thesis on kite runner

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

A Critical Study of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner as a Novel of Migration

2019, International Journal of English Language, Literature in Humanities

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a novel dealing with the cultural experience and the development of a migrant individual.The novel illustrates a diverse spectrum of concerns. It deals with the place of memory in reaffirming identity, the female agency in migration, reformulation of social hierarchies in an ambivalent cultural space. As textual strategy, it utilizes multilingualism, mythology, cultural tropes and motifs to highlight the ambivalent inbetweenness of the migrant experience. Even though the characters in the novel express a wish to recover their lost home land, they show an immense courage to overcome the normative straightjacket by accepting the double perspective of the hybrid individual. The novel illustrate narrative strategies employed to show that migrant literature is not only about memory and return it is also about the development of multiple perspectives in identity formation.

Related Papers

Suraiya Sulaiman

This article explores the idea of homeland, “imaginary homeland” and wounded memory in Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel, The Kite Runner (2003). The idea of homeland, which includes the illustration of a person’s nostalgia towards homeland, is a significant topic of discussion among scholars of diaspora studies. The article demonstrates that Afghanistan as depicted in Hosseini’s novel represents the author’s nostagic feeling towards his home country. The novel also illustrates the ideas of a shattered dream and fragmented memories of diaspora subjects which are caused by the loss of homeland as discussed in Salman Rushdie (2006)’s seminal article, “Imaginary Homelands”. Hence, the article investigates the notion of “imaginary homeland” which is portrayed through the main characters’s experiences, both inner and outer. Apart from the notion of nostalgia, homeland, and “imaginary homeland”, the memory of homeland also plays an important role in shaping the life of diaspora people. This m...

Poulami Saha

Memory Studies is a progressive academic field which resorts to the aid of memory to delve deep into the enigmatic field of human psyche by remembering the past. Memory shapesreshapes, constructs-deconstructs, moulds-remoulds individuals as well as collective identity. For the diasporic people who have left their homeland either willingly or in compulsion, their memories about past life act as repository of various kinds of experiences which come and go like flashbulbs in the conscious and subconscious minds of people. The act of forgetting as well as filling the missing links with imaginations are not ontologically different from the act of remembering, rather they are cognitive components and through this dual process, identities are formed and nurtured. Memory Studies frequently challenges the privileged memories and tries to trace the marginalised abundant voices which are less known by digging up the mini narratives, largely repressed under the pressure of privileged grand narratives. Khaled Hosseini, the writer of the novel The Kite Runner, is one of those diasporic migrants who either willingly or unwillingly migrated to different socio-cultural spaces from their homelands and always felt haunted by their memories which construct, deconstruct and reconstruct their identities. And so, his fictional characters are. His characters by carrying double consciousness tried to raise their voices to reassert their dignity and importance by writing back to the centre. The Kite Runner initially describes the past happy state of Afghanistan only to contrast it with the devastated state of the nation as a result of the Russian invasion and Taliban aggression. The text shows how different memories and nostalgic longings about the past shape and reshape the identities of individuals, communities as well as of an entire nation.

World Journal of English Language

Hussein Kanosh

The current study undertakes a detailed analysis of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner representative novel. Hosseini, an Afghan born American writer depicts a war-torn Afghanistan in various universal themes i.e., family re-union, discrimination, regret, childhood, guilt, womanhood, betrayal, religion and salvation that played a considerable role in abating commission of crimes in Afghanistan during pre and post-Taliban periods which ended up shaping the interminable psychological scars of the protagonist. In his work, Hosseini reveals the devastating status of Afghans in general and women and children in particular who have, for decades, been irrationally marginalized and confined to the four walls of their homes by the society. His quests for wealth, love, loyalty and unqualified peace among Afghan citizenry whom he equates to have rights just like other human beings globally is the only means through which the protagonist considers a key to chart out a new future. Moreover, in re...

