The story is set in Afghanistan and America, lasting about 30 years from the fall of Afghanistan monarchy to the collapse of the tyranny of the Taliban regime. In the form of the first person, the novel tells us the story about the protagonist Amir’s growth from immature to mature. Amir is born a rich family in Kabul, and he has a happy childhood with his servant, Hassan, who is loyalty and selfless to Amir from the begin to the end. While after a kite fighting competition, Amir betrays Hassan and their friendship because of his selfishness and cowardice. When he grows up, he gets an opportunity to” be good again”. Then he goes back to Afghanistan to save Hassan’s child. Finally, he finishes his redemption. At meantime, the novel describes
Even after Amir and his father flew to America one afternoon decades ago, still haunts him. Amir’s inaction that day impacts the rest of his life and leads to lies, betrayal, and guilt. He desires to be forgiven for his sin and does everything he can to find redemption. Amir is hopeful that “there is a way to be good again”(Hosseini 2). Social and ethnic tensions: The Kite Runner gives us a look at Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion and then after.
In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini the, main Protagonist is a man that goes by the name Amir. Some argue that he is an anti-hero, or not a hero. No. Amir is a hero. Amir is just another person who was lost at one point and needed direction and needed clear the guilty feelings he had. Through these actions he creates a heroic journey, he follows a hero’s path.
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
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, follows the maturation of Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, as he discovers what it means to stand up for what he believes in. His quest to redeem himself after betraying his friend and brother, Hassan, makes up the heart of the novel. When Amir hears that his father’s old business partner, Rahim Khan, is sick and dying, he travels to Pakistan to say his goodbyes. Rahim Khan tells Amir about Hassan’s life and eventual death; the Taliban murdered Hassan while he was living in Amir’s childhood home. As his dying wish, Rahim Khan asks Amir to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from an orphanage in Afghanistan. Although Amir refuses at first, he thinks about what Rahim Khan had always told him: “There is a way to be good again…” (226), which gives him the incentive he needs to return to Afghanistan and find Sohrab. Hosseini draws parallels between Amir’s relationship with Hassan and Amir’s relationship with Sohrab in order to demonstrate the potential of redemption.
Life in America for Baba and Amir is much different than their life in Afghanistan. Specifically, Amir adapts well to America. He completes high school and college. Furthermore, he follows his dream of becoming a writer. In American Amir becomes a young man who marries Soraya. The reader witnesses a kinder, non-vindictive Amir.
Fathers have a remarkable influence on their children. Every son looks up to their dad, and dreams of becoming a man just like them. In the novel Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Ali and Baba play a tremendous role in their sons lives: Hassan and Amir. Both boys strive to become the man their father is, and would go to any measures just to mirror their fathers. All children need a father figure in their lives, and even though Ali and Baba raised their children differently, they were both loved unconditionally.
Amir now has the skills needed to continue his life in America as being independent and the man of the house. The future is bright for Amir, as one can see a fortified, relieved, and joyful version of him compared to the accustomed one in Kabul. Amir is able to purge his sin of silence and lying by using his newfound life to forget all that has occurred in Kabul. This new land of opportunity also brings Baba and Amir closer, for they need to look out for each other as a way to be successful and survive in the land of the free.
...izens of Kabul. As a result, Hassan’s childhood is much more difficult than Amir’s, allowing him to become stronger, more resilient, and less ignorant. Nonetheless, the two boys grow up together in Afghanistan during a time when it is considered to be a relatively peaceful country. In the late seventies however, this peace is destroyed as a result of the Russian invasion in Afghanistan. Ultimately, the environments from which Amir and Hassan each came from largely influences the people they become in the transitional phase of their lives from boyhood to young adulthood.
Anyone can be a hero, it is not a predetermined occupation, rather it can come out of anybody when a conflict arises. To become a hero all one has to do is step in to resolve an issue. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner the main conflict of the book is Amir's regret of past sins and desire for atonement. To atone for his sins Amir needs to recognize his wrongdoings, work to make up for them and change as a person. Throughout this story, Amir needs help to complete these steps. He gets help from Rahim Khan: the catalyst for his journey to redemption, Sohrab: Who saves Amir from Assef, and himself who by working hard to make a relationship with Sohrab is able to accept and move on from his past. To complete his journey for atonement Amir needs
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
Amir’s childhood is quite unusual compared to most children in Afghan. Amir’s father, Baba, is a very rich and successful individual in his lifetime. This success allows Amir to live a wealthy lifestyle with access to western commodity as well as servants. In novel, Amir is risen mostly by his servants Hassan and Ali, as well
Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner, grew up in prejudiced Afghanistan during the 1960’s as a middle-class Pashtun living with Hazaras working for his family. His move to America after the Communist Coup proved difficult for his family, especially his father. In his novel, Hosseini writes through a young boy, Amir, very similar to himself, who grows up with his father and two Hazara servants in Afghanistan at the time of the Taliban attacks. Both Amir and his father, Baba, treat their servants, Hassan and Ali, like family. Society, however, does not approve of such relationships between Pashtuns and Hazaras. As Amir hides and watches horrified, another Pashtun boy rapes Hassan. This leads to the continuation of Amir’s internal conflict about the treatment of Hazaras by the public, and also makes him feel guilty and self-conscious throughout his entire life. In addition, Amir strives for affection and attention from his rather indifferent father. Amir’s outward conformity to societal values in his relationships with both Hassan and Baba, as a result of his inner struggle and guilt, contribute greatly to the significance of The Kite Runner.
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch
One aspect of the novel that highlights this struggle is its setting, as it takes place during four time periods, each at a different stage in Afghan history. Throughout these unstable decades, the country’s government went through continuous upheavals with each new government advocating different
...d to exhibit the harsh treatments many citizens living there do in recent years. Moreover, Hosseini and Amir explain the importance of having a father figure who would be support their son’s interests in life and helping them thrive for success in the careers they would like to pursue. Neither Hosseini or Amir had a father who supported their long term goals. Hosseini’s and Amir’s high social class in their hometown Kabul, made life easier for them as they were growing up because they were able to afford education which helped them a lot in the careers they pursued in. When both Hosseini and Amir came to the United States, they had a tough time learning the lifestyles of an American, but for the most part, it brought them to how successful they became. Ultimately, Khaled Hosseini creates a protagonist in his novel who serves as a parallel to his own life experiences.