Tag Archives: The Kite Runner

Betrayal in The Kite Runner

At the heart of The Kite Runner is an act of cowardice in the face of abuse. Amir chose self-preservation over taking a stand to protect the vulnerable Hassan. It is about being a witness to something shocking and not taking action to prevent it or to hold the perpetrators accountable. It is about doing nothing when coming across bullying. It is a theme both universal and deeply upsetting.

Think about the following quote:

It is this day in ‘the winter of 1975 (that) changes everything. And made me what I am today’.

  1. How has it made Amir what he is today? What has he become?

After dealing with his guilt by denial, cover up, making false accusations and an escape to a new life in America, Amir is given an opportunity to revisit his past and find ‘a way to be good again.’

The theme of friendship in The Kite Runner

In The Kite Runner friendship is a recurring theme, particularly in terms of how friendship is experienced between different social classes and castes.  This is explored in the relationships between Baba and Amir who are Pashtun and Ali and Hassan who are Hazara.

A central issue in the novel is how friendship is experienced, understood and expressed between social unequals when they have been pushed together by circumstances (Baba’s father’s adoption of Ali meant he and Baba grew up from boyhood together, followed by Amir and Hassan sharing their entire childhoods in the same house, despite their very different status within the household.)

Amir constantly reflects on the question of friendship:  ‘But in none of his stories did Baba ever refer to Ali as his friend. The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either. Not in the usual sense anyhow…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. Nothing.’

When questioned by Assef about his friendship with a Hazara Amir admits: “But he’s not my friend!” I almost blurted. “He’s my servant!” Had I really thought that? Of course I hadn’t.  I hadn’t. I treated Hassan well, just like a friend, better even, more like a brother.’

Hassan regards Amir as his friend and shows it by his unfailing loyalty which is indicative of his awareness of the unequal power in the relationship. Amir is bothered by Hassan’s unfailing loyalty and self denial on his behalf. ‘For you a thousand times over’ is the repeated phrase expressive of this loyalty – and we note how it is this phrase which finally comes from Amir himself at the end of the novel.

Hassan’s loyalty is brought out by Assef’s remarks before he assaults him:

‘Before you sacrifice yourself for him, think about this: Would he do the same for you? … to him, you’re nothing more but an ugly pet.  Something he can play with when he’s bored, something he can kick when he’s angry…’ Hassan then says that he and Amir are friends, a remark which is again cynically rebuffed. The retrieved kite symbolises the strength of Hassan’s loyalty; this is in sharp contrast to the cowardice and disloyalty that Amir is about to show. However, Hassan never ceases to regard Amir as his friend as his letter confirms.

Themes in The Kite Runner

This post is for the Year 12 students studying The Kite Runner. At  the moment we are looking at the themes of the novel and finding supporting detail in the text. The major themes we have explored so far are atonement, loyalty, forgiveness, friendship, redemption, sacrifice, race, class, fear and the relationships between father and son.  Are there any others?

Amir and Afghanistan

The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either. Not in the usual sense, anyhow. Never mind that we taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands, or to build a fully functional homemade camera out of a cardboard box. Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites …

… Never mind any of those 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 a Sunni and he was Shi’a and nothing was going to change that. Nothing.

In this novel Amir’s battle with his own behaviour and conscience is his greatest challenge. It can be seen as a parallel to Afghanistan’s present struggle to establish a clear identity as it is besieged by outsiders. The Kite Runner tells a fascinating story about a culture and country which has been viewed through stereotype and misconception.

It is not until Amir has lived in the United States that he is able to look at Afghanistan and himself more objectively.

Kites in Afghanistan

Kite flying in Afghanistan symbolises national pride, history, independence, pride and religion. In Afghanistan kite flying competitions reward the kite that destroys the opposition. In kite fighting competitions the objective is to cut the string of all other kites to leave only one kite flying.

Kite flying was one of the first activities that the Taliban banned.

The Kite Runner as a Coming-of-Age story

I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan-the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past-and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran.

This was the end of innocence in Amir’s life. The Kite Runner is a coming-of-age or loss-of-experience novel, the type of book often read by teenagers. It is a popular genre because it continually speaks to the human condition. Similar novels that you may have read in English are Montana 1948, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye. Often these novels are written from the male perspective, as is The Kite Runner but you may have read parallels from a female perspective such as Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees.