Atatürk University Journal of Faculty of Letters

Karam Nayebpour

The tragic state of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan is the primary subject in Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner. The Hazaras' violent and humiliating suppression takes place in the two narrative levels in Hosseini's novel-in the story level or within the fictional society and in the level of narration or discourse. In other words, repression of the Hazara people is shown in the two narrative aspects of what and how. Thus, The Kite Runner is first of all the linguistic description of the humiliating and uncompromising dominant sociocul-tural perspective towards the Hazaras. Representing the Hazara people as one of the victims of ethnic cleansing in the modern history of Af-ghanistan, Hosseini's narrative all in all fails to recognize a desired ethnic identity and dignity for the minority group. As we argue in this paper , the novel deliberately attempts to represent a reconciling atonement for the Hazaras' humiliating repression within the Afghan society. This purpose, however, changes into an unfulfilled desire by the end of narrative as the recognition of the Hazara people’s ethnic identity increasingly becomes a secondary narrative concern.

International journal of humanities and social sciences

Rim Souissi

Being the first Afghan-American writer who writes in English, Khaled Hosseini is a relatively new novelist whose literary reputation was established since his debut novel, The kite Runner (2003). His successive two novels; A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) and And the Mountains Echoed (2013) have achieved the same worldwide recognition and success. The common thread that links Hosseini’s novels – apart from them being set in and representative of Afghanistan’s multilayered society and complex history – is the fact that each character in these fictional works sets out on a journey that is determined and, to a large extent, linked to the country’s turbulent historical and social background. The itineraries that the characters follow intersect with and reveal a lot about the country’s social, political and historical complex matrices. Though he hopes that his novels evince an authentic and truthful portrait of his homeland, Hosseini doesn’t claim to take on the mantle of “a teacher, a so...

Emily ShuHui Tsai

This short paper aims to discuss the unbearably-heavy weight of childhood memory and the survivor's guilt as the symptoms in the novel, The Kite Runner, published in 2003, by an Afghan-American writer, Khaled Hosseini. It describes the ambivalent relationship between the father and the son against the background of political turmoil in Afghanistan—how they have a good life together in Afghanistan and afterwards how they are forced to leave their homeland like refugees to Pakistan and then to The United States for a new life with the survivor's guilt after the tumultuous period of the Soviet military invasion. The narrator, Amir, treasures the memories of his old homeland, Afghanistan, the innermost remnants of his being, which has become as the specter haunting his present life in the United States. Amir has to return to his old homeland to meet his father's closest friend, Rahim Khan, and to rescue Sohrad, the son of his half-brother, Hassan, from the Taliban regime. This ethical return to the past not only has unfolded certain secrecy of his father's dishonor but also has healed his sense of survivor's guilt because of his evil rivalry of jealousy against Hassan to fully possess his father's love in his childhood. In my discussion of ethnic hierarchy and conflicts in Afghanistan described in the novel, Jacques Derrida's and Giorgio Agamben's theoretical concepts, such as the problematic of sovereignty, sovereign animality and bare life in The Beast & the Soveriegn and Homo Sacer, will be used to penetrate the deeper understanding of their traumatic past as haunting specters.

Raj Gaurav Verma

The paper attempts to explore the diasporic sensibility by fusing it with the experience of the widowhood. JhumpaLahiri'sThe Lowland projects Gauri as a widow of Udayan. Later she marries his brother Subhash and goes to America. The loss of husband creates trauma in Gauri's life so that she is never able to accept any man in her life and she continues to live single. The novel communicates the intricacies of psychology of suffering loss: the loss of husband via the loss of homeland. Similarly, Khaled Hosseini'sThe Kite Runnerreveals a life of widower through one of its central character Baba. Baba never gets remarried. When Afghanistan is attacked by the Soviet Union, Baba has to go to America with his son. Once again, the loss of the homeland is compared with the loss of the wife. Loss of espouse creates " psychological fissures " in the life of the people. It becomes difficult to cope and communicate such an experience. At the same time, the loss of homeland turns out to be a more concrete loss. The loss of homeland thus can be seen through the lens of widowhood. This paper attempts to look at these texts from twin lens of being in a state of diaspora and widowhood. The argument of my paper is that the trauma of being in exile coincides/overlaps with the trauma of being a widow/widower.

Niraja Saraswat

The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is a famous novel for its devastating and painfully honest depiction of identity, betrayal, deception and atonement. The narrative portrays the journey of a boy escaping from his haunted childhood while torturing himself with his own contrition. These two concepts of identity and redemption play a vital role in creating the string that binds the characters together. As a reader of The Kite Runner, one embarks on a journey that leads through the life of the glamorous prosperous Afghanis, as well as the treacherous horrific life of those less fortunate. Most importantly, however, one encounters face-to-face the good and evil that comes out when these two very distinct lives are intertwined. Amir"s "unatoned sins", as they are described in the novel"s opening chapter, have plagued his conscience and cast an oppressive shadow over his joys and triumphs. The phone call interrupts Amir"s seemingly comfortable life as a ...

