The story ‘The Kite Runner’, written by Khaled Hosseini, takes place mainly during the war in Afghanistan. After the country became a republic instead of a monarchy, the former Soviet Union invaded the country. Many years later, the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement , seized power in Afghanistan. This was accompanied by intense violence and the consequences were immense. Not only was Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, almost entirely destroyed, but the cost to human life was also huge. The Kite Runner describes the life of Amir. Before the war, he lived in Kabul with his father Baba, their servant Ali and Ali’s son Hassan. Hassan and Ali are from a lower class than Amir and Baba, but Amir and Hassan are best friends regardless.
The author puts a lot of moral ambitious character in the story the Kite Runner. Amir is an example of a moral ambitious character. He is evil in the beginning of the story, but as he matures and grows up as an adult. The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini, is a novel about a young boy named Amir and how he grows up in the Afghan war and how life was during the war. Amir's Moral Ambiguity is important to this story because he provides readers to like and hate him. The author provides the reader with mixed feeling about Amir.
Lastly, Amir sacrifices his life to accommodate for Sohrab, Hassan’s son, after being taken by the Taliban. Amir resembles Baba because he too takes up redemption for the awful things he did. He understands the great danger Sohrab is in. He risks his life to help Sohrab; this shows loyalty to Hassan. Even though Sohrab is not Hassan saving his son shows that Amir is loyal to him. He would do anything for Hassan to make up for his childhood. After finding Sohrab, Amir comes face to face with Assef, Hassan 's rapist. “Another rib snapped, this time lower. What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in the corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this… My body was broken – just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later – but I felt healed” (Hosseini 289) This scene depicts the acceptance that Amir finally faces. He starts coming to terms with his past because he feels at peace over the fact that he is finally getting justice for Hassan. That he is brave enough not to run away just as Hassan would stay to fight. Amir sacrifices everything for Sohrab just as Hassan did for him once. Amir finally shows the love for Hassan that was given to
The novel Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a poignant story about the main character, Amir, a young Afghan man running from the traumatic events of his past, who travels to America with his father after a Russian takeover, and then back to Afghanistan to confront his demons. For Baba and Amir, America is a chance to escape Afghanistan and change their lives for the better. Baba and Amir’s move to America affects many parts of their life, including differences in their lifestyle, a change in their unstable relationship, and traits that persist throughout their difficult transition.
The kite runner explores the idea of social hierarchy and how is causes discrimination to those surrounded by it. Social hierarchy is organized through a social structure called the caste system that separates the different social classes. The caste system plays a very important role in the kite runner. The book illustrates how the discrimination of the Hazaras is accepted and practiced by the Pashtuns. Their differences have led to the Pashtuns being the majority group and the Hazaras as the minority group. This discrimination has become built into society and effects everyday life. As Pashtuns, Amir and Baba have the opportunities to receive an education and start their own business. While the Hazaras, Hassan and Ali, may only work as servants. This discrimination brought on by social hierarchy causes isolation, violence, and guilt, to those surrounded by it throughout the book. These ideas are caused by discrimination and are explored through Amir’s experiences in the book. As a Pashtun, he experiences the effects of social hierarchy first hand, and because discrimination is such prominent tradition in his culture, we are able to see the underlying effects it has on his life.
Holding a terrible truth that can lead to so much guilt can tear a person apart. Not only from themselves, but from others too. In the novel, The Kite Runner, there are many characters with many secrets that the others don’t know about. Two characters of many others are Amir and Rahim Khan. Amir is the main focus of the novel; it basically starts with his childhood all the way until he’s an adult. He was one of the most wealthy people in Afghanistan, until the Russian’s take over later on. His father, Baba, is very respected by others. Baba never paid much attention to his son, also his honesty with him was very poor. Therefore, Amir would spend most of his childhood with his servant, Hassan. Hassan is the reason Amir’s life changed forever, from
Have you ever been involved in a family conflict that was difficult to overcome? In The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini, Amir wishes to gain his father 's attention, recognition, and approval. “It 's important in the beginning of the novel -- as the protagonist feels neglected by his father -- and it becomes important again at the end, in an interesting way” (Singh par. 8). Baba is a wealthy man in Afghanistan. His son, Amir, has always been greedy because he has never learned to appreciate things. Instead, he expects them. As Amir grows older, he desires more attention from his father. For example, Amir loves to read and write, but his father wishes he had an interest in something more masculine. He sabotages Hassan, a servant,
Novels can augment our perspective on the nature of mankind. One such book is Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner. The book follows a character named Amir as he goes through life as a child as well as his deep friendship with a boy named Hassan. A series of unfortunate events escalate a conflict prompting Amir with the need to resolve them. The book begins in medias res, until a phone call prompts the book to start back in the years of his youth. In the novel, Hosseini uses Amir’s internal conflict highlights how unresolved guilt and fear can negatively impact one’s life.
