A brief Summary:
In this first section of themes, I have chosen the top ten examples from the book, The Kite Runner, that relate to my theme in different aspects. This include different characters from the book that relates to my theme, memories and the past. All characters from the book have a past, including everyone in the world have memories and past of their own,
1.
Context: In the first chapter of The Kite Runner, Amir the protagonist recalls a memory/event that change his life forever and is part of with him today. This memory/event haunts Amir for a while.
Quote: "I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975" (Hosseini 1).
Analysis: This is Amir looking back at his youth when
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he lived in Kabul, Afghanistan. This is an opening scene showing how this story revolves on an important past event that haunts Amir for years. Until an old family friend calls, Rahim Khan. Rahim Khan calls during the summer and asks Amir to come visit him and tells Amir "There is a way to be good again" (Hosseini 2). 2. Context: In the second chapter, Amir past in Afghanistan when he was young, Amir and his servants son, Hassan would play together. One memory, Hassan and Amir used to climb the trees of his dad's driveway and reflect sunlight into their neighbors’ homes. Sometimes, Amir would talk to Hassan to shoot pelts at their neighbor’s dog for fun. Quote: "Sometimes, up in those tress, I talked Hassan into firing walnuts with his sling at the neighbor's one-eyed German shepherd. Hassan never wanted to, but if I asked, really asked, he wouldn't deny me. Hassan never denied me anything. (Hosseini 4) Analysis: Amir recalls the fun memories he had growing up with his best friend Hassan. This is one of the first examples of Hassan's characteristics of loyalty to Amir in their childhood and past relationships they had had. 3. Context: In the seventh chapter, shortly after when Amir and Hassan had won the kite fighting tournament. Hassan offers to run for the last kite they cut. During that interaction. Amir says to Hassan to come back with the kite and Hassan responses with "For you a thousand times over" a phrase said shortly before Hassan got raped. Quote: "For you a thousand times over"(Hosseini 71) Analysis: "For you a thousand times over" a phrase said by Hassan showed his loyalty and selflessness towards Amir. This phrase would be a part of a memory that haunts Amir for a very long time. 4. Context: In the seventh chapter, after Hassan leaves to go to fetch the blue kite for Amir, he is ambushed in an alley. Amir sees their three bullies, Assef, Kamal, and Wali cornering Hassan telling him that he and his friends would leave if he gives the blue kite away to Assef. Hassan denies his offer and then Assef mocks him if Amir would do the same. The three bullies then jumps Hassan and Kamal with Wali holds him for Assef to rape Hassan. Amir decides whether to help Hassan or run, in the end he ran. Quote: "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 for Hassan the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran."(Hosseini 82) Analysis: Assef knows Amir wouldn't stand up for Hassan due to his social class, saying Amir doesn’t think of Hassan as his friend, but just a servant. The decision from Amir leaving Hassan in the alley would change and shaped him for his entire life. Older Amir realizes that the one decision of the event shaped him what he is today and haunted him for a long time. 5. Context: In chapter eight, Amir is still guilty of leaving Hassan in that alley. During Amir's birthday party, Rahim Khan approaches Amir and tells a story in his past of how he almost got married at eight-teen with Hazara girl. Rahim's family finds out and Ships the Hazara girl and her family away to prevent rumors. Quote: "That same day, my father put Homaira and her family on a lorry and sent them of to Hazarajat. I never saw her again." (Hosseini 105). Analysis: Rahim khan's story of his memory stuck with him when he was just eight-teen. In order to not be shamed by society Rahim's father sent an entire Hazara family just to prevent rumours of Rahim Khan marrying a Hazara girl to protect people views of his family. 6. Context: In chapter 9, after then Baba forgives Hassan stealing Amir's watch, when he was framed by Amir. Ali decides that life was unbearable and that he and Hassan must leave. Baba begs for them to stay, but Ali already made his choice. This was the first time Amir saw Baba cry and starts to realize how he ended a long time relationship. Ali says he will live with his cousin in Hazarajat, and asks a ride to the bus station. Quote: "Baba stood up, sheen of grief across his face, "Ali, haven't I provided well for you? Haven't I been good to you and Hassan? You're the brother I never had, Ali, you know that. Please don't do this."" (Hosseini 113) Analysis: Baba shows his true emotion towards Ali, Amir realizes that he ended a history of memories between Baba and Ali together. When Baba was growing up Ali was like a brother he never had. They do would share memories together as like Amir and Hassan did. 7.
