The+Kite+Runner's+Amir


 * SYNOPSIS **
 * The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a story told by the narrator and protagonist, Amir. The novel starts off with Amir reflecting on an incident that occurred 26 years ago in the winter of 1975. He then describes a phone call he has recently received from a friend, Rahim Khan, who tells him "There is a way to be good again." This serves as the premise for the novel. **


 * The rest of the story is told through a flashback. Amir is a wealthy 12 year old boy living in Kabul, Afghanistan with his father (Baba) and two servants (Hassan and his father, Ali). He constantly seeks approval from his father, who is a well-respected businessman. Although he does have a father figure in the form of Baba's friend Rahim, who appreciates reading Amir's stories, Amir feels that Hassan receives more attention from his father than he does. Because of this, Amir is often resentful and jealous of Hassan, who remains loyal to Amir. **


 * When the opportunity of receiving his father's favor comes by, Amir grabs it, despite all consequences. After he wins a kite flying tournament, he tries to find Hassan, who is his kite runner. Instead, Amir witnesses Hassan being raped by the town bully, Assef, because Hassan would not let Assef claim the kite. Filled with fear, Amir hides and fails to help Hassan. Keeping his knowledge of the rape from Ali, Baba, and Hassan, Amir pretends nothing has happened and accepts the praise that his father gives him for winning the game. **


 * As guilt overcomes Amir, he tries to make Ali and Hassan leave. They do leave, but out of their own will, despite Baba's insistence for them to stay. Time passes by as the Soviets take hold of Afghanistan, and Baba and Amir flee to America where they settle into Fremont, California. They are no longer wealthy as they once were, as their mansion is replaced by a run down apartment and Baba works at a gas station. With Hassan out of his sight, Amir is no longer reminded of his guilt, although it still remains. Amir graduates from high school, marries before the death of Baba, and becomes a successful writer. **


 * In the summer of 2000, Rahim calls Amir to go back to Pakistan and Afghanistan with the intentions of saving Hassan’s son, Sohrab from an orphanage. Amir agrees and goes onto the journey that will ultimately save Sohrab and serve as the redemption to Amir’s unatoned sins. **


 * The Kite Runner is a story about the search for redemption and the forgiveness of sins. It is a story about guilt and the permanence of the past. But most importantly, it is about the ties that hold people to their family and country. **


 * ARCHETYPE **
 * Throughout the novel, Amir serves as a flawed hero. He is human and because he is human, he has flaws. Amir’s greatest faults are his cowardice, his jealousy of Hassan, and his constant pursuit to gain the acceptance from his father. All of these flaws go hand in hand in contributing to his undoing. After he witnessed the rape of Hassan, he ran. Amir narrates: **


 * I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt. That’s what I told myself as I turned my back to the alley, to Hassan . . . Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. Was it a fair price? (Hosseini 77) **


 * Like a tragic hero, Amir faces obstacles that seem insurmountable, yet does so with both courage and fear. As he observed Rahim Khan watching him during the kite flying tournament, Amir kept thinking “Was he cheering for me? Or did a part of him enjoy watching me fail” (Hosseini 63)? But as things got better for him and his confidence grew, Amir felt that he had the chance to win. When he does win the tournament, Amir gains humility as he was able to save his kite, but not his friend. **


 * Amir faces another obstacle 26 years later, as he tries to atone his past sin. When he looks for Sohrab, Amir conflicts the problems of coming back home to his native country. Afghanistan is in ruins, the Taliban has taken over, and many of the people are poor and left on the streets. When he confronts Assef again, Amir is filled with anxiety as Assef threatens him (Hosseini 278). But before they fight, Amir remembers Hassan’s bravery: **


 * I remember how envious I’d been of Hassan’s bravery. Assef had backed down, promised that in the end he’d get us both. He’d kept that promise with Hassan. Now it was my turn. (Hosseini 286) **


 * When Amir takes the punches and finally escapes with the help of Sohrab, Amir overcomes his two obstacles. The first was to atone his sin, and he did this by overcoming his second challenge, to save Sohrab and adopting him. **


 * Amir gained a different kind of humility when he saved Sohrab in comparison when he failed to save Hassan. In the latter instance, no virtue shined. But in the case of Sohrab, Amir gained humility in the sense that he denied himself for another person. Amir acted selflessly to grant Sohrab the security and happiness he deserved. **


 * Like Briony Tallis from the novel Atonement, Amir had caused an obstacle for himself as a result of his flaws. Briony was jealous of Cecilia as Amir was jealous of Hassan. They both betrayed their loved ones to achieve what they thought would make them happy at the time. But as guilt accumulates, they try to overcome their obstacles and atone their sins. **


