THE KITE RUNNER

LITERARY ELEMENTS

SETTING The story takes place in Afghanistan,

Pakistan, and the United States from 1975 until the present day.

CONFLICT

Protagonist Amir is the protagonist, because it is his story - a

story that details his childhood in Afghanistan and the terrible sin he commits against Hassan, a Hazara boy who also happens to be his half-brother. It also details how he eventually returns to his homeland to atone for that sin by finding Hassan’s son, Sohrab, and bringing him home.

Antagonist The antagonist is, on the surface, the man named Assef,

who is a prejudiced childhood acquaintance of Amir and Hassan. He torments them both, but actually attacks Hassan. Later, when the Taliban gains control of Afghanistan, he becomes one of them so he can continue to torture others he finds inferior to himself. He also takes Sohrab as his sexual plaything and Amir must defeat Assef to bring Sohrab home and to the family he deserves. the other antagonist is Amir’s sin which he must compensate before he can find redemption.

Climax Amir meets Assef, now a Talib, in hand-to-

hand combat and Sohrab, like his father before him, saves Amir with a slingshot.

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Outcome Amir recovers from his terrible beating and they get

out of Afghanistan and flee to Pakistan. There, he tries to find a way to take Sohrab to the United States. However, he runs into many bureaucratic walls . He is finally told that if he places Sohrab into an orphanage temporarily, he might have an easier time getting the necessary paperwork. Sohrab tries to commit suicide at this news and even though he is saved and they find a way to get him to America, he retreats from any trust in Amir or anyone else. It is only when they participate in a kite flying contest in America that Sohrab comes out of his silence and begins to heal. It is also the moment when Amir makes his final apology for the sins he committed against Hassan, Sohrab’s father.

SHORT SUMMARY (Synopsis)

Amir tells us about the unique relationship he has with Hassan, a Hazara boy who is the victim of discrimination, but ironically is the half-brother of Amir, a Pashtun. Amir is overwhelmed with guilt when he allows Hassan to be beaten and raped on the day Amir wins the kite flying tournament. He lies to have Hassan accused of theft so he will leave their home and Amir can try to forget his guilt. Eventually, Amir and his father flee Afghanistan after the Russians invade and Amir takes his tragic memories to America to start a new life.

Unfortunately, his debt to Hassan must be paid and he returns to his country to find Hassan’s orphaned son and rescue him. There, he discovers that Sohrab has become the sexual plaything of Assef, the harass who had tormented both Amir and Hassan when they were young. Ultimately, Amir must defeat Assef in a raging physical battle, take the damaged Sohrab out of Afghanistan and try to help him repair his spirit.

THEMES

Strength of Character

The theme of strength of character is the most prevalent theme. Amir commits terrible sins against his friend and half-brother, Hassan. The story of what he does and how he seeks and finds apology is a lesson for everyone who wants to do find a way to be good again.

The Resilience of the Human Spirit

The theme of the resilience of the human spirit is also an important idea. Even though Amir has committed these sins, the inner strength that he had all along, but thought was somehow missing from his character, breaks though to allow him to find Sohrab and free him from the clutches of Assef. In this same way, when Sohrab falls into a great inner depression and tries to commit suicide, the spirit within him emerges and he finds his way to happiness again.

Man’s Inhumanity To Man

The theme of man’s inhumanity to man is a theme which makes the reader think about how we torture each other because of our need for power in our lives. It is true as seen in this novel that there are essentially evil individuals who are impossible to redeem and that the evil they do affects all people around them. Assef is such a character. He enjoys hurting others physically, emotionally, and psychologically. If there is a Hell, he is bound for it.

However, there is also the evil found in all of us, no matter how good we are most of the time, which allows us to do bad things to those we love the most. The reasons may vary for why we commit such sins, but in the end, it is all about needing some sort of power in our lives.

Fortunately, this evil is redeemable when we are ready to atone and right the wrongs we have committed. Amir is such a man. He is essentially good, but the evil he does as a child follows him into his adulthood and he must find a way to expiate those sins for his own sake and also for the sake of Sohrab.

