The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner
Summary and Analysis
The book opens in 2001, with the narrator (Amir) remembering something that happened in 1975, an unnamed event in an
alley that “made him who he is today.” The memory of this event has continued to haunt Amir for years despite his
attempts to escape it. Amir explains that he received a call the summer before from an old friend in Pakistan named Rahim
Khan. Amir thinks of Rahim Khan’s voice as symbolic of Amir’s own past “unatoned sins.” Rahim Khan asks Amir to come to
see him in Pakistan, and tells Amir “there is a way to be good again.”
Hosseini opens with the themes of memory, guilt for betrayal, and hope for redemption. Amir is an adult living in America
and looking back on his youth in Afghanistan – opening with this scene shows how important memory and history will be in
the novel. The details are still vague, but it is clear that some past event in Afghanistan still haunts Amir, and that he is
looking to “be good again” – to redeem himself somehow.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Redemption Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Amir grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan, but he lives in San Francisco now. He walks around Golden Gate Park and watches two
kites flying overhead. The kites make Amir think of his past in Afghanistan, and especially a boy named Hassan, a “kite
runner” with a cleft lip.
Kites are introduced here as both reminders of Amir’s past guilt and symbols of hope. The story will then jump back in
time, and be told as Amir’s memory – memory is very important, as it haunts Amir and informs the rest of life.
Chapter 2
As children in Afghanistan, Amir and Hassan would climb trees and reflect sunlight into their neighbors’ homes to annoy
them, or else shoot walnuts at a neighbor’s dog with a slingshot. Hassan never wanted to do these things, but he would not
deny Amir if Amir asked him, and if they were caught Hassan would always take the blame.
Amir begins his recollections with more characterization than plot, as Hosseini introduces the characters. From the start we
see that Hassan and Amir are inseparable, but that Hassan is the more honest and courageous of the two.
ACTIVE THEMES-- Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Amir lives in a mansion in the wealthy Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul with his father, Baba. The house is decorated
lavishly and always filled with Baba’s friends and the smells of smoke and cinnamon. In the living room is a photo of Amir’s
grandfather hunting deer with the old king King Nadir Shah.
Amir’s social and familial standing are revealed – he is a wealthy, privileged child being raised by a single father with
powerful connections. The smells are an image of Amir’s memory and nostalgia for his happy childhood.
ACTIVE THEMES--Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Outside Amir’s house is a little mud hut where Hassan and his father Ali live. Though Amir and Hassan play together every
day, Amir has only entered Hassan’s hut a few times. Amir explains that neither he nor Hassan grew up with a mother –
Amir’s mother died giving birth to him, and Hassan’s mother ran away after he was born. Amir is one year older than
Hassan.
Both the contrasts and the similarities between Hassan and Amir are made clear here – though Hassan is Amir’s closest
companion, also raised by a single father, and similar in age, Hassan is still Amir’s servant and lives in drastically different
conditions from Amir’s privileged upbringing.
ACTIVE THEMES--Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
One day Hassan and Amir were out walking when a soldier confronted them and claimed to have had sex with Hassan’s
mother, whose name was Sanaubar. Sanaubar and Ali had been a strange couple – Sanaubar was nineteen years younger
than Ali, beautiful, and had a bad reputation. Ali, on the other hand, was a devout Muslim whose face was partially
paralyzed, and who walked with a bad limp because of polio. People thought that Sanaubar’s father arranged her marriage
to Ali to restore her honor.
Amir expands on Hassan’s past and brings in some Afghan social constructs, particularly the gender double standard
dealing with pre-marital promiscuity. Hosseini will critique Afghan society on this later in the novel. Ali is introduced as a
saint-like figure, crippled and poor but religious, humble, and kind.
ACTIVE THEMES-- Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Some of the children mock Ali’s appearance and limp, and call him Babalu, or Boogeyman. Ali and Hassan are Hazaras, an
ethnic minority in Afghanistan that is looked down on by the Pashtun majority (Amir and Baba are Pashtuns). The Hazaras
have more Asian features, while the Pashtuns appear more Arabic. Another division between them is that the Hazaras are
Shi’a Muslims, while the Pashtuns are Sunni. Amir once read a history book about a Hazara uprising in the nineteenth
century, and how the Pashtuns put down the rebellion with “unspeakable violence.”
Hosseini introduces the Hazara and Pashtun conflict, which will be crucial to the plot. The Hazaras are shown as an
oppressed minority – this is why Ali and Hassan are assumed to be “servant-class” despite their closeness with Baba and
Amir, and why the wealthier Pashtun children mock Ali’s appearance. This “unspeakable violence” is only in history books
for now, but soon it will return to Afghanistan.
ACTIVE THEMES--Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Amir returns to describing Sanaubar, and he says that she mocked Ali’s appearance just as much as the Pashtun children
did, but that Ali never retaliated with anger against his tormentors. Amir says that Hassan was born smiling, and had a cleft
lip. Sanaubar saw her son, mocked him, and then ran away with a group of traveling entertainers five days later. Baba hired
the same nursing woman that fed Amir to feed Hassan, and Ali often says that there is a special kinship between people
who “fed from the same breast.” Amir says his first word was “Baba,” and that Hassan’s first word was “Amir.” Amir muses
that perhaps everything that would later happen was already foretold by those two words.
Hassan is also portrayed as an almost saintlike figure, born smiling. Sanaubar leaves Ali in the first betrayal of the novel.
The closeness of Amir and Hassan is emphasized by the fact that they “fed from the same breast,” and so are basically
brothers. This makes the fact that one is wealthy and one is a servant seem even more strange and poignant, and shows
how difficult it is to overcome old differences of religion and class in Afghanistan. Their first words imply that conflict will
arise from Amir’s love of Baba and Hassan’s loyalty to Amir.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon, Politics
and Society Theme Icon,
Chapter 3
Amir describes Baba and relates some memories of him. There was a legend that Baba had once wrestled a black bear with
his bare hands. If it was anyone else Amir would have called it a fable, but with Baba it was probably true. Amir describes
him as a “force of nature,” a huge man with a wild beard and hair.
It is significant that Amir opens his description of Baba with this legend – both showing that Baba is a larger-than-life figure,
and that he has spent his life wrestling with things, as the bear will symbolize other struggles later.
ACTIVE THEMES--Fathers and Children Theme Icon,
Baba always succeeded where other people said he would fail. He had no training as an architect, but he had designed and
built an orphanage and paid for it himself. Amir describes how proud he was when the orphanage opened, and how he was
jealous when Baba would sometimes praise Hassan over Amir.
Baba has overcome many challenges and become successful – he is a man of force and action, and it is clear how much
Amir admires him. Amir’s jealousy surrounding Baba’s affections is first revealed here.
More of Baba’s successes included business – people thought he would fail, but he became one of the most successful men
in Kabul. They also thought he could not marry well, but he had married Amir’s mother, Sofia Akrami, who was beautiful,
well-educated, and of royal blood. Amir describes himself as the “glaring exception” to Baba’s successes – something Baba
could not control to his liking. Baba saw the world in black and white, and Amir could not help loving him without fearing
him, and possibly hating him a little too.
Amir reveals himself as a disappointing son to Baba, though he doesn’t explain why yet. Baba sees things clearly as
challenges to be overcome, and yet he has been unable to be as “successful” at fatherhood as he was in business or
marriage. Amir hints at the complexity of their relationship here. This father-son connection will be one of the most
important elements in the book.
One day at school Mullah Fatiulla Khan, a religious teacher at Amir’s school, taught the children that drinking alcohol was a
sin punishable by damnation. Amir tells Baba this as Baba pours himself a glass of whiskey. Baba calls the religious teachers
“bearded idiots” and says “God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into their hands.” Baba explains that the only real sin is
theft – to lie is to rob someone of the truth, and to kill is to rob someone of their life. Baba has a strong moral sense, but it
is independent of the stricter Muslim rules.
Hosseini introduces another social divide here, between the conservative, fundamentalist Muslims (like Amir’s teacher)
and more liberal Afghans like Baba. Baba’s words foreshadow the brutal Taliban regime that is to come – when these same
fundamentalists take over Afghanistan and institute a violent religious law. Baba’s speech about theft will resonate
throughout the novel, and deals with the theme of betrayal.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Amir constantly tries to please Baba, but usually feels like a failure. He can’t help but think that Baba hates him a little for
“killing” his mother in childbirth. The only skill Amir feels he has is reading and memorizing poems, and Baba looks down
on such pursuits. Amir tries to please Baba by playing soccer, Baba’s favorite sport, but Amir is a terrible player. Once Amir
goes with Baba to a Buzkashi (the national Afghan sport, similar to polo) tournament, but he cries when a rider gets
trampled and Baba cannot hide his scorn for Amir’s tears.
Amir feels he has betrayed Baba by “killing” his mother, and is constantly trying to redeem himself by becoming a better
son, though it is clear that their natures are very different. The things Amir admires most in his father – his strong
principles, forceful success in all his ventures, and love of sport – are the things Amir most lacks. Amir’s desire to please
Baba will lead to conflict later.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon,
Rahim Khan, Baba’s friend and business colleague, seems to understand Amir better than Baba. Amir overhears him
encouraging Baba to respect Amir’s love of books, and to accept that he cannot make Amir exactly like himself. Baba says
that Amir seems unable to stand up for himself, and he worries that he won’t be able to stand up for anything when he
becomes an adult. Baba says that sometimes he can’t believe that Amir is his son.
Rahim Khan acts as a more understanding father-figure to Amir here and later in the novel, one who is willing to nurture
Amir’s love of reading and lack of forcefulness. Baba’s worries undercut Amir’s own search for courage and approval, and
will resonate later in Amir’s life.
Chapter 4
The story shifts to 1933, the year that Baba was born and Zahir Shah became king of Afghanistan. In that same year two
young men went driving while drunk and high and killed a Hazara couple – Ali’s parents. The killers were brought before
Amir’s grandfather, who was a respected judge, and he ordered them to enlist in the army. He then adopted the orphaned
Ali into his own home. Ali grew up as a servant, but also as Baba’s playmate.
Hosseini begins to connect the private lives of the characters with the political history of Afghanistan. This date is
significant because Baba’s fate (and that of the other characters) will become bound with the fate of the Afghan political
climate. Baba and Ali grew up in a similar situation to Amir and Hassan.
ACTIVE THEMES-- Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
They are still close, but Baba never calls Ali his friend and Amir never thinks of Hassan as his friend – their ethnic and
religious divides seem too great. Nevertheless, when Amir thinks of Afghanistan he imagines Hassan’s face, and he
remembers their childhood as one long playtime together. He describes some of their adventures, including watching a
John Wayne movie and comparing him to the other Americans they had seen – the long-haired hippies that hung around
Kabul.
Amir openly acknowledges that the divides between Hazara and Pashtun, Shi’a and Sunni seem insurmountable in
Afghanistan, even by close companionship and love. Hosseini introduces the prevalence of American culture in Kabul at
this time – this would be surprising to the average American reader used to the Afghanistan of the present day.
ACTIVE THEMES--Memory and the Past Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Despite their closeness, Hassan spends the day cleaning the house and preparing food while Amir goes to school in Baba’s
fancy American car. Hassan is illiterate because of his servant class, but he is fascinated by stories. Amir often reads to him
in an old cemetery atop a nearby hill, under the boys’ favorite pomegranate tree. In the trunk of the tree Amir had carved
the words “Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul.” Amir enjoys teasing Hassan when Hassan doesn’t understand a big
word that Amir reads, and sometimes Amir makes up a meaning for it.
Baba is representative of this liberal, Americanized side of Afghanistan that will be eradicated in the years to come. The
pomegranate tree, the hill, and Amir’s carved words all become etched in his memory as symbols of a happy childhood and
his friendship with Hassan. These images will return later to remind Amir of his guilt, and also to inspire nostalgia in him for
an Afghanistan at peace.
The boys’ favorite story is “Rostam and Sohrab,” in which the warrior Rostam kills his enemy in battle and then discovers it
is his long-lost son Sohrab. It is a tragic story, but Amir feels that all fathers have a secret desire to kill their sons.
This story will echo throughout the novel as a symbol of the father-and-son relationships that are so important in The Kite
Runner. Amir understands the love/hate nature of his relationship with Baba.
One day under the pomegranate tree Amir begins to make up his own story while pretending he is still reading out loud.
Hassan says it is one of the best stories Amir has ever read to him. Amir is elated by this and that night he writes his first
story, about a man whose tears turn into pearls, and who makes himself miserable so he can keep crying and become
richer. The story ends with him atop a mountain of pearls, crying over the wife he has murdered.
Amir first recognizes his talent for storytelling here. The adult Amir is telling this story, so it is clear that his ability to write
and tell stories will continue to develop and become part of the novel itself. Writing about his past guilt will become part of
Amir’s redemptive process. The story ends tragically just like “Rostam and Sohrab.”
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon,
Amir tries to show the story to Baba (who is talking with Rahim Khan), but Baba is uninterested. Rahim Khan, however,
takes the story and offers to read it. At that moment Amir wishes Rahim Khan was his father, but then he feels immediately
guilty.
Amir again fails to please Baba. Though he has now “stood up for himself” by writing a story, it is not the kind of talent
Baba wants in a son.
Later that night Rahim Khan leaves Amir a note that says he has a “special talent,” and that the story has an impressive use
of irony. He encourages Amir to keep writing. Amir is exhilarated by the praise, and he wakes up Hassan, who is
downstairs, and reads the story to him. Hassan says the story is wonderful and that Amir will be a great writer one day, but
then Hassan wonders why the man in the story didn’t just make himself cry by chopping onions. Amir is annoyed that
Hassan thought of this and he didn’t, and he thinks a cruel thought about Hassan as just an illiterate Hazara.
Rahim Khan acts as a kind of foil father-figure to Baba. He gives Amir the attention and praise he wants so badly, and is
willing to nurture his unorthodox gifts. Amir again shows his selfishness and vanity – he always wants to be better than
Hassan, and uses his wealth and education to put him down whenever Hassan proves himself cleverer or better. The
Pashtun idea of Hazaras as inferior is deeply ingrained in Amir’s subconscious.
Chapter 5

That same night there is the sound of gunfire in the streets. Amir and Hassan are frightened, but Ali embraces them and
says it is just people hunting ducks. Later Amir would learn that the gunfire symbolized the end of the Afghan monarchy –
Daoud Khan had overthrown his cousin King Zahir Shah (while the king was abroad) in a bloodless coup. Daoud Shah
instituted a republic and became president. Amir says that that night was the end of the old Afghanistan, though no one
knew it yet.
Again the political intrudes on the private, and Amir makes it clear that the characters’ lives are about to change, though he
doesn’t say how yet. Amir’s idyllic childhood is about to change, and not for the better. Zahir Shah’s reign lasted for forty
years, and marked a time of peace for Afghanistan that has not been seen since.
