Tag Archives: The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner – The Final Chapter

In the final chapter Amir prays for Sohrab and this is important because it means that he has embraced his faith in a meaningful way. Amir has navigated through Baba’s views and that of the Mullahs to understand: “That Baba was wrong, there is a God, there always has been …there has to be.” He prays that his “sins have not caught up with him” again. He feels that “my hands are stained with Hassan’s blood; I pray God doesn’t let them get stained with the blood of his boy too.” Sohrab lives but he won’t speak. When he eventually says something he says “I want my old life back” and tells Amir that he wishes he had been left to die. These are the last words that Sohrab speaks for “almost a year.”

Sohrab comes to live with Amir and Soraya which General Taheri disapproves of because Sohrab is Hazara. When Amir stands up to the General by saying: “You will never again refer to him as Hazara boy in my presence. He has a name and it’s Sohrab” the reader rejoices – at last Amir is showing how he has grown as a character. However, it is still a difficult time for Amir – Sohrab is silent, the Twin Towers are destroyed and the US bombs Afghanistan.

The novel ends with a return to kite fighting and a scene of role reversal where Amir is the kite runner for Sohrab. With the hint of a smile on Sohrab’s face there is a glimmer of hope for the future. Amir’s final words, “I ran” reverberate with echoes of his betrayal as a 12 year old but he is no longer running away and instead he is finally repaying Hassan’s loyalty by looking after Sohrab.

So after all the suffering it is all a bit of a relief to have a sign that Sohrab is being rehabilitated. Obviously, it is also a relief that we have a moral resolution as Amir has shown contrition for his actions and he has been able to make amends. He has demonstrated compassion and kindness, he has suffered great pain but he has found redemption. He has become “good again.”

Fin.

The Kite Runner – The Penultimate Chapter!

Nearly there. In this chapter Amir takes Sohrab to Islamabad but Sohrab runs away to the mosque. Sohrab tells Amir that he feels dirty because of what Assef and the others did to him. Amir tries to reassure Sohrab and tries to connect to him as he did with Hassan. Soraya and Amir agree to adopt Sohrab but it isn’t an easy process. It looks like Sohrab will have to stay in a Pakistani orphanage until the adoption is complete. Sohrab feels that Amir has broken his promise and he is very upset. Soraya phones to say that a humanitarian visa may be able to be arranged and Amir goes to tell Sohrab only to find that he has attempted suicide. Again we have blood in a literal and symbolic way. We worry that Sohrab is another victim of Amir’s indiscretions. Sohrab’s suicide attempt reveals his total loss of faith in the reliability and honesty of adults.

Chapter 23 – The Kite Runner

This chapter has similarities with Chapter 22 as the past and present once again converge. Amir has serious injuries as a result of his fight with Assef and he is in hospital. The injury to note is the one to his upper lip: “The impact had cut your upper lip in two … clean down the middle … Like a harelip.” I am sure that you can work out the significance of that! While he is in hospital he reads the letter from Rahim Khan. This helps Amir to accept his own history and to understand why it is important to atone for the past. He also comes to understand how Baba tried to redeem himself by building the orphanage. Rahim Khan explains that true redemption is what Baba wanted – “And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.”

The Kite Runner – Chapter 22

In this climatic chapter Amir meets the executioner from the previous chapter who turns out to be Assef. When they meet Assef rips off Amir’s fake beard and confronts him. It is the confrontation that Amir avoided as a child and of course the cause of his guilt. Amir didn’t stand up to Assef when he was a boy and he left Hassan to be raped. Amir now has the chance to redeem himself and save Sohrab. Note that Hosseini uses the sacrificial lamb imagery that he used when describing Hassan’s rape in this chapter.

Amir and Assef fight and it is described in a series of images and memories … Assef’s brass knuckles “flashing in the afternoon light…blood from his split upper lip staining the mauve carpet…Sohrab screaming…the knuckles shattering his jaw.” It is a disturbing scene but the reader wants Assef to be held to account. He is the arch-villain of the novel, a bully and a coward. Assef is a fan of Hitler and this helps to associate the Taliban’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ with the Holocaust. He is an evil man and this is emphasised by his paedophilia.