Betrayal is an issue many can relate to, whether it is done by a family member or a friend. In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, we witness betrayal play a vital role in the downfall of the main character’s Amir and Hassan’s friendship, and how betrayal was the reason for why Amir sought redemption in hopes to move on. The novel begins with Amir as an adult, recalling an event that took place in 1975 in his hometown Kabul, Afghanistan and how this event was what changed the rest of his life and made him who he now is. Despite this heartbreaking occurrence of Amir’s reluctance to help Hassan while he was being raped, it was the reason for why Amir later decided to be brave and stand up for what he believes in. Hosseini shows us how the Afghani culture and Amir’s reluctance to help
Afghanistan is a country full of social expectations and boundaries influenced by both class and ethnicity. Amir and Hassan come from polar opposite social backgrounds: Amir, a wealthy member of the dominant Pashtuns, and Hassan, a child servant to Amir and member of the minority Hazaras. Yet, as young children, it seems as though this difference is a mere annoyance rather than a serious blockade to their friendship. This all changes, though, when Amir makes a split second decision, a decision shaped by his unconscious desire to uphold their class difference. Hassan does everything for Amir, most specifically, he runs his kites, and when the town bully wants to steal that kite, Hassan resists even in the face of unspeakable violence. He resists for Amir whom he loves with his whole heart. Amir witnesses this struggle, but he does nothing; he runs away since “he was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 77). Amir has always believed, deep down, that his father favored Hassan, a Hazara, the dirt of Afghan society, over him, his own son. Seeing Hassan reduced to that level of baseness is perversely satisfying for him. He is finally better than Hassan, his social conscience is satiated. In that moment, he values his
In The Kite Runner, father-son relationships play a big component in shaping the story. The relationship between a father and a son is how Hosseini writes to show the complex bond between father and son to demonstrate the necessity of a loving and caring fatherly figure. There are multiple father-son relationships in The Kite Runner, they include; Baba and Amir, Baba and Hassan, Ali and Hassan, Hassan and Sohrab, and Amir and Sohrab. However, the biggest father-son relationship throughout the novel is between Baba and Amir. The relationship between Baba and Amir is not your typical father-son relationship and the novel centers upon it.
Wayne Dyer, an American philosopher, once said, “Problems in relationships occur because each person is concentrating on what is missing in the other person.” This is the protagonist 's main source of conflict in the book, the Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. Amir and Hassan appeared to have a brotherly friendship. Even though they grew up together, it was intriguing how Hassan develops a brotherly bond with Amir while Amir does not reciprocate the love. By concentrating on what is missing in Hassan, it causes Amir to become separated from the relationship because Amir values social class over his friendship with Hassan, and stems from his jealousy that comes from an idea that Baba favors Hassan.
The Kite Runner has three main parts to the story, it begins with Amir, a man who lives in California who refers back to his childhood memories in Kabul, Afghanistan. These memories affect him and mold him into the man he is. Amir as a child lived in Kabul with his father Baba, who Amir had a troubled relationship with. He had two servants Ali and his son Hassan. The relationship between them is more of a family rather that of servants. Amir’s mother died giving birth to him and Hassan’s mother ran away shortly after he was born. With Ali and Hassan being Hazarats or Shi’a Muslims they don’t have the same status as Amir and Baba being Sunni Muslims. Though Amir and Baba don’t mind it the neighborhood does, this tension occurs throughout the beginning of the story especially in one event the Kite tournament. This is when children fight with their kites and where they try and take out there opposing players kites. When the kite falls down, the person who ‘won’ it runs and get it. Amir wins the kite tournament and let’s Hassan run and get the kite that fell. When Amir goes looking for Hassan he finds him being raped by a group of neighborhood punks, Wali, Kamal, and Assef. Amir even as a grown man is still tormented by guilt that he never helped Hassan. Being a child Amir was too much of a coward to help Hassan, and with the feeling of guilt he couldn’t live with it. He frames
In Afghanistan, the Hazara people were formerly a majority ethnicity at about 67 percent of the population, however once the Pashtuns began taking political actions, the Hazaras were massacred until they only formed about 9 percent of Afghanistan’s total population today (“Afghanistan-Hazaras”). Because of their minority status, the Hazara people face much prejudice in Afghan society as shown by the book. Similarly, Afghani people compose 3 percent of America’s population, wherein they also face prejudice. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, which takes place in Afghanistan, the social divisions are shown both in Afghanistan, between the Pashtuns and Hazaras, and in the United States, between the wealthy
Since Amir left, Afghanistan has becomed unrecognizable, and it is not the same place as it was before he went to America. Farid’s comment condemns Amir and the fact that he has been living a life of privilege in America while the Afghanis have struggled to survive due to wars, violence and political issues.