ACTIVE THEMES--Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Amir and Hassan distract themselves from a political radio show by going off to climb a tree, but on the way a group of
boys attacks Hassan with rocks – Assef, Kamal, and Wali. Assef is a feared bully who carries a set of brass knuckles and
loves to be cruel. Amir says that later he would realize Assef is a sociopath. Assef is one of the ones who mocks Ali, and
calls Hazaras derogatory names.
Assef, the antagonist of the novel, first appears here. His arrival in the narrative is a sign of negative political change in the
country as well, as Assef is bullying, violent, and hates Hazaras – like many of the Afghan governments to come.
Assef gloats about the new government, and says that his father knows Daoud Khan, the new president. Assef says the
next time Daoud Khan comes over for dinner Assef will tell him about Adolf Hitler, and how Hitler was a great leader with
the right ideas about ethnic purity. Assef says Afghanistan is the land of the Pashtuns, and he wants to purify it of the
“dirty” Hazaras.
Assef, though he is only a boy, suddenly seems to have more power because his father knows the new president. This is a
sign of future events, when the violent will be given power over the weak. In Assef, Hosseini controversially equates the
racism of some Afghans to that of Nazis in Germany.
Amir tries to defuse the situation but Assef takes out his brass knuckles and says that Amir is making things worse by being
friends with Hassan. Amir cannot help but think that Hassan is his servant, not his friend, but he immediately feels guilty
for the thought. Assef is about to hit Amir when Hassan suddenly grabs a rock and aims his slingshot at Assef’s face. Hassan
politely asks Assef to leave them alone, or he will have to change his name to “One-Eyed Assef.” Assef is shocked but
scared, and he vows to get his revenge someday. The three boys leave, with Kamal and Wali amazed that their leader was
humiliated by a Hazara. Amir and Hassan return home, trembling.
Hassan again proves himself as brave and unwaveringly loyal to Amir, while Amir cannot help his selfishness and racial
prejudice against Hassan. Amir is relieved that Hassan saves him from a beating, but the older, narrator Amir knows that
his younger self partly believed Assef, and thought that Hazaras were inferior. This slingshot scene will recur much later in
the novel, and Assef’s vow of vengeance has powerful repercussions.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
For a few years after Daoud Khan’s coup, life seems to go back to normal, and there is hope of reform and economic
growth. One winter (1974) Ali calls Hassan inside, saying that Baba wanted to speak with him. Amir describes how Baba got
a present for Hassan’s birthday every year. With Baba is a plastic surgeon named Dr. Kumar, and Baba explains that he is
his birthday present this year – Baba will pay for the surgery to fix Hassan’s cleft lip. Amir is jealous that Baba would do so
much for Hassan. The surgery is a success, and by the next winter Hassan’s cleft lip is just a faint scar.
Hassan’s cleft lip was a symbol of his contrast to Amir’s privilege – Ali does not have the money to fix his son’s deformity.
The fact that Baba pays for the surgery will become important later, but also the fact that Hassan is briefly given the
privileges of a Pashtun shows more upsetting of balances. Amir is again jealous of Hassan, and automatically bitter against
him when he earns Baba’s approval or sympathy.
Chapter 6
Winter is the best time of year for the children of Kabul, as school is closed because of snow and everyone spends their
time flying kites. Amir finds the icy city beautiful, and flying kites together is when he and Baba are closest. Baba takes Amir
and Hassan to a blind old man who makes the best kites. He always buys the same kites for Amir and Hassan, but Amir
wishes Baba would buy a nicer kite for him than for Hassan.
The themes Hosseini has already introduced begin to come to a head as Amir introduces the kite tournament, and the
novel’s title shows that this event will be important. Once again Amir is desperate for Baba’s approval, jealous whenever
Hassan is treated as an equal rather than an inferior.
The highlight of the winter is the annual kite-fighting tournament, where boys go to war with their kites by covering the
kite strings in broken glass and trying to cut their competitors’ kites. When a string is cut and a kite drifts away, boys called
“kite runners” chase the kite around the city trying to catch it when it falls. The last fallen kite of the tournament is a
trophy.
Amir first introduces the concept of “kite running,” which gives the novel its title. Her kites begin to symbolize Amir’s idyllic
childhood, his relationship with Baba (as they are closest when they fly kites together), and his friendship with Hassan.
Amir says that Hassan is the best kite runner in Kabul – he always seems to know exactly where a kite will fall and just waits
there as the other boys scramble around the city. One days Hassan makes Amir wait under a tree for a kite, though Amir
thinks they are wasting time and will lose the kite.
The young Hassan is essentially a flat, saintlike character, a foil to Amir’s selfishness and inner turmoil, a loyal friend
despite Amir’s betrayals. Hassan seems to have an innate, almost mystical feeling for the kites.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon,
While they wait Amir tests Hassan’s loyalty by asking him if he would eat dirt for Amir, but as he asks he feels he is being
cruel. Hassan says that if Amir really wanted him to eat dirt, he would, and Amir is ashamed. Amir pretends it was just a
joke, and at that moment the kite falls into Hassan’s arms.
Amir again tries to show his superiority over Hassan. He always feels guilty after situations like these, but the older Amir
recognizes that they are, at their root, similar to the event that will later haunt his memory.
ACTIVE THEMES-- Betrayal Theme Icon,
One night soon before the big kite tournament of 1975 Baba and Amir are sitting by the fire, talking, when Baba casually
says that he thinks Amir will win the tournament this year. The words feel like an omen to Amir, and he becomes
determined to win the tournament and win Baba’s love and approval – when he was young, Baba himself won the kite
tournament. Amir thinks that if he wins, Baba will finally forgive him for “killing” his mother in childbirth.
Amir’s desire for Baba’s love and approval – and his quest to “redeem” himself to Baba for “killing” his mother – come to a
head and focus on this one event. Winning the kite tournament and running the losing kite become tangible things that
Amir can reach for and hope that they will bring him and Baba together.
The night before the tournament Hassan and Amir are playing panjpar, a card game. In the other room the radio is on, with
someone talking about foreign investments and getting television in Kabul. Amir promises to buy Hassan a color TV
someday. Amir can’t help pitying Hassan for his shack and servant status, but Hassan seems to read his mind and affirms
that he likes where he lives.
There is still hope for modernization and progress in Afghanistan at this point in its political history. Hassan seems to see
through Amir’s selfish thoughts, and again acts as his foil – Hassan is sure of his place in the world, and of his moral
principles, while Amir is constantly in turmoil.
ACTIVE THEMES--Politics and Society Theme Icon,

Chapter 7
On the morning of the tournament, Hassan tells Amir about the dream he had the night before. In the dream the two of
them were at Ghargha Lake, along with their fathers and thousands of other people. Everyone was afraid to swim because
they thought there was a monster in the lake, but then Amir jumped in and Hassan followed. They swim out to the middle
and everyone sees that there was no monster after all. They rename the lake “Lake of Amir and Hassan, Sultans of Kabul.”
Amir is nervous that morning and so he is curt with Hassan, calling it a “dumb dream.”
Hassan’s dream will become a symbol of both Amir’s betrayal and Hassan’s optimism in the face of a cruel world. For now
Hassan is brave, and he tries to comfort Amir in his nervousness – as usual, Hassan can read Amir’s emotions perfectly. The
name of the lake echoes the inscription on the pomegranate tree, as an emblem of Hassan and Amir’s friendship and their
happy childhood days.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
It is a clear, beautiful day as the boys gather in Amir’s neighborhood for the tournament. Baba and Rahim Khan sit on the
roof to watch. Amir is so nervous that he almost wants to quit the tournament, but Hassan reminds him that “there’s no
monster,” and Amir is again amazed at Hassan’s intuition. Amir wonders if Hassan made up his dream just to comfort him.
He does feel a little better, and they start to fly their kite.
Amir is nervous as Baba watches, because he has placed all his hope for Baba’s approval in winning this tournament.
Hassan tries to put things in perspective – it is just kite-flying on a beautiful day – but Amir is consumed as ever by his
desire for Baba’s love.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon,
The tournament lasts for hours, but Amir (and Hassan, who controls the spool of string) do well and keep flying. One blue
kite in particular cuts many of its opponents, and Amir keeps his eye on it. By the afternoon it is just Amir and the blue kite
left in the running.
Amir and Hassan flying kites together becomes an image of the happier times of their friendship. The blue kite takes on a
symbolic significance, and almost a character of its own, as Amir must defeat it to redeem himself to Baba.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Amir prays that he might win and so redeem himself to Baba. Amir tricks the blue kite into a bad position and then cuts it,
winning the tournament. Amir and Hassan cheer and embrace, and then Amir sees Baba on the roof yelling and clapping,
and he feels that it is the greatest moment of his life so far. Hassan promises to bring back the kite for Amir, and as he runs
off he says “for you a thousand times over!”
Amir is ecstatic at his victory, and he feels he will surely win Baba’s love if Hassan brings back the losing kite. Hassan’s
parting words are symbolic of his selflessness and devotion to Amir. They will come to haunt Amir for the rest of his life.
ACTIVE THEMES--Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Amir reels in his kite and accepts everyone’s praise, but he wants to wait until he has the blue kite before he meets Baba.
He imagines the two of them like Rostam and Sohrab, father and son locking eyes dramatically. Amir runs off to look for
Hassan, and he asks some neighbors if they have seen him.
Amir wants everything to go just as he imagined it, and he dreams of a “happily-ever-after” relationship with Baba, where
this one kite can fix everything. Rostam and Sohrab return as the archetypal father and son.
One old merchant seems suspicious that Amir is looking for a Hazara, but he finally tells Amir that he saw Hassan going
south, chased by three boys. Amir searches everywhere and finally finds Hassan in an alleyway, holding the blue kite –
which Amir thinks of as the “key to Baba’s heart” – and facing off against Assef, Kamal, and Wali. Amir watches from
around the corner and doesn’t interrupt.
Amir realizes that he has condensed all his dreams and aspirations into this one blue kite. The dramatic center of the novel
begins with this scene, and the alley recalls Amir’s first words of the book. This begins the memory that will haunt Amir’s
future. Assef returns for his revenge.
Assef tells Hassan that they will let him go if he hands over the blue kite. Hassan refuses, as he ran the kite fairly and must
deliver it to Amir. Assef mocks him and says that Amir would not be so loyal to Hassan if their positions were reversed. He
says that Amir thinks of Hassan as a servant, not a friend. Hassan states that he and Amir are friends, and he picks up a
rock. He throws the rock at Assef and the three boys jump onto Hassan. Amir still doesn’t cry out, and the older Amir, who
is remembering this, thinks of how differently his life might have been if he had.
Assef seems to understand the darker parts of Amir’s nature – he is basically telling the truth when he says that Amir is not
as loyal to Hassan as Hassan is to him, and that Amir thinks of Hassan more as a servant than as a friend. The older Amir
recognizes that this decision – to do nothing as Hassan is attacked – shaped the rest of his life.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
The older, narrator Amir suddenly remembers Ali talking about a Hazara woman called Sakina, who was the nursemaid of
both Amir and Hassan. Ali says that there “is a brotherhood between people who’ve fed from the same breast.” Then Amir
remembers going to a fortune teller with Hassan. When the fortune teller looks at Hassan’s face and hands, he suddenly
seems distressed and he gives Hassan his money back. Then Amir remembers a dream where he is lost in a snowstorm
until a familiar hand reaches for him. In the dream he takes the hand and the snow disappears, and the sky is clear and
filled with beautiful kites.
At this traumatic memory the narrative becomes disjointed and connects with other memories. Amir’s guilt at betraying his
“brother” is emphasized by Ali’s talk about Sakina. The fortune teller seems to foretell a dark future for Hassan, which was
unclear to Amir until this moment. These sudden changes of scene show Amir’s (and Hosseini’s) writerly abilities, and
emphasize the shocking nature of this memory.
The narrative returns to the alley. Assef and the others have pinned Hassan to the ground and removed his pants. Wali and
Kamal say what Assef wants to do is sinful, but Assef says Hassan is only a Hazara, so it won’t matter. The two other boys
still refuse, but they agree to hold Hassan down. Assef raises Hassan’s hips in the air and takes off his own pants. Amir
catches a glimpse of Hassan’s face, and it looks resigned to its fate, like a sacrificial lamb.
The theme of rape is introduced here as the ultimate violation and violence. This image of the rich Pashtun boy raping the
poor Hazara is symbolic of Amir’s cowardice and unwillingness to stand up for what is right, but also represents the
violence coming to Afghanistan, when the weak will be raped by the violent and powerful.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Amir then describes the first day of Eid-e-Qorban, a Muslim celebration to honor Abraham’s almost-sacrifice of his son
Isaac. On that day the mullah sacrifices a lamb, and Ali gives it a sugar cube to make death sweeter. Amir always can’t help
watching the acceptance and understanding in the lamb’s eyes.
Amir again shifts the narrative. Hassan is symbolic of a sacrificial lamb, like Jesus (for Christians) or Isaac for Jews,
Christians, and Muslims. Hassan seems resigned to his fate as the betrayed friend and the victim of abused power.
Amir again returns to the memory of the alley. He realizes that he has been biting down on his fist so hard it is bleeding. He
makes his decision then – the decision of “who to be” – and he runs away. Amir muses over why he did what he did – he
was a coward who was afraid of Assef, but it was also something worse. He had thought that the blue kite was his key to
winning Baba’s love, and Amir was willing to sacrifice Hassan for that love.
Amir’s decision that molds the rest of his life. There is a cruel irony in his motives for abandoning Hassan, as he “sacrifices”
his friend for the blue kite and Baba’s approval, but it is clear in hindsight that Baba would have been pleased more if Amir
had “stood up for himself” and done what was right, even in the face of danger.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Memory and
the Past Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Fifteen minutes later Amir sees Hassan walking slowly past, and Amir pretends he has been looking for him. He can’t help
checking the blue kite for rips. Hassan is crying and blood falls from between his legs, staining the snow, but he doesn’t say
anything. He gives Amir the kite, and Amir wonders if Hassan knows what he saw. Both boys walk back and pretend
nothing has happened.
This is the end of the era of childhood innocence, as Hassan bleeds like the sacrificial lamb. Amir is concerned only with the
blue kite, his hope for Baba’s approval – though helping Hassan would have been more of a “Baba” action than winning a
kite tournament.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon,
When they arrive home, Amir’s reunion with Baba happens just as he imagined it would. Baba embraces him, and for a
moment Amir weeps with joy and forgets what he has just done.