Context: In chapter 12, When Amir is in America and is at an Afghan flee market. Amir goes over to Soraya booth to talk with her while General Taheri is not around. Soraya reveals that her dream is to become a teacher, she tells Amir how she taught her family's servant how to read and write. Amir looks back to where he instead of teaching Hassan how to read, he mocked him instead.
Quote: "I thought of how I had use my literacy to ridicule Hassan. How I teased him about big words he didn't know" (Hosseini 160).
Analysis: Even still in America after years, Amir remembers Hassan. Amir feels guilty since in the past that he had privilege to go to school, instead of helping Hassan read he made fun of him. Unlike Soraya, in the past she used her privilege to go to school to teach her servant how to read
8.
Context: Near the end of chapter 12, Soraya past guilt is described to Amir. She doesn't want any secrets between them when they get married. So, when she was eight-teen she ran away with an afghan man, and lived with them for a month until General Taheri found Soraya and took her home. When she came home she found her mother had a stroke and felt responsible for it. But, she is glad that General Taheri took her back
home. Quote: "When I came home, I saw my mother had had a stroke, the right side of her face was paralyzed and ... I felt so guilty. She didn't deserve that." (Hosseini 173). Analysis: Just like Amir, Soraya has her own past memory that caused her guilt. Soraya felt responsible and guilty for making her mother have a stroke. However, her past guilt was more to do with Rebelliousness not betrayal like Amir. Afghan views of Soraya past relationship would be "lost in value" because she already been with one man already. 9. Context: In chapter 16, Hassan mother who had left Hassan when he was born, randomly shows up at the doorstep of Amir's home in Kabul, Afghanistan. Hassan and his wife are taking care of Amir's place to pay respects for Baba death, when Sanaubar came starving and her face cut up. Hassan initially fled, but came back and nursed her to health. The two became close and Sanaubar would deliver Hassan's son, Sohrab. Quote: "Hassan and Farzana nursed her back to health. They fed her and washed her clothes. I gave her one of the guest rooms upstairs. Sometimes, I would look out the window into the yard and watch Hassan and his mother kneeling together, picking tomatoes or trimming a rosebush, talking. They were catching up on all the lost years, I suppose" Analysis: When Sanaubar came back, you can say the past that was missing with Hassan came back to Hassan. They Sanaubar delivered Hassan's son, he names his son "Sohrab". "Sohrab" was a character of a book that Amir and Hassan enjoyed reading when they were young. This means that Hassan must have still thought of Amir 10. Context: In chapter 24 it is shown that Sohrab's past consist of being an orphan and the troubles he endured when his father and mother was killed. One trouble he faced was when he was a slave to the Taliban officials, he would be sexually and physically abused. Quote: "Why? I touched his arm. He drew back." (Hosseini 335) & "He rolled toward me again. Drew his knees up. "What if you get tired of me? What if your wife doesn't like me? Analysis: The past had traumatize him so much, that when Amir touches Sohrab he flinches and fears abandonment issues, he is scared that Amir or Soraya will get bored of him.
