away from the war torn Afghanistan. Their relationship is ultimately healing for both Sohrab and Amir and embraces the good qualities in their characters, allowing them both to move on from the past. This shows major character development in Amir as for the first time since he was 12 years old he is able to rid himself of the guilt of his betrayal of Hassan, knowing that he has somewhat repaid him and given his child a chance at a better life, so that he would not have to experience the same fate as his father had to endure.

Amir and Baba. This is a key father son relationship that is crucial to the plot. Amir’s complex relationship with his father is built on both love and tension. His desire to win his father’s approval is the foundation of their relationship. While Amir loves Baba, him being his motivation, he rarely feels loved back and has difficulty connecting with his father. The main basis of their relationship is Amir desperately trying to live up to Baba’s expectations. Their relationship is continuously strained, however, it never breaks, as Amir’s struggle to gain the approval of his father never falters. Amir is negatively impacted by his father’s views of him. Baba views Amir as being weak and unable and cannot view Amir’s interests such as reading as having any value. Consequently, Amir makes questionable decisions due to his only motivation being his fathers approval. It is Baba’s lack of approval that ends up causing Amir not to step in during Hassan’s rape because he believes that bringing home that blue kite will finally make Baba proud. This kind of strained relationship leads to no character development in both Amir and Baba. Only after Baba dies does Amir develop as a person, because his motivation is more so redemption rather than gaining approval.

1. Consider the narrator of the novel, Amir. Explain how he fulfils the expected characteristics of the antihero. Discuss the ways that he changes throughout the novel and how, given he is is the one that is telling the story, the audience is positioned to view him. 

Amir lacks the typical qualities that an anti-hero possesses including bravery, determination, loyalty etc. He lives a very privileged life, with servants, in a large house and so on. If it was this alone that defined him as a character, we would be led to believe Amir a villain, considering the vile way that he treats those that care about him, namely his betrayal of Hassan. However, we see from the beginning that Amir is mentally constricted about many things. The beginning of the novel is positioned in a way where we learn that Amir cannot get over the guilt of his past decisions, he knows that what he has done is bad and will do anything to repay them. As a child Amir’s mother died giving birth to him. His father led him to believe that “there is only one sin, only one, and that is theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life” and it is constantly implied that Baba blames Amir for murdering his mother to the point where Amir starts to accept this as fact. Along with this is Baba’s affection towards Hassan and lack thereof towards Amir, which causes jealousy and anger on Amir’s part ultimately leading him to make questionable decisions such as teasing Hassan for his lack of education and in the end, betraying him when he needed him the most in the alleyway that one night. Because of this, Amir is constantly striving to fulfil Baba’s expectations of him, however, this ultimately turns out to be fruitless as anything that he does to please Baba is only short lasted. Because Amir has these mental constrictions we feel sympathetic towards him, the jealousy and the horrific decisions that he makes are all stemmed from the root of his problems; Baba. However, while it can be understood where Amir is coming from, he still makes vile decisions that make him unheroic, perfectly fitting the antihero character arc. Amir, however, experiences major character development in the novel, he begins as a jealous young boy, who’s main motivation in life is please his father using any means necessary. His abuse from his father makes us feel bad for him in a way, but it does not excuse his actions. When Amir realises that his betrayal of Hassan was a vile act of self preservation, he carries his guilt with him throughout his entire life. Up until he makes the decision to go rescue Sohrab in Kabul, Amir experiences little to no character development, while he moves to America, mends his relationship with his father, Baba and gets married to Soraya he overall does not change as a person as he is unwilling to atone his sins, or he is just too scared to. He pushes away the things that he has done for much of his life, pushing them into the back of his mind, wanting them to be washed away. But ultimately this remains a fruitless dream, as the past can never be buried. When Amir decides to rescue Sohrab, he changes as a person and experiences some major character development. He exhibits characteristics that he never showed before including bravery and heroism. While he does atone for his sins, the vile decisions such as his betrayal of Hassan in letting him be raped are forgiven, however, they have not been forgotten. They will always remain a part of his past, and the past defines the person that we become. We never truly rid ourselves of our sins as they make us who we are, just as much as our good deeds do. Because Amir is the narrator, we are positioned to see only his side of the story and this we view him in the way that he wants us to. However, he proves to be a reliable narrator as he is able to understand the true vicinity and effect of his actions and past sins. He is able to tell us as readers that he realises the things that he has done are bad and knows that these sins are what made him the person that he is today. Without them he would have no motivation to become a better person.

1. Reflect on the purpose of telling this story, a story of redemption and reconciling your past, from the antihero perspective. Why have our narrator as a character whom we grow to respect rather than establishing them as ‘honourable’ right from the beginning?