Rajith Chandran

The idea of returning home has been a profound and pervasive trope in narratives across cultures. The expression of this archetypal theme of journey-home assumes many colours and credos in scriptures, myths, epics, and folk narratives. Ruminating intensely on the chaos of displacement – at times the pleasures of it – these narratives capture the dynamic entwining of physical ‘place’ and mental ‘space.’ They project journey as a subordinate motif in which long walks, road trips, or train rides are used to depict the protagonists observing and re-negotiating the changes that have taken place since the original departure. The present paper attempts to trace the trajectory of two literary narratives – Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner – both of which revolve around the motif of returning home. Published in 2007, The Reluctant Fundamentalist narrates the journey of Changez, a bright and successful Pakistani man living in Unites States and the dramatic changes he is forced to accept following the events of 9/11; it tells how he is forced to return to Pakistan to answer the “pull of his true personal identity.” The Kite Runner evocatively portrays the story of Amir’s journey back to Afghanistan as he “spins the yarns of past through memory and tries to disentangle the knots of remorse strangling his consciousness since his childhood days.” Both these narratives converge at the point of return of the protagonists but diverge at the causes and motives of return; they eloquently portray the trauma of return and not the sweet nostalgia of homecoming. However, presenting in common riveting tales that clearly document the trials and tribulations of return-home, these books also carve tapestries of fathers and sons, servants, best friends, love, family, loyalty, betrayal, war, fundamentalism, discrimination, reconciliation, and redemption. Keywords: Return-home narratives, journey motif, trauma of return, familial bonds, personal and political unrest, exile.

IJHCS IJHCS

Being the first Afghan-American writer who writes in English, Khaled Hosseini is a relatively new novelist whose literary reputation was established since his debut novel, The kite Runner (2003). His successive two novels; A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) and And the Mountains Echoed (2013) have achieved the same worldwide recognition and success. The common thread that links Hosseini’s novels – apart from them being set in and representative of Afghanistan’s multilayered society and complex history – is the fact that each character in these fictional works sets out on a journey that is determined and, to a large extent, linked to the country’s turbulent historical and social background. The itineraries that the characters follow intersect with and reveal a lot about the country’s social, political and historical complex matrices. Though he hopes that his novels evince an authentic and truthful portrait of his homeland, Hosseini doesn’t claim to take on the mantle of “a teacher, a sociologist or an anthropologist” who can fully and adequately teach about Afghanistan, as he states in his interview with Fanney Kiefer. Nonetheless, his novels feature characters and stories that have a worldwide resonance thanks to their representational function of a long-overlooked and relegated country – Afghanistan. My contention is that Hosseini’s fiction penetrates the cultural boundaries that set a chasm between the East and the West. In other words, his novels are packed with elements of a culture so much foreign, yet nonetheless very familiar with its themes and characters. That’s what makes Hosseini’s works stand out in the so-called ethnic literature; his rendering of Afghanistan’s culture and history accessible to foreigners. Keywords: Afghanistan, History, Culture, Ethnicity, Homeland, Individual journey, Identity

RELATED PAPERS

21-058 Ruth Melisa Br Sembiring

Journal of BU ON.: …

Sezai Demirbas

Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity

Ales Holoubek

Mahmud Imrona

Devi Mariska

Revue de Chirurgie Orthopédique et Traumatologique

Jean Marie Serwier

Psychosomatic Medicine

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects

Alfonso Pompella

Jeffrey Neal

helliyatus saadah

Asian Journal of Biological Sciences

Mohammed Arifullah

Jozef Zivcak , Miroslav Kohan , Marek Schnitzer

Microwave and Optical Technology Letters

Hatem ElKadi

Elisabetta Gotor

BioMed Research International

George Tsiamis

Jurnal Pembelajaran, Bimbingan, dan Pengelolaan Pendidikan

Intan Dina Kartika

Revista chilena de enfermedades respiratorias

Claudia Sepúlveda

Plant Ecology

David Burslem

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

giancarlo renella

Postgraduate Diploma in Health Education, Bayero University Kano

Tijani Nuhu

International Journal of Cultural Property

Amy Strecker

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Katherine Graubard

Call Girls In Noida Sector 7

delhi munirka

Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics

William Siegmann

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini

• Literature Notes
• Themes in The Kite Runner
• The Kite Runner at a Glance
• Book Summary
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Character Map
• About The Kite Runner
• Khaled Hosseini Biography
• Critical Essays
• Symbols in The Kite Runner
• Full Glossary for The Kite Runner
• Cite this Literature Note