Amir is, to be put bluntly, a coward. He is led by his unstable emotions towards what he thinks will plug his emotional holes and steps over his friends and family in the process. When he sought after Baba’s invisible love, Amir allowed Hassan to be raped in an alleyway just so that the blue kite, his trophy that would win his father’s heart, could be left untouched. In the end, he felt empty and unfulfilled with the weight of his conscience on his shoulders comparable to Atlas’ burden. Unable to get over his fruitless betrayal, he lashes out and throws pomegranates at Hassan before stuffing money and a watch under his loyal friend’s pathetic excuse for a bed, framing Hassan for theft and directly causing the departure of both servants from his household. Even after moving to America, finding a loving wife, and creating a career for himself in writing, he still feels hollow when thinking of his childhood in Afghanistan. Many years later, he is alerted of Hassan’s death and sets out on a frenzied chase to find his friend’s orphaned son. He feels that he can somehow ease his regrets from all of those years ago if he takes in Hassan’s son, Sohrab. He finds Sohrab as a child sex slave for Assef, who coincidentally was the one to rape Hassan all of those years ago. After nearly dying in his attempt to take back Sohrab, he learns that he can take the damaged child back to the states with him. Sadly, Hassan’s son is so
Although Hassan is his best friend, there are many instances where Amir reveals his jealousy, most notable when Baba sees Hassan as the stronger boy, "self-defense has nothing to do with meanness. You know what always happens when the neighbourhood boys tease him? Hassan steps in and fends them off. I 've seen it with my own eyes…” (Hosseini 24).
evident when Amir takes the opportunity to ridicule Hassan about his ignorance, possibly because of their disparity in social class, or perhaps because Hassan was a harelip,
The novel tells the story of, Amir. Amir is portrayed as the protagonist; the novel revolves around his recollection of past events 26 years ago as a young boy in Afghanistan. Amir is adventures and brave. Hassan is Amir’s closets friend and servant to his house and is portrayed as a subservient male, often supporting and accepting blame for Amir’s actions. Assef, Wali and Kamal are the “ bad guys” within the novel; Wali and Kamal hold down Hassan and Assef rapes him purely for ethnicity differences, as Hassan is a Hazara. Afghanistan boys are supposed to be athletic and true to Islam .The leaving of Soraya Hassan mother with another man gives the notion that women lack morality leaving behind there children .The Taliban laws are followed closely within Afghanistan and women are treated without any rights, beatings, stoning and execution become the reality for women who violate the laws. Culturally Afghanistan women are portrayed to be subservient to there husband only live and breath to provide children, cook food and clean their
...h him; another part to this is because he believes Hassan is just a dirty Hazara boy. “I'd chase the car, screaming for it to stop. I'd pull Hassan out of the backseat and tell him I was sorry, so sorry, my tears mixing with rainwater. We'd hug in the downpour (Hosseini 109).” After Amir causes Hassan to leave, he laments about letting, more like making, his best friend leave him. He sees the dirty Hazara boy as his best friend at that moment. In both of these stories, the main character realizes how similar they are to the other social or religious group.
As a result, when Rahim Khan had told Amir that Hassan and him were brothers and that it was Baba that was Hassan real father. It had hurt him especially since Amir is a grown man now and just finding out, it had hurt him because now that he looks at it he pushed away his brother. “How could you hide this from me? From him?” I bellowed.
In conclusion irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing contribute to the omnipresent theme of redemption throughout The Kite Runner. Khaled Hosseini ties together seemingly unimportant details of the story to create irony, and juxtaposes segments of his book to show redemption.
The story The Kite Runner is centered around learning “to be good again.” Both the movie and the book share the idea that the sins of the past must be paid for or atoned for in the present. In the book, Amir can be seen as a troubled young boy who is struggling with a tremendous amount of guilt. It is easy to blame Amir’s actions on his guilt and his father’s lack of love for him.
After weeks of secrecy, a brutal fight, and battles with the immigration office, Amir is able to return to America with a bright perspective of his new home albeit broken, beat, and scarred, and a new adopted child, Sohrab. The developed Amir is brought out with his interaction with General Taheri. In the novel, Amir shows his new found ability to stand up for himself with the quote, “‘And one more thing, General Sahib,’ I said. You will never again refer to him as a ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s ‘Sohrab’” (361).
