The Kite Runner

-Khaled Hosseini

Submitted by: Shriniket Lad

Roll No.: 46

Institution: Garware Institute of Career Education and Development

Mumbai University

Course: Bachelor’s in Tour and Travel Management

Semester: 5
Batch: 2

Date: 29-October-2021
Khaled Hosseini
Kickstarting his career with his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini is
known worldwide for his presence being felt in his writings. The Kite Runner is a
beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed.
Sin and redemption are woven into the words as this novel spent 101 weeks as
New York Times bestseller and international classic read and loved by millions. His
other novels, A Thousand Splendid Suns and, And the Mountains Echoed have also
reached various levels of critical and commercial success. Born in Kabul,
Afghanistan, to a diplomat father, young Hosseini and his family later applied for
asylum in the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. Although his
books aren’t based on any specific true-life events, Hosseini admitted to feeling
survivor's guilt for having been able to leave the country prior to the Soviet
invasion and subsequent wars. Hosseini is also a U.S. Goodwill Envoy to the
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the founder of The Khaled Hosseini
Foundation, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to the people of
Afghanistan.

Overview
“In the end, the world always wins. That’s just the way of things.”
The narration opens with the words "December 2001" as a nameless narrator
immediately refers to the winter of 1975 and obliquely mentions an event that
changed his life forever. It is an unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely
friendship between a wealthy boy, Amir and the son of his father’s servant,
Hassan. Set in a backdrop of destruction and chaos, Amir takes us back to his
childhood, in the final decades of the monarchy in Afghanistan where he
introduces: Baba, his father, said to be one of the wealthiest and most charitable
Pashtun men in Kabul, where they lived in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood;
the harelipped Hassan, who was like a brother to him but still not as much so; and
Ali, Hassan’s father who was Baba's servant, a kindhearted man with an affinity to
bad things happening to him.
Despite their differences, Amir and Hassan were inseparable. Hassan is depicted
as a faithful and abiding son, who would have done anything for Amir. Baba, a
huge and imposing man, was aloof and did not pay Amir much attention. He did
not subscribe to popular belief, preferring to cast his own opinions about issues.
To his father’s disappoint, Amir was cowardly and bookish. Ali, a Hazara, single
father, was taken in by Baba’s family after his parents were killed in an accident.
Ali and Baba grew up together just like Hassan and Amir did. In each generation,
the boys could never truly consider themselves friends because of their class
difference the biggest difference divider being literacy. Amir was proud of his
literacy and lorded it over the unsuspecting, illiterate Hassan and yet when Amir
wrote his first short story and read it to Hassan, it was the latter who found the
plot hole in the story. Unbeknownst to the boys or anyone else, the coup d'état in
Afghanistan, changing it from a monarchy to a republic, was the first of many
political changes that would eventually ruin Afghanistan as they knew it. The
extent of Hassan’s loyalty to Amir is tested when he stands up to the antagonist,
Assef, forcing him to leave by aiming his slingshot at Assef’s eye. Kite-running was
a game introduced to help people escape their realities. It was on one such kite-
running tournament that changes the entire dynamic of the novel hence after.
Amazingly, Amir won, and Hassan went to run the last kite for him to bring home
as trophy, yelling "For you, a thousand times over". When Hassan did not return,
Amir went out looking for him and found Hassan confronting Assef and his two
friends in an alley. Amir did nothing to help Hassan as Assef raped him and even
as blood-soaked Hassan walked back home, kite in one hand. It was after this that
Amir’s relationship with his father improved but that with Hassan degraded. Guilt-
ridden, and unable to face Hassan, Amir thought it would be best that Ali and
Hassan leave, a suggestion that didn’t sit well with Baba who even threatened to
hit Amir for the first time. Ali and Hassan were family. Amir tried to resolve his
guilt by teaching Hassan not to be so loyal to him as he took Hassan up to the hill
and pelted him with pomegranates. No matter how much he begged, Hassan
would not hit him back. He even smashes a pomegranate into his own forehead
and asked Amir if he felt better. Amir's guilt only intensified at the lavish
thirteenth birthday party that Baba threw for him knowing that Baba never would
have given him such a great party had he not won the tournament, which was
inseparable in his mind from Hassan's rape. To his disgust, Assef attended and
was caught teasing Hassan. Baba gave Amir a wristwatch. Rahim Khan, a father
figure to Amir, gave him the only present he could bear to use, which was a blank
notebook for his stories. He also received a good deal of money. To his chagrin, Ali
and Hassan gave him a copy of his and Hassan's favorite book. It was then that
Amir decided to betray Hassan for the last time and framed him for theft, a sin
