The Kite Runner Book Review Essay

The Kite Runner Book Review
By: Steve
The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, depicts the life of Amir, a male from Afghanistan, and his maturation through the social and political turmoil that emerged in Afganistan. Although the story is fictitious, the plot and storyline involves political, social, and cultural problems in Afghanistan. The book also provides a small window of contrast to the contemporary problems of terrorism, cultural battles and coup d'etat in the middle east.

Khaled Hosseini’s goals in The Kite Runner are to create an immediate impact on the reader to the pain and suffering in Kabul, Afghanistan. The author successfully uses vivid (sometimes vulgar) descriptions to paint a realistic portrait of a country that most readers probably have very little connection to. On top of illustrating the gruesome setting of Kabul, Hosseini also emotionally connects the reader to the characters by using flashbacks and a first person point of view. The story is mainly narrated by the main character Amir, who

is, after many years, still haunted by the regret of watching his best friend Hassan get raped. Hosseini also uses the relationship of Amir, Assef and Hassan to bring forth the cultural and racial issues in Afghanistan. Of the three characters, Amir symbolizes the race of Pashtuns, Hassan symbolizes the race of Hazara and Assef is the essence of evil and racism that wants to exterminate the Hazaras from Afghanistan. The relationship of races was the most evident in Amir and Hassan’s childhood. Even though both love and care for each other as family, an invisible barrier seems to be preventing them from ever becoming friends. As Amir reflects, “The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either… Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites…” (Hosseini, Chapter 2). On occasion Amir almost seems to blame Hassan for his lowly birth as a Hazara, even though Hassan had never done any harm to Amir or did anything to fit the stereotype of a “Hazara”.

The Kite Runner consists of two major themes of Political Events and Redemption throughout the story. Without them, the novel will neither posses the dramatic effect it has on the reader nor advocate the history and current events of Afghanistan to the world. The novel plot follows through the transitions of Amir’s life and also that of Afghanistan’s. During Amir’s childhood, Kabul was in a state of peace. However, once the Soviet invasion happened, Baba and Amir had to take refuge in America and Hassan was murdered by the Taliban. Political events such as war also brings a sense of tension to The Kite Runner, as it creates a contrasting image of the present with the way things were before. Throughout the story, things that once brought joy to the youth of Amir and Hassan were taken away by the Talibans, who banned kite fighting, and the massacred the Harzara. The characters in this novel are traumatized and heavily affected by their past. In Amir’s case, his sense of regret and feelings of guilt for his past actions of betrayal have continued to motivate him to search for redemption. As he thought, “Hassan knew . . . everything. . . . He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again.”. (Chapter 9). The guilt and need for redemption ultimately led to the climax of the story when Amir went on a journey to Kabul to rescue Sohrab from Assef. After the rescue, Amir brings Sohrab to fly kites, there Amir shows his love and care for Sohrab as if he were an extension of Hassan. Amir proves his loyalty to Sohrab as he says “For you, a thousand times over” (Chapter 25). The importance and warmth of this quote is that it is what Hassan said to Amir when Amir won the tournament in Afghanistan years ago. It is almost as if Amir implies spiritually to Hassan that although though he failed to give all of his loyalty to him, he will double the care and loyalty Hassan gave him for Sohrab. The rescue of Sohrab from Assef is not only a redemption to Hassan, but also to their father Baba. As Amir finally lived up to Baba’s saying, “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.” (Chapter 3).

The Kite Runner is a powerful, and visually dominating story.

Personally, this book felt like a stern documentation of the lives of people in Afghanistan than a leisure novel. This book isn’t for everyone due to the heavy and hideous illustration it presents. Though I did not enjoy the morbid history context of the book, I would definitely recommend it because it tugged at my heart string. Personally the stories I like are most often true stories, the ones that hit the hardest. While reading the novel, It did give me an awareness that not all things in life are innocent and pure and that I should cherish my life since I’m in a haven from war and violence. There are always highs and lows in life, and truthful writing comes the best when you are vulnerable. In this book, I saw it in Khaled Hosseini’s writing, I saw how he described his home town get trampled by war and I saw how his people get murdered by politics. For me I really liked this

book.