Critical Essays Themes in The Kite Runner

Betrayal and Redemption

Betrayal, which can be considered a form of sin, is enduring and ends up being cyclical in The Kite Runner. For most of the novel, Amir attempts to deal with his guilt by avoiding it. But doing this clearly does nothing toward redeeming himself, and thus his guilt endures. That is why he still cringes every time Hassan's name is mentioned. When Amir finds out about Baba's betrayal of Ali (and subsequent betrayal of Hassan), he realizes that everything he thought he knew and understood about his father was false. And Amir himself feels betrayed. But Baba has been dead for fifteen years, and there is nothing he can do about the situation. Neither feelings of betrayal nor punishment are enough to redeem Amir. Rescuing Sohrab from Assef is not enough either. Only when Amir decides to take Sohrab to the United States and provide his nephew a chance at happiness and prosperity that was denied to his half-brother does Amir take the necessary steps toward atonement and redemption.

Forgiveness

Ideas about forgiveness permeate The Kite Runner . Hassan's actions demonstrate that he forgives Amir's betrayal, although Amir needs to spend practically the entire novel to learn about the nature of forgiveness. Baba's treatment of Hassan is his attempt at gaining public forgiveness for what he has not even publicly admitted to have done. Yet the person who speaks most poignantly about the nature of forgiveness is Rahim Khan. In his letter, he asks Amir to forgive him for keeping Baba's secret but also writes explicitly "God will forgive." Rahim Khan is confident that God will forgive all transgressions, and he encourages Amir to do so, too. Rahim Khan understands that it is God who readily forgives those who ask for forgiveness, but it is people who have a hard time forgiving. Thus, the only way complete forgiveness can occur is when one forgives oneself, and that will only occur when one has truly attempted to atone for the mistakes that one has made.

Every relationship in The Kite Runner is strained at one point or another, thus providing multiple examples of the complexity of various types of love. Hassan's love for Amir is selfless, while Amir's for Hassan is mostly selfish. The two relationships thus demonstrate — albeit unknowingly to the characters — the nature of brotherly love, a love that includes jealousy and insecurity. Ali, Baba, the General, Hassan, Rahim Khan, and even Amir demonstrate varying degrees of paternal love, each having expectations for his child and providing physical and/or emotional support. Amir and Soraya illustrate romantic love, and their relationship plays an important part in Amir's character development. Hassan's character comes closest to demonstrating selfless love towards all others, and the other characters are able to learn from his example. Most of the characters are living a life that includes a personal quest for love. And most of them realize that both forgiveness and love of self are necessary before you are able to love another.

Social Class and Ethnic Tensions

The socioeconomic conditions in Afghanistan demonstrate the disparity between the majority (Sunni Muslims) and the minority (Shi'a Muslims) and how people discriminate against each other based on physical features and religious beliefs. The socioeconomic differences are also explored in the United States, as Baba and many other immigrants give up lives of relative prosperity and security for manual labor and little pay. In addition to the differences between Muslim sects, The Kite Runner also alludes to the differences between European and Western Christian cultures on the one hand, and the culture of the Middle East on the other. And the conservative Taliban, which outlaws many customs and traditions, also demonstrates the differences within the same religious groups.

The Immigrant Experience

The Kite Runner effectively demonstrates that the difficulty of the immigrant experience begins when one attempts to leave his homeland. Baba and Amir are among many Afghans who struggle to leave — under cover of night, unsure of the next passage, taking calculated risks. Obviously, some immigrants die before they even reach their new homes. In addition to the difficulties of their lives in a new country, the immigrants also have to deal with the perception of them among those who stayed behind. Amir realizes this when he returns to Afghanistan. Finally, the adjustment to a new country is not just about learning a new language; it is about maintaining traditions and some semblance of your own culture. Baba loses his status and still has his old world prejudices, thus demonstrating the precarious balance between old and new. Soraya and her mother also demonstrate the difficult role women have balancing the expectations of an old world culture with the new world in which they are living.

