"The Kite Runner" is about a boy, Amir, and his journey throughout his life and his experiences. Amir had one friend, Hassan, who was also his servant. Hassan and Amir were always getting harrased by Assef. Assef would harass them because Hassan was a different race, and Amir was his friend. The Russian invasion of Afghanistan forced Amir and his father to flee to America. Amir lived his life in America and went back to Afghanistan to save Hassan’s son from Assef, and bring him back to America.
I believe the audience that this book is intended for is teens and adults. There are some explicit parts, for example when Hassan gets raped (p75) and when the soldier is talking mess about his mother (p7). This book also explains and gives some insight to the Afghanistan history, for example the Russian invasion and the Taliban, but not as much of the Taliban as the Russian invasion.
Khaled Hosseini’s style of writing, to me, seems very descriptive and straight foward and he doesn’t hold anything back. For example, when he writes: “He brushed his lips against Sohrab’s ear, kept his eye on me.” (p281) That is very disturbing to me because its an older man treating a young boy like his lover and some books would say something more sublte, such as “he showed affection towards Sohrab as if he was his lover” or something along the lines of that. Hosseini didn’t hold back and described exactly what was going on with detail. He describes things with detail throughout the book. His writing also seems more like he’s creating a picture in the readers head, When I read I could picture everything that was going on because of the amount of detail.
Amir is a very interesting character throughout this book. I believe he has some emotional issues because of what he experienced as a child. For example he experienced violence, betrayal, war, and lots of other things. He also has issues with his father growing up because from his perspective in his fathers eyes he was weak and unaccepted.
“ ‘He needs someone who. . .understands him, because god knows I don’t. But something about Amir troubles me in a way that I can’t express. It’s like. . .” I could see him searching, reaching for the right words. He lowered his voice, but I heard him anyway. “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son.’ ” (p23) In this quote Amir’s father, Baba, is telling his friend Rahim Khan about how he feels about Amir. Amir was listening to this conversation and it scared him for, basically his life. After he heard that he tried everything in his power to gain his father’s acceptance. even in his adult life his father didn’t accept his career path of wanting to be a writer, his father wanted him to be a doctor and thought making up stories was stupid.
Because of his emotional trauma as a child as an adult he wasn’t a very confident person. “This isn’t you, Amir, part of me said. You’re gutless. It’s how you were made. And that’s not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you’ve never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is. . .God help him.” (p275) Amir thinks little of himself because of what he’s been told throughout his life. Amir says he went to Afghanistan because of Sohrab but I believe it was because of three other reasons. One, because he’s trying to prove to himself that he isn’t a coward and that he’s brave enough to do whatever it takes to get Sohrab to safety, even if that means standing up to his phsycopathic, crazy, childhood nightmare. Two, because he wants to make amends to Hassan because he felt it was his fault for Hassan leaving, and now that he has a chance to prove to himself that his guilty feelings can go away. Three, because he went to face his childhood and all the traumatic experiences there.
Before he went to go get Sohrab he stopped by his old house and the hill where Hassan and him would sit and read. He didn’t expect to see Assef but he didn’t cower in fear when he knew it was him. In a way Amir was slightly showing himself that he was somewhat a coward because when Assef was fighting he didn’t really fight back and he had to get saved by Sohrab, a little boy, and his slingshot. It reminded me of when Amir was younger and Assef was tormenting him and Hassan, they were about to get beaten but Hassan saved them both with his slingshot, so in a way Amir hasn’t changed since childhood.
Amir and Hassan had a weird relationship throughout the book. Amir was always questioning whether or not Hassan should be treated as a servant or his friend because Assef would get in his head and tell him that he’s a servant, not his friend. In the begining Amir and Hassan had a good friendship, but as the book progressed, Amir became confused and jealous because Baba treated Hassan better than he treated Amir. Hassan got raped by Assef and Amir was angry and later tried to make him fight back and get defensive by throwing pomegranites at him. After that their friendship went downhill. Amir framed Hassan for stealing his new watch and Hassan got in trouble but was forgiven. After that Hassan and his father left and was never heard from again.
“Then Baba rolled his head towards me. “I wish Hassan had been with us today,” he said. A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan’s name. I rolled down the window. Waited for the steel hands to loosen their grip.” (p133-134) In this quote Amir feels guilty of what happened throughout this childhood with Amir. Going to Afghanistan lightened his guilt of what happened.
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