The Kite Runner

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Part 1
The kite Runner, is a book with an Afghanistan setting, it gets its life from the childhood
memories and desire to revisit them by Khaled Hosseini .it shows the transition the country had
undergone through various wars and how that impacted the society . Major themes emerge
through the Kite Runner, betrayal and redemption are illuminated widely as Amir has to deal
with guilt for not defending Hassan when Assef attacked him, and he betrayed his friend and
this made him cringe with fear every time he saw Hassan. Baba also betrays Ali and Hassan
since, in that they were half-brothers but they knew not. Amir struggles to redeem himself, but
no amount of punishment or even rescuing Sohrab from Assef did any better to his esteem.
Forgiveness, Hassan demonstrates this towards Amir on his cowardice action, Baba also seeks
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for public forgiveness through his good treatment towards Hassan. Rahim Khan is on record for
asking Amir’s forgiveness regarding his withholding information from him. Love flourishes
also, Hassan’s love for Amir is evident, and marriage is witnessed from the love of Amir and
Soraya.the aspect of forgiveness is an evidence of love in the characters of the story. Ethnic
tensions and social class does exist, socioeconomic environment in Afghanistan displays the rift
between the majority Sunni and minority Shi’a Muslims and how discrimination against each
other based on religious beliefs and physical features. The Kite Runner also alludes to the
difference between Western and European Christian cultures and the culture of the Middle East.
Amir’s escape from Kabul to Pakistan and later the U.S lights up the theme of immigrant
experience, the difficulty they faced and how they adjust to a new country. Main conflict is the
childhood sin Amir commits against Hassan with the climax being when Amir meets the
antagonist Assef a Taliban and engage in a combat leaving him with an eye gone. Ultimately,
Amir manages to come back to Afghanistan, rescues Sohrab and after many bureaucracies
manages to take him to America thus settling his debt to Hassan.
The plot summary, the book is mainly divided into three sections: Amir the
Pashtun boy’s childhood in Kabul; secondly his life years with Baba in Freemont, California
then finally the return of Amir to Kabul. Through this we see how the themes unfold and how
Amir after the 26-year-old incident is resolved. Through the plot, we get the details of the
challenges and struggles Amir undergoes to redeem himself.
The Kite Runner is written from a first person’s point of view, Amir narrates his life story
with an emphasis on his childhood. Through this view point Amir gives memories in a
confession manner. Amir remembers each event accurately and honestly. Though his childhood
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events still linger in his life until adulthood, this turns out to work well in the plot. This point of
view shows us how Amir quest to overcome his guilt he feels, Amir blames himself for not
acting when Assef attacked Hassan. Amir childhood flashbacks have a mixture of dialogues and
narratives.
Part 2
The Kite Runner stands out to be a unique book that maintains a vivid and imaginary
quality in its entirety, from this, a reader is able to have emotional attachment to the occurrences
narrated by Amir. The writing is to standard when giving description of scenes and in creating
the urge to read on. The novel gets better when depicting warmth in Afghan mixed cultures
.born in Kabul, Khaled draws his own circumstances and experiences to create the novel’s
setting but the characters are fictional. Khaled’s plot has historical reality, as it is
chronologically accurate with the time and changing of regimes in Afghanistan. King Zahir
Shah reign marks Amir’s happy and peaceful childhood but in 1973, when Dawood Khan is
president Amir is harassed by the local bully, Assef, who hopes that the elimination the Hazaras
will take place.
The novel’s plot complexity, consist of several conflict which evoke sympathy for
unjustly victimized characters. The story commences with Amir who had an internal conflict, he
enjoys Hassan’s friendship but was also jealous and eventually cheating on him. The
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protagonist Amir also experiences external conflict from Assef. Amir encounters Assef an
enemy and Taliban leader when he goes to rescue his nephew in Afghanistan.
Social disparity in legal system and human rights leads to attempted suicide by Hassan’s
orphan Sohrab.deeply embedded conflicts across the novel is the victimization of the innocent
population. Bringing to light the dire need for international human rights.
The novel also triumphs in characterization. Transformation of Amir’s character leads
him to become sacrificial for Sohrab. In contrast, the character of Assef remains unchanged
though he claims to have religious conversion. At this point, we see Khaled’s bias on one-
dimensional view of Assef’s character being a stereotyped inhuman and tyrannical Taliban.
Khaled, uniquely and artistically blends the Persian Sufi literature with the Western novel
tradition. The novel contains references that are consistent with the Rostam and Sohran Persian
legends, which have their origin from poems in Afghanistan, Iran and various countries that
speak Persian. In addition, by the references the novel gets a classic theme being the father’s
quest, the characters ignorance creates the tragic irony in the novel. Tragic irony leads to
revelation and is useful for validating narrator’s claim through rhetorical strategy: “we have
learned …... (How) our past claws put”. Tragic irony is rhetorically useful in comparing and
contrasting behaviors of characters in their manipulation of knowledge.
Khaled advances a specified agenda through his characters and their traits, Assef the
pedophilic Taliban (Muslim), Baba perpetuates a conspicuous secularity, and the West is an
equal of good as opposed to Islam being evil. The evil of Assef is refined through, as it is also
the goodness of Baba who laid his life to protect a woman who was to be raped.
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In conclusion, this novel seeks to educate the ignorant in matters of neo-colonialism and
how superior countries can intervene and save the day. These interventions of course should be
purely expressions of self-sacrifice and without the attachment to geopolitical or economic
concerns. The Kite Runner is necessary read book.

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Work Cited
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead, 2003. Print.
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manages to take him to America thus settling his debt to Hassan.

challenges and struggles Amir undergoes to redeem himself.

will take place.

The novel also triumphs in characterization. Transformation of Amir’s character leads

contrasting behaviors of characters in their manipulation of knowledge.

purely expressions of self-sacrifice and without the attachment to geopolitical or economic

concerns. The Kite Runner is necessary read book.

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