Previous Khaled Hosseini Biography

Next Symbols in The Kite Runner

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

• 168,891 literary resources
• 172 content providers
• 53,470 books

The Kite Runner Thesis Statements and Essay Topics

Below you will find four outstanding thesis statements / paper topics for “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini that can be used as essay starters. All four incorporate at least one of the themes found in “The Kite Runner” and are broad enough so that it will be easy to find textual support, yet narrow enough to provide a focused clear thesis statement. These thesis statements offer a short summary of “­­­­­­­The Kite Runner” in terms of different elements that could be important in an essay. You are, of course, free to add your own analysis and understanding of the plot or themes to them. Using the essay topics below in conjunction with the list of  important quotes from “The Kite Runner”  our quotes page, you should have no trouble connecting with the text and writing an excellent essay.

Topic #1: The influence of Afghan culture and historical events

The setting for this book is in three places. The first is Amir’s childhood in Afghanistan. Then at the beginning of violent conflicts, Baba and Amir leave Afghanistan for America. Baba goes from being a wealthy man to a poor immigrant. The third part of the book is about Amir’s return to Afghanistan and his discovery that it has changed. While the book is fiction, some of the work is inspired by Hosseini’s own life and experiences. There are many examples of Afghan culture and outlines of real events that took place in Afghanistan over the past several decades. It is significant that this book shows a much different country from the one that is often presented in the American media. Address the differences and similarities of Afghanistan events and culture in the book and in media coverage.

Topic #2: The significance of the title

At the beginning of the book, Hassan is Amir’s kite runner. They are very close friends and actually half-brothers, though neither is aware of that fact. Then Amir sees Hassan being raped by Assef and does nothing about it. This incident slowly drives a wedge between Hassan and Amir. Amir is forever haunted by the memory. Then he is contacted by his old mentor, Rahim Khan, that there is an opportunity for redemption. When he arrives back in Afghanistan, he is told that Hassan had a son who was sent to live in an orphanage when Hassan and Farzana are both dead. Amir visits the orphanage only to learn that Sohrab has been taken already. He tracks down the man who has Sohrab and discovers that it is actually Assef. In many ways, it is like his past has come back full force. Assef has repeatedly raped and abused Sohrab. He has also allowed others to do the same. Amir gains custody of Sohrab after allowing Assef to beat him. He eventually returns to America with Sohrab, who is damaged in many ways. Toward the end of the book, Amir becomes Sohrab’s kite runner. The relationship has come full circle. However, does Amir ever truly redeem himself from saying nothing when Hassan is raped? Describe how things would have been different if Amir had spoken up, even if it was afterward to an adult.

Topic #3: The parents’ secret

Although Amir and Hassan are supposed to be friends, Amir believes that Hassan is the son of his father’s servant. Because of this, he does not understand and is often jealous of how much his father, Baba, seems to prefer Hassan over Amir. He does not interfere or speak up when Assef rapes Hassan. He tries to frame Hassan for stealing money and jewelry. Many years later, after Hassan is dead, Amir finds out that they were actually half-brothers. He deals with many emotions over not having been told sooner. Given the way that events turned out, would things have been different if Amir and Hassan had known? Would Amir have been kinder to Hassan or would it only have increased his jealousy? Amir states in the book that Hassan knew him better than anyone. Explain how the relationship would have changed if Amir and Hassan had been given that important knowledge.

Topic #4: Child sexual abuse

In the book, Assef’s character represents several of the evils in our society. Among them are rape, pedophilia, and bullying. Assef rapes Hassan at a young age. He finds ways to harass and intimidate Amir. As an adult, he adopts children so that he can abuse and rape them. Amir allows Assef to beat him up at the end of the book so that Amir can take Sohrab with him. This final act of abuse toward Amir is what Assef wanted to do for a number of years. Assef seems to escape prosecution for his various crimes. Explore how this fits in with the other events of the book.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Essay

Introduction, the kite runner: summary of the novel, the main characters and themes of the narrative, personal opinion about the composition.

