The Kite Runner is Khaled Hosseini’s stunning debut novel. The Kite Runner is the first novel of the author. Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan émigré living in San Francisco and his novel has received mostly good reviews.
Amir and Hassan lost their mothers within a week of their births. It indicates that they have shared experience proves their close relationship. Their fathers i.e. Baba and Ali have close relation between them rather than master and servant. Hassan knows very well that he is the servant of Amir. Due to economic problems, Amir and Hassan grew up in separate situations. Amir goes to school and Hassan must stay at home to complete his servant duties. Amir always criticizes Hassan for his illiteracy whereas Hassan always remains faithful as a servant with Amir.
Amir’s father is a wealthy and powerful man. Amir’s father always influences his son. Amir enjoyed such a life, which was shaped by his brotherly friendship with Hassan. Mr.Hassan is the servant’s son i.e. Mr. Ali’s son. The friendship is complex with love, loss, privilege, and shame. Amir lives with his father’s attention. Hassan is a free bird. Amir stresses his father’s behavior and always gives weight to the father’s words with unrealistic expectations.
There is a tournament which huge spectator sport in Kabul. Amir desperate to win in order to gain his father’s affection. Hassan is the best kite runner in all of Kabul. The game is the kite runner runs to retrieve the fallen kite after it is string has been cut. During one of these competitions in which Amir is participating, Hassan captures a prized trophy. The tournament is a popular challenge in which the participants must cut down the kites of others with their own kites.
Amir wins the tournament. Amir is very happy. After winning, Hassan was beaten by a group of Pashtun teenagers and Amir failed to save his friend. Because refuses to hand over the trophy kite. Mr.Hassan was injured. Amir sees the scene and runs away from the scene by abandoning Hassan. But a tragedy occurred with his friend Hassan in a back alley on the same streets where these boys used to play every time. Amir peers into the alley and witnesses a tragedy by looking for Hassan who is running for him.
This is the turning point in Amir’s life. Amir remembers an Afghan celebration where the sheep must be sacrificed. He always watches the eye moments before its death. It reflects on life in pre-war Afghanistan. The Amir also witnessed the same nature of Hassan’s tragedy in an alleyway, the same meaning Mr.Amir understood what was observed with the sheep sacrifice. Mr. Amir realized the dream of becoming a writer and marries for love but he could not forget that worst day.
The Baba is disappointed by Amir’s decision to become a writer. Still, Amir did not care by indicating that he doesn’t want to sacrifice for Baba anymore. One sacrifice i.e. Hassan’s tragedy is enough, he is ashamed for itself. He continued days, months, and years without forgetting Mr.Hassan. Amir and Hassan are in such a relationship more than the brotherhood.
Relationship Between Amir and Hassan
Amir is Sunni Muslim i.e. Pashtun and Hassan is Shia Muslim i.e. Hazara. Their childhood runs with the spending on the road of Kabul. Amir always feels in a superior position and abuses Hassan. The relationship between Amir and Hassan is brotherhood. But the Amir afraid to be Hassan’s true friend. Amir constantly tests Hassan’s loyalty. During the friendship between Mr. Mir and Hassan, they often visit a pomegranate tree where they spend the maximum time reading and playing. Mr.Hassan made the names on the tree with Ali’s kitchen knives. The names mentioned in the tree are “Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul”. Hassan mentions “the tree has not borne fruit in years.”
Relationship Between Amir and Baba
The relationship of Baba and Amir is father-son relation and every time baba’s attention is on Amir. After Amir wins the kite running tournament, his relationship with Baba undergoes significant change. Mr.Amir unhappy comes outside from the tournament. When Amir and Baba move to the states their relationship changes. Amir begins to view his father as a more complex man. Baba and Amir know that they are very different people. It disappoints both of them. Amir is not such son what that Baba has hoped for. Amir felt with his father’s behavior.
Relationship Between Baba and Ali
Baba is the father of Amir and Ali is the father of Hassan. The relationship between Baba and Ali is more than master and servant relations, though they have master and servant relationships. Both have lost their wives and the time of giving birth to the children.
Conclusion
Amir married and living happily in San Francisco and he always remembers with sadness the Afghanistan of his childhood. Amir back to Afghanistan to correct the wrongs, which were, began on the day in the alley, which is connected with Hassan’s tragedy, as Amir always feels guilty about his behavior during childhood. The novel ends the Amir kite running for Hassan’s son Mr. Sohrab who begins a new life with Amir in America.
Quotes
- “Afghans like to say: Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end…crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of Kochis (nomads)”.
- “The tree has not borne fruit in years.” – by Hassan.
- “I would stand my ground, I decided. I did not want to sacrifice for Baba anymore. The last time I had done that, I had damned myself.” – by Amir.