An analysis of The Kite Runner

1. BACKGROUND
1. The Kite Runner
2. Khaled Hosseini
3. 2003
4. 270 pages
5. Historical Fiction
6. 1st person, told by Amir
7. I thought that it was really interesting to hear thoughts about Afghanistan from Amir’s eyes.  It would have been nice to read the book as it switched between Amir and Hassan’s points of view, so one could see Hassan’s view of the story, as he is a big character in the book, but I would say that it works best with only Amir’s point of view.
8. The reason that this book has the title “The Kite Runner” is that the main sin that Amir commits in the story happens after a kite flying tournament.  Although Amir tells the story, it is mostly about Hassan; he is “the kite runner.”
2. PLOT
1. EXPOSITION
1. Setting: The characters start the book off in the district of Wazir Akbar Khan, which is in Kabul, Afghanistan.  The time period starts in the late 1960s, and, as Amir grows up, ends in the 2000s, in the Bay Area of California.
2. Major Characters:
1. Amir: Amir was born in 1963.  All he wants as a kid is to make his father proud, and later in life wants to relieve himself of his guilt that has weighed upon him since his childhood.  He is a writer, and is not athletic.  He has light brown hair and pale hazel eyes, and is thin with scraggly legs.  He is married to Soraya Taheri, and lives with her, and his nephew, Sohrab.
2. Hassan:  Hassan has a very close relationship with Amir during their childhood, although Amir wouldn't call them friends.  He is very loyal, which he proves many times, including when he told Amir that if he wanted him to eat dirt, he would do it.  He and Amir are half brothers, which Hassan never finds out, and Amir only finds out after he is a grown man.  Hassan was born in the winter of 1964, and is a good kite runner because of his athleticism.  He is a Hazara, or Shi’a Muslim, and was born with a cleft lip which he later removes.  He has low set ears, a broad nose, narrow gold-green eyes, and a small chin.  He and his wife die from a Taliban attack.
3. Baba:  Baba is Amir’s father.  He is a Pashtun, and was born in 1933.  He believes that every sin is a variation of theft, and is a proud Republican.  He finds it hard to leave his past behind after moving to America, whereas Amir wants to run away from his past.  He has a thick beard, curly brown hair, and is 6’5”.  He dies soon after Amir’s wedding, of lung cancer.
4. Sohrab: Sohrab is Hassan’s son, and Amir’s nephew.  At an early age he feels the loss of his grandmother and his parents.  He is never quite the same after the traumatic experiences he goes through, even after he is safe in America with Amir, but eventually he starts to become more lively.  He looks almost exactly like Hassan, except without the cleft lip.
2. RISING ACTION
1. Conflicts:
1. Amir vs. Assef: external: character vs. character:  Assef is a Taliban and fights with Amir to the death, partly because settling the score, partly because they are fighting over Sohrab.
2. Amir vs. Baba: external: character vs. character: Baba is disappointed in Amir as he grows up.
3. Amir vs. General Taheri: external: character vs. character: When Amir first falls in love Soraya, he starts chatting with her, and also adopts a child with her, both of which are against Afghanistan tradition.
4. Amir vs. Hassan: external: character vs. character: Amir and Hassan grow distant from each other after Amir doesn’t stand up for Hassan.  
5. Hassan vs. Assef: external: character vs. character: Assef bullies Hassan in his childhood because of his heritage, a conflict that passes onto Assef and Sohrab, Hassan’s son.
6. Amir vs. his sin: internal: character vs. self: Amir’s sin of not standing up for Hassan as a child haunts him throughout his life.
3. TURNING POINT/ CLIMAX: The climax of The Kite Runner is when Amir finds Sohrab as a slave to the Talibans, specifically Assef.  Amir and Assef fight, and just when Amir is about to die, Sohrab aims his slingshot at Assef and shoots a brass ball into his eye to stop him from hurting Amir anymore.
4. FALLING ACTION: After Amir fights Assef, he tries to find a way to bring Sohrab to America after finding out that the people who were going to give Sohrab a home never existed.  Amir breaks a promise to Sohrab, and he tries to commit suicide, but after he heals, at least physically, they are able to make it to America.  
5. RESOLUTION: The resolution of the book is that Amir and Sohrab’s lives slowly get better, and at the end, they go kite flying, and for the first time in more than a year, Sohrab smiles, signifying that not all is lost.   The main characters Amir, Baba, and Sohrab were all dynamic.  Amir becomes free of his guilt, and doesn’t have it hanging over his head.  Baba finally realizes that Amir is a good son, even if he isn’t the son that he thought he would be.  Sohrab goes through loss, and will probably always miss his parents and grandmother,  but slowly accepts it.  Hassan is a static character, because he is always loyal to Amir, even if Amir doesn’t deserve it.
3. PROTAGONIST AND ANTAGONIST:
1. Amir: Protagonist:“...my problem was that someone had always done my fighting for me… I was older now, but maybe not yet too old to start doing my own fighting.” (227)
2. Amir’s sin he commits: Antagonist: “...It’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.” (1)
3. Assef: Antagonist: “Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage." (284)
4. THEME: Redemption helps people leave their past behind and focus on the future.  This theme is important because it shows that one needs to stand up for him/herself, by him/herself, to be able to atone his/her sins, so that they can live happier and be free of the past.  It also shows that forgiveness is connected to redemption, because Rahim Khan says “There is a way to be good again,” as a way of forgiving Amir.
5. FAVORITE SCENE:  My favorite scene from The Kite Runner is when Hassan tells Amir on the day of the kite flying tournament about his dream that he has.  I like this part because it shows how intuitive Hassan is, and how he always knows how to make Amir feel better.  Here is the passage:

The next morning, as he brewed black tea for breakfast, Hassan told me he’d had a dream.  “We were at Qargha Lake, you, me, Father, Agha sahib, Rahim Khan, and thousands of other people,” he said.  “It was warm and sunny, and the lake was clear like a mirror.  But no one was swimming because they said a monster had come to the lake.  It was swimming at the bottom, waiting.”