The Kite Runner is a novel written by an Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. When Hosseini was a child, his family moved from Afghanistan to France, and then to the USA. This experience is partially reflected in the narrative of the author. Hosseini has written three novels, and The Kite Runner “has sold millions of copies worldwide and been classified as one of a classic” (Khadawardi 2017, 88). In this essay, the summary of the story, information on the main characters and themes, as well as a personal opinion about the composition will be presented.

The story revolves around the life of a young boy from Kabul, Amir. He lives with his father, Baba, a wealthy man who never has time to spend with his son. Amir feels jealous when he notices Baba’s cordial treatment of his friend, Hasan, the son of their servant. To deserve his father’s love, Amir decides to take part in the kite competition with Hassan. Even though the two boys could keep their kite in the sky for a long time and won the first part of the competition, the event ended tragically. Hassan runs away, trying to find a place where the kite fell. After waiting for him for a long time, Amir decides to follow his friend and becomes a witness to the rape of Hassan by his enemy Assef. Amir is scared to interfere and help his friend and decides to go away and pretend he did not see anything. Feeling guilty for what he did, Amir stops talking to Hassan and does not want to be his friend anymore. He blames him for being a thief, and Hassan and his father leave their home.

Soon, the Soviet Union troops intervene in Afghanistan. To save their lives, Amir and his father immigrate to the USA. Many years later, after his parent’s death, Amir receives a letter from a family friend. From this letter, he learns that Hassan was his brother and that he knew about Amir’s betrayal but still loved him until the end of his life. Unfortunately, Hassan died with his wife during demonstrations in their country, but their little son, Sohrab, managed to survive. He was sent to an orphanage, and the author of the letter asks Amir to save the child and take him to the USA. Amir decides to go to Afghanistan and finds his nephew there. Even though it turns out to be difficult for Amir to adopt him, he promises Sohrab never to send him to an orphanage again. One day, when Sohrab notices that Amir is about to break his promise, he tries to commit suicide. Even though the boy survives, he starts to keep to himself being silent most of the time. One day, Amir buys a kite for Sohrab, and, for the first time, he sees a smile on his face. Thus, it is not entirely clear if the story has a happy ending or not. Even the protagonist of the story mentions that he does not know for sure if the story of Hassan and his nephew, Sohrab, ends happily (Hosseini 2013). However, the author gives readers the hope that the characters of the story will eventually find peace and harmony.

The protagonist of the story is Amir, a young boy who was born in a wealthy Afghan family. It is not possible to tell if the personage of Amir is positive or negative. On the one hand, his sneaky nature allows him to betray his best friend. On the other hand, he is capable of feeling guilty and admitting his mistakes. Trying to make amends, Amir uses “a chance to put to rest his tortured past” ( Summary and Analysis of The Kite Runner 2016, 8). He puts much effort into taking Sohrab to the USA and giving him a better life.

Baba, the father of Amir and Hassan, also feels guilty for his affair with a servant’s wife. He considers it the worst sin he ever committed, and, in his desire to redeem himself, helps other people until the last days of his life. In contrast to his son Amir, Baba is a very independent and decisive person. However, it turned out that he was not brave enough to tell Amir and Hassan that they were brothers.

It is evident that Hassan and Amir have many differences. Even being unaware of the fact that Amir was his brother, he loved him and considered his best friend. He forgave Amir for his betrayals and was always ready to spend time with him. Amir, on the contrary, “never displayed his feelings toward Hassan” (Hosseini and Zohdi 2016, 37). It remains unclear if it is caused by the lack of Amir’s love for Hassan or by peculiarities of his personality. Being a very kind person, Hassan also forgave his mother, who left him when he was a child and sheltered her at his house during the war in the 1970s.

The main themes of the book are forgiveness and friendship. The author shows that for friendship, it does not matter if people have or do not have much in common. Hassan and Amir are two boys from two different worlds. Amir belongs to the aristocratic part of the society, while Hassan is from a low-income family of servants. Baba is a handsome man, and Hassan’s father is miserable and limp. Hassan has an ugly harelip, while the deformity of Amir is not noticeable from the outside. Despite all these differences, the two boys become soul mates and real friends. Unfortunately, Amir’s weakness and villainy trigger the end of their friendship. However, nothing can make Hassan stop communicating with his friend, even Amir’s betrayal. Being aware of every harmful deed done by Amir, Hassan is still looking up to Amir, ready to forgive him for everything. Thus, the author shows that forgiveness is the main element of people’s lives that helps individuals to build happiness.

