The Kite Runner Mind Map Analysis

This media mind is presented in the form of a kite. The mind map was made from hand drawings and images from the internet. I chose a kite to be the major symbol of the mind map because it represents many different themes. In the novel, the kite represents a wide variety of themes such as guilt and hope. The kite was made so that it can be opened up. Symbolically, this action means that you are “unpacking” the themes out of what seems to be an ordinary kite. In order to highlight the importance of the kite and other drawings, I used bold colours for the symbols and faint colours for the background. Since I did not want to draw attention away from these symbols, I used the standard Arial font for the quotes.

I used one image to represent the

theme of each quote. The theme of my first quote is false hope. I used a cartoon drawing of a man pursuing a mirage in the desert to represent this theme. The man in the drawing is fixed on an idea. He is unaware that the oasis that he sees is merely a vision created in his own head. Hence, he continues to chase the idea of rescue and prosperity. This is how Baba viewed immigrating to America; he believed he would be living a safer and prosperous life. However, in America, he faces more adversity. Namely, he suffers from poverty, and a low social status. The theme of the second quote is the loss of trust. In the image, two men are facing each other with a mask on their face and a knife behind their backs. This show that a person’s trust cannot be determined by the outward appearance. Similarly, in this novel, the people of afghanistan betray each other when they experience hardship. Thus, this image illustrates the lack of trust in the novel. The theme for third quote is conditional love. The image show a vending machine which is stocked with hearts. Metaphorically speaking, this shows how love can be “bought”. In the novel, the parental love between Baba and Amir is objectified. Amir attempts to buy his love through deeds. I wanted to incorporate the idea that love is quantitative in some cases; requirements must be met in order to sustain certain relationships. The theme for the final quote is justifying evil. The image shows two countries at war with each other. Both the red country and the green countries have their own reasons to fight the other country. They hold up crosses and examine their farms in order to rationalize a war. They use these means in an attempted to accept the evil deeds that they will commit. This relates to the quote because when people are in war, they believe that they are not required to burden the sins they committed.

Additionally, I added one symbol to represent the theme of each quote.

The symbol I used for the first quote is a cleft lip. In the novel, this represents poverty. In the novel, Baba pays to fix Hassan’s cleft lip because Ali could not afford it. This is because in Afghanistan, Baba is considered wealthy in contrast to when he is in America. Although the cleft lip is associated with Hassan, it is ironically associated with Baba because he shows signs of poverty in America. The symbol I used for the second theme is the monster in the lake. This monster represents evil caused by jealousy. In this case, the monster symbolizes Amir’s selfishness when he let Assef assault Hassan. When Amir stats how no one can be trusted, he is also untrustworthy. The symbol I used to represent the third theme was the blue kite. In the novel, Amir wins this kite from the tournament. Although this kite represents guilt, it can also represent redemption because Amir later amends his wrong doings by fathering Sohrab. Since Amir attempts to redeem his relationship with his father through winning the local kite tournament, I thought that this would be an insightful symbol. Lasty, I used brass knuckles to represent the final theme. Assef uses these knuckles to harm others. I incorporated this symbol to represent the abuse of power because this theme addresses the justification of

brutality.