If we start from the beginning of the novel with a character that we view as being ‘honourable’ and ‘heroic’ we cannot resonate with them. We feel no sympathy for them as they have no imperfections that we knows of so far. These are what make us humans, the black marks on our personalities, the dark pastimes and bad sins are what define us as being human. We are much more likely to feel for a person knowing that they have a past that they regret, than a person who exhibits not bad qualities. This is because be can relate, we have all made bad decisions that we regret, which motivate us to be better people later in life. These are how we learn our lessons and become the best version of ourselves. If we have not been able to feel regret in our past, then we do not develop as people, we ultimately stay the same for our entire lives. By establishing Amir as someone with a dark past that he regrets, we immediately are able to relate to him as a person, making it personal for us. We much rather enjoy to read about something that we can resonate with rather than not being able to relate to at all. The vast majority of us do not have sins as dark as Amir’s, but we have all done things that we regret. Redemption and reconciliation for our past actions is something that we can all relate to as people. We have all felt that need to redeem ourselves for our wrongdoings in the past, making the novel a read that shows us the personal growth that comes from redemption and reconciliation. The novel ultimately shows us that personal growth can only come from making up for our past sins and forgiving ourselves even when others do not. Because, the only way that we are able to move beyond the past is to accept ourselves as having done bad actions and having the ability and the bravery to forgive ourselves. In the end, Amir’s bravery is shown through the fact that he is able to redeem himself in his own eyes and accept the fact that he has been forgiven for his actions even when no one is able to tell him so. It is also shown in the way that he accepts his dark past as a defining factor in the person that he is today. Without it, he never would have grown from the timid, jealous young boy who’s motivation in life was to live up to his father’s expectations, whilst only thinking about the way that things affected him. In the end he was become a brave man who is able to put others above himself, his sense of self preservation gone, and in place the sense of selflessness that helped him to save Sohrab in the end.

Guilt

1. Identify three quotations in which Amir details the extent that guilt is a controlling force in his life. Explain how they present an idea about ‘guilt’. 

“I thought about Hassan’s dream, the one about us swimming in the lake. There is no monster, he’d said, just water. Except he’d been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake. It had grabbed Hassan by the ankles, dragged him to the murky bottom. I was that monster”.

This quotation demonstrates how impactful Amir’s self hatred is and how it ultimately allows his guilt to completely take over his life. Here, the monster in the lake serves as a metaphor for Amir’s guilt and betrayal. Hassan’s undeterred optimism views this event as a ‘dream’ but in reality it is a nightmare, just as Amir’s guilt is for him. The quotation shows that Hassan does not view Amir as monster, despite the constant stream of bullying that he receives from him. No one has outwardly said that Amir is a monster, he quite literally dreamt up the idea of himself as this monster himself, showing how his overwhelming sense of self-hatred has allowed for him to let guilt dictate over his life. The night before the kite tournament Hassan had a dream about a monster in the lake, but there was no monster, everyone just thought that there was. But Amir was able to show everyone that there was no monster by jumping into the lake and swimming around. Just like in the dream, Amir choses to fly in the tournament after almost backing out. He is reminded by Hassan that there is no monster. He faces the challenge head on. However, after his betrayal of Hassan after the kite flying competition, he begins to view himself as this monster, only himself explicitly telling himself so. It is shown here that ultimately the source of Amir’s guilt is because his desires were his motivation that night in the alleyway, he ran away because he valued approval over bravery and chose cowardice. The bottom of this fictional lake represents the extent of Amir’s sense of guilt and betrayal and how far he went in order to achieve what he wanted, his father’s approval. It also shows the betrayal of blood and how meaningful this is in the end.

“For me, America was a place to bury my memories. For Baba a place to mourn his“.

This quotation illustrates how Amir was able to bury his guilt once he arrived in America, however, they were never buried deep enough for him to forget them. It shows how Amir had to live with the guilt of his betrayal. In terms of Baba, the quotation explains how America was a place where he was able to mourn his own sins. Even though he has lost everything, he is able to move on in life knowing the good that he has done, therefore, he is able to mourn. He gains the strength to do this from the person who he was in the past. However, Amir is unable to do this, unable to mourn because he never had the strength to be brave like Baba was back in Afghanistan, so when he tries to move on like Baba did, he finds himself unable to, so he attempts to bury his sins instead of face them. However, this ultimately proves to be fruitless as Amir’s self hatred does not allow him to completely bury his memories and move on, only deep enough to where they largely dictate the way that he thinks. His own self hatred causes him to let his memories haunt him as he believes that he should be punished for his betrayal, showing the extent of how his guilt dictates the way that he thinks and acts for over 26 years.

 “I felt like a man sliding down a steep cliff, clutching at shrubs and tangles of brambles and coming up empty-handed”.  

This quotation is said by Amir after he is told by Rahim Khan that Hassan is his half brother. The act of betraying a friend feels largely different and less guilty to Amir than betraying his own brother. This causes Amir’s feeling of guilt to grow even more as not only has he betrayed and set up his best friend for betrayal, but also his brother, someone who shares the same blood as him. Another quotation that comes to mind and I believe correlates with this one explains how meaningful blood is to Afghanistans. “Blood is a powerful thing” is what General Taheri says to Amir and Soraya when they consider adoption when they cannot bear a child themselves. For the Afghan people, blood is as powerful and meaningful as morality and honour. Understanding of relationships and families comes from the knowledge of a person’s heritage. Later when Amir discovers that Hassan is his half brother, this becomes a major motivation is Amir’s strive to gain redemption and free himself of his guilt. Amir gains even more guilt because he let fear overcome his responsibility to “his own blood.” The connected back to this quotation is is shown that Amir’s guilt has grown to the point where he feels completely out of control, and whilst he tries to grab on to anything such as the “shrubs and tangles of bramble” and think of something redeemable that he has done for Hassan, he ultimately comes out empty handed as he has now realised that his actions in the past are worse than he thought. This quotation ultimately illustrates, just how strong the feeling of guilt has over Amir, to the point where he allows it to control him when he is not braced for it. It also demonstrates how the past will always resurface and just how unprepared Amir was for this, after burying his guilt for so many years, it has finally resurfaced in a greater form than it was for him before.