At this point Amir feels almost justified in sacrificing Hassan for Baba, but his betrayal will soon poison any pleasure he
might get from his father’s approval.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon,
Chapter 8
For a week after the tournament, Amir hardly sees Hassan. He asks Ali where he is, and Ali says that Hassan just wants to
stay in bed all day. Ali asks Amir if he knows what happened after the kite tournament, but Amir rudely denies knowing
anything. Amir and Baba decide to take a trip to the city of Jalalabad and stay with Baba’s cousin – after Amir’s victory, he
and Baba act much closer. Baba wants to take Hassan, but Amir says that he is too sick to go.
At first it seems that Amir got what he wanted in sacrificing Hassan, as Baba does act like more of a loving and approving
father for a while. Amir does not know how to deal with his guilt, however, so he tries to avoid Hassan, and is rude in his
unhappiness.
By the time Baba and Amir actually leave for Jalalabad, Baba has invited many family members and friends to come along
too. In the car Amir’s relatives praise him for his kite fighting victory, but Amir gets no joy from their praise and in fact gets
car sick, throwing up on his cousin’s dress. When they reach Jalalabad they have a large, traditional Afghan dinner. Baba
boasts about Amir but again Amir feels sick. He wonders why he is not happy now that he has gotten what he wanted –
Baba’s approval.
The irony in Amir’s plight continues as Amir gets just what he had wanted – Baba’s praise and approval – but is now unable
to enjoy it because of his guilt for betraying Hassan. Amir’s car sickness begins here, a malady that Baba will later see as a
sign of weakness, and which seems to be associated with Amir’s guilt.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
That night all the men sleep in the same room, but Amir lies awake tossing and turning. He says out loud that he watched
Hassan get raped, but no one hears him. He thinks about Hassan’s dream about the monster in the lake, and Amir feels
that he is the monster. He says that this was the night he became an insomniac.
Amir tries to free himself of his guilt by confessing aloud, but no one hears. He starts to realize the terrible thing he has
done, but he is still too afraid to tell anyone – unless they are sleeping.
When Amir and Baba return to Kabul, Hassan asks Amir to go up to their favorite hill. They sit under the pomegranate tree
and Amir is sickened by the words he had once carved in the tree. Hassan asks Amir to read to him, but Amir says he has
changed his mind and wants to go home, and the two boys walk back down in silence.
Everything has been poisoned by Amir’s betrayal, and the tree carving – the sign of his happy childhood with Hassan –
makes him sick now. Amir still tries to forget his guilt by avoiding Hassan instead of trying to make things right.
The rest of the winter passes with Amir avoiding Hassan and pretending his new, close relationship with Baba will last
forever, even though it is only held together by something as fragile as a kite. Hassan keeps trying to rekindle their
friendship. One day he asks Amir what he has done wrong, and why they don’t play anymore, and Amir tells Hassan to stop
harassing him. After that, they avoid each other, but Amir still feels suffocated by Hassan’s presence and the constant
reminders of Hassan’s loyalty and Amir’s own betrayal.
Amir cannot enjoy his new, closer relationship with Baba because of his guilt. Here the kite becomes a symbol of the fragile
thing Amir sacrificed so much for, and how all the pain he has caused undercuts the happiness he might have gained.
Hassan is recovering from his trauma faster than Amir is recovering from his guilt. Amir is unable to avoid Hassan all the
time, as Hassan is still part of the house.
One day while they are gardening, Amir asks Baba if he has ever thought about getting new servants. Baba is furious at the
question and says that he will never replace Ali, and that Hassan is not going anywhere. After that things grow cool again
between Baba and Amir. Amir starts school, and he uses his homework as an excuse to spend long hours in his room alone.
It is Amir’s guilt that causes him to ask this question, which in turn makes Baba ashamed of Amir. In this way Amir loses the
happiness he had gained and Baba’s approval through his betrayal. Baba clearly does not think of Ali and Hassan as
“servants” as much as Amir does.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
One afternoon after school Amir asks Hassan to walk up the hill with him so Amir can read a story he has written. Hassan is
excited to go, and they sit under their pomegranate tree. Amir suddenly picks up a pomegranate and asks Hassan what he
would do if he threw it at him. Hassan says nothing, and Amir starts pelting him with pomegranates. He yells at Hassan to
hit him back, but Hassan won’t. Finally Hassan crushes a pomegranate against his own forehead and asks if Amir is
satisfied. Then Hassan leaves, covered in red juice, and Amir starts to cry.
Amir wants Hassan to punish him, as this might make Amir feel better and return things to the way they were. But Hassan
proves that his loyalty and love for Amir are unwavering, as he does not retaliate. This makes Amir feel even worse, as it
proves that Amir himself is weak and cowardly as compared with Hassan – that is, Hassan is a better person than Amir,
which has always been a source of jealousy for Amir.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Redemption Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Memory and the Past
Theme Icon,
That summer (1976) Amir turns thirteen, and Baba decides to throw him a huge party, though their relationship is growing
distant again. Baba invites more than 400 people, most of whom Amir does not know. Many of the workers who set up the
party do their jobs for free, as Baba has helped them out in the past.
Amir is still receiving the benefits of Baba’s favor, though not actually enjoying them. The many people thanking Baba for
his charity only highlight Amir’s own shame for his selfishness and insecurity.
When the party begins Baba makes Amir greet each guest personally. Assef arrives and jokes politely with Baba, and he
gives Amir a gift he says he picked out himself. Amir is visibly distressed by Assef’s presence and subtle taunting, and Baba
is embarrassed and has to apologize for his behavior. Amir escapes the crowd for a moment and hides behind a wall to
open Assef’s present – a biography of Hitler. He throws it away and sinks to the ground.
Again Amir’s guilt makes him do something that embarrasses Baba, so he falls farther out of Baba’s favor. Assef is
remorseless for his actions, still believing that Hassan is “only a Hazara,” and still idolizing Hitler.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon,
As Amir sits alone in the dark, Rahim Khan approaches and starts to talk to him, saying that he was almost married once, to
a Hazara girl. They would meet in secret and plan their future life together. When Rahim Khan told his family, his mother
fainted and his father sent the girl and her family away. Rahim Khan says it was for the best in the end, as his family would
have made his wife’s life miserable.
Rahim Khan’s story shows more of the injustices against Hazaras – instead of Rahim Khan’s father moving, he sent away
the whole Hazara family to spare a scandal. Rahim Khan also implies that sometimes the prejudices of the world are too
strong, and not even love can overcome them.
Rahim Khan then says that he is always there if Amir needs to tell him something. Amir almost confesses everything, but
again he says nothing. Rahim Khan gives Amir a leather-bound notebook to write stories in.
Rahim Khan seems to know about Amir’s plight, but he offers compassion instead of judgment. His gift of the notebook
could be interpreted as a path to redemption through writing.
Suddenly fireworks start up and interrupt their conversation. Amir and Rahim Khan hurry back to the house. In the glow of
the fireworks Amir sees Hassan serving drinks to Wali and a grinning Assef.
This devastating image captures the injustice of the situation – Hassan has no choice but to serve his rich, powerful,
Pashtun rapist.
Chapter 9
The next morning Amir opens his birthday presents, but none of them give him any pleasure and he tosses them aside.
Baba gives him a new bike and a nice watch. The only gift Amir doesn’t immediately discard is Rahim Khan’s notebook.
Amir sits on his bed and thinks about what Rahim Khan said about his Hazara lover, and how it was better in the end that
she was dismissed. He decides that either he or Hassan must leave the household.
Instead of working to redeem himself or make things right with Hassan, Amir continues to try to escape his feelings of guilt
by avoiding Hassan. But he cannot avoid him forever as long as Hassan lives in the same household, so Amir decides to
make him leave. Amir continues to not get any pleasure out of his gifts and Baba’s approval.
As Amir is leaving on his new bike, Ali stops him and gives him a present from him and Hassan – a glossy new book of old
Persian stories (including “Rostam and Sohrab”) called the Shahnamah. Amir feels unworthy of the book, but he thanks Ali
and rides guiltily on.
Hassan and Ali again prove themselves as loyal and selfless, contrasting sharply with Amir. Even the joy of reading and
poetry has been corrupted by his betrayal.
The next morning Amir waits for Ali and Hassan to go out grocery shopping, and then he hides some of his birthday money
and his watch from Baba under Hassan’s mattress. Then he knocks on Baba’s door and tells him that Hassan stole the
watch and money. When Ali and Hassan return, Baba confronts Ali, who goes back to speak with Hassan. Then Baba
decides to sit down all together and settle the matter.
Amir’s first betrayal involved a lack of action – doing nothing as Hassan was raped – but in this betrayal he goes out of his
way, actively framing Hassan for thievery and lying to Baba. As Baba considers theft the greatest sin, Amir is sure that this
will make Baba send Hassan away and Amir will have some peace.
ACTIVE THEMES-- Betrayal Theme Icon,
The four gather in the study, and Baba asks Hassan directly if he stole the watch and money. To Amir’s surprise, Hassan
says that he did. At that moment Amir understands that Hassan saw him in the alley, and he realizes that Hassan is making
one last sacrifice for him now, despite his great betrayal. Amir feels the full horror of his guilt then, and again he feels like
the monster in the lake.
Far from easing his conscience, Amir’s actions only heighten his guilt when he realizes Hassan knows all his sins and
continues to sacrifice himself for Amir. Hassan again proves he is the better person, which makes Amir feel even worse
about himself – like he is a monster.
Baba forgives Ali and Hassan, which also surprises Amir – as Baba had considered theft the worst of sins – but Ali insists
that they must leave. Baba begs him to stay, but Ali refuses and draws Hassan close, as if protecting him. Amir knows that
it is he Hassan must be protected from. Baba cries for the first time that Amir has ever witnessed, and even Ali’s paralyzed
face twitches in pain, and then Amir understands the enormity of the suffering he has caused. Ali says that he will go live
with his cousin in Hazarajat. He will not let Baba drive him all the way there, but only to the bus station.
Baba shows how close he really is to Ali, and Amir starts to understand the years of shared history he is now destroying
between the two men. Like Rahim Khan’s father, the privileged Amir sends the Hazaras away instead of himself doing
something about his unhappiness. Ali and Hassan will go to Hazarajat, which is a poor region of Afghanistan that is mostly
populated by Hazaras.
It hardly ever rains in the summer in Kabul, but it rains the day Ali and Hassan leave. Amir watches from inside his bedroom
as Baba tries one last time to convince them to stay. Then they drive away and Amir realizes that the life he has known is
now over.
This ends Amir’s memories of his time in Kabul, as they are inextricably linked with Hassan and his own betrayal.
Chapter 10
The story jumps to March of 1981. Amir and Baba, along with several others, are in the back of a truck fleeing Afghanistan
for Pakistan. The drive is bumpy and makes Amir feel car sick, which Baba sees as another of Amir’s weaknesses. They had
to flee at night and leave no evidence of their escape, because informers are everywhere. Afghanistan is under the control
of Afghan communists and Russian soldiers. They have turned everyone against each other, and people inform on each
other for money or under duress.
The political situation in Afghanistan has changed drastically since the last chapter. In 1978 the Afghan communist party
overthrew President Daoud Khan, and there were many executions of those opposed to the new party. This led to the
paranoia and betrayals that Amir describes. In 1979, external Russian forces invaded the country, leading to even more
violence and turmoil.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Politics and
Society Theme Icon,
The driver, Karim, is first taking them to Jalalabad, where his brother will drive them the rest of the way to Peshawar,
Pakistan. Karim has an arrangement with the Russian soldiers that guard the road. They arrive at a checkpoint, and a young
Russian soldier eyes a woman in the truck and decides to increase the price of passing through – he wants half an hour
with the woman.
This is the first example of the power shift that has occurred in Afghanistan. “Assef types” are in control now, and they can
use their power to act on their cruel whims. The theme of rape returns with the soldier’s demand, symbolizing the larger
rape of Afghanistan by violence and oppression.
Baba stands up and tries to shame the Russian soldier, but the soldier says there is no shame in war. Baba still won’t stand
aside and the soldier threatens to shoot him. Amir tries to get Baba to sit down, but he pushes Amir away. Just before the
soldier shoots, another Russian stops him. When the truck starts moving again, the young woman’s husband kisses Baba’s
hand.
For Baba, strong moral principles are as important as ever, so his country’s disintegration into lawlessness and atrocity is a
personal affront to him. He is willing to face danger and death for his principles, but in this he is a minority. Baba tries to
shame the Russian soldier, but there is little honor left in Afghanistan any more.
ACTIVE THEMES-- Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Politics and
Society Theme Icon,
When the truck reaches Jalalabad, Karim tells them that his brother Toor can no longer take them to Peshawar, as his truck
broke down the week before. Baba is furious that Karim kept this information from them just so he could get paid for his
leg of the journey, and he attacks Karim and starts strangling him until the young woman asks him to stop.
Baba is again insulted by a lack of honor, this time in Karim, one of his countrymen, who lies to get paid. Baba is wrestling
another “bear” here as he attacks Karim, trying to personally preserve the honor and dignity of his country through his own
strength of will and body.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon,
The group then joins a larger group of refugees who are staying in a basement. Amir recognizes Kamal among them, but he
looks sickly and old. Amir overhears Kamal’s father explaining what happened to him – four men caught Kamal while he
was out alone and raped him, and now Kamal no longer speaks, but just stares.
Rape returns here as another example of the atrocities in Afghanistan. Kamal, who, in a tragic irony, helped Assef rape
Hassan, is clearly haunted by his past trauma now.
ACTIVE THEMES--Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Karim finally finds a way to get the refugees to Pakistan, but it is not his brother’s truck – it is a fuel truck. Before they get
in the truck Baba picks up a handful of Afghan dirt, kisses it, and stows it in a snuff box next to his heart. Inside the truck it
is terrifyingly dark and the air is thick with fumes, which makes it hard to breathe. Amir is saved from his panic by the small
light of Baba’s wristwatch. Baba whispers in his ear to think of something happy, and Amir immediately thinks of a day
flying kites with Hassan.
Baba kisses the soil of Afghanistan, already mourning for a country that is destroying itself. Amir’s happy childhood with
Hassan is here not just a source of remorse but also of strength. Flying kites becomes a symbol of hope for something
better, and nostalgia for a past that was more innocent and peaceful. Amir has finally lost all his privileges and wealth, and
is reduced to huddling in the back of a fuel truck.
ACTIVE THEMES--Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Politics and Society Theme Icon,
They arrive in Pakistan and unload the truck. Amir is saddened by the sight of Baba’s two suitcases – the result of all his
life’s work, along with “one disappointing son.” Suddenly Kamal’s father starts screaming, as Kamal isn’t breathing. Kamal’s
father lunges for Karim and wrests his gun away. Before anyone can stop him, he puts the gun in his own mouth and pulls
the trigger.