Amir also committed a sin that affected him negatively throughout his life. This sin occurred when Hassan, Amir’s best friend during his childhood, was getting raped by Assef. This situation occurred when the children were chasing kites. Hassan got the kite first, but Assef insisted that he wanted the kite. Assef also had a racial and religious prejudice against Hassan. Because Hassan did not give the kite, Assef decides to rape Hassan as a “punishment”. Instead of helping his friend out, Amir just walked away from the scene and let Hassan get violated in one of the most vulgar ways. After this incident, Hassan quietly walked back home and gave Amir the kite for which he was confronted by Assef for. The kite in this situation proves to be an important symbol. Whereas earlier in the novel the kite represented happiness and fun to Amir, in this situation it represented sin and guilt to Amir. The only reason that Hassan got raped was that he was trying to get a kite for Amir. Now the kite acts a reminder to Hassan of his wrong-doing and it will now begin to haunt him for a long time. Although when in America, Amir does not get reminded about Hassan, deep inside he still feels guilty. Amir immediately begins to feel the most guilt when he goes to Iran when Rahim Khan, Amir’s childhood friend, asks him to come. He feels that Rahim Khan has reminded him of his “past of unatoned sins”(Hosseini 2).
Betrayal, redemption, and forgiveness are all major themes in The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini. The novel also focuses around the theme of a broken relationship between father and son as well as facing difficult situations from ones past. Amir and Hassan are best friends with two completely different personalities. Each character in the novel faces their own hardships and eventually learns to overcome those difficulties. Beginning with betrayal then the characters have to make their way to gaining redemption and forgiveness from others, as well as their self, is carried on throughout the novel. It is a continuous story of the relationships between Amir and his father Baba and facing their challenges from the past every day of their present.
Throughout his childhood, Amir conforms to society and treats his Hazara servants poorly, but he questions the morality of such treatment. When Amir’s childhood bully, Assef, confronts him, Amir thinks to himself that Hassan works only as a servant for him, and that they have no friendship. Afterward, he thinks, “Why did I only play with Hassan when no one else was around?” (41). Hosseini uses a series of rhetorical questions to accentuate how Amir questions his beliefs about his relationship with Hassan....
Firstly, Amir's anger from literacy was not normal. At Amir's birthday party Assef gives him something in the shape of a book “I tore the wrapping paper from Assef’s present and titled the book cover in the moonlight. It was a biography of hitler. I threw it in a tangle of weeds” (Hosseini 104). Amir shows some of his anger when he receives the book from Assef. The way he would express his anger would be though literacy which does not help him in his progress to redemption. Amir never thought Hassan would be a mentor to him. Amir was the one that always read to Hassan, and he never clued in that he was a huge mentor to his literacy “Hassan couldn't read a first grade textbook but he'd read me plenty” (Hosseini 66). Amir was clueless that Hassan was offering mentorship. Amir got better as a writer from reading to Hassan. Even if Amir does not think Hassan is a mentor he is. Amir's process to heal took almost the whole book. Amir has been trying to forget his past since living in Afghanistan at the beginning of the book. His healing process began through literacy and went to the end of the book “ school gave me an excuse to stay in my room for long hours” (Hosseini 96). Amir spent a lot of time in his room writing and reading. If Amir did not have literacy it would not be possible for him to overcome those hard times in his
After running away from Hassan’s molestation in the alleyway Amir kept on running away from his problems. He thought redemption was impossible, and that Hassan would never forgive him, but Hassan could not redeem Amir for the betrayal, only Amir could. Only Amir could redeem himself by making things right in his own mind. Redemption can only be found if one is ready for it. At this point in his life, Amir is not yet knowledgeable yet in himself and the way the world works to understand that he needs to delve within himself to achieve what he
Through the themes on the novels, articles and books we can discover many problems and try to solve it. The author of The Kite Runner illustrates many important themes. He explains how the parents effect on their children. How our culture, beliefs, and religion effect on our personalities and on our way of treat the people around us. Also, he tells us about the importance of our friends and our families because they stay by our side in the hard time. Also, trough his writing he teaches us the importance of love and forgive the people, who we