1. Comment on the ‘event’ that Amir is constantly referring to as being the thing that rules his life- do you believe he deserves to suffer like this? Why/why not? Why do you think the guilt from this one wrong action causes him to commit more ‘crimes’?

This event, is the night of the kite flying competition. It is shown that this event and his betrayal of Hassan in the alleyway largely dictates the way that Amir is shaped as a person over the 26 years that follow. The person that he becomes is shaped by the feeling of guilt that his own self hatred allows him to carry with him throughout life. He is unable to let go of his dreaded feeling of guilt because he does not have the strength to let himself overcome it, he believes that he deserves to suffer and be punished for his sins before he can feel happy or deserving of good at all. While Amir’s actions are always going to be there in the back of his mind, he does not deserve to let himself suffer for them 26 years later, they are forgivable but not forgettable. You can always forgive others and yourself but you can not ever forget, and neither can other people because the way that they think of you has changed. Because Amir is a person who does not believe in self gratification, he values the approval of others, most specifically Baba over that of himself. He cannot grant himself forgiveness unless he believes that he has earned it. I do not believe that the deserves to suffer like this for 26 years of his life as he made these despicable decisions when he was only a young boy of 12 years old whose main motivation in life was to gain the approval of his father. He valued Baba’s approval and love over anyone else because he never got to experience the paternal love that other children got to. His motivation for betraying Hassan was largely formed from feelings of jealousy over Hassan but he didn’t know at the time all of the factors involved in the way that Baba treated him. He also felt guilty for killing his own mother due to the way that Baba spoke of sins and that the only sin is theft etc. This sin ultimately causes Amir to make further bad decisions that grow his guilt anymore. This us because he is trying to bury his guilt by ridding Hassan from the house so that he doesn’t have to face him. He tries to make Hassan give him the punishment that he wants, but Hassan does not view Amir as being a ‘monster’ so he refuses to. So Amir choses the only other way that he knows, burying your sins, trying to forget, avoid them if he cannot face them. This is ultimately the reason why he frames Hassan for stealing from him and tries to get rid of him because he knows no other way and choses to bury or avoid his untoned sins instead of facing them everyday without punishment.

1.  Explain what happens when Amir attempts to run away from the guilt in his past. Why do you think he cannot escape it?

When Amir tries to run away from his sins, he ultimately finds that it will always resurface later in the future. You can only bury your dark memories so deep and you can never truly forget them because they will always be there, looming over you, unfazed. This perfectly depicted in the quotation “It’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws it’s way out.” When Amir tries to bury the guilt from his past, suppress it to the furthest parts of his mind he realises that it always resurfaces itself. The future is inevitably shaped by our decisions in the past, as is Amir’s guilt and the past can never be forgotten. The reason why Amir cannot escape this dreaded feeling of guilt is because he is not a strong person. While Baba is able to feel redeemed for his sins of not being able to claim Hassan as his second child by his good deeds such as building the orphanage etc, Amir ha made no good decisions that he views as being as impactful as Baba. Our bad decisions can be forgiven, however, there is no one left to forgive Amir so the only way to feel redeemed is if he forgives himself. His own self hatred does not let him forgive himself because he believes that he deserves to be punished for his actions first, therefore, he must do something redeemable and good as a person before he is able to move on. The quotation also explains this “America was different. America was a river, roarng along, unmindful of the past. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.” America here represents a river that Amir tries to release his guilt into, let it carry is far away, however, rivers drain into the ocean, where things that people release into them are often resurfaced. Everything that you release into the river will drain into the ocean, where it will one day resurface itself in someplace completely new. This its why Amir is unable to escape his guilt, because it always resurfaces itself somewhere and in a completely new way. This is shown through the way that Amir connects milestones and random events in his life to his betrayal of Hassan and lets guilt wash over him like the waters of this metaphorical river. Whether it be his high school graduation, Babas death, his marriage etc, any mention of Hassan name will resurface this guilt regardless of the circusrahces of where Amir is in his life, showing that guilt cannot ever be suppressed and that it will always resurface itself in another new form.

1. Reflect on the presentation of ‘guilt’ in this text. What do you think the big things the author wants us to learn about the effects of guilt on living a normal life are?

I think that the author’s main purpose in presenting guilt in this way is to show us how the future is ultimately shaped by our decisions in the past, regardless of whether they are good or bad. We can live with the guilt of our actions, bury it away and try as we can to suppress it, but it will always resurface one day and stop us in our path towards the future. Hosseini is basically showing that unless we face our sins head on and doing something redeemable to combat them they will always resurface in the form of guilt. This guilt will always loom over us in someway until we are ready to forgive ourselves, because in reality, these bad decisions in the past can be forgiven, but they can never be forgotten. In living a normal life, the way that we view people is based on both the good and bad things that we have seen or heard them to do. As human beings we take both of these into account when compiling together our view of that particular person in general. And while we are able to forgive others for wronging us, and are able to forgive ourselves if we have the strength to do so, we can never forget the things that we or other people have done, our brains are not built that way. Human nature ensures that we do not forget, as these past decisions shape the future that is to come. Without remembering the bad, we would be unable to form a plausible reason in our head for why a certain outcome has occurred in the future. Another aspect off guilt that is presented in the text is that it can reach through years and years of life. Guilt does not fade overtime unless it is forgiven, and we are ultimately the ones that allow ourselves to move on from this feeling of guilt. It ultimately depends on how bad the sin that we have committed is, how deserving of forgiveness we view ourselves as being and how willing we are to atone them. Lastly, guilt is different for each individual person, it can be scarcely there or painful, aggressive and forceful for the person experiencing it.