The horrors of their journey continue, as everything safe and stable has been torn away. Kamal was an antagonistic
character at first, but after suffering so much he becomes sympathetic. Hosseini reminds us that these are just children –
the powerless being raped by the powerful.
Chapter 11
The story skips forward in time, and Baba and Amir have been living in Fremont, California for almost two years. Baba likes
the idea of America, but he has a hard time adjusting to the culture shock. One day at a convenience store where he often
shops, Baba overturns a magazine rack in anger that the manager asked to see his ID when Baba used a check. Baba is
enraged at the lack of trust and honor in this society, and Amir tries to apologize to the owners and defuse the situation.
Baba is again disgusted that the rest of the world does not live up to his high moral standards. When the manager asks to
see his ID, Baba sees at as a personal attack, as if he himself were untrustworthy. In America Baba has none of the wealth
and respect he had in Afghanistan.
That night Amir asks if they should go back to Pakistan, where they had spent six months waiting to get U.S. visas, but Baba
says they are in America for Amir’s sake, not his own. Amir thinks bitterly that this is yet another gift he does not deserve,
though he is glad to be in a place so far from home, where he can try to bury his old guilt.
Baba feels disconnected from everything he has ever known, but he continues to sacrifice himself for others’ sakes. For
Amir, the disconnection is a good thing, as being so far away allows him to forget about his guilt for betraying Hassan.
Baba works at a gas station for twelve hours a day, six days a week. He was offered food stamps, but he rejected them with
pride. Amir, meanwhile graduates high school at the age of twenty, and Baba is truly proud at his graduation ceremony.
In Afghanistan Baba was Ali’s master, but in America he now works more like a servant. He has lost his status and respect,
but he retains his pride and principles and rejects charity.
That night Baba takes Amir to an Afghan kabob house, where he buys drinks for everyone and starts an impromptu party.
After dinner Baba shows Amir his graduation present – an old Ford Grand Torino to take to college. Amir is moved with
gratitude, but then Baba says he wishes that Hassan was there too and Amir feels suddenly suffocated.
Baba keeps acting as if he were back in his old life with his old money and connections, but his personality is still the same,
and he can start up a party around himself even among strangers. Amir has been able to escape his guilt for a while, but
Baba still regrets losing Hassan.
The day after his graduation Amir tells Baba that he wants to study creative writing, knowing that Baba will disapprove.
Baba does indeed think the degree will be useless, but he does nothing more than grumble. Amir feels guilty thinking of
Baba working so hard while he leaves to pursue his dream, but he decides he will stand firm and not sacrifice anything else
for Baba’s approval.
Amir considers his betrayal of Hassan as a sacrifice for Baba, and he now decides to stay true to himself and his dreams.
Unfortunately, this does not involve redeeming himself or helping right things with Hassan, but only pursuing his love of
writing.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the Past
Theme Icon,
Amir likes to take long drives in his car alone, past rich neighborhoods and poor ones. He says the first time he saw the
Pacific, he almost cried. America has become a place for Amir to bury the ghosts of his past – his memories of war-torn
Kabul and his guilt for his betrayal of Hassan. America is huge and moves quickly like a river, and Amir embraces the
country because it helps him forget.
Amir describes America as a river, which becomes almost a symbol of baptism for him – a huge, fast-moving place where
he can wash away his past sins. Amir wants to be reborn here, like in a Christian baptism, and start a new life where he can
pursue writing and not be haunted by Hassan.
The next summer, in 1984, Baba buys an old van and spends his Saturday going around filling it up with purchases from
garage sales. Then on Sunday, he and Amir set up a booth at a flea market and sell everything for a profit. Soon there is a
whole section of the flea market made up of only Afghan families. It becomes a close community, with food and gossip
flowing constantly between the booths.
With the flea market Baba does find a piece of his old Afghan community. There are people there who know him and his
good reputation, and though he is only selling things for small profits, he is able to feel more at home in America.
One Sunday Baba introduces Amir to a man named General Taheri, who is very traditional and formal in his appearance
and demeanor. Baba tells him that Amir will be a great writer someday, and Taheri insists that Amir should appreciate
Baba, who is a great man. Then General Taheri’s daughter Soraya comes over with his tea, and she and Amir briefly
exchange glances.
Hosseini introduces new characters that will become important in Amir’s life in America. Soraya is the first woman to take
a major role in the plot, and with her appearance Hosseini is able to comment on other aspects of Afghan society.
On the way home Amir asks Baba about Soraya – he had heard rumors about her before. Baba is unwilling to spread
gossip, but he says that Soraya was romantically involved with a man once, but it didn’t go well. Since this “loss of honor”
no men have tried to court her. That night Amir falls asleep thinking of Soraya’s face.
In the character of Soraya Hosseini critiques the Afghan double standard regarding men and women. If a woman is
involved with a man outside of marriage, it is a subject for a lifetime of shame and gossip, but if a man does the same
thing, it is just him “having fun.”
Chapter 12
After meeting Soraya, Amir thinks about her constantly – he compares his every night to yelda, the Afghan first night of
winter, when tormented lovers wait for their beloveds. Almost an entire year passes before Amir gets up the nerve to talk
to her. Baba understands what is going on, and he warns Amir that General Taheri is a very traditional Pashtun, and greatly
concerned with his daughter’s chastity.
This begins a new section of the novel, as Amir starts to grow and mature in America. He has mostly escaped his past for
now, and is able to start building a new life for himself with less guilt. He starts by falling in love with Soraya.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Amir goes to the Taheris’ booth while the General is away and he greets Soraya, who is reading a book. When he asks her
what she is reading, he understands that the conversation now has potential for gossip, and he recognizes that the Afghan
double standard will judge Soraya for “flirting” with him if she engages. She responds, and they discuss stories and writing.
Hosseini critiques Afghan sexism here – if Soraya answers even Amir’s seemingly innocent question, she will be seen as a
“disreputable” sort of woman, especially because of the gossip already circulating about her past.
Soraya’s mother, Jamila, appears and interrupts the conversation. She offers Amir a seat but he does the polite thing and
declines, referring to her formally as “Khanum Taheri.” Amir can see the excitement in her eyes that a man has been
talking to Soraya, and he feels guilty for the power he wields just because he is a man.
In these interactions Hosseini also shows how the characters preserve their Afghan traditions even in America. An
unmarried man talking to a woman would be normal in America, but in Afghanistan there are strict rules about courtship
and honor.
THEMES--Politics and Society Theme Icon ACTIVE,
For a few weeks after that, Amir goes over to her booth and talks to Soraya only when General Taheri is away. Soraya
reveals that her dream is to be a teacher, and she tells Amir how as a child she had taught her father’s servant to read.
Amir feels guilty then, remembering how he had used his education to mock Hassan, not to help him.
Amir still cannot escape Hassan entirely, and his guilt occasionally resurfaces. Soraya was raised in a similar situation to
Amir, but she used her privilege to teach her servant/friend, rather than taunt her.
Amir gives Soraya one of his stories, but suddenly General Taheri appears and Soray looks terrified. The General throws
Amir’s story in the trash and reminds him that he is among other Afghans, and that they will gossip. Amir is disheartened
by this encounter, but he has no time to brood because soon after that Baba gets sick.
General Taheri only needs to remind Amir that he is among peers for Amir to feel he has been acting inappropriately. They
might be physically in America, but their community still has all the rules of Afghanistan, and Amir should not disregard
them.
At first Baba only has a bad cold, but then Amir catches him coughing up blood. Amir takes him to a hospital, and then to
several specialists – one of whom Baba refuses to speak to because he is Russian – and finally he is diagnosed with terminal
lung cancer. The doctors want to give him chemotherapy to prolong his life, but Baba proudly refuses treatment.
Baba encounters the last “bear” he has to wrestle – cancer – and though he recognizes that it will beat him, he decides to
lose on his own terms. Baba’s looming death will be a crisis for Amir, however, who has always been dependent on his
father.
After Baba’s diagnosis, Amir breaks down and wonders aloud what he will do when Baba dies. Baba is ashamed of the
question, and says that all his life he has been trying to teach Amir how to stand up on his own. He also forbids Amir from
telling anyone about his illness, as Baba doesn’t want any sympathy.
Amir starts to understand why Baba has been so strict with him, and always worried about his quietness and insecurity –
he has been training Amir to be a man, and to live on his own without Baba’s help.
Baba grows progressively weaker but keeps working and going to the flea market. He starts losing a lot of weight though,
and people begin to notice his sickliness. One day at the flea market Baba collapses and has a seizure. At the hospital, the
doctor says that the cancer has spread to Baba’s brain.
When the legendary, larger-than-life Baba starts growing weak and nearing death, Amir’s looming identity crisis seems
much more real. His pillar, the thing he built his life around, and sacrificed Hassan for, is about to be gone.
The next morning Afghans fill the waiting room, wanting to visit Baba. The Taheris arrive and Soraya comforts Amir. Two
days later Baba is discharged from the hospital, and that night Amir asks him to go to General Taheri and ask for his
permission to marry Soraya. Baba is pleased and proud, and the next day he goes. Amir has to wait nervously at home until
Baba calls. He says that General Taheri has accepted, and then he says that Soraya wants to tell Amir something in private.
After General Taheri’s warning, Amir proceeds much more traditionally with his courtship. While this is a bonding moment
for Baba and Amir, it shows that in Afghan society the woman has no choice in whether she will marry her suitor, as it is all
up to her father. Baba begins to be proud of Amir when he sees he is making decisions for himself and growing up.
Soraya gets on the phone and says she is happy that her father approved, but she must tell Amir about her past, as she
doesn’t want any secrets between them. When she was eighteen and living in Virginia, she ran away with an Afghan man.
They lived together for almost a month until General Taheri found them and took Soraya home, screaming and cursing at
him. When she came home she saw that her mother had had a stroke, and she felt responsible for it. She was glad, in the
end, that her father took her away.
Soraya has her own past guilt, like Amir, but her history has much less to do with betrayal and more to do with youthful
rebelliousness. In Afghan society, however, Soraya’s past relationship is the worst kind of scandal for a woman, and she
would usually be seen as having “lost value” as a potential wife.
Soraya asks if her story bothers Amir, and he admits it does a little bit, but he still wants to marry her. He feels that he of all
people is in no position to judge anyone for a troubled past. Soraya weeps with joy at his acceptance, and Amir envies her
because her secret has been confessed and dealt with. He is still too afraid to tell her about Hassan.
Amir avoids the prejudices of his society because of his own guilty past. He envies Soraya’s confession, but is not as brave
as she is. His secret is still alive and constantly haunting him.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Redemption Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon, Politics and Society
Theme Icon,
Chapter 13
The next night Amir and Baba go to the Taheris’ house for the lafz, the ceremony of “giving word.” Baba looks tired, but he
says it is the happiest day of his life. The house is full of people, and Jamila is already crying with happiness when Amir
enters. General Taheri is also pleased, and he says they are doing things the proper Afghan way now.
Hosseini gives more examples of the characters preserving Afghan society and tradition in America. Baba is so pleased
because with the marriage, Amir is truly becoming an adult and ready to strike out on his own.
Usually there would be an engagement party, then an engagement of a few months, and then the wedding, but they
decide to have the wedding quickly because of Baba’s illness. Baba spends almost all of his life savings on the wedding,
renting an Afghan banquet hall and buying Amir’s tuxedo and rings.
Baba is as generous as ever, and gives up everything he has worked for Amir’s sake. He is especially generous because of
his pride in Amir’s marriage and because he is among peers, and so can act as he once did in Afghanistan.
The wedding is a happy blur for Amir – he and Soraya repeat their oaths and then walk through the hall as the Afghan
wedding song plays. Then they sit together on a sofa, are covered with a veil, and look at each other’s reflections in a
mirror. Amir whispers to Soraya for the first time that he loves her. After the ceremony there is joyful partying in the
banquet hall, and then back at Baba’s apartment. Amir cannot help wondering if Hassan had also been married. Late that
night Amir and Soraya make love for the first time.
The wedding follows traditional Afghan customs, and is American only in its location. Even at his happiest moment, Amir
cannot help but think of Hassan, although now it is not so much with guilt as with curiosity. Amir is becoming a man, and
he wonders in what manner his “brother” has matured apart from him.
Soraya wants to move in with Baba immediately because he is so sick. One day Amir comes home and sees Soraya slipping
Amir’s old leather-bound notebook – the one Rahim Khan gave him – under Baba’s blanket. They admit they have both
been reading his stories, and Amir has to leave the room to cry with joy. A month after the wedding the Taheris and some
other friends come over for a big dinner. Amir can tell that Baba is happy watching him and Soraya together. Baba dies in
his sleep that night.
Baba finally starts to give Amir the approval and support he craved so much as a boy. The irony is that Baba is proud of
Amir for taking his own path, getting married and pursuing his career as a writer, rather than always trying to please Baba
only. This is a crucial event for Amir, as he must truly find his own inner strength now that his principle support is gone.
The mosque is filled with Afghans for Baba’s funeral, and many of them tell stories about how Baba helped them when no
one else would. Amir thinks of the old story of Baba wrestling the black bear, and he thinks of the many bears Baba had to
wrestle in his lifetime – the last one was cancer, but even then Baba lost on his own terms.
Amir understands the symbolism of Baba and the bear, and how his father spent all his life overcoming challenges and
fighting for honor and decency. Baba was never afraid of conflict, unlike Amir.
Listening to everyone’s stories of Baba, Amir realizes how his father has defined who he is all his life. Now Baba is not
around anymore, and Amir must find his own way. This thought frightens him. He finds Soraya and they walk together
through the cemetery, and Amir cries for the first time since Baba’s death.
Amir begins to realize the crucial turning point he is experiencing in his life. He does not have Baba’s example to follow, but
he does have the principles Baba tried to instill in him.
Because they had such a brief engagement, Amir is still learning about Soraya’s family after the wedding. General Taheri
gets bad, week-long migraines once a month. He does not work, as laboring is beneath someone of his position, and he
accepts welfare. Every day he dresses up in his suit and waits for Afghanistan to be freed, and for his services to be called
upon again.
Amir begins transitioning from one family to another now, and the Taheris take more prominence in the story. General
Taheri is seen as a much more “proper” Afghan than Baba was, but his pride and unwillingness to work contrast negatively
with Baba’s self-sacrificing labors.
Jamila was once a great singer, but the General has not allowed her to sing in public since they were married. Jamila comes
to adore Amir, as he listens to her complain about her health, and he has cured her of her greatest fear – that her daughter
would never marry.
This is another tragedy of Afghan sexism, that Jamila’s voice is silenced by her marriage. But even Jamila thinks in the same
way as her husband – her greatest fear for Soraya was that she would not marry, implying that she could only be happy
with a man.
