Similarities Between The Kite Runner And The Odyssey

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Recommended: What is homer suggesting about these relationships in the odyssey

Samantha Carlson
Ms. Johnston
AP English Literature and Composition
8 September 2015
Journey Essay Most works of literature have their characters embarking on a journey or journeys to reach a desired location whether it is mentally or physically. These journeys do not stand alone but contribute to the piece as a whole. The Kite Runner focuses on Amir taking on life in his suffering country to moving to a land granting great opportunity and ultimately returning home to complete a deed that would stabilize him for the remainder of his life. In the epic The Odyssey, Odysseus or Ulysses in the Latin form takes on many challenges on the dangerous sea attempting to return home to Ithaca after being victorious in the Trojan War. Traveling can also reunite characters once again as it did for Amir and Hassan in The Kite Runner or bring together two such as Telemachus and Pisistratus in The Odyssey. “This journey has brought us together still more closely” (Homer 15.59-60). Characters walk through the journeys authors create on pages and typically change for the better or reach an ultimate goal. Friends can come and go in life, but the ones who are true will stay for a lifetime and become a new family member. Amir and Hassan had this relationship; they were always …show more content…

Amir and Ulysses both ultimately attempt to return to their home and reach a goal. In Amir’s case he had to return to his childhood country to retrieve his half brother’s son and in Ulysses’s case he needed to return home after being out at sea for twenty years. The two held family values and had people at home who loved them greatly. Amir owed it to Hassan and Ulysses needed to return to his faithful wife and son in Ithaca. In a sense they both took on these dangerous journeys and endured them for their family—“For you, a thousand times over” (Hosseini

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