Redemption

Explain why the fight scene allows Amir to feel healed. Why do you think he needed to endure physical pain and suffering in order to balance the scales?

Because Hassan himself had to endure physical pain by Assef too. Ever since the winter of 1975 he has felt that the only way to redeem himself is to endure the same treatment that Hassan had to endure through. Amir describes the fight scene as being physically painful, but mentally healing. “My body was broken…but I felt healed. Amir remembers laughing while Assef beat him, and feeling relief. He had looked forward to that, and felt healed for the first time. Amir is so hard on himself that the only way that he feels he can redeem himself and move on for the incident is to physically balance the scales. Rescuing Sohrab will not be enough, he feels that he must go through the same treatment that Hassan did to fully repay him for his betrayal. Now that he has served for what he did and his body is in so much pain, his soul had been healed. During the fight scene, Amir reflects back on the day on the hill with Hassan. He had tried to provoke Hassan into giving him the physical punishment that he believed he deserved, however, Hassan would not throw a pomegranate at Amir and instead smashed a pomegranate on his own forehead. This day on the hill had made Amir feel even worse, the guilt of betrayal only growing more. However, the physical punishment that Assef gives him finally allows Amir to feel redeemed, as he has not felt what Hassan had to endure through. Amir states that “in a corner of my mind, i’d even been looking forward to this”. This demonstrates that Amir feels better knowing this is what he deserves after all the bad things he did to Hassan. In Amir’s mind this is he only way that the scales can be balanced because when they were children Assef said to Amir “This doesn’t end today … Someday, I’ll make you face me one on one”. That was the day that Hassan had defended Amir from Assef, however, the winter in 1975 when Amir had his chance to stand up for Hassan from Assef, he submitted to cowardice and chose to leave Hassan in the hands of Assef and save himself. Instead of defending Hassan and being beaten by Assef himself, he ran away. So Amir feels that the only way the scales can truly by balanced is to receive the beating that he was meant to be given 26 years ago. Amir felt that he should have gotten what he would have had to ensure back in that alleyway all of those years ago. It is drilled into Western Society that if we do something wrong we must be punished for it. This is what Amir feels must happen to him before he can feel at peace with himself, he must level the playing field before he can move on. He knows that he has wronged Hassan and continues to feel bad about it but now he knows that he has done something to make up for his betrayal even if it is not the same as completely making up for his mistake.

Describe how Amir believes he can redeem himself for Baba. Explain the reality of this after Amir achieves what he set out to. Why does it not work out?

Amir believes that he can redeem himself for Baba by winning the Kite Fight in the winter of 1975. However, Baba’s only hope for Amir is that he becomes a man, someone who is brave and not cowardly. However, because the kite fight is Amir’s only idea on how he can redeem himself in his father’s eyes, he is blinded to fact that Baba’s only hope for him is to become someone brave, someone that would have saved Hassan from Assef by stepping in and defending him. The fact is that Baba would have been far more proud of Amir for defending Hassan than for winning the kite fight. Coming home with that last kite at the end of the competition would only earn Amir temporary praise from Baba. However, defending Hassan would have shown character in Amir that would make Baba proud of him in the long run. The reality is that the kite fight only redeems Amir in his father’s eyes temporarily, because after a few months the novelty of his success wears off. Because after only a few months Amir is back to being this cowardly young boy in Baba’s eyes. “For at-least a few months after the kite tournament, Baba and I immersed ourselves in a sweet illusion, saw each other in a way that we never had before. we’d actually deceived ourselves into thinking that a toy made of tissue paper, glue and bamboo could somehow close he chasm between us.” The reason why Amir thinks that this is the only way for him to redeem himself in Baba’s eyes is because he thinks that he is not the person that his father wishes him to be. When he was you get he overheard a conversation between his father and Rahim Khan in which he was described as not being normal for reading poetry instead of playing soccer for example. “Of course marrying a poet was one thing, but fathering a son who preferred burying his face in poetry books to hunting … well that wasn’t how Baba had envisioned it, I suppose. Real men didn’t read poetry – and God forbid they should ever write it! Real men – real boys – played soccer just as Baba had when he had been young.” Amir quickly realises as a child that the only thing that he is good at in his fathers eyes is kite fighting, so he thinks that the only way that he can become someone with whom Baba is proud of is to succeed at something that his father would be proud of. This is how Amir came up with the idea of redeeming himself by winning the kite fighting competition. However, this does not work out and the reality is that Amir’s cowardice that Baba disapproves of becomes even more predominant. Baba blames Amir for his wife dying this why, when he tries to redeem himself, it does not work as there are underlying factors that contribute to this. This sense of redemption is an internal concept that must come from within. Amir cannot be redeemed by Baba because he views himself as being not worthy of redemption and turns to other people to give it to him and they cannot.

Why do you think Amir responds to this phone call the way that he does? He has lived with his sin for 26 years. Why do you think he tries to redeem himself now?