After Soraya overhears some other Afghans gossiping about her “lack of virtue” at a wedding, she becomes frustrated and
enraged at the Afghan double standard for men and women’s promiscuity. She tells Amir more about what happened to
her in Virginia – when General Taheri came to fetch her, he had a gun with him, and when she got home he made her cut
off all of her hair.
Hosseini gets more specific in his critique of the gender double standard here. Soraya, unlike her mother, is unwilling to
accept the traditional, unfair treatment of women, though there is little she can do about it.
Soraya is still relieved that Amir didn’t reject her when he learned about her past, and she says that he is very different
from any other Afghan guy she has met. Amir thinks that maybe this is because Baba was such a liberal father, or because
Amir was only around men his whole life, or because he knows all too well about having a guilty past.
All the other Afghan men have put tradition over forgiveness, and subscribe to the gender double standard that would call
Soraya “damaged.” Amir would feel hypocritical judging someone for their past mistakes.
After Baba’s death, Amir and Soraya get their own apartment in Fremont, close to the Taheris’ home. General Taheri gives
Amir a typewriter as a housewarming gift. Amir sells Baba’s van and never returns to the flea market. Amir is accepted to
San Jose State college and becomes an English major, and he takes on a security job on the side, using the long, quiet hours
to start his first novel.
Amir makes more outward moves towards maturity and manhood. He transitions from living with Baba to living alone with
Soraya, and begins his career as a writer while pursuing his studies. Even the conservative General Taheri comes to support
Amir’s writing, as Baba finally did.
Soraya enrolls at the same school and starts studying to be a teacher. General Taheri thinks she is wasting her talents,
which makes Soraya angry – she thinks her father is a coward for running from the Russians and then collecting welfare
instead of working.
Soraya often speaks with Hosseini’s voice, critiquing Afghans more plainspokenly than other characters. The General does
indeed seem unsympathetic for his pride and lack of action.
In the summer of 1988 Amir finishes his first novel, and eventually gets it published. All the Taheris celebrate his success,
and Amir knows that Baba would have been proud of him.
Amir reaches another milestone of maturity. He is becoming a man without Baba, and apart from his past guilt.
The next year Amir’s novel is released and he becomes somewhat famous in the Afghan community. It is also the same
year the Russians complete their exit from Afghanistan. Instead of being a time of victory in the country, the violence
continues between rival Mujahedin groups and the Soviet puppet government. This is also the same year that Amir and
Soraya start trying to have a baby.
As Amir tries to reach the next goal of maturity – fatherhood – Hosseini reintroduces the politics of Afghanistan to the
narrative. While Amir has been quietly building a life in America, violence and upheaval have swept through Afghanistan.
Hosseini implies that Amir will not able to escape his homeland forever.
After a long time without being able to conceive, Amir and Soraya start going to see different specialists, but none of them
can explain why they cannot have a child. Amir and Soraya tentatively start discussing adoption, but General Taheri says he
does not think it is right for Afghans, and Soraya feels slightly uncomfortable with the idea too.
The first hitch in Amir’s happy American life appears with his inability to have a child, but this seems like a small loss
compared to the suffering of Hassan and the Afghans that remained to fight in the wars.
Amir wonders if his inability to have a child is his punishment for the things he has done. Meanwhile, his writing career is
going well, and they use the advance for his second novel to buy a house in San Francisco. Amir and Soraya lie next to each
other and are happy, but the emptiness of their infertility lingers between them.
It is notable that the most important relationships of the novel involve fathers and sons, and Amir is unable to become a
father until he has dealt with his guilty past and redeemed himself.
Chapter 14
The story moves ahead to June of 2001, and Amir has just gotten off the phone with Rahim Khan, who is in Pakistan and is
very sick. He wants Amir to come see him, and says “there is a way to be good again.” Amir takes a walk through Golden
Gate Park, and parts of the narrative are exactly repeated from the opening chapter – Amir watches the beautiful lake, a
man playing with his son, and two kites flying overhead. Amir feels that Rahim Khan knows everything about Hassan, and
that he is inviting Amir to return as a way of redeeming himself.
The narrative returns to the beginning of the novel as Amir receives the phone call that interrupts his successful American
life. He is upset that Rahim Khan is sick, but also Rahim Khan’s words imply that he knows about Amir’s past betrayal of
Hassan. Here the kites represent Amir’s memories of Kabul – both nostalgia and guilt – and also a possibility of future
redemption.
Amir decides to go to Pakistan, and General Taheri and Jamila agree to come stay with Soraya while he is gone. The
General broke his hip two years earlier, and Jamila would sing songs to him as he slept in the hospital. The night after the
phone call, Amir lies in bed with Soraya and thinks about their marriage. They still make love, but it feels almost futile now.
They used to talk often about their future children, but now they talk of other things. Amir falls asleep and dreams of
Hassan running in the snow, saying over his shoulder “For you, a thousand times over!” A week later, Amir gets on a plane
for Pakistan.
There are two things keeping Amir from happiness at this point – his guilty past in Afghanistan, and his inability to have a
child with Soraya. These two things become linked as one feeling of emptiness, as Amir lies in bed after “futilely” making
love with Soraya and then dreams of Hassan as a child. Amir’s decision to go to Pakistan shows that he is finally willing to
take some positive steps to make things right.
Chapter 15
Amir lands in Peshawar, Pakistan. His cab driver talks about the terrible things happening in Afghanistan. The city is a blur
of sensations for Amir, and everything reminds him of Afghanistan. They drive through an area called “Afghan Town,”
where there are many businesses but everyone is poor.
Amir has been away from his country for so long that seeing the poverty of “Afghan town” is shocking reminder of all the
atrocities that have happened in Afghanistan since he left.
Amir thinks about the last time he saw Rahim Khan in 1981, the night Amir and Baba fled Kabul. Baba and Rahim Khan had
kept in touch since then, but Amir had not spoken to him since soon after Baba’s death. They arrive at Rahim Khan’s
apartment and he answers the door, looking wasted and sickly.
Though Amir and Baba had to leave everything behind and flee, it is clear that they were among the lucky ones – they had
money to go to America, and were not caught up in the wars or left as starving refugees.
At first Amir tries to avoid talking about Rahim Khan’s appearance, and he tells him about his marriage to Soraya, and
about his career as a novelist – he has published four novels by now. Rahim Khan says he never doubted that Amir would
be a writer, but he does not remember the leather-bound notebook he gave him.
Rahim Khan appears as the agent of Amir’s past, as it is his phone call that brings Afghanistan back to Amir and Amir back
to Afghanistan. Their fates are contrasted in this meeting, as Rahim Khan is sick and dying, and Amir is a successful novelist
and married man now.
The conversation then turns to the Taliban, and how bad things are in Afghanistan now. Rahim Khan says that he was at a
soccer game and a man next to him cheered too loudly, and the guard on patrol smashed his rifle butt into Rahim Khan’s
forehead, leaving a scar.
It is clear that the Afghanistan Amir knew is long dead. The Taliban now rule and have put a rigid Islamic law into place,
which they use violence freely to uphold.
After Baba and Amir left Kabul, Rahim Khan lived in their house (Baba “sold” it to him) and tried to take care of it so they
could return some day. Everyone thought Afghanistan’s troubles would only be temporary. Rahim Khan describes how
after the Soviets left, different factions of the “Northern Alliance” took over different parts of Kabul, and there was
constant violence and rockets hitting civilian houses. Baba’s orphanage had been destroyed by a rocket. When the Taliban
took over, everyone celebrated them as saviors, and Rahim Khan actually danced in the street.
Rahim Khan gives a summary of the fighting that destroyed the old Afghanistan. Though the Northern Alliance helped push
out the Soviets, they ended up causing even more damage than the Russians, as they turned against each other and sent
rockets into civilian buildings. Many Afghans like Rahim Khan celebrated the Taliban’s victory, thinking it would mean
peace, but the Taliban only instituted a new kind of daily terror.
Amir finally asks Rahim Khan about his health, and Rahim Khan says that he is dying, and that he does not expect to last the
summer. He says that he wanted Amir to come to Pakistan to see him, but also for another reason. When Rahim Khan was
living in Baba’s house, he was not alone – Hassan was there too. Rahim Khan wants to tell Amir about Hassan, and then ask
him for a favor.
As Amir suspected, there is more to Rahim Khan’s request to come to Pakistan. There is something Amir can do to redeem
himself, to “be good again.” And it must involve Hassan, the victim of Amir’s betrayal.
Chapter 16
The narrative changes so that Rahim Khan is speaking in the first person as he tells his story. In 1986 he went to Hazarajat
to find Hassan, both because he was lonely and because he was getting too old to take care of Baba’s house by himself.
Rahim Khan found Hassan in a mud hut, but the only one in the village with a walled garden. Hassan was in the yard, and
when he saw Rahim Khan, he would not stop kissing his hands. Hassan took Rahim Khan inside and introduced him to his
wife, a visibly-pregnant Hazara woman named Farzana. Hassan revealed that Ali had been killed by a land mine two years
before.
Hassan finally returns to the narrative, and many of the novel’s earlier themes will begin to coalesce around his fate.
Hassan has indeed married, like Amir, and he and Farzana have conceived a child, unlike Amir and Soraya. Ali dies in a very
“Afghan” way, as many civilians were killed by buried mines left by various warring factions.
Rahim Khan invited Hassan and his wife to come back to Kabul and stay in Baba’s house, but Hassan said that Hazarajat
was his home now. Hassan asked Rahim Khan many questions about Amir – whether he was happy, if he thought he could
write him a letter (Hassan had learned to read and write) – and when he learned that Baba was dead, Hassan broke down
and wept. Rahim Khan spent the night at the house, and in the morning Hassan agreed to go to Kabul with him and
Farzana.
Clearly Hassan had forgiven Amir for his betrayals, and he wished to rekindle their friendship even as Amir tried to escape
any memory of Hassan. Hassan also learned to read and write on his own, overcoming the disadvantage that Amir had
once lorded over him.
When they arrived in Kabul, Hassan and Farzana insisted on staying in the servants’ hut instead of the big house. Hassan
worked hard cleaning and preparing the house, as if readying it for Amir’s return. Farzana gave birth to a stillborn girl, who
they buried in the yard. Outside the house war was raging, but inside was a safe haven. Hassan would read to Rahim Khan
from Amir’s mother’s books, and Farzana became pregnant again.
Unlike Amir, Hassan is able to recapture some of his idyllic childhood in Baba’s house, though he insists on keeping his
servant status. Hassan is now the one reading out loud to someone else, but the house is still a haven against the cruel,
violent Afghanistan outside its walls.
One day that same year Sanaubar, Hassan’s mother, showed up at the gate of the house starving and with her face cut up.
When Hassan first recognized her he fled, but when he returned he nursed her back to health, and the two became close.
Sanaubar delivered Farzana’s baby, a boy that they named Sohrab after the character from “Rostam and Sohrab,” the story
Hassan and Amir loved as children. Sanaubar loved and doted on the boy, and she lived until Sohrab turned four.
Though Sanaubar had “betrayed” Hassan by abandoning him, when she returns, Hassan is able to forgive her and welcome
her back to his family. This scene shows the possible reunion Amir might have had with Hassan, had he returned. The fact
that Hassan names his son “Sohrab” shows that Amir is still very present in Hassan’s thoughts.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the
Past Theme Icon,
By then it was 1995, the Soviets were gone, and Kabul was ruled by rival Afghan groups that were constantly at war.
Hassan taught Sohrab to read and write, so that he would not grow up illiterate like his father. In the winter Hassan took
Sohrab kite running, though there were not as many tournaments as the old days. Sohrab was just as good a kite runner as
his father had been.
The political begins to intrude on the personal again as Hassan starts to recreate his childhood with his own son. They do
the same things – like flying kites – that Hassan and Amir had done together. We never see details of Hassan’s relationship
with Sohrab, but it appears to be one of the healthiest father-and-son relationships of the book.
In 1996, however, the Taliban took over, and they banned kite fighting. Rahim Khan was optimistic about the Taliban, but
Hassan knew that their regime meant danger for Hazaras – and two years later, the Taliban massacred the Hazaras in the
town of Mazar-i-Sharif.
The racial oppression against Hazaras returns with greater danger when the Taliban take power. Hassan understands that
the new, ultra-religious government will be even harsher against those with different beliefs, like the Shi’a Hazaras. The
banning of kites is an especially poignant kind of violation.
Chapter 17
The narrative returns to Amir’s perspective, as he sits with Rahim Khan thinking of the huge repercussions of his actions so
long ago. Amir asks if Hassan is still at Baba’s house. Rahim Khan does not answer, but hands Amir an envelope. Inside is a
letter and a picture of Hassan as a grown man, standing with his son Sohrab. They are both smiling as if the world were a
kinder place than it is.
Amir has not thought about Hassan so specifically – the Hassan that continued to live and mature along with Amir – in a
long time. This photograph is the first time Amir has seen Hassan smiling his old smile since before the rape.
Amir reads the letter, which is addressed to him from Hassan. Hassan says that the Afghanistan of their childhood is gone,
and that fear and violence are everywhere now. A man at the market struck Farzana just because she raised her voice to
make a hard-of-hearing man understand her.
Hassan begins his story similarly to Rahim Khan, by describing the most recent random act of Taliban violence. Hassan
shares Amir’s nostalgia for the peaceful Afghanistan of their childhood.
Hassan describes his son Sohrab, and how much he loves him. They still walk up to the cemetery on the hill and read
“Rostam and Sohrab,” though the pomegranate tree has not given fruit in years. Hassan laments Rahim Khan’s illness, and
he says that he has been having nightmares lately, but he dreams of Sohrab growing up in an Afghanistan that is safe and
beautiful again. Hassan says that if Amir ever returns, he will be waiting for him as his faithful friend.
Hassan gives more examples of how Amir is always present in his thoughts. It is clear that Hassan is a good father, though
his son is growing up in a much more dangerous time than Amir and Hassan did. Hassan’s goodbye is heartbreaking in light
of his ultimate fate – if only Amir had apologized, Hassan would probably have forgiven him.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon, Politics
Rahim Khan then answers Amir’s question – about a month after Rahim Khan came to Pakistan, he got a call from a
neighbor in Kabul explaining what had happened. The Taliban had gone to Baba’s house and found Hassan living there.
Hassan said he was taking care of the house, but the Taliban accused him of being a lying Hazara even after the neighbors
supported Hassan’s story. They made Hassan kneel in the road and shot him in the back of the head. Farzana came out of
the house, screaming, and they shot her too, claiming “self-defense.”
Hassan’s murder is another tragic turning point in the novel. It shows how Hazaras have no rights at all in Afghanistan now,
as there is no punishment for those who murdered Hassan and Farzana. This also destroys any hope Amir might have had
of apologizing to Hassan in person and making amends with him. Hassan again acts as a sacrificial lamb, the innocent victim
of violence.