The Fragile Relationship Between Fathers and Sons

Another theme that is emphasized throughout is that of the fragile relationship between fathers and sons. Amir spends his entire life trying to be the son who will not disappoint his father and making up for the death of his mother who died while giving birth to him. Many of the sins he commits are in the hopes that his father will believe in him, embrace him, and tell him how proud of him he is.

It is only when Amir grows up, watches how valiantly his father faces his own death, and then returns to Afghanistan to right the wrongs he had committed that he realizes that his father had always loved him and was proud of him. It is unfortunate that men find it difficult to show their love to their sons for fear of somehow being less of a man. Amir would have loved to have had such a relationship all of his life and we who watch him struggle to find it identify with his need for parental approval.

Loyalty and Devotion

Another theme would be loyalty and devotion. This is especially evident in the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Despite the fact that Hassan is actually Amir’s half-brother, he is his servant, because no one but Baba and Ali know the truth. Nonetheless, even though Hassan is the victim of discrimination and class structure, he is completely devoted and loyal to Amir, both as his servant and as his friend. It takes Amir many years to atone for how terribly he treated the loyalty and love that Hassan always offered no matter what the circumstances.

The Discrimination, Bigotry, and Class Structure of Afghan Society

A final theme involves discrimination, bigotry, and class structure in Afghan society. Hassan and Ali are members of the Hazaras, a minority group of Afghanis who follow Islamic beliefs called Shi’a. Amir and his father are Pashtuns, the majority, who believes they are a better class than the Hazara and who follow the Sunni sect of Islam.

Because of this bigotry and basic class structure, it is very difficult for anyone to marry into another class and the Hazara are often victims of physical, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of Pashtuns. This is partly why Amir does not come to Hassan’s rescue when he is attacked by Assef

MOOD

At times, the mood of The Kite Runner is tragic, filled with despair, and very sad; at other times, it is uplifting and hopeful. Finally, it is a triumphant commentary on the human spirit.

CHAPTER 1

Summary The narrator begins the story by proclaiming, “I

became what I am today at the age of twelve.” He describes a mysterious crumbling mud wall and an alley beside a frozen creek in the year 1975. He affirms that he has been “peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”

The narrator then tells us that he had received a telephone call from his friend, Rahim Khan, in Pakistan. To him, it isn’t just Rahim Khan on the line; it is his past which is filled with sins for which he never atoned. After he hangs up on the call, he goes for a walk along Spreckels Lake on the northern edge of Golden Gate Park where he sees a pair of kites soaring in the sky. They remind him of Hassan, the harelipped (cleft palate, a congenital abnormality) kite runner who had once told the narrator, “For you a thousand times over.” He replays the last words of the telephone conversation from Rahim Khan, “There is a way to be good again.” All the names of that time in 1975 flood back into his mind, the time when everything changed and he became who he is today.

Notes We do not yet know our narrator’s name, but we do

know some significant things about him: he lives in San Francisco and is of Middle Eastern descent; the year 1975, when he was twelve years old, was a pivotal time in his life; and there was a young man who was an important part of his life, a young man named Hassan who had a harelip and who seems to have been inordinately devoted to our narrator. This chapter then prepares us for an extraordinary story about to unfold.

THE KITE RUNNER SUMMARY

Chapters 1-5 The Kite Runner opens in December 2001. The narrator,

Amir, meditates on the past, recalling a walk in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and alludes to a more distant moment of crisis in 1976. The narrator considers the way that the past has a way of returning despite one's efforts to forget it. He mentions the names of several characters slated to appear in later chapters. After this opening, the novel uses a flashback, a device through which the narrator tells about events that happened before the present action of the story. This flashback lasts for many chapters, returning the reader, near the end of the novel, to 2001, the time in which the first chapter is set.

The first five chapters sketch the details of Amir's childhood in Kabul, his daily life with his friend and servant Hassan in his father's large house, and his burgeoning interest in literature. Hassan and his father live on Amir's father's property in a separate servant's house. They are members of a minority ethnic group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara. Victims of casual discrimination by the privileged classes, the Hazara in The Kite Runner are derided for their appearance and generally live as second-class citizens. However, Hassan and his father Ali, servants in Baba's household, are treated fairly well as members of the family. Ali has known Baba for decades and Hassan and Amir, despite their differences in ethnicity and status, are constant playmates.