After receiving a phone call from Rahim Khan asking him to go to Pakistan, Amir is rather shocked. After his initial attempt in redeeming himself at the pomegranate tree on the hill when he was 12 years old, Amir avoided his past. For 26 years he has tried to avoid his betrayal Hassan, pushing it into the back of his mind. However, when he hears from Rahim Khan 26 years later, he is shocked beyond disbelief. Rahim Khan is one of the only people with whom Amir truly connected with as a kid. “Standing in the kitchen with the receiver to my ear, I knew it wasn’t just Rahim Khan on the line. It was my past of untoned sins”. After the phone call, Soraya says to Amir “You look pale”. His pale colouring shows just how shocked Amir is to hear from Rahim Khan. For 26 year he has avoided the pas, just for it to show up our of nowhere one day. One thing that really sticks with Amir from his phone conversation with Rahim Khan is when he is told that “there is a way to be good again”. Amir realises that he has been “peeking into that deserted alleyway for the last 26 years” and that although everyone else has moved on from the winter of 1975, he has not, he is still stuck on the idea that he must redeem himself before he can move on. Rahim Khan knows of his betrayal now and is giving him an opportunity to finally redeem himself in his own eyes, because in reality that is what matters, being able to become a person that can accept himself and move on from his past mistakes. Amir knows that this may be his last chance to repay Hassan for his betrayal and choses to seize it as an opportunity to gain the redemption that he believes he deserves. Rescuing Sohrab from Assef is not enough either. Only when Amir decides to take Sohrab to the United States and provide his nephew a chance at happiness and prosperity that was denied to his half-brother does Amir take the necessary steps toward atonement and redemption. At this point in his life, Amir’s focus for redemption is himself. Because redemption is something that can only come from within, when Amir realises that he must self redeem instead of allowing for the guilt to loom over him for the rest of his life. This journey of redemption comes from a selfish motivation but ends in a selfless act of bringing Sohrab back to America with him.

Discuss what Hosseini is trying to teach the reader about in this novel. What messages/lessons/warnings does he give to the reader about the guilt/redemption cycle? What should we take away from Amir’s story?

Hosseini is trying to convey a message of the importance of self acceptance of moving on from the past. He tries to teach us that we cannot bury our past and that “the past claws its way out” always. That we can redeem ourselves in our own eyes and move on from our mistakes, however, they will never disappear just as the past will always be a defining part of our future. Our past decisions will ultimately play a large part in dictating how our future plays out. The author also tries to convey messages of betrayal, redemption, friendship, brotherhood, fatherhood, growing up and coming of age, love, class, ethnic tension, the immigrant experience and forgiveness.

One of the most important takeaways from the novel is the idea of self acceptance. How in the end you cannot rely on others for acceptance, you must make the necessary actions in redeeming yourself in your own eyes to truly move on from the past. Like Amir if you spend your entire life trying to bury the past rather than face it, or if you simply sit back and wait for someone else to give you an opportunity to redeem yourself you will never be able to move on from the past.

Another warning that Hosseini has for the reader is of the guilt/redemption cycle. Through explaining the life of Amir and the avoidance of his guilt we learn of the inescapable fate that is guilt. For most of the novel, Amir attempts to deal with his guilt by avoiding it. But doing this clearly does nothing toward redeeming himself, and thus his guilt is only temporarily buried in the back of his mind. His guilt is always there, causing him to cringe every time Hassan’s name is mentioned. When Amir finds out about Baba’s betrayal of Ali, he realises that everything he thought he knew and understood about his father was a lie, causing Amir himself to feel betrayed by his father, someone who he though of as morally perfect. However, he cannot confront Baba as he has now been dead for fifteen years, there is nothing that he can do. Neither feelings of betrayal nor punishment are enough to redeem Amir. It is up to him to redeem himself in his own eyes as there is no one else that he can redeem himself to but himself.

We also learn of several lessons in the novel including love and forgiveness. Hosseini teaches us that no relationship is perfect, there is always some sort of strain that is unavoidable. No matter what someone means to us, whether they are family or friend there is always going to be a strain in your relationship with them. This is shown in Baba’s relationship with Amir, Amir and Hassan’s relationship, Baba and Ali, and Amir and Sohrab. However, in every relationship there is love and while this is sometimes questioned in Amir and Baba’s relationship, love will always exist, it can just sometimes be expressed in unexplainable or questionable ways. Hassan’s character and his relationship with others, especially Amir comes the closest to demonstrating selfless love, and the other characters are able to learn from his example. Most of the characters are living a life that includes a personal quest for love. And most of them realize that both forgiveness and love of self are necessary before you are able to love another.

Another thing that I took away from Hosseini’s novel is the importance of blood and of family. Amir feels the greatest amount of guilt for his betrayal when he learns that Hassan its actually his half brother. A betrayal of blood is far greater than a betrayal of friendship.

Do you believe that Amir redeems himself? Does he make up for abandoning Hassan and driving him away from home all those years ago?