The Kite Runner has some things in common with other stories of loss of innocence and coming of age. Before the pivotal event of Hassan’s rape Amir lived in relative innocence. Amir’s world is one of school and home, movies and kites, friends and bullies, and wanting to please Baba. Most of his thoughts are focused on himself: his desire to win the kite fighting competition; his selfish, self-centred, and sometimes cruel treatment of Hassan. On the same day that his innocence was taken away, he thought the greatest thing in life was a kite fighting victory that would ensure a happy ending for him. Amir was just starting to think about real issues in life – his faith and the complex meaning of relationships and friendships, when the fateful day of both victory and defeat changed his life forever. Growing up was no longer gradual-he was thrust into adulthood.

Typically in coming-of-age stories some sort of journey takes place. In The Kite Runner, the tension builds as Amir searches for Hassan. In fact, the tension has built up throughout the day. Even the kite itself can be seen as a metaphor for the journey, an attempt to flee while staying helplessly rooted in one place, a sense of detachment in a surreal world. In an indication of what is to come, Amir experiences this detachment at the moment of victory:

I opened my eyes, saw the blue kite spinning wildly like a tyre come loose from a speeding car. I blinked, tried to say something. Nothing came out. Suddenly I was hovering, looking down on myself from above. Black leather coat, red scarf, faded jeans. A thin boy, a little sallow, and a tad short for his twelve years. He had narrow shoulders and a hint of dark circles around his pale hazel eyes. The breeze rustled his light brown hair. He looked up to me and we smiled at each other.

Amir’s journey is not complete until it goes full circle. He makes the journey to America, back to Afghanistan and then back to his life in America before the events of that fateful day are resolved.

The beginning of The Kite Runner

The video is the first of our Kite Runner clips, I will post all of them so make sure that you have created your soundtracks!

This one is about the opening of the novel. In this clip we listen to the adult Amir who recalls his childhood, his past of “unatoned sins”. He thinks of the moment in the winter of 1975 when he was twelve years old and his life changed forever. It introduces to the the reader the subject of the narrative. In the novel we note that Amir is in San Francisco watching kite flying. There is an image of a pair of kites “floating side by side”, note its significance. Also note that two of the novel’s major themes – friendship and redemption are introduced right at the start of the book. See that Hosseini uses this brief juxtaposition of past and present and the contrasts of America and Afghanistan to alert readers to the oppositions of time and place which will underpin the story.

The Hazara

In The Kite Runner the reader can see how badly the Hazara people are treated in Afghanistan. The purpose of this post is to give you a little background information on the Hazara people. The information is from The Hazaras.

The Hazaras
Hazaras are among few races on the face of the earth about whose origin so little is known. Some research done on Hazara background suggests that they are the descendants of Genghis Khan, the great Mongol warrior of 13th Century. This theory is supported by the similarities in the language and words that Mongols and Hazaras use even today. Another plausible theory is that Hazaras were Buddhists that actually lived in Afghanistan for the known history at least since the time of the Kushan Dynasty some 2000 years ago prior to the arrival of Islam. During the time of Kushan Dynasty, Bamyan was the home of one of the biggest Buddhist civilisations. This is obvious from the two of the World’s tallest Buddist statues that is carved in the mountain in Bamyan, Afghanistan – the heart of Hazarajat region inhabited by Hazaras for at least 2000 years.

The Hazaras speak Farsi and are mostly Shi’i Muslims. Hazaras have always lived on the edge of economic survival. As a result of Pashtun expansionism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries which was fueled by Sunni prejudices against the Shi’i the Hazaras were driven to the barren dry mountains of central Afghanistan (the Hazarajat) where they live today separated into nine regionally distinct enclaves. The Hazaras are primarily sedentary farmers practicing some herding. Many Hazaras also migrated to the major towns, particularly Kabul where they occupied the lowest economic rungs.

The Hazara suffered under the rule of the Taliban.The Taliban had Hazarajat totally isolated from the rest of the world going as far as not allowing the United Nations to deliver food to the provinces. During the years that followed, Hazaras suffered severe oppression and many large ethnic massacres and rapes were carried out by the predominately ethnic Pashtun Taliban.These human rights abuses not only occurred in Hazarajat, but across all areas controlled by the Taliban. Particularly after their capture of Mazar-e Sharif in 1998, where after a massive killing of some 8000 civilians, the Taliban openly declared that the Hazaras would be targeted. Mullah Niazi, the commander of the attack and governor of Mazar after the attack, similar to Abdur Rahman Khan over 100 years ago, declared the Shia Hazara as infidels:

“ Hazaras are not Muslim, they are Shi’a. They are kofr [infidels]. The Hazaras killed our force here, and now we have to kill Hazaras… If you do not show your loyalty, we will burn your houses, and we will kill you. You either accept to be Muslims or leave Afghanistan… wherever you go we will catch you. If you go up, we will pull you down by your feet; if you hide below, we will pull you up by your hair.