The Kite

Runner
by: KHALED HOSSEINI
Objectives :
• The objective of this piece is
to help our readers
comprehend the kite runner's
story.
• In addition, with this report, we are
hoping to give our readers a little
knowledge about the history and a
deep understanding of the novel The
Kite Runner.
• The report will concentrate on Afghan-
American novelist Khaled Hosseini's
first novel, The Kite Runner.
• In this report, we will understand the
significant objects in the story. such as
the kites, loyalty and violence, hope and
redemption, the lamb, etc.
ACTION RELAY

The player must relay the word
provided using his body movements to
the next member of his team, and so
on until the action gets to the last
person.
Once the act reaches the last
member of the group, the last
person must guess the answer
and tell it to the ‌instructor.

To start, ask one member from each

team to come to you. Whisper the
first word into their ear and return
them to their group to be acted out.

Scoring: The patrol that reports the most Action: Depending on what word the reporter
correct words wins. will give them.
TABLE OF CONTENTS :

01 02
BIOGRAPHY OF OUTLINE OF
THE AUTHOR THE STORY

03 04
SYMBOLISMS DEEPENING OF
THE TOPIC
KHALED HOSSEINI
BORN: March 4, 1965 (age 58 years)

PLACE OF BIRTH: Kabul,

Afghanistan

NATIONALITY: Afghan, American

ROYA HOSSEINI HARIS HOSSEINI FARAH HOSSEINI
Khaled’s Wife Oldest Child Youngest Child
January 7, 2003
July 26 December 22, 2000
● Afghan-born American novelist who was known for his vivid depictions of
Afghanistan, most notably in The Kite Runner (2003)

● Hosseini was born and raised in Kabul, where his mother worked as a secondary
school teacher and his father was a diplomat.

● In 1976, his parents relocated to Paris, where his father was employed by the
Afghan Embassy. They were forced to leave their country after the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan in 1979 and relocated to California after receiving political asylum
from the US.
● In 1976, his parents relocated to Paris, where his father was
employed by the Afghan Embassy. They were forced to leave their
country after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and
relocated to California after receiving political asylum from the US.

● Before enrolling in medical school at the University of California,

San Diego, in 1989, Hosseini studied biology at Santa Clara
University. He started working as an internist in private practice
three years after getting his medical degree.
● Hosseini began work on The Kite Runner in 2001, writing at 4:00 a.m.
before going to his medical practice.

● The Kite Runner was praised for its powerful storytelling, but it was
panned by some critics for melodramatic elements.

● Nonetheless, the novel quickly gained widespread popularity due to

positive word-of-mouth from readers, and it was eventually published
in more than a dozen countries; film and theater adaptations both
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT
“THE KITE RUNNER”
STORY
• The kite runner was banned in Florida and Afghanistan
for reasons of age-inappropriate material, sexually
explicit content, and violence.

• The Kite Runner also reveals life in Afghanistan under

Taliban rule and life in a post-Taliban Afghanistan.
• Hosseini was inspired to write a short story that would later become The
Kite Runner when he heard that the Taliban had banned kites in
Afghanistan. This seemed especially cruel and personal to him, as he, like
Amir, grew up flying kites in Kabul.

• The Kite Runner became a bestseller after being printed in paperback and
was popularized in book clubs. It appeared on the New York Times
bestseller list for over two years, with over seven million copies sold in
the United States.
 STORY
OUTLINE
CHARACTE
R LIST
Amir The narrator and protagonist; a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim.

Baba Amir's father, who is considered a hero and leader in Kabul.

Hassan Amir's playmate and servant; a Hazara and Shi'a Muslim; son of Ali.

Sohrab Hassan's son. Like his father, Sohrab is excellent with a slingshot. Sohrab is the bait that Rahim Khan uses to lure Amir back to the Middle East.

Rahim Khan Baba's best friend and business partner; father-figure to Amir.
Assef A Kabul bully who ends up joining the Taliban.

Soraya Amir's wife.

Ali Hassan's father; servant to Baba. Having suffered from polio as a child,
Ali has a crippled leg and is teased by kids in Kabul.