No. Because the past never remains forgotten. The point is that he redeems himself in his own eyes. He never fully makes up for what he did and his betrayal of Hassan but he finally allows himself to move on from what happened 26 years ago just as everyone else did. The importance of Amir’s redemption is that he redeemed himself in his own eyes, he finally was able to realise that he cannot wait forever for someone else to forgive him, to redeem himself in someone else’s eyes, he has finally been given a chance at self redemption and has chosen to take it as it may as well be his last chance at it. He has spent his whole life, ever since his betrayal of Hassan in search of redeeming himself in others eyes. From trying to redeem himself as a person in his fathers eyes by winning the kite competition to redeeming himself in Hassan’s eyes by trying to get the physical treatment that he so desperately thinks that he deserves, in Rahim Khan’s eyes since he knows of the betrayal. Only when he realises that the only eyes he can redeem himself in are his own does he take the necessary steps in gaining this sense if redemption. Not even rescuing Sohrab is enough to redeem himself in his own eyes. When he ends up taking Sohrab back to America, giving him a chance at a happier life, something that his betrayal deprived Hassan of, does Amir truly redeem himself. However, this is not the same as not having betrayed Hassan in the first place. Nothing he can do will ever truly make up for his betrayal, because redemption is not about forgetting about the past, it is making up for it in the best possible way, but most importantly being able to self forgive and move on knowing that you have done the best that you can to make up for your bad decisions. So, consequently, Amir does not actually ever make up for his own actions, but rather does the best that he can to make up for his betrayal. His betrayal will never be forgotten, it will always exist in the back of his mind, however, where there was once guilt lingering, there is not redemption as Amir knows that he has done something good to repay for his sin in the best possible way.

Symbolism

Kites and Kite Fighting

How and when it appears in the Text?

Kites in the novel, the Kite Runner are a symbol of Amir’s happiness and regret. Kites first appear at the beginning of the novel in chapter 1 where Amir is walking through the San Francisco Park after his phone call with Rahim Khan. Here Amir sees 2 kites, red with long blue tails. At this point in the novel, they serve as a reminder of Amir’s guilt for betraying Hassan. They loom above Amir like a pair of eyes watching down over him. “I glanced up and saw a pair of kites, red with long blue tails, soaring in the sky. They danced high above the trees on the west end of the park, over the windmills, floating side by side like a pair of eyes looking down over San Francisco”. At this point in the novel, the kites appear in a pair, representing the bond between Amir and Hassan. However, they loom over Amir like a pair of eyes, representing his inescapable guilt. The kites are an indication that Amir cannot escape his past no matter how far away he gets from Afghanistan. Kites sit in the sky like a reminder to Amir of his childhood, which is the root of all of his guilt and unhappiness. They ‘loom’ above him showing how he cannot escape his past no matter how far he goes to burry it.

The next time that kites appear in the novel is when Amir is reflecting back on his childhood. Here the kites are a symbol representing happiness and childhood innocence. Flying kites is something that Amir and Hassan both love. In Chapter 6 we learn of the importance of kite flying to the children of Afghanistan. “Every winter, districts in Kabul held a kite-fighting tournament. And if you were a boy living in Kabul, the day of the tournament was undeniably the highlight of the cold season”. Amir tells us that Hassan and him used to build their own kites until they got good enough for Baba to take them to buy their kites from Kabul’s most famous kite maker, Saifo. In Chapter 7, we are told of the kite fighting competition that changed everything between Amir and Hassan. Here the kite takes on a different significance, its meaning changing from a representation of happiness to guilt and pain. After Amir allows Hassan to be raped by Assef because he wants to bring the blue kite back to Baba, all of his recollections of the kite have negative affiliations. The kite now represents betrayal and the guilt that comes from it. However, a kite is a materialistic possession, and you cannot rely on materialistic possessions to fix a relationship so tainted as his is with Baba.

The next time that the kite appears is in the tank when Amir is on his way back to Kabul in March 1981, years after his betrayal of Hassan. When Baba stands up for the woman in the tank that the Russian soldier at the checkpoint is trying to collect as ‘tax’ for their entry to Kabul, Amir knows what a hero his father is and going back to his memories of the winter of 1975 and the kite fighting competition he thinks “Some hero I had been, fretting about the kite”. Amir later mentions the kite again in the back of the fuel tank, days later on their way to Kabul. Baba tells him to think of happy thoughts and his mind goes back to kite flying with Hassan once again “…I am tugging on the line, the spool spinning in Hassan’s calloused hands, our eyes turned up to the kite in the sky”. Here the kite serves as a representation of Amir’s childhood and his betrayal of Hassan. This symbol of the kite we get to understand how much of an impact our past has on us. It is shown here that it only takes one thing for Amir to be washed over with memories from the past. It yet again shows the double nature of the symbol of the kite and how it can represent both childhood innocence and guilt.

Amir does not fly another kite until he does so with Sohrab at the end of the novel. Because he has redeemed himself at this point, the kite no longer serves as a symbol of betrayal and guilt, but rather of a reminder of his childhood with Hassan and the happiness that they shared while kite flying together. It becomes the way that he is able to connect with Sohrab, mirroring the kite’s importance in his relationship with Hassan and with Baba. “Do you want me to run that kite for you?… For you, a thousand times over”.

The symbol of the kite is developed throughout the text taking on several different meanings. The first time the kite appears, in chapter 1 is a reminder to Amir of his guilt and betrayal. The way that the kites loom above him show just how heavy the guilt that Amir carries with him really is. During Amir’s childhood the kite is a symbol of childhood innocence, happiness and his friendship with Hassan. However, his betrayal of Hassan makes the kite take on another meaning, one of guilt, betrayal and sadness. However, at one of his darkest times, when travelling to Kabul in the tank, the kite it’s what Amir reflects on when Baba tells him to think of something happy. The kite, here is a representation of the happiness that Amir once had as a child and is a symbol of lost happiness. The kite appears again at the end of the text in the park in March 2002, around a year after Amir redeemed himself by taking Sohrab to America. The kite that Amir runs for Sohrab in the park does not have a negative affiliation, it shows the importance of the kite in Amir’s relationships with people from his past and present. Its placement in Amir’s life is timeless and is somewhat the glue of his bond with Baba, with Hassan and now Sohrab, a shared symbol that brings a positive affiliation in the end. The novel ends with Sohrab showing the slightest smile before Amir runs the kite for him. In this, the kite has become a symbol of hopeful peace.