Amir cannot help imagining Hassan’s execution, and he is wracked with grief. Rahim Khan continues – the Taliban moved
into Baba’s house, and they sent Sohrab to an orphanage. Rahim Khan then says that this was the other reason he wanted
Amir to visit him – he wants Amir to go to Kabul and find Sohrab, and then bring him back to Pakistan. Rahim Khan knows
an American couple named Thomas and Betty Caldwell that have a good orphanage in Peshawar.
Amir grieves for his own unending guilt as much as he does for Hassan, but then Rahim Khan explains his plan, the way
Amir can “be good again.” Sohrab was the most important thing to Hassan, and the part of him that still lives on, and if
Amir is to make things better (even after Hassan’s death) he must save him.
Amir protests that he cannot go to Kabul, but he is willing to pay someone to go for him. Rahim Khan gets angry at this, and
says that it is not about money – Amir knows why he must go. Rahim Khan says that Baba had told him he worried about
Amir being unable to stand up for himself as a man, and Rahim Khan wonders if Amir has become such a man.
Rahim Khan brings up Baba’s old worries about Amir’s courage, as Amir always craved Baba’s approval more than anything.
Amir finally starts to see that Baba would have loved him more for standing up for Hassan than for winning a kite
tournament.
Theme Icon,
Amir still considers refusing, but then Rahim Khan delivers one last piece of information – Ali was unable to have children.
Amir asks who Hassan’s father was then, but then he understands that it was Baba. Hassan never knew either – they
couldn’t tell anyone because of the dishonorable situation. Amir feels his whole world collapsing around him, and he
storms out of the apartment, raging at Rahim Khan and Baba.
This new knowledge increases Amir’s obligation to go to Kabul, as Sohrab is his nephew by blood. The revelation also
means that Baba had betrayed his closest friend and servant, and so he and Amir were more similar than they seemed at
first. The decision to go to Kabul or not becomes Amir’s greatest test of maturity and courage as an adult.
Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Chapter 18
Amir wanders aimlessly through the streets and stops in a small tea house. He feels that everything he had known was a
lie, but now he can recognize the many signs – Baba always buying Hassan presents, fixing his cleft lip, becoming enraged
when Amir suggested they get new servants, weeping when Ali and Hassan left. Amir thinks of Baba’s old tirade against
theft, and then he thinks of how Baba had stolen Ali’s honor, Amir’s brother, and Hassan’s knowledge of his own identity.
The signs that Baba was Hassan’s real father become clear to the reader now too, and change things in hindsight – when
Amir drove Ali and Hassan away, he was also robbing Baba of his son. Baba himself seems like much less of a saint now in
light of this new knowledge, but there is yet another father/son relationship to add to the book.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon, Politics and
Society Theme Icon,
Amir realizes that he and Baba are more similar than he had thought, as they both betrayed someone who was totally loyal
to them. Amir feels that Rahim Khan called him here to atone for Baba’s sins as well as his own.
This is a new irony, that Amir is not so different from Baba in his betrayal. But Amir now starts to see that by saving Sohrab,
he can share in Baba’s virtues, which redeemed Baba later in his life.
Theme Icon,
Amir cannot help thinking that he is responsible for Hassan’s death. If he had not driven Ali and Hassan from the house,
they might have come to America with Baba and Amir, and things could have been totally different. Amir wishes that
Rahim Khan had never called him and dredged up the past, but again he thinks of the phrase “a way to be good again,” and
hopes that perhaps with Sohrab there is a way to end the cycle of betrayals and lies.
Even though Baba also betrayed Ali, Amir sees that his own betrayal ultimately led to Hassan’s death. There is more irony
in that if Amir does go save Sohrab, he will be doing what Baba would have done – after his own betrayal – in having the
courage to stand up for what is right. Amir is about to take his first positive steps toward redemption.
Past Theme Icon,
Amir rides a rickshaw back to Rahim Khan’s apartment, and on the way he realizes that he is not too old to start fighting for
himself. Hassan was gone, but part of him lives on in Kabul. Amir finds Rahim Khan praying, and he tells him that he will go
to Kabul and find Sohrab.
Amir realizes that Baba was right – Amir was unable to stand up for himself for most of his life – but now he has a chance
to do the right thing. By rescuing Sohrab, Amir will symbolically be saving Hassan as well, and righting some of the wrongs
of his past.
Past Theme Icon,
Chapter 19
Rahim Khan arranges for a man named Farid to drive Amir to Kabul. As they drive past a bullet-riddled sign for the Khyber
Pass, Amir starts to get car sick. Farid acts scornful of Amir, and hardly ever speaks as they drive. Rahim Khan had told Amir
that Farid joined the jihad against the Russians at age fourteen, but many years later he moved to Peshawar after two of
his daughters were killed by a land mine.
Farid appears as an important new character representing the Afghans that did not flee when the wars began. Amir must
face the realities that he tried to escape – his country has been ravaged by violence, and the Afghans who stayed to fight
(and then lost loved ones to land mines) are bitter against those who left.
Amir is dressed like Farid, in an Afghan hat called a pakol (which he never wore when he actually lived in Afghanistan), but
Amir has to wear a fake beard that reaches his chest – beards are required for men under Taliban law. Amir explains that
he left Pakistan soon after his decision, as he didn’t want his comfortable life in America to lure him to change his mind. He
did not tell Soraya he was going to Afghanistan, but let her assume he was staying with Rahim Khan.
Amir must dress up like an Afghan man, as he has changed and been “Americanized” more than is acceptable in the
Afghanistan he is now returning to. Amir recognizes his own natural cowardice and insecurity, but he manages to
overcome it with a newfound strength of will.
As they cross the border, Amir starts to see the poverty and damage of constant warfare. He says that he feels like a tourist
in his own country. Farid sarcastically asks if Amir still thinks of Afghanistan as his own country.
Afghanistan has changed radically, and when Amir sees it for himself it is even more shocking. This reaction is the same one
Hosseini himself had when he first returned home after living in America.
Amir asks Farid to stop snickering, and Farid guesses that Amir grew up in a big house with servants, that his father drove
an American car, and that this was Amir’s first time wearing a pakol. Farid points to an old man dressed in rags, and says
that this is the real Afghanistan, and Amir has always been a tourist. Farid assumes that Amir is returning to sell off his
father’s land and then go back to America.
Farid recognizes and points out Amir’s privilege. Though Amir had to flee his home, he still had money to escape and never
had to fight or lose loved ones to random violence. Even when he lived in Afghanistan, Amir was much better off than the
average citizen, and has never suffered as they have.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
They reach Jalalabad that night and stay with Farid’s brother Wahid. The house is small and bare, and though the family is
clearly very poor, they treat Amir like a guest. Wahid is impressed that Amir is a writer, and he hopes that Amir will write
about Afghanistan, as the rest of the world should know of their plight.
Unlike Farid, Wahid is not bitter against Amir for his privilege, but is generous with what little he has. Amir is almost
embarrassed to say he is a writer, as it is a career that implies the privilege of having safety and food, but Wahid reminds
him how he can use his talents to help Afghanistan.
Wahid asks Amir why he has returned to Afghanistan, but Farid interrupts and says scornfully that Amir is probably there to
sell his land and bring the money back to America. Wahid is angry that Farid would insult a guest in his home, but then
Amir explains that he is here to find the son of his illegitimate half-brother (he no longer tries to keep Baba’s secret) and
bring him back to Peshawar to be cared for. Wahid says that Amir is a true Afghan, and he is proud to have him in his
home. Farid looks uncomfortable.
Almost everything that Farid had assumed was indeed true – Amir did grow up with servants, never had to fight the
Russians, and escaped to an easier life in America – except for Amir’s reason for returning. Wahid’s description of Amir as a
“true Afghan” seems tragic and idealistic, like Baba defending Afghan honor and decency, as the country has now become
defined by violence.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Wahid’s wife serves dinner to Amir and Farid, and Wahid apologizes that there is no meat – only the Taliban have meat
now. Wahid says that he and his family ate earlier, so they do not join the guests. As he eats, Amir notices Wahid’s three
young sons staring at his wristwatch. He gives them the watch as a present, but they quickly lose interest in it.
Amir gets his first experience of real Afghan poverty (which is at its worst at this point in the story, but was always there in
Afghanistan despite Amir never experiencing it) with Wahid’s family. Again the father and son relationship is emphasized,
but Wahid has no resources to help his boys.
As they prepare for bed (all in the same room), Farid apologizes to Amir and says he should not have assumed Amir’s
reason for returning. He says he will help Amir find Sohrab.
Farid becomes a loyal companion to Amir after he learns his real reason for coming to Afghanistan. Farid has no qualms
about facing danger to do what is right.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon,
That night Amir dreams of Hassan’s execution, but in the dream the executioner is Amir himself. He wakes up and looks at
the stars, and for the first time feels like he is back home. His feeling of kinship with the land surprises Amir.
Amir will be haunted by Hassan’s death until he acts to make things better. Amir is still deeply connected to the land of his
childhood, despite how it has changed.
While he is out, Amir overhears Wahid and his wife arguing about dinner – they gave all their food to Amir and Farid, and
so the children had nothing to eat. Amir realizes then that the boys weren’t staring at his wristwatch, but at his food.
Before Amir and Farid leave the next morning, Amir slips a wad of money under one of the mattresses in the house.
This is an even more distressing example of both Afghan poverty and generosity. Amir mirrors his old action – framing
Hassan by stuffing money under his mattress – but this time Amir doing it to make things right, and so he begins his path to
redemption.
Chapter 20
On the drive to Kabul Amir is horrified by the results of two wars – old burned-out Soviet tanks, overturned Russian jeeps,
destroyed villages. When they reach Kabul, Amir does not even recognize it as his old home. Rubble and orphaned beggars
are everywhere, and the trees have all been cut down. The Soviets cut them down because they could hide snipers, and
then the Afghans cut them down for firewood. There are no more kites, and the streets smell like diesel instead of lamb
kabob.
Kabul is like a post-apocalyptic landscape, and totally transformed from the place Amir grew up. Anything that might signal
normalcy – even trees – have been destroyed, so the place seems even more nightmarishly barren. The wars have taken
the lives of many men, so there are lots of orphans without fathers – Sohrab is one of these.
Politics and Society Theme Icon,
A Taliban patrol approaches in a red pickup truck, with a few bearded men in the back with AK-47s. Amir can’t help staring
at them in terror. Once they pass, Farid angrily warns Amir not to stare at them again, as the Taliban will use even the
slightest provocation as an excuse for violence.
The Taliban are the latest “rapists” of Afghanistan with their brutal regime. They are all bearded and checking Amir for his
(fake) beard, as under their interpretation of Islam, a man without a beard is breaking the law.
An old beggar agrees with Farid’s warning, and Amir starts to speak to him. The beggar talks about how the Taliban were
first welcomed as heroes, and he quotes the poet Hafez. Amir recognizes the line, and the beggar explains that he used to
teach literature at the university. He knew Amir’s mother (who was also a teacher), Sofia Akrami, and Amir begs him for
details about her, as Baba rarely spoke of her. The beggar cannot remember much, however, and soon Farid and Amir have
to go. Amir muses on how the coincidence of meeting such a man should seem unlikely, but Afghans all know at least
someone in common.
The beggar who was once a professor highlights the tragic decline of Afghanistan. The fact that he knew Amir’s mother is
another painful reminder that this broken city is the place of Amir’s idyllic childhood – this was once a beautiful, peaceful
place, and now it is home only to violence and poverty. The beggar’s memories are the most we learn about Amir’s
mother, and apparently the most Amir learns too, as Baba told him very little about her.
Amir and Farid find the new orphanage (which replaced Baba’s, which was destroyed) where Sohrab is supposed to be. The
director, Zaman, is very wary of their questions and at first pretends he has never seen Sohrab. Only after Amir explains
that he is Sohrab’s half-uncle and reveals some defining details about Sohrab does Zaman let them in.
Zaman’s wariness is an ominous sign, implying that grown men come to orphanage for more nefarious reasons. Baba’s
orphanage has been destroyed, which is another personal blow to Amir’s memory.
ACTIVE THEMES--Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Zaman says that many of the children there are not true orphans, but this place is better than what their widowed mothers
could provide for them, as the Taliban forbid women to work. The building was once a warehouse for a carpet
manufacturer, and there are not enough beds or blankets for the hundreds of children. A girl had frozen to death there last
winter.
More examples of how the Taliban’s strict religious laws bring real suffering to many citizens. Widowed mothers are
forbidden from working, and so they must send their children away to the unequipped orphanage or else watch them
starve.
Zaman takes Amir and Farid to his office and says he has bad news – Sohrab is no longer there, and it may be too late for
him. He is hesitant to say more because the information he has is secret and dangerous, but Amir presses him. Zaman
explains that there is a Taliban official who comes to the orphanage occasionally and pays to take a child away with him.
Farid accuses Zaman of selling the children, and he attacks Zaman. He almost strangles Zaman to death until Amir points
out that the children are watching.
Though the Taliban justifies its violence with religious dogma, it is clear from Zaman’s horrible revelation that the Muslim
language is a thin cover for corruption and sin. Once again the powerful are taking advantage of the weak, and this is the
most extreme example yet – an adult government official abusing an orphaned child.
Zaman gets up, choking, and says that the official took Sohrab a month ago. Zaman explains that he has no power against
the Taliban, and the money helps him feed the children – he has already spent all his life savings on the orphanage. Amir
asks how to find the official, and Zaman says he will be at the soccer game at Ghazi Stadium the next day, wearing black
sunglasses. Amir and Farid leave as the children gather around Zaman.
Just like Hassan was helpless against Assef, so Zaman is helpless against the Taliban. He can only choose the lesser of two
evils, as he has no way to feed the children on his own. Once again, Hosseini shows that there is no easy answer to achieve
redemption and make things better, as the violence and corruption in Afghanistan are complex and multi-layered.
Chapter 21
Farid and Amir drive through Kabul on the way to Amir’s old neighborhood. They pass a dead body hanging from a beam,
and two beggars haggling over an artificial leg. They reach the Wazir Akbar Khan district and the houses there are in better
shape. Farid says the Taliban live there now, as well as the “people behind the Taliban,” who are mostly foreigners.
The image of two beggars bargaining for a prosthetic leg captures the tragedy of daily life in the Taliban’s Afghanistan.
Farid hints at the larger international forces at work in the country, like money and support from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
and others.
Amir sees Baba’s old house, and then the narrative slips into Amir’s memory of him and Hassan finding a little turtle,
painting its shell red, and pretending it is a monster they have tamed. The story returns to the present, as Amir stands
outside the gates and looks in. There is an unfamiliar car in the driveway, and the house looks smaller than Amir
remembered it. Amir finds his old bedroom window and remembers watching Ali and Hassan drive away.