Just when it looks like Assef will win the fight, Sohrab fires a brass ball from his slingshot and hits out Assef’s eye. Amir and Sohrab escape. In protecting Sohrab, Amir also saves himself – “for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace.”

The Kite Runner – Chapter 21

Amir returns to his old neighbourhood and at last he realises that he doesn’t want to forget anymore. He is ready to face his past and try to redeem himself. In this chapter there is more evidence of the brutality of the Taliban. The Afghan people are so used to the Taliban and their cruel punishments that the scene of a young man’s dead body hanging means that “hardly anyone seemed to notice.”

The chapter ends with the awful scene of a public execution – a stoning. Hosseini seems to have written the execution to echo a scene at the Colosseum in Ancient Rome. There are the woman’s screams, the gasps from the crowd and the horrible images of the beaten and bloodied corpses. And of course there is the chilling figure of the man in the dark sunglasses in his white robe with his arms “spread like those of Jesus on the cross.”

The Kite Runner – Chapter 20

The picture of Kabul created by Hosseini is devastating. The educated are now beggars as are many of the women and children. The city is a wasteland and we see that the Taliban are not just brutally violent but they are also corrupt. Amir goes to the orphanage to find Sohrab but discovers that the director Zaman has sold him to a member of the Taliban. Zaman is completely corrupt and he justifies his actions by saying that if he didn’t sell the children they would be taken anyway. The implied rape of these children makes the reader remember Hassan’s rape by Assef.

Amir and Farid are told to go to the Ghazi stadium and look for the Talib official who will be “wearing black sunglasses”.

The Kite Runner – Chapter 19

In chapter 19 Amir travels to Kabul with Farid, an ethnic Tajik to find Sohrab. Farid doesn’t have much time for Amir at first because he sees him as privileged and ignorant about the realities of life in Afghanistan. He tells Amir: “That’s the real Afghanistan, Aga sahib. That’s the Afghanistan I know. You? You’ve always been a tourist here, you just didn’t know it.” Hosseini gets the reader to compare Amir’s cushioned and wealthy life with the way in which most Afghanis live. Amir can now see what life in Afghanistan is really like. He starts to understand more about his people when Farid’s family are so hospitable to him and then he discovers that they have gone hungry to feed him. Amir learns that generosity is an important part of the Afghan culture.  It is experiences like this that help Amir reconnect to Afghanistan and aid him on his journey to atone for his past.

The Kite Runner – Chapter 17

Photobucket
Chapter 17 is a tragic chapter for two reasons, as we learn of Hassan’s death and that Hassan is also Baba’s son. Amir finds it hard to take in this news and becomes angry. He is so guilty about what happened when they were children and he knows now that he can’t make it up to Hassan personally. Amir finds it so hard to bear that he not only betrayed his friend in the alley but that he betrayed his brother.

In this chapter we are presented with more evidence of the brutality of the Taliban and how they targeted the Hazara in particular. Amir needs to redeem himself by saving Hassan’s son. However, Amir is reluctant to return to Kabul and he seems to have become what his father had feared he might: “a man who can’t stand up to anything.” Rahim Khan pleads with Amir to “grant an old man his dying wish.” Amir feels that Rahim Khan thinks too highly of him and it appears that he still wants to take the easy way out. The announcement that Hassan was Baba’s son changes the central relationships of the novel. The death of the innocent Hassan is devastating and the moral argument of the novel that Amir needs to make amends for his sin makes this a turning point in the novel. Amir’s response will truly determine what sort of man he is.

The Kite Runner – Chapter 17

This chapter is the only one narrated by another character (Rahim Khan) and it covers the events in Kabul since Amir has been gone. A great number of events both political and domestic are covered. Rahim Khan has a different tone than Amir as he is more philosophical about what has happened and he accepts the past. When he talks about Hassan he speaks of him with affection and without guilt.

We also learn about Sanaubar’s return and how hard her life has been. She has paid a terrible price for being a ‘dishonourable’ woman. Sanaubar returns to a traditional role and moral salvation and she is able to die peacefully.

Rahim Khan does not tell Amir why he had to come back urgently and there is still more to be told.