“I looked up at those twin kites. I thought about Hassan. Thought about Baba. Ali. Kabul. I thought of the life I had lived until the winter of 1975 came along and changed everything. And made me what I am today”. This quotation said by Amir, 26 years after his betrayal of Hassan in chapter 1 shows the kite as being a symbol of Amir’s early life and happiness living in Afghanistan. They remind him of his childhood and the people who he used to live with. These red kites with long blue tails symbolise his desire for redemption and the desperate efforts he’d make to feel his father’s love and acceptance, his relationship with Hassan—including his betrayal of Hassan—and the change that, he says, “made me what I am today.”

“I was going to win, and I was going to run that last kite. Then I’d bring it home and show it to Baba. Show him once and for all that his son was worthy”. This quotation is a line said by Amir before his betrayal of Hassan. Here the kite is shown to be symbol of Amir’s bond with Baba. This kite is the one thing in Amir’s mind that he thinks will redeem himself in Baba’s eyes. The kite is his motivation for redemption at this point and is a symbol of Amir’s intense desire to connect with Baba. Amir believes that his father blames him for the death of his mother, thus, Baba telling him that he thinks he may win the kite tournament inspires hope in Amir. He thinks that running “that last kite” would prove that he has value, he is loveable just like Hassan, and he is worthy of the love and respect his father has yet to share. The symbol of the kite becomes tainted like Amir and Hassan’s childhood does.

“Do you want me to run that kite for you?” His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he swallowed. The wind lifted his hair. I thought I saw him nod. “For you, a thousand times over,” I heard myself say. Then I turned and ran”. This is a full circle moment of the text that shows the kite as being a symbol of happiness and hope. When Amir asks Sohrab if he wants him to run the last kite for him, Sohrab appears to nod and perhaps even smile, bringing hope tp Amir that he will come out of his withdrawn state. Once more and at the last point of the novel, kite flying and running bring happiness to Amir. However, in this moment, Amir assumes Hassan’s role of kite runner, and he even speaks Hassan’s words, “For you, a thousand times over,” to Sohrab, symbolizing that he now will play the role of loyal, loving, and protective friend to Sohrab, just as Hassan always did for him. This shows that Amir has gained the redemption that he has always longed. The kite has returned to being a symbol of hopeful peace.

Kite flying has a very deep history in Afghan culture, competition such as that of the winter of 1975, having been very popular since before the Afghanistan war. They are a symbol of Afghanistan’s glory days when it had a monarchy as kite flying was later banned by the Taliban. In 1996, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, kite flying was banned after it was deemed “un-islamic”. In many ways kite competitions are a national past time of Afghanistan and one that in many ways mirrors the country’s politics, how it was once ‘free’ like a kite flying in the sky until the country was invaded by the Taliban.

The goal of kite fighting is to cut another person’s kite with your glass coated string. Kites are normally beautiful when we see them up in the sky, however, they are actually quite vicious as the goal is to cut another person out of the kite. This can be related back to childhood and the way of life in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, children never get to have a fulfilled childhood like we do in first world countries. Kite fighting shows the brutal nature of childhood in Afghanistan, and its place in Amir and Hassan’s childhood shows the brutality that they endured through during their childhood years.

The final closure moment of the book when Amir offers to fun the kite for Hassan is a symbol of hope for redemption of Amir and Afghanistan’s sins.

The Pomegranate Tree

The Pomegranate tree is a symbol of the common ground that Amir and Hassan are able to find in their friendship despite their many ethnic, cultural and religious differences. The pomegranate tree is a place that the characters return to many times throughout the novel. The tree acts as a symbol for both Amir and Hassan’s friendship as well as Afghanistan as a whole. As the friendship between the two boys grows and changes so does that of Afghanistan.

The significance of the Pomegranate tree is that it acts as the stability between Amir and Hassan’s relationship. It allows us to visually asses the relationship of the two boys, because as the tree develops, so does their relationship.

At the beginning of the novel, the pomegranate tree is a food source which produces fruits that bring happiness to Amir and Hassan. It symbolises the beginning of their friendship and prosperity for Afghanistan. “There was a pomegranate tree near the entrance to the cemetery. One summer day, I used one of Ali’s kitchen knives to carve our names on it: ‘Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul’. Those words made it formal: The tree was ours.” At this point during summer, the pomegranate tree is thriving, producing colourful fruits for the two boys to eat and shelter while Amir reads to Hassan. Here, the carving expresses how Amir and Hassan have claimed the tree as their own. The carving will stay on the tree forever, symbolising how their bond will be forever, no matter what happens to their friendship. It will withstand the course of time and while it may age with time, it will always remain, just as their bond will.

As the tree grows so does their friendship. When Amir reflects back on his childhood, when thinking of the happiness and the pain of his childhood and relationship with he always comes back to the pomegranate tree. Amir recalls reading to Hassan under the tree, making Hassan hurl the tree’s fruits at the neighbours dog with his slingshot and secretly taunting him about being unable to read. The pomegranate tree captures the pain and happiness that his bond with Hassan caused him.