The tragedy of Kabul truly strikes Amir’s heart as he looks at Baba’s house. Once again, thoughts of Hassan are inextricably
linked with Amir’s memories of his childhood and Afghanistan. After the opulence of America, Baba’s mansion seems
smaller and less impressive.
Farid warns Amir that they shouldn’t linger, and he says that it is best to just forget the past, as nothing has survived. But
Amir says he is tired of trying to forget. He climbs the hill to the old pomegranate tree, and finds his old carving in the
trunk: “Amir and Hassan. The Sultans of Kabul.” Amir sits down and looks down over the city, remembering it as it once
was. Then Farid honks and they have to leave.
Amir cannot help revisiting the old places of his childhood, but like everything else in Afghanistan, even the pomegranate
tree has wilted. The Kabul that Amir remembers is symbolically dead, and in need of drastic change to redeem itself.
ACTIVE THEMES--Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
They stay in a run-down, overpriced hotel that night, and Farid asks Amir about America. Amir talks about the
overabundance of food and television, and then he and Farid tell old Afghan jokes. The next day they go to Ghazi Stadium
for the soccer game. The field is just cratered dirt, the players have to wear long pants, and no one in the crowd dares
cheer too loudly.
America and Amir’s life with Soraya, suddenly seem worlds away from this desolate Afghanistan. Even soccer games, once
Baba’s source of joy and enthusiasm, have been reduced to subdued, frightening events.
At halftime, two red pickup trucks full of Taliban drive into the stadium, and they unload a blindfolded man and woman,
one from each truck. They bury them both up to their chest, the woman screaming wildly. Amir wants to leave, but he feels
he must watch. An old cleric recites a prayer, and Amir suddenly remembers Baba mocking his old religious teacher, and
saying “God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into their hands.”
The true horror of the Taliban starts to be revealed here. They interpret Islamic law in a strict, harsh way (that most
Muslims do not agree with) and use it to justify their violence and oppression of women. The violent punishment of
“criminals” is considered an appropriate spectacle for a soccer game.
The cleric makes a speech, explaining that they are there to carry out God’s law and punish sinners. He says that adulterers
throw stones at God’s house, and so they must throw stones back. Then another Taliban official steps out of the truck, and
Amir and Farid recognize him as the man they are looking for – he is wearing “John Lennon” sunglasses and draws cheers
from the crowd.
The rules of decency have been broken down and corrupted by the Taliban, and fear is used as a replacement for law. It is
not a jury or even a judge that pronounces the man and woman guilty, but a religious cleric, and the punishment for a
sexual sin is a violent, public death.
The official throws starts throwing stones at the male prisoner until his head is a mangled pulp, and then he moves on to
the woman. The Taliban then throw the bodies into the back of a truck, and the soccer game resumes. Farid arranges a
meeting with the official for three o’clock that same afternoon – all he has to do is tell one of the Talibs that they have
business to discuss.
The official who has taken Sohrab emerges as a formidable antagonist, as he personally murders the man and woman.
Clearly the population lives in constant fear, as anything perceived as a sin by the Taliban can be punished with public,
unquestioned violence.
Chapter 22
Amir and Farid return to the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood and arrive at the big house where Amir is to meet the Taliban
official. Farid waits in the car, and Amir thanks him for all his help. Amir goes up to the door, wishing Baba was there to
help him, but he is all alone. Two armed guards come out, frisk Amir, and lead him to an upstairs room to wait. Amir grows
more terrified as time passes, and he thinks maybe it was a mistake to try and redeem himself – maybe he is just a coward
at heart, and should accept this.
Amir cannot help thinking of Baba and wishing he was there, but he is finally doing what Baba always wanted him to do –
stand up for himself even in the face of danger. This is Amir’s first positive action to make things right and redeem himself,
so his natural inclination is still to flee and try to forget. But he overcomes his fear.
Finally the Taliban official enters, still wearing his sunglasses, with the two guards. He sits down and Amir notices that his
shirt is still stained with blood from the execution at the soccer game. He and Amir greet each other, and then he motions
for one of the guards to rip off Amir’s fake beard. He asks Amir if he enjoyed the show at halftime, and Amir is suddenly
gripped with terror. The man says the best “show” was when he went door-to-door in Mazar-i-Sharif, shooting Hazara
families. He says it is the best feeling in the world to kill and know that you are doing God’s work.
All the atrocities of the Taliban seem to coalesce in this one figure, who is remorseless and even pleased by the murders he
has committed. The racial oppression of Hazaras returns as a theme, and the official references the massacre of Hazara
citizens in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Amir is terrified once again, but this time he does not try to escape.
The official asks Amir about America, but Amir only says that he is looking for Sohrab. The official says that many think that
abandoning Afghanistan for America is as good as treason, and he could have Amir shot. Amir tries to think about Soraya to
calm his fear. The official sends a guard away, and he returns with Sohrab, who is dressed in blue silk, with bells on his
ankles and mascara lining his eyes. To Amir, he looks exactly like Hassan did at that age.
Sohrab’s attire and demeanor make it clear that he has been sexually abused by the Taliban official and possibly others.
Sohrab enters the narrative as the part of Hassan that lives on, the new “son” figure of the book, and for Amir he is a stand-
in for Hassan himself and a chance for Amir to redeem himself.
The guards turn on music and make Sohrab dance, and then the official takes Sohrab in his arms and orders the guards to
leave the room. The official rubs Sohrab’s stomach and asks Amir whatever happened to Babalu – the name Assef used to
call Ali. Amir realizes with horror that the official is actually Assef, and that everything bad about his past has returned.
Assef’s return is another horrible, ironic coincidence. As Sohrab is an “extension” of Hassan, it as if Assef is raping Hassan
all over again by sexually abusing his son. In Assef all the terrible parts of Amir’s past return in a single, antagonistic figure.
Amir says he will pay Assef for the boy, but Assef replies that he does not need money – his parents live in a beach house in
Australia. He tells Amir why he joined the Taliban. He was in prison once, and got a painful kidney stone. One night a guard
starting kicking Assef, and the blows caused the kidney stone to pass. Assef started laughing with relief, though the man
kept kicking him, and at that moment he knew God was on his side.
Assef joined the Taliban because they gave him free reign to indulge his sadistic tendencies. He even feels justified and
guiltless because the Taliban uses religion to excuse their atrocities. Assef acts as a sort of foil to Amir, in that both were
raised with wealth and privilege.
Assef continues that he is now on a mission to “take out the garbage” in Afghanistan – which is what he was doing by
massacring Hazaras. Amir says that this is called ethnic cleansing, and Assef seems to enjoy the term. Amir again asks for
Sohrab, but he won’t tell Assef what he plans to do with him. Finally Assef shoves Sohrab towards Amir, but says he cannot
have him for free. Assef says he and Amir have unfinished business, and Amir remembers the day Hassan pointed the
slingshot at Assef’s eye and Assef promised revenge.
Assef represents the violent, abusive part of Afghanistan, and Amir (as his young, cowardly self) the ones with power who
stood by as the powerful raped the powerless. But now Amir is standing up for what is right for the first time, and trying to
stop more violence being committed. Certain images begin to recur from Amir and Assef’s past, like the slingshot and
laughing while being beaten.
Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Assef calls the guards and tells them not to come in, no matter they might hear, and that if Amir leaves the room alive they
are to let him pass. He wants Sohrab to stay and watch, however. Then Assef puts on his old brass knuckles. After that the
narrative becomes disjointed, as Amir remembers little that follows – first the scene jumps forward to a doctor leaning
over Amir’s body.
Amir’s fight with Assef becomes the climax of the novel. The brass knuckles return as another image from Amir’s
childhood. As when he says Hassan being raped, Amir’s memory starts to jump around and the narrative breaks up,
emphasizing the trauma of the event.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Amir then describes the fight in flashes of swallowing teeth and blood, Assef throwing him against a wall and striking him,
and Sohrab screaming. Then Amir starts laughing, as he suddenly feels at peace for the first time since his betrayal of
Hassan back in 1975. He is finally getting the punishment he deserves, and he feels healed, not broken. Assef is enraged by
Amir’s laughter, but just before he beats Amir to death Sohrab stops him, his slingshot loaded with a part of the table and
pointed at Assef’s eye.
Amir as a foil to Assef becomes clearer as he acts out the story Assef just told, about laughing while being beaten. This
beating is replacing the one Amir should have gotten decades earlier, had he stepped into the alley and defended Hassan.
Amir is not trying to win the fight, but only to not run away, and to redeem himself by getting the punishment he feels he
deserves.
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Sohrab cries and asks Assef to stop hurting Amir, and Assef warns him to put down the slingshot or terrible things will
happen to him. Then Assef lunges at Sohrab, and Sohrab fires the slingshot into Assef’s left eye. Assef screams and rolls
around on the floor, his eye bleeding, and Sohrab and Amir run past the guards and out of the house. Farid is shocked at
Amir’s state, but he helps carry him to the car, and they drive off with a sobbing Sohrab.
More motifs return from the past as Sohrab reenacts Hassan’s threat with the slingshot, and this time actually puts out
Assef’s eye, as Hassan had threatened to do years earlier. This recalls the saying “an eye for an eye,” and implies that Assef,
like Amir, is getting the punishment he deserves.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Chapter 23
The narrative continues with a blur of Amir’s memories. Time seems out of order, and he sees a nurse named Aisha leaning
over him, and a man with a moustache, and a familiar man in a pakol. Amir imagines Baba wrestling the black bear, but
when Amir looks into his eyes he sees it isn’t Baba, but Amir himself that is wrestling the bear.
The image of Baba and the bear returns, but this time it is Amir who is wrestling the bear – this means that Amir has
become the kind of man Baba always wanted him to be, and he can face obstacles head-on and fight to overcome them.

Amir wakes up and learns that he is in a hospital in Peshawar, and the man with the moustache is named Dr. Faruqi,
though Amir thinks of him as “Armand.” Amir tries to speak, but discovers his mouth is wired shut. The doctor tells him he
has a ruptured spleen, seven broken ribs, a fractured eye socket, and a split upper lip. He will have to eat only liquids for a
few weeks. Amir thinks about the damage, but the thing that sticks with him is the lip injury – it is split down the middle
like Hassan’s cleft lip.
The cleft lip was a sign of Hassan’s lower social status, but also his purity of heart, as he was Baba’s “other half” and
inherited his courage and goodness. Now that Assef has split Amir’s lip, Amir has symbolically become more like Hassan in
that he is willing to stand up for what is right. This also represents a kind of unity between Pashtun and Hazara, a unity that
is necessary if Afghanistan is ever to heal.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Farid and Sohrab visit Amir the next day, and Amir thanks them and properly introduces himself to Sohrab, who barely
speaks. Amir asks about Rahim Khan, and Farid says he disappeared the day after they did, but left Amir a note. When Farid
leaves, Amir asks if Sohrab will stay. Sohrab sits with Amir, but he does not speak and only looks at his hands.
Sohrab is haunted by his past trauma like so many other characters (Hassan, Kamal, and Amir with his guilt), so he is slow
to open up and trust Amir. Farid has become a loyal friend on Amir’s journey.
That night Amir reads Rahim Khan’s note. Rahim Khan says that he knew what happened with Amir and Hassan, and
though what Amir did was wrong, he was too hard on himself afterward. He hopes Amir will find some peace on his trip to
Afghanistan.
Amir’s suspicions were true, and Rahim Khan did know of his betrayal, and asked him to save Sohrab in part to give Amir a
way to redeem himself.
Rahim Khan then says that he knows Baba was hard on Amir, but part of the reason for this was Baba’s own guilt. He could
not love Hassan openly as a son, and Amir represented his privileged half, so when Baba was being hard on Amir he was
also being hard on himself. All of Baba’s good works, including the orphanage and his many works of charity, were a way of
redeeming himself for his sin. Rahim Khan says he hopes Amir can forgive both Baba and himself.
Rahim Khan expands on the idea that Baba was metaphorically split in two, and that Amir was the half that inherited the
privilege, while Hassan inherited the virtue. Rahim Khan also emphasizes that betrayal does not need to mean only guilt
and evil – Baba’s good works came out of his betrayal, and so much good came from the initial sin.
Theme Icon,
With the letter, Rahim Khan leaves Amir a key to his safe-deposit box, where there is money to cover Amir’s expenses in
Peshawar. He asks that Amir not come looking for him, as he has little time left to live. Amir weeps as he reads the letter,
and thinks about his similarities with Baba – how they were both “tortured souls,” who had betrayed their truest friend.
Amir compares himself with Baba’s many good works, and wonders if he has done anything to redeem himself.
Amir is now beginning to positively act for good, like Baba did, to try and amend his past wrongs. He does not know what
to do yet, but he knows that it involves Sohrab. Amir has now lost another father-figure in Rahim Khan.
Theme Icon,
The next morning Amir looks at himself in the mirror, and sees all the damage to his face. Farid and Sohrab arrive, and
Farid says they should leave Peshawar soon, as the Taliban have friends there. Amir gives Farid the names of the American
couple that Rahim Khan told him ran the Peshawar orphanage, and he leaves to find them.
Amir is unrecognizable because of all his injuries, but he is on the path to redemption now. Amir is still in danger, as the
Taliban are supported by many in Pakistan.
Chapter 24
Amir, Farid, and Sohrab arrive in Islamabad, and Amir is impressed with its size and cleanliness – to him it looks like the city
“Kabul could have become someday.” They pass the Shah Faisal mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world, and
Sohrab appears interested in it. They arrive at a nice hotel and Sohrab starts watching TV in silence. Farid says goodbye,
and Amir gives him more than two thousand dollars and thanks him for all his help.
Amir’s description of Islamabad is both tragic (because of the current state of Kabul) but also slightly hopeful, as he
imagines what Kabul could be like in a time of peace and economic prosperity. Everything Sohrab does shows his past
trauma and how he cannot escape it.
Amir takes a pain pill and falls asleep, and when he wakes up Sohrab is gone. The hotel manager is unhelpful, and implies
that Amir is a bad father. Amir starts to get desperate, but then he remembers Sohrab’s fascination with the huge mosque.
He finds Sohrab in the parking lot, looking at the mosque. Sohrab talks a little bit about his parents, and then Amir talks
about Baba. Amir gives Sohrab the snapshot of Hassan.
Sohrab runs away because he is still unable to trust anyone, even after he watched Amir get beaten for him. He is not
running away to escape – he is too depressed to have the energy for that – but just wants to be alone and think about
what has happened to him compared to the religious teachings he has heard about sex and violence.