He poured me a cup and added sugar, blew on it a few times.  Put it before me.  “So everyone is scared to get in the water, and suddenly you kick off your shoes, Amir agha, and take off your shirt.  ‘There’s no monster,’ you say.  ‘I’ll show you all.’  And before anyone can stop you, you dive into the water, start swimming away.  I follow you in and we’re both swimming.”

“But you can’t swim.”

Hassan laughed.  “It’s a dream, Amir agha, you can do anything.  Anyway, everyone is screaming,’Get out! Get out!’ but we just swim in the cold water.  We make it way out to the middle of the lake and we stop swimming.  We turn toward the shore and wave to the people.  They look small like ants, but we can hear them clapping.  They see now.  There is no monster, just water.  The change the name of the lake after that, and call it the ‘Lake of Amir and Hassan, Sultans of Kabul,’ and we get to charge people money for swimming in it.”

After this, when Amir and Hassan are at the tournament, Amir is nervous and thinks this:

It occurred to me then that maybe Hassan had made up his dream. Was that possible? I decided it wasn’t. Hassan wasn’t that smart. I wasn’t that smart.  But made up or not, the silly dream had lifted some of my anxiety. Maybe I should take off my shirt, take a swim in the lake. Why not? (59-60)

6. HERO’S JOURNEY:
1. Call to adventure:  Rahim Khan wants Amir to bring Sohrab to a safe home.
2. Refusal of call: Amir doesn’t want to killed, not thinking of himself, but of his family.
3. Cross of threshold: Amir realizes that he if he rescues Sohrab, he will get the redemption that he craves.
4. Mentor: Rahim Khan inspires Amir to rescue Sohrab, and helps him get a ride, Farid, who drives Amir to Kabul and helps him find Sohrab.
5. Challenges: The director of an orphanage sells Sohrab to a Taliban official, and later Amir has to fight Assef to rescue Sohrab.
6. Abyss: Amir is hospitalized after fighting Assef.
7. Transformation:  After fighting Assef, Amir feels a weight lifted off his shoulders, as if he doesn’t need to carry his guilt around with him anymore.
8. Atonement: Amir starts to pray namaz again, and brings Sohrab back to America.
9. Return:  After more than a year of silence, Sohrab becomes more alive when flying kites with Amir in America.

The Faults in Our Minds

Poverty does not necessarily mean that one is trash, and ignorance does not determine a person’s intelligence; however, when the two are put together during hard times, it doesn't make for a good mix.  In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it is shown that poverty and ignorance cause many negative impacts in Maycomb County during The Great Depression.

One negative impact is that many people are blinded by racism, even when hit with reason and truth.  For example, plenty of evidence was given against Bob Ewell, such as “There is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left… Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses - his right hand.” (204)  Despite this, the jury still said “Guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty.” (211) This shows that a;though everyone in the courtroom realized that Tom Robinson was innocent, he was still convicted because of his race.  This also shows that if one person becomes prejudiced towards something or someone, because of their own poverty or ignorance, it will spread to others, until everyone believes it and will not want to go against it.  In the same way, other faults among communities can be spread.

People are easily raised into stating one thing but doing another, also known as hypocrisy.  For example, Scout notices that Miss Gates talks about Hitler and his horrible deeds, but goes on to be cheerful at the fact that Tom Robinson was convicted.  She exclaims “I heard her say it's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were getting' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us." (331)  This shows that Miss Gates, while not liking Hitler’s prejudice against Jews, is basically doing the same thing, but to African Americans.  This also shows that hypocrisy can be spread through poverty and ignorance, because if one is poor and is unable to see reason, they have a sort of lense in front of them, so that they can only see what they want to, even if it’s not right.  Many people in Maycomb County are affected by this.

Grudges are hard to let go of, even if the incident is long past.  For example, “Mr. Bob Ewell stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life.” (217) Bob Ewell blames the fact that the whole town doesn’t like him on Atticus, and tries to kill his children for it.  This shows that Bob Ewell lacks the trait of listening to reason and truth, since he can’t accept the town’s dislike, and wears the same lense as Miss Gates, enabling him with the need to do the only thing he can, which is attack Atticus’ kids, which is low, but what one would expect from him.  This also shows that grudges, even though they may have a well intentioned reason behind them, should not be kept for long or will encourage rash decisions and unthought-out plans.

As a result, Harper Lee expresses in To Kill a Mockingbird that poverty and ignorance combined can cause blind racism, hypocrisy, and long lasting grudges with bad decisions.  These faults of human-kind are still found everywhere today, even in places without poverty and ignorance, but are slowly disappearing as more and more people are raised without these influences.