 Before the Taliban came to power there was less violence and the relationship was strong, but after the Taliban came to power, Afghanistan became more violent, and the healthy, green tree became dead and ruined, just like Amir and Hassan’s relationship. The social inequality in Afghanistan plays a key role as Amir begins to think of Hassan as a servant rather than a friend after the rape. This downfall of the pomegranate tree is expressed in the quotation “We had picked a dozen pomegranates from the tree…I stood up and picked up an overripe pomegranate that had fallen to the ground. “What would you do if I hit you with this?” I said, tossing the fruit up and down”. When Amir throws the pomegranate at Hassan, it symbolises the downfall of their friendship and of the pomegranate tree. Though the pomegranate that he throws is ripe like their friendship, when thrown it splatters all down Hassan’s front showing how vulnerable, exposed and unstable their bond is. The significance of this is that Amir wants Hassan to fight back and hit him with a pomegranate, he wants Hassan to punish him for his betrayal so that he can redeem himself as a person and feel less guilty. However, Hassan refuses and smashes a pomegranate upon his own head, it splatters on his front like blood to symbolise the downfall of their relationship, that it is bleeding out like their relationship is.

Another point where the pomegranate tree appears in the novel is in Hassan’s letter to Amir. “Hassan had said in his letter that the pomegranate tree hadn’t borne fruit in years. Looking at the wilted, leafless tree, I doubted it ever would again…The carving had dulled, almost faded altogether, but it was still there”. The infertility of the tree and its inability to produce fruit anymore symbolises Hassan’s death. Although the pomegranate tree continues to live, as their bond does, Hassan’s death allows it to no longer flourish with the pomegranate fruits as it did in their youth. This is emphasised with the carving of their names being faded, however, still there, expressing the idea of how friendship is eternal, even in death. Although the relationship is broken and gone, the connection between the two boys is still there, the scar of it remains because its place in time will never be gone. This connects back to this idea of our past being inescapable.

Another aspect of their friendship that the pomegranate tree expresses is Hassan’s undeterred loyalty for Amir. The tree acts as a protectant for the two boys against the blistering sun and intense summer days, similarly Hassan’s protection of Amir against Assef mirrors this loyalty.

Outside of the text, a pomegranate tree symbolises immortality of the soul and the beauty of nature. It is known as a ‘paradise fruit’. Ancient Greece regarded the pomegranate fruit as a symbol of life, marriage and rebirth, mirroring the path of life. Afghanistan, where the Kite Runner is set is said to be the origin location of the fruit, it being a holy symbol of Afghan religions. The presentation of the pomegranate fruit as a symbol of friendship is strengthened by its real world value in many cultures and religions as a symbol of immortality. The fact that this fruit is seen to represent the path of life, marriage and rebirth shows that its placement in the kite runner as a symbol of the struggles and joy that come from eternal friendship is accurately there.

The Greek myth about Persephone — a Greek goddess who is kidnapped by Hades — uses pomegranates to represent nature, fertility and seasonal changes. When Persephone’s mother, Demeter, realizes who took her daughter, she becomes a recluse and ceases to make the earth fertile. Hades eventually releases Persephone, but puts a spell on a pomegranate that Persephone eats. The spell forces Persephone to return to the underworld for three months every year. Demeter makes the land barren for those three months — the infertile months of winter. This myth is represented in the kite runner through the death of Hassan and the pomegranate tree no longer producing fruits.

The good moments that we build are the ones that we should defend and fight for. Like how these pomegranates symbolise the good things created by god, Hassan and Amir’s relationship and the good memories that they shared together are what should be cherished in Amir’s mind.

When Hassan is raped by Assef, he is without his slingshot showing how he is powerless without it. While we like to think that our bravery is what makes us powerful, in the end a weapon is the only way to truly protect ourselves if we are being threatened. “Where is your slingshot, Hazara”. Without the slingshot he is powerless in the face of Assef and no longer has the strength to face him and win.

Another symbol in which the slingshot conveys is the childhood of two generations and familial connection. Both Hassan and his son Sohrab are skilled with their slingshots, Sohrab having learned to master it from his father before he died. “He’s inseparable from that thing…tucks it in the waist of his pants everywhere he goes” This quotation, said by the orphanage owner demonstrated how Hassan and his son live parallel live to each other, down to using the same ‘childhood’ toy for violence. They both have gone through the same experiences of losing their innocence at a young age due to the state of the country they live in and losing their mothers at a young age. Both Hassan and Sohrab use the slingshot for the same purpose, to stand up for what is right and that is defending Amir from Assef. Although Hassan only had to threaten to use his, Sohrab finished off his fathers promise to make Assef one eyed by actually inflicting pain to him. “Bas, he croaked. His hand was cocked above his shoulder, holding the cup of the slingshot at the end of the elastic band which was pulled all the way back”.

The selection of a slingshot is not a coincidental choice, since it is so strongly reminiscent of the slingshot that David used to slay Goliath. The slingshot in this religious story was the weapon of a weak child named David, someone who could not possibly defend himself with it, much less slay the mighty monster who was Goliath. It is the triumph of the underdog with a mere child’s weapon that is compelling, the “back story” of someone who would be king. It is clear that through this the story of David and Goliath is conveyed through the slingshot in the novel, the Kite Runner.