that was unforgivable in Baba’s eyes. Although forgiven by Baba, Ali and Hassan
left, leaving Baba in tears for the first time.
The story then flows into years later, as Baba and Amir left Afghanistan in a truck
full of refugees where Baba stands up to a Russian soldier for a complete
stranger. As they departed Peshawar, Amir's schoolmate, Kamal who dies
enroute, and his father who puts a gun in his mouth shooting himself are
introduced just before Amir and Baba manage to emigrate to the San Francisco
area. Baba worked long hours at a gas station and struggled to adjust to his
everyday realities. For Amir, America represented a fresh beginning, free of all his
haunting memories of Hassan. His graduation gave Baba a reason to finally
celebrate, but the happiness was short-lived when he said he wished Hassan were
with them. Eventually, Baba and Amir started selling used goods at a local flea
market. They found it to be a miniature Afghan haven, filled with people they
knew from Kabul where Amir meets, falls in love and eventually marries Soraya
Taheri who is still oblivious to the secrets his husband sleeps with. Baba passes
away peacefully in his sleep. Amir and Soraya later go on to buy a house and
discover that they were infertile with no medical explanation allowing Amir to
privately blame it on his own shameful past.
It was the call from Rahim Khan that changes not only the narration but also the
story’s dynamic once again. He was dying, and as his dying wish he comes clean to
Amir about everything before saying, "There is a way to be good again". Amir flew
to Peshawar to see Rahim Khan who goes on to tell him about what happened to
Hassan; how Rahim Khan had lived in Baba's house alone before he went looking
for Hassan and found him living in a small village with his pregnant wife, Farzana;
and how Hassan refused to come back home till he broke down at the news of
Baba’s death. Hassan and Farzana insisted on staying in the servants' hut and
doing housework till one day Sanaubar, the mother who abandoned Ali and
Hassan, collapsed at the gate of the house. She had traveled a long way to finally
make peace with Hassan, who accepted her with open arms. She delivered
Hassan and Farzana's son, Sohrab and played a large part in raising him till she
died. He then handed over a letter addressed to Amir by Hassan before devasting
him with the news of Hassan’s gruesome death when the Taliban decided to
massacre all the Hazaras and how Hassan was actually his half-brother as Ali was
infertile, making Hassan the child of Baba and Sanaubar. Shocked, guilt-ridden
Amir then decides to make things right and fulfil his brother’s last wish and bring
Sohrab home.
Amir sets out in search of Sohrab, but the devastation in Kabul took his breath
away. Sohrab was with a Taliban official, who is later revealed to be Assef. Assef
explained that he was on a mission to kill all the Hazaras in Afghanistan and
challenges Amir to a fight to the death. The chapter ends with Sohrab aiming his
slingshot at Assef’s eye, begging him to stop before putting out his eye, just as his
father did once before. Of all his injuries, most poignantly, Amir's lip had split
open to make him resemble Hassan. With a final letter from Rahim Khan, urging
Amir to forgive himself, he promises to take Sohrab home and keep him safe. That
night, Amir spoke to Soraya and after all their years of marriage, he finally told her
what he did to Hassan and how he was bringing Sohrab home. Soraya was very
supportive and promised to call her cousin Sharif, who worked for the INS. The
couple were eventually able to bring Sohrab to the States with the help of a kind
lawyer by the name of Omar Faisal.
The novel ends at a rainy Afghan picnic, when Amir noticed kites flying in the sky.
He bought one and went over to Sohrab, who had secluded himself as usual. He
went on to relive memories of Hassan and their running days, telling Sohrab that
his father was the best kite runner he had ever known. Amir used Hassan's
favorite "lift-and-dive" move to cut a kite when he noticed the smallest hint of a
smile on Sohrab's face. He offered to run the kite for Sohrab and as he ran off, he
shouted, "For you, a thousand times over".
Conclusion
A gripping and emotional story of sin, betrayal and redemption; of the strained
relationships of fathers over their sons- their love, their sacrifices and their lies; a
sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating
backdrop of the history of Afghanistan, The Kite Runner is an unusual and
powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic. The story is fast-
paced and hardly ever dull, and introduces us to the world of Afghan life – which
is strange, fascinating and yet oddly familiar all at the same time. Hosseini's
writing finds a great balance between being clear and yet powerful, and not only
is the story itself brilliantly constructed, but the book also explores the very art of
storytelling. The best bit of the novel is its sense of fate and justice, of good
overcoming evil in the end, despite all odds. His use of repetitive dialogues adds
power to his scenes. The message behind the very ending could be interpreted
differently by different readers, but personally I feel that it offers a small sense of
hope for both the future of its characters, and perhaps for war-torn Afghanistan
as well.

Reference
http://mrsmeganparrish.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/0/5/38056115/the_kite_runne
r.pdf