The Kite Runner is one of the rare novels that invite readers to feel all the mental experience of the protagonist. This novel evokes a strong emotional response of readers and teaches them to be braver in some situations to avoid regrets in the future. It also shows that sometimes people neglect those who are sincere with them, and when they realize that they made a mistake, it is sometimes too late. This book shows the weaknesses and vices of human nature and makes readers think about their behavior.

It can be concluded that the novel The Kite Runner contains many significant ideas about people’s relationships. It teaches how important it is to forgive betrayals, love despite all, and bring goodness to this world. It also makes readers think about protagonists’ emotions and feelings and involves them in the process of reflections on their life. The author created an engaging narrative that should be read by both youth and adults because it raises questions that are always topical for all generations.

Hosseini, Akram, and Esmaeil Zohdi. 2016. “ The Kite Runner and the Problem of Racism and Ethnicity.” International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, vol. 74, 33-40.

Hosseini, Khaled. 2013. The Kite Runner. 10th ed. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

Khadawardi, Hesham. 2017. “Superego Guilt, Redemption and Atonement in Khaled Hosseini’s the Kite Runner .” International Journal of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education 4 (2): 88-99.

Summary and Analysis of the Kite Runner: Based on the Book by Khaled Hosseini. 2016. New York: Worth Books.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, July 8). The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-kite-runner-by-khaled-hosseini/

"The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini." IvyPanda , 8 July 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/the-kite-runner-by-khaled-hosseini/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini'. 8 July.

IvyPanda . 2020. "The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini." July 8, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-kite-runner-by-khaled-hosseini/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini." July 8, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-kite-runner-by-khaled-hosseini/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini." July 8, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-kite-runner-by-khaled-hosseini/.

• "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
• "The Kite Runner" Novel by Khaled Hosseini
• Examples of Loyalty in Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner"
• “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Oates and “The Kite Runner” by Hosseini
• Redemption in Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner”
• Afghani Childhood in "The Kite Runner" by Hosseini
• Common Themes in Kundera's and Hosseini's Novels
• Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns
• The Novel "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
• The Kite Runner
• Essay on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Moral of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
• Life of Pi: Key Characters, Plot, and Themes
• A Lesson Before Dying: Summary, Characters, Theme, and Personal Opinion
• A Christmas Carol by Dickens

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Symbolism — The Kite Runner Symbolism Analysis

The Kite Runner Symbolism Analysis

• Categories: Symbolism

About this sample

Words: 598 |

Published: Mar 13, 2024

Words: 598 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Symbolism of the kite, symbolism of the pomegranate tree, symbolism of the cleft lip.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

4 pages / 2017 words

2 pages / 748 words

2 pages / 692 words

2.5 pages / 1232 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Symbolism

F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel 'The Great Gatsby' is renowned for its rich symbolism, and one of its most iconic symbols is the green light. Positioned at the end of Daisy Buchanan's dock, the green light carries profound [...]

"Through the Tunnel" is a poignant short story written by Doris Lessing that explores the themes of adolescence, self-discovery, and resilience. This narrative follows the protagonist, Jerry, as he embarks on a physical and [...]

Adrienne Rich's poem "Diving into the Wreck" is a powerful and evocative work that delves into themes of identity, self-discovery, and empowerment. Through vivid imagery and metaphorical language, Rich takes the reader on a [...]

Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal," a pivotal chapter in his novel "Invisible Man," is a powerful and thought-provoking exploration of racism, identity, and the struggle for self-recognition in a society marked by prejudice and [...]

Symbolism serves as a cornerstone in literary narratives, enriching themes and characterizations with nuanced layers of meaning. In Harper Lee's seminal work, "To Kill a Mockingbird," symbolism emerges as a potent tool, [...]

