Literature Analysis #1: The Kite Runner

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a story of good versus evil and how one bad decision that is clouded by selfishness can scar a person for the rest of their life. The narrator is Amir, a young Afghanistan boy who shares with us how his life was affected by a terrible sin brought on by his only desire of earning his father’s love. He lived in guilt since he was born because he thought he was the cause of his mother’s death. This is why he felt his father hated him and why he would do whatever it took to please him. Their Hazara servant’s son, Hassan, was Amir’s closest companion. Hassan would do anything for Amir but it wasn’t like that for Amir who would take advantage of Hassan at times. After making the worst decision in his life, Amir’s life is turned upside down unless he can find forgiveness in himself.

2. The major theme of The Kite Runner is finding salvation. Salvation is defined as “deliverance by redemption from the power of sin and from the penalties ensuing from it”. I believe that Hosseini chose to write about this because he wanted to explain how prejudices about religion, social status, and/or ethnicity can influence a person’s decisions in life. He portrayed this through Amir who had grown up with prejudices and then did something to Hassan because Hassan was “just a Hazara”. The many years following his choice, however, were plagued with guilt. The rest of the novel is about how he finds salvation from his past.

3. I chose this book because several people had recommended it to me, including my mom. She has urged me to read it on many different occasions so I decided to take advantage of the chance I had and finally read it. I honestly had no idea what the book was about when I had selected it or when I began reading the novel; however, it immediately grabbed my attention. The first page started with the main character, as an adult, reflecting on his past and how it was calling him back to that unforgivable thing he had done at the age of 12. I obviously was wondering what that “thing” was and why it was so horrible, so I continued reading.

4. For the most part, I found the book to be realistic. These events definitely could have occurred and/or be occurring in Afghanistan or other countries today. Like Amir, many children who are not given the proper and needed attention as a child end up getting into trouble in order to receive a minuscule piece of attention. Everyone, including myself, has wished they’d been given a chance to go back in time and have a “Do Over”. Unfortunately this is not how life functions and we all have to live with our mistakes just like Amir.

5. The author’s tone was sentimental and desperate but also judgmental. It was sentimental because the author constantly referred back to the past and how Amir felt about it. Amir was always reminiscing about what he had done to Hassan that winter day in 1975. “Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years” (1). Also throughout the novel there was a sense of desperation. Amir always yearned for Baba’s attention and would do whatever it took to become someone his father was proud of rather than embarrassed of. “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer flooded to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (77). The author tried to explicitly show how others were often judged. “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything” (22).

6.

·       Symbolism- “Behind him, sitting on piles of scrap and rubble, was the blue kite. My key to Baba’s heart” (71). This blue kite means the world to Amir because with it, he is able to make Baba proud.

·       Personification - “… but 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). This gives the past the human-like quality to claw its way out and shows that the past cannot be forgotten (buried).

·       Imagery - “At parties, when all six-foot-five of him thundered into the room, attention shifted to him like sunflowers turning to the sun” (13). This phrase creates a visual inside your head of a large man, Baba, walking into the room and everyone stops what they’re doing to stare.

·       Metaphor - “Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors” (21). When Rahim Khan told Baba this, Baba realized he can’t have a perfect son because it’s not his life to control but Amir’s.

·       Symbolism - “Do you want me to run that kite for you?” I thought I saw him nod. “For you, a thousand times over,” I hear myself say (371). When Amir runs the kite for Hassan’s son Sohrab, it symbolizes that things have gone full circle.  Amir is now the “servant” and has finally found redemption for his past sin.

·       Allusion – “Never mind any of those things. Because history isn’t easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing” (25). This is allusion as the author assumes we know that this explains why Amir is privileged and Hassan

·       Repetition - “For you, a thousand times over” (2, 67, 194, 371). Hassan says this to Amir, showing his loyalty and unconditional love for Amir no matter what. It’s repeated to emphasize Hassan’s dedication and that Amir finally sees that things were always one way.

·       Personification - “Then I glanced up and saw a pair of kites, red with long blue tails, soaring in the sky. They danced high above the trees on the end of the park, over the windmills, floating side by side like a pair of eyes looking down on San Francisco, the city I now call home” (2). This quote of the novel personifies the kites and enables the readers to paint a picture in their mind.

·       Symbolism - “The swelling subsided, and the wound healed with time. Soon, it was just a pink jagged line running up from his lip. By the following winter, it was only a faint scar. Which was ironic. Because that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling” (47). This symbolizes how much a person can be affected by a single event.

·       Irony – “Earlier that morning, when I was certain no one was looking, I did something I had done twenty-six years earlier: I planted a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress” (242). This is ironic because as a child he framed someone of stealing money but as an adult he gave someone money; both times he placed a wad of cash under a mattress. 

CHARACTERIZATION

1. Hosseini uses both approaches so he can let the readers know some of the characters’ traits and let them make their own conclusions of each character.

Direct Characterization: “I knew I was being cruel, like when I’d taunt him if he didn’t know some big word” (54). This is direct characterization of Amir because we know that Amir is cruel because it is directly stated in the passage. “To this day, I find it hard to gaze directly at people like Hassan, people who mean every word they say” (54). This distinctly shows that Hassan is a very true and honest person.

Indirect Characterization: “Sometimes, up in those trees, I talked Hassan into firing walnuts with his slingshot at the neighbor’s one-eyed German shepherd. Hassan never wanted to, but if I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me…Hassan’s father, Ali, used to catch us and get mad…But he never told that the mirror, like shooting walnuts at the neighbor’s dog, was always my idea” (4). This shows that Hassan was so dedicated and faithful to Amir that he’d never get Amir into trouble and even take the blame for it. “Hassan didn’t struggle. Didn’t even whimper. He moved his head slightly and I caught a glimpse of his face. Saw the resignation in it. It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb” (75-76). This shows that Hassan was someone who just takes whatever is dealt to him in order to serve the greater good.

2. Yes, the author’s syntax and diction changes when he focuses on a character. The Kite Runner is written in first person of Amir, so Hosseini wrote pretty much the entire novel in informal diction because it’s all Amir’s thoughts. “But I’ll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, the snow melts one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake falling” (371).  Hosseini does change diction when different characters are speaking. “‘It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime, Amir.’ Baba said” (142). This is more formal diction.

3. The protagonist, Amir, is a dynamic and round character because he changes during the novel and has many characteristics. At first he’s self-centered, cowardly, and dependent. Eventually, he is forced to become the brave, heartfelt individual who his father always wanted as a son.

4. After reading the book, I felt like I genuinely knew several of the characters such as Hassan and Amir. During the unforgivable incident, I felt like I witnessed Amir and Hassan and afterwards felt like I was there in the novel seeing the aftermath of what had happened and how each character was impacted.

ENDURING MEMORY

I expect to remember how kind Hassan was and the Afghan culture for a long time. In my opinion, these two ideas played major roles in The Kite Runner and are therefore memorable. I will remember Hassan because he was a character filled of loyalty, dedication, and trust that I loved from the get-go. He saved Amir countless times when Amir was in need of help. For example, he stood up for Amir when Assef was bulling him. If Hassan hadn’t been the person he was, the whole plot of the novel would have been altered, specifically the conflict. Also I believe the Afghan culture was important and memorable because it profoundly influenced the characters’ ways of living and their decisions. Had the culture not enforced low ranking of Hazaras, Amir and Hassan would have lived completely different lives. Also Baba’s wish of having a son was based on the Afghan culture of having a son follow in your footsteps and carry on your family name with pride.