General Sahib (Iqbal Taheri) A friend of Baba's in America; father to

Soraya. The general is biding his time in America, waiting to be called back
into service in Afghanistan.
SYMBOLISM
S
0 HASSAN'S CLEFT LIP
1 Hassan's cleft lip was one of his most distinguishing
features as a child, and it is one of the characteristics Amir most
frequently mentions when describing him. Hassan's split lip
serves as a symbol of his social standing. It represents his
poverty, which is one of the things that separates him from Amir,
because a cleft lip indicates that he and his family lack the funds
to repair it. Baba, Hassan's biological father, decides to pay a
surgeon to repair Hassan's lip as a birthday present, expressing
his secret fatherly love for Hassan. Later, as he beats Amir, Assef
splits his lip, leaving Amir with a permanent scar similar to
Hassan's.
0 KITES
2 The kite represents both Amir's happiness and his guilt. Flying
kites is what he enjoys most as a child, not least because it is the only
way he can fully connect with his Baba, a champion kite fighter. But the
kite takes on new significance when Amir allows Hassan to be raped in
order to return the blue kite to Baba. His subsequent recollections depict
the kite as a symbol of his betrayal of Hassan. Amir does not fly a kite
again until he does so with Sohrab at the end of the novel. Because Amir
has already redeemed himself by that point, the kite is no longer a
symbol of his guilt. Instead, it acts as a reminder of his childhood, and it
also becomes the way that he is finally able to connect with Sohrab,
mirroring the kite’s role in Amir’s relationship with Baba.
03 THE LAMB
The lamb is a symbol of the innocent victim's sacrifice in both Islam and
Christianity. Hassan and Sohrab are both compared by Amir to lambs who are
about to be butchered. As Hassan is being raped, Amir remarks that Hassan
resembles the lamb that Muslims kill on Eid Al-Adha to commemorate
Abraham's almost-sacrifice of his son to God. Likewise, when he first meets
Sohrab with Assef, he says that Sohrab looks like a butcher sheep. Assef and
the others had applied mascara to Sohrab's eyes, precisely like the mullah
allegedly did to sheep before slicing their throats, according to Amir. As both
Hassan and Sohrab were raped, they were both considered to be sacrifices in a
symbolic sense, but their implications were extremely different. In Hassan’s
case, Amir sacrifices him for the blue kite. But in Sohrab’s case, Amir is the one
who stops his sexual abuse. In this context, sacrifice is portrayed as the
exploitation of an innocent.
Vision, Mission, Goals, and
Core values
Vision: Compassionate

At the age of 12, Amir is deeply affected by his father's

lack of affection and approval. He longs for Baba's
attention and validation, and he sees winning the kite-
flying tournament as a way to earn his father's respect.
However, his victory comes at a cost, as he betrays his
friend Hassan and contributes to his subsequent rape by
Assef.
 This event marks a turning point in Amir's life and sets
him on a path towards self-discovery and redemption. He
begins to recognize the ways in which his actions have hurt
others and struggles with the guilt and shame of his past
mistakes. At the same time, he is also grappling with the
changing political climate in Afghanistan, as the Soviet Union
begins to exert its influence on the country.
 Mission: Transformed Individuals

Amir, the protagonist of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, undergoes a

significant transformation throughout the novel. At the beginning, he is portrayed as
selfish and cowardly, but over the course of the novel, he learns to confront his past
and take responsibility for his actions. He travels to Afghanistan and discovers that
Hassan was his half-brother and had been killed by the Taliban. Through his journey,
Amir learns to take responsibility for his past mistakes and begins to make amends by
adopting Hassan's orphaned son, Sohrab. In doing so, he finds the redemption he has
been seeking.
 Goals: Embrace excellence in every act
The Kite Runner is a novel that emphasizes the
importance of excellence in every act. The journey
towards redemption requires small acts of kindness and
bravery, and every step towards excellence helps us
become better people. Hosseini's powerful storytelling
leaves a lasting impression on the reader, reminding us of
the importance of self-reflection and growth.
Core Values: Stewardship
The concept of stewardship can be seen in "The Kite
Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. One of the core values of an
assumptionist is stewardship; the mission that God has
given to us is to have a responsible management and care
for his beloved creations, as much as it provides life for
each one of us.
 Rahim Khan and Hassan demonstrate
stewardship by taking responsibility for the well-
being of both boys and providing guidance, support,
and protection. They also demonstrate loyalty and
devotion to Amir, even at great personal cost. The
novel explores the theme of redemption and the
power of stewardship.
CRITICAL
APPROACHES
Narrative Criticism

The kite runner was written from a

first-person point of view. Amir who was
the narrator and at the same time the
protagonist of the novel, the reader
experiences the story in his own
perspective.
 The first line in the novel establishes that Amir's narration will revolve around "I

become what I am at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975". The

first-person point of view shows the difference between the young Amir's thinking and the

way he thinks as an adult, the reader could also know about the choices Amir made

throughout his life. To give an instance, when Amir run away from the alley where Assef

rapes Hassan who is his friend, after he ran away, he reflects on the action that he have

made and said “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I

was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world.”
 Historical-Biographical approach

Khaled, our author, is an adult living in the United States and

looking back on his childhood years in Afghanistan. In fact, history
is an important theme in the novel, and looking back on the past is a
recurring motif. That’s because, for Khaled, the past is not over. He
believes it to be a fundamental part of who he is, and no matter how
far he is in time or location from his childhood in Afghanistan, the
events of that period are always with him.
 Just like the protagonist of The Kite Runner Amir, a
young Afghan boy who, like Hosseini, was forced to flee the
country with his family. The relationship between Amir
and his best friend Hassan can also be understood through
a biographical lens, as Hosseini has mentioned in
interviews that the character of Hassan was based on a
childhood friend who was brutally murdered by the
Taliban.
 Marxism

The novel "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini explores social

class, power dynamics, and exploitation. The protagonist, Amir, is from
an upper-class Pashtun family, while his friend and servant, Hassan, is
from a lower-class Hazara family. The novel also explores the impact of
political and economic changes on different social classes, such as the
Soviet invasion and civil war. Betrayal is also a prevalent theme, with
characters betraying each other for their own benefit.