 * HOW TO SPEAK LIKE AMIR **
 * Amir is a writer, so of course he knows what to say. His letters flow into words and his words flow into sentences. He’s trying to tell us a story, his story, and he wants us to listen. Want to do the same? Just follow these five simple steps to speak like Amir . . . **


 * Step One: Use italics, a lot! **
 * Need to reflect on something? Need to provide more emphasis on words from a foreign language or words in general? Than italics are for you. Amir uses italics extensively to get his point across. He may italicize a word you may not even know like “naan” (Hosseini 60), “chapan” (Hosseini 248), and “Mashallah” (Hosseini 280). Or maybe a memory he once had: **


 * Did you know Hassan and you fed from the same breast? Did you know that, Amir agha? Sakina, her name was. She was a fair, blue-eyed Hazara woman from Bamiyan and she sang you old wedding songs. (Hosseini 73) **


 * Or maybe just to point out something someone had once said to him, “Are you satisfied now? he’d hissed. Do you feel better” (Hosseini 289)? **


 * It all leads to better emphasis. When you see the italics and you read the sentence, you hear each word most distinctly. They stick out to you. By doing this, Amir wants you to notice this. This is what he thinks is important for you to know and he wants you to know it. This is what sticks out to him and this is what he remembers from his past. **


 * Step Two: Use “I” a lot! **
 * Not that Amir is egotistical or selfish (although he once was), but this is his story. He is just telling it from his point of view. Amir makes it more personal this way. It is almost like a conversation: he is talking to you and sharing bits and pieces of his life with you. I promise, it’s not in vain. **


 * See. I just used “I” and it wasn’t egotistical at all. For instance, Amir says “It came to me on our way home. Taheri. I knew I’d heard that name before” (Hosseini 141), and “Sometimes I think the only thing he loved as much as his late wife was Afghanistan, his late country. I almost screamed with frustration. Instead, I sighed and turned to Dr. Schneider” (Hosseini 155). Again, just giving an account of what happened. **


 * Step Three: Use short sentences. Fragments. **
 * It creates flow. It is short and sweet. But most importantly, it gets the point across. It may be some thoughts going on in his head, one after another “I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with” (Hosseini 165). Or maybe because he can’t think of anything else to say, as when he hears unbearable news, “‘No. No. No’” (Hosseini 219). **


 * Step Four: When describing something, use complex sentences, like this! **
 * There are more details in descriptions. More commas, more adjectives, and more complexity. When Amir describes the flea market, he says: **


 * Then early Sunday mornings, we drove to the San Jose flea market off Berryessa, rented a spot, and sold the junk for a small profit: a Chicago record that we’d bought for a quarter the day before might go for $1, or $4 for a set of five; a ramshackle Singer sewing machine purchased for $10 might, after some bargaining, bring in $25. (Hosseini 137) **


 * All these descriptions are combined into one solid one, because they all go together context-wise. If we were to separate them, flow would be discontinued. Descriptions are meant to be complex. They show the complexity of what is being described or the complexity of the situation. Like when he describes America: **


 * Almost two years had passed since we had arrived in the U.S., and I was still marveling at the size of this country, its vastness. Beyond every freeway lay another freeway, beyond every city another city, hills beyond mountains and mountains beyond hills, and, beyond those, more cities and more people. (Hosseini 136) **


 * Step Five: Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. **
 * When you are a writer, repetition is like a major food group. It is essential! It can show multiple actions that occurred in one sitting: **


 * I told him a lot about Baba, his job, the flea market, and how, at the end, he’d died happy. I told him about my schooling, my books —four published novels to my credit now . . . I told him I had written short stories in the leather-bound notebook he’d given me, but he didn’t remember the notebook. (Hosseini 198) **


 * Or just to describe a multitude of things, with the same ideas, in general. “She slept on the right side of the bed, I preferred the left. She like fluffy pillows, I liked the hard ones. She ate her cereal dry, like a snack, and chased it with milk” (Hosseini 181). **


 * To be a great writer, do all of these steps. Amir did it and he became a successful novelist. To be a successful kite flyer? Well, I don’t know about that . . . **


 * Interactive Feature **
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 * Khalid Abdalla, who plays Amir in the film adaptation of the novel, discusses the impact the novel, the film, and the story of The Kite Runner has had for both himself and other people. **


 * Works Cited **
 * Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2003. Print. **