Within a novel, authors incorporate and implement symbols into their works in order to transfer more detailed ideas and deeper meanings through to the reader; ideas richer than what they actually write. In the novel Perfume by [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

The Kite Runner

Khaled hosseini, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The betrayal of a loyal friend by a wealthier, more corrupt “master” is a recurring motif in The Kite Runner , and Amir and Baba ’s feelings of guilt for their betrayals drive much of the novel’s action. The central betrayal comes when Amir watches and does nothing as Hassan , who has always stood up for Amir in the past, gets raped by Assef . Amir then worsens the betrayal by driving Ali and Hassan from the household. Later in the book, Amir learns that Baba also betrayed his own best friend and servant – Ali, Hassan’s father – by fathering a child (Hassan) with Ali’s wife Sanaubar . This knowledge comes as another kind of betrayal for Amir, who had always hero-worshipped Baba and is shocked to learn of his father’s flaws.

These low points in the two men’s lives create a sense of tension and guilt throughout the novel, but the betrayals of Amir and Baba also lead to quests for redemption that bring about some good in the end – as Baba leads a principled, charitable life, and Amir rescues Sohrab from Assef.

Betrayal ThemeTracker

Betrayal Quotes in The Kite Runner

That was a long time ago, 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. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.

Because the truth of it was, I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I? The least I could have done was to have had the decency to have turned out a little more like him. But I hadn’t turned out like him.

The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either… Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites. Never mind that to me, the face of Afghanistan is that of a boy with a thin-boned frame… a boy with Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile. Never mind any of these 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 Sunni and he was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that.

He stopped, turned. He cupped his hands around his mouth. “For you a thousand times over!” he said. Then he smiled his Hassan smile and disappeared around the corner. The next time I saw him smile unabashedly like that was twenty-six years later, in a faded Polaroid photograph.

“But before you sacrifice yourself for him, think about this: Would he do the same for you? Have you ever wondered why he never includes you in games when he has guests? Why he only plays with you when no one else is around? I’ll tell you why, Hazara. Because to him, you’re nothing but an ugly pet…”

“Amir agha and I are friends,” Hassan said.

In the end, I ran.

I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me… 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. 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 floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?

I thought about Hassan’s dream, the one about us swimming in the lake. There is no monster , he’d said, just water . Except he’d been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake… I was that monster.

I flinched, like I’d been slapped… Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me… And that led to another understanding: Hassan knew. He knew I’d seen everything in that alley, that I’d stood there and done nothing. He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time.

In the morning, Jalaluddin… would probably think we’d gone out for a stroll or a drive. We hadn’t told him. You couldn’t trust anyone in Kabul anymore – for a fee or under threat, people told on each other, neighbor on neighbor, child on parent, brother on brother, servant on master, friend on friend.

Long before the Roussi army marched into Afghanistan, long before villages were burned and schools destroyed… Kabul had become a city of ghosts for me. A city of harelipped ghosts. America was different. America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.

I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with. I opened my mouth and almost told her how I’d betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out, and destroyed a forty-year relationship between Baba and Ali. But I didn’t.

As I drove, I wondered why I was different. Maybe it was because I had been raised by men; I hadn’t grown up around women and had never been exposed firsthand to the double standard with which Afghan society sometimes treated them… But I think a big part of the reason I didn’t care about Soraya’s past was that I had one of my own. I knew all about regret.

My suspicions had been right all those years. He knew about Assef, the kite, the money, the watch with the lightning bolt hands. He had always known.

Come. There is a way to be good again , Rahim Khan had said on the phone just before hanging up.

As it turned out, Baba and I were more alike than I’d ever known. We had both betrayed the people who would have given their lives for us. And with that came this realization: that Rahim Khan had summoned me here to atone not just for my sins but for Baba’s too.

Another rib snapped, this time lower. What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in the corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this… My body was broken – just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later – but I felt healed .

I loved him because he was my friend, but also because he was a good man, maybe even a great man. And this is what I want you to understand, that good, real good, was born out of your father’s remorse. Sometimes, I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.

Your father, like you, was a tortured soul , Rahim Khan had written. Maybe so. We had both sinned and betrayed. But Baba had found a way to create good out of his remorse. What had I done, other than take my guilt out on the very same people I had betrayed, and then try to forget it all?

“Sohrab, I can’t give you your old life back, I wish to God I could. But I can take you with me. That was what I was coming in the bathroom to tell you. You have a visa to go to America, to live with me and my wife. It’s true. I promise.”