Kite_Runner

Title: The Kite Runner Author: Khaled Hosseini Text Type: Novel Cultural Perspective: Afghanistan Gender details: Male Perspective Critical Reputation: Yes Khaled Hosseini’s novel ‘The Kite Runner’ tells the story of a young boy, Amir and his struggles through his life. The novel starts when Amir at this point an adult living in Los Angeles receives a phone call from his old friend Rhahim Khan. From this the story of Amir Childhood begins, in which we meet loyal Hassan, a Hazara who is the son of Ali, Amir's father's servant. The two children spend their days in the then peaceful city of Kabul, kite fighting and roaming through the streets. Amir’s father, a wealthy merchant, who Amir affectionately refers to as Baba, loves both the boys, but seems critical of Amir. Thus Amir is jealous of his father’s love for Hassan and is constantly trying to please his father. By winning the kite fighting tournament he wins his father’s affection but does not appreciate this due to the cowardly way in which he watched Hassan be attacked due to his loyalty to Amir, this scene forever breaking their friendship in ways they could never have predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. The theme of living up to parent’s expectations is explored by Hosseini within the novel. Amir as a young boy is constantly trying to please and live up to his father’s expectations of what boys should be like. Baba as Amir calls his father expects his son to be athletic and strong against the other boys, he wants him to appreciate the same things as him such as football whereas Amir finds these things boring in comparison to books, which he loves deeply and from them grows his passion to write stories of his own. I think it is unfair to try to force your children to be like you as everyone is different and we should appreciate other’s individuality, I agree with Rahim Khan, a good friend of baba’s and fatherly figure for Amir when he says “ Children aren’t colouring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favourite colours”, I found this to be an inspirational quote that caused me to think of how parents try to change their child’s hobbies or personality to suit their own. Hosseini teaches us through his dialogue that rather than creating clones of themselves parents should embrace the unique person they are. The arbitrary price of loyalty is an evident theme within The Kite Runner. This theme is explored numerous times the most extreme being when Hassan has caught Amir’s kite for him and refuses to give it to the three racist bullies that threaten Hassan for it and then attack and rape him when Hassan refuses to give the kite back, Amir watches the whole scene unfold but is too cowardly to aid his friends and runs away. Hassan’s loyalty towards Amir causes him to suffer a horrific experience that causes him to change as a person. This scene in the text not only saddened me but caused be to feel a great amount of annoyance towards Amir and Hassan’s actions, as I felt that Amir and his kite was not worth is as Amir’s loyalty did not match or come close to the loyalty of Hassan towards Amir. This theme made me realize that loyalty can cost but i still believe that loyalty in most cases is worth the risk, but The Kite Runner has taught me that it is best if loyalty is equal in a friendship. If Amir’s loyalty had been equal to Hassan’s, then Amir would have stopped the bullies and told them that the kite was not worth the hassle.