Sohrab starts crying softly and asks if he will go to hell for what he did to Assef. Amir says that Assef deserved it and more,
and explains that Assef had hurt Hassan very badly when he was a boy. Sohrab says sometimes he is glad is parents aren’t
around anymore, because he doesn’t want them to see him so dirty and sinful. Amir says he is not dirty or sinful, and
Sohrab lets him hug him for a while. Then Amir asks if Sohrab wants to go back to America with him, but Sohrab doesn’t
answer.
Sohrab finally lets Amir touch him, but his sexual abuse has left him feeling physically dirty at all times, and ashamed of
what his parents would think of him. Amir realizes what must be done now. He had known in theory what would probably
happen, but now he is bonding personally with Sohrab, and genuinely wants to adopt him and bring him home.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Memory
and the Past Theme Icon,
For a week afterward, neither Amir nor Sohrab mentions America, but one day they are playing cards and Sohrab asks
about San Francisco. Then Amir tells him the truth about Hassan – that they were half-brothers, but neither of them knew.
Sohrab guesses it is because Hassan was a Hazara, and he wonders if Baba was ashamed of him, but Amir says Baba was
only ashamed of himself.
Amir is tired of trying to hide the truth and forget the past, and he wants to start a new, honest father/son relationship
with Sohrab to break the cycle of lies and betrayals. Sohrab is surprisingly shrewd for someone so young, just like his father
was when he seemed to read Amir’s mind.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon, Politics
Later that day Sohrab asks about San Francisco again, and Amir describes the fog. Sohrab worries that Amir or his wife will
get tired of him if he goes to America, but Amir promises that they won’t. Sohrab then makes Amir promise not to send
him back to an orphanage, and then Sohrab agrees to go to America. Amir calls Soraya, who has been sick with worry, and
explains everything to her, including the story of his betrayal of Hassan. At the end of the story, Soraya says Amir must
bring Sohrab back with him, and she is excited to meet him.
Amir finally confesses his past to Soraya, as he should have done the day of their engagement when she told him the story
of her past relationship. Amir is excited by this solution which seems to solve all of his and Sohrab’s problems neatly, but
he does not anticipate the complications that life always throws in the way.
The next day Amir goes with Sohrab to the American embassy. They meet with a man named Raymond Andrews, who
listens to Amir’s story and then bluntly tells him that it will be almost impossible to adopt Sohrab. Without death
certificates for his parents, they cannot prove that Sohrab is an orphan, and usually the cooperation of the country in origin
is necessary, and there is no American embassy in Kabul. When Amir insists, Andrews suggests that he could talk to an
immigration lawyer named Omar Faisal, but otherwise he should give up the endeavour.
Once again Hosseini seems to be saying that there are no easy solutions to the complicated problems like those in
Afghanistan and in Amir’s personal life. In a more ideal world or a less realistic novel, this section would never occur, and
Amir could just bring Sohrab back to America to live happily ever after. But there are always tragic coincidences and
random complications.
Amir asks if Andrews has any children, and Andrews says no. Amir then leaves angrily with Sohrab, and on the way out he
comments about Andrews’ rudeness to his secretary. She explains that Andrews’ daughter recently committed suicide.
Even Andrews cannot be made into a bureaucratic villain, as he has his own tragic backstory. Often it is the system to
blame, not individuals, which makes problems much more complex and harder to solve.
They return to the hotel and Sohrab takes a long bath. Amir wonders when he will begin to feel cleaned of the sexual
abuse. Amir calls Soraya, and she says she has a family member who can contact his colleagues at the immigration office.
The next day Amir and Sohrab meet with Faisal, the lawyer. He says the adoption will be difficult, but not impossible. He
says the best option is to put Sohrab in an orphanage, fill out the forms, and then wait for up to two years for the
government’s approval.
Amir recognizes Sohrab’s trauma, and why he keeps taking long baths to try and physically rid himself of his abusive past.
Faisal is more hopeful of the adoption, but the best possibility will involve Amir going back on his promise to never make
Sohrab return to an orphanage – essentially betraying Sohrab like Amir betrayed his father.
That night, Amir tells Sohrab that he thinks he will be able to come to America, but first he might have to go back to an
orphanage for a while. When he hears that, Sohrab screams and cries that they will hurt him there, and eventually he cries
himself to sleep in Amir’s arms. Then Amir himself takes a nap.
Amir feels he must go through with this betrayal, as it is for the greater good. Sohrab is so traumatized by his past that the
thought of being abandoned again terrifies him.
When Amir wakes up, Sohrab is in the bath, and Soraya calls. She says that her family contact can get Sohrab a visa, and
that it will be easier to adopt him once he is in America. Amir is overjoyed and goes into the bathroom to tell Sohrab, but
he finds him passed out and bleeding in the bathtub, and Amir falls to his knees, screaming.
Amir’s redemption is still incomplete, as Sohrab’s attempted suicide will now hang over his head just like Hassan’s rape.
Sohrab tries to free himself of his own past trauma through the ultimate escape. In a tragic coincidence, Amir is just
moments too late for a happier ending to his story.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Violence and Rape
Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Amir spends the rest of the day playing a card game, panjpar, with Sohrab, who still rarely speaks. Amir asks what Hassan
had said about him, and Sohrab says that Hassan told him Amir was the best friend he ever had. When Amir tries to touch
him, Sohrab flinches.
Sohrab is traumatized by his sexual abuse, and so cannot let himself be touched by an adult yet. Amir used to play panjpar
with Sohrab. Hassan was clearly still loyal to and fond of Amir, as he spoke so positively of him to his son.
For the next two days, Sohrab and Amir play panjpar in silence. The next day Amir decides that he must leave, and he
discharges himself from the hospital early. Then Farid arrives and says that there never was a Thomas and Betty Caldwell in
Peshawar. Amir and Farid are worried about what they will do now, but they get Rahim Khan’s money from the bank and
decide to take Sohrab to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. On the drive there Amir sleeps, and he dreams of Rahim Khan’s
words: “a way to be good again.”
It is unclear whether Rahim Khan thought that the American couple was in Pakistan or not. He may have been trying to
break the news to Amir slowly that “the way to be good again” is to adopt Sohrab himself. This would cure some of Amir’s
guilt for betraying Hassan, and also help with the emptiness he feels for being unable to have a child. But things are never
so convenient in the world of The Kite Runner.
Chapter 25
Sohrab is taken to the emergency room, and Amir is not allowed to go in with him. Amir takes a sheet from a supply closet,
asks a nurse which way is west, and uses the sheet as a prayer rug. He prays for the first time in more than fifteen years,
and he recites the only words he can remember: “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger.”
Amir feels responsible for Sohrab’s suicide just as he did for Hassan’s rape and death, and he feels he is once again being
punished for his sins. Amir returns in his time of need to the religion he has always struggled with, caught between liberal
Baba and the Islamic fundamentalists.
the Past Theme Icon,
Amir realizes then that he does believe in a God, and he asks God to forgive him for his neglect and betrayal, and he
promises to pray every day if only God will save Sohrab’s life.
At this tragic juncture Amir seems to accept religion – not an Islam of harsh rules and violent jihad (holy war), but of a God
who is willing to forgive and heal.
After a while Amir falls asleep on the floor, and he dreams of Sohrab in the bloody bathtub and the razor he used to cut
himself, the same razor Amir had shaved with that day. A doctor wakes Amir up and tells him that Sohrab is alive, but he
has lost a lot of blood. Amir is overcome with joy, and he cries into the doctor’s hands.
Amir’s prayers are answered, and so he will return to Islam for the rest of the narrative, and keep praying regularly. Amir’s
redemption is imperfect, but so is this latest betrayal. Sohrab still lives, and so Amir has more time to regain his trust and
try to make things right.
Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Several days pass with Amir sleeping on a hospital couch and Sohrab sleeping with a ventilator. Eventually Amir returns to
his hotel to get some rest, but he can’t help lingering in the bathroom and imagining Sohrab’s suicide attempt. The next
day Amir returns and finds Sohrab in a new room. He is awake, but under constant suicide watch. Amir asks him how he
feels, but Sohrab says nothing, and his eyes look lifeless.
If before Sohrab seemed subdued because of his terrible past, now it seems that he has truly given up on life. He is even
one of the luckier ones, compared to many Afghan children, as at least he has a relative trying to adopt him and take him
away. The rape of the weak by the powerful leaves many broken, lost victims in its wake.
Amir reads from the story of “Rostam and Sohrab,” but Sohrab shakes his head when Amir asks if he should continue.
Finally, Sohrab speaks, and he says that he is tired of everything, and he wants his old life back, with his parents and Rahim
Khan. He says he wishes Amir had left him in the bathtub. Amir touches his shoulder and he flinches. Amir says that he had
been coming to tell Sohrab that he found a way to take him to America. Amir asks if he still wants to go, but Sohrab stops
speaking altogether, and the light of hope seems to have left his eyes.
Sohrab once again flinches at Amir’s touch, as he has lost what little trust he had regained. Sohrab seems totally lost and
hopeless now – similar to the current state of Afghanistan – but Amir is unwilling to give up. He has to believe that
redemption is possible, or else he himself will sink under the weight of his guilt, and his country will collapse beyond any
hope of recovery.
Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Eventually Amir takes Sohrab’s silence as an acceptance, and a week later they arrive in America. Amir remembers a small
incident years before (in America), where he “ruined” the end of a movie for another customer at the video store. He says
that in Afghanistan, people only want to know how the movie ends – if the protagonist finds happiness or failure, gets
married or dies. Amir says that if he was describing his own story, he would not know how to explain the end. Life is not a
movie – it is complex and does not care for dramatic arcs.
Amir comments on the arc of his own story, and once again Hosseini illustrates that there are no easy answers in life,
especially with such dense, complex problems as those in Afghanistan and in Amir’s past. History and memory are constant
sources of pleasure and pain, complicating the present and keeping any truly happy or tragic ending from being neatly tied
up. Hosseini is trying to write realistic fiction, and there are no totally happy or sad endings in reality.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Memory and the Past Theme Icon,
Amir returns to the narrative, as he and Sohrab arrive in San Francisco in August of 2001. Soraya picks them up at the
airport, and she talks to Sohrab and shows him the bedroom she has decorated for him, but he does not respond or show
interest.
The happy ending that should have been, with Sohrab completing Amir and Soraya’s family, and them raising Sohrab in a
safe, loving environment, seems to dry up in the face of Sohrab’s traumas.
That night Amir finds the photo of Hassan under Sohrab’s pillow. Looking at Hassan’s face, Amir realizes how Baba was torn
between his two sons, and how maybe he had thought of Hassan as his true son, as he was the half that contained all of
Baba’s goodness. Amir realizes then that he has forgiven Baba, though it did not happen as dramatically as he expected.
Even Amir’s forgiveness of Baba and loss of guilt over their relationship comes with no dramatic fanfare, but quietly and
realistically. This small, unobtrusive victory suggests how Amir, and later Sohrab, might eventually escape their pasts, by
the slow letting go of pain, and the building up of something new to replace it.
Theme Icon,
The next night General Taheri and Jamila come over for dinner. While Soraya and her mother set the table, Amir tells the
General about Kabul and the Taliban. General Taheri skirts the subject of Sohrab at first, but then asks Amir why there is a
Hazara boy living with him now. Amir explains simply – Baba slept with his servant’s wife and had a son named Hassan,
who is dead now. Sohrab is Hassan’s son, Amir’s nephew, and Amir warns General Taheri to never call Sohrab a “Hazara
boy” in his presence again.
Amir has been changed by his experience in Afghanistan, and he acts like Baba would now, being refreshingly truthful and
courageous in the face of General Taheri’s stiffness and Pashtun racial prejudice. Amir is not bothering to keep secrets
now, but feels exhilarated in speaking out loud the truths that were kept closeted for so long.
ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon, Politics and Society
Theme Icon,
Amir describes the nature of Sohrab’s silence – it is not just quietness, but as if he had shut himself down or curled up deep
inside himself. He seems to occupy no space, and leaves no trace when he enters or leaves a room. The silence is hard on
Soraya, as she had dreamed of doing so many “parent-child” things with him, and both her and Amir’s dreams of a happy
family seem to wilt in Sohrab’s presence.
Soraya also feels the potential for the “happy ending” of their story, and the tragedy of how it went awry. Sohrab takes
much longer this time to open up again, as his multiple traumas are now heaped onto his back and weighing him down. He
is tragically world-weary for someone so young.
While the family lives quietly, great movements shake America and Afghanistan. Amir describes the 2001 attacks on the
World Trade Center and the American bombing of Afghanistan that followed. The names of Afghan cities are suddenly
common words on American television, and the Taliban flee into the mountains, driven back by the Northern Alliance.
Hamid Karzai becomes the new president of the country, and there is some hope for the future.
At this point the political events have little effect on Amir’s personal life, except that Afghanistan becomes an international
topic of conversation. After so much tragedy there is still hope of redemption for the country, but as with Amir, it will not
be quick and easy, but will be slow and complicated like the problems themselves.
ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Violence and Rape Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,
Feeling helpless in the face of Sohrab’s silence and the new war in Afghanistan, Amir and Soraya get jobs with a hospital
project where they help fund and run a hospital on the Afghan-Pakistani border. General Taheri is finally summoned back
to Afghanistan for a ministry position, and Jamila stays with Amir and Soraya until she is ready to join him.
Amir does not try to avoid Afghanistan anymore, but is now willing to work to help his homeland. Hosseini implies that it is
only through the work of many like Amir (or Baba before him) and Soraya that Afghanistan can be healed.
Amir describes a “small miracle” that takes place on a rainy day in March of 2002. He takes Sohrab, Soraya, and Jamila to a
park where a group of Afghans are celebrating the Afghan New Year. Amir prays before he leaves – he knows all the verses
by heart now. They arrive and Sohrab stands silently in the rain for a while, apart from the rest. Amir talks with some
friends about Baba and about the difficult job Karzai has. By the afternoon the weather clears.
After undercutting so much potential for a “happy ending,” Hosseini does allow his story to end on a warily hopeful note
with this final scene. Amir and Soraya are still part of the Afghan community, and they keep their traditions alive just as
they did at the flea market.
Soraya interrupts Amir’s conversation and points out some kites flying in the sky over the park. Amir finds an Afghan kite
seller and buys a kite, and he takes it over to Sohrab. Amir checks the string and talks to Sohrab about Hassan, and his skill
at kite-flying and kite-running. Amir asks if Sohrab wants to fly the kite, but there is no response. Amir starts running, the
kite rising behind him, and then he realizes Sohrab is following him. Amir feels a rush of joy, as he hasn’t flown a kite in
decades.
Kites return to the narrative, but this time as a symbol of hope for the future. Amir shares this small moment with Sohrab,
a moment like those he had with Hassan so long ago, and like Hassan had with Sohrab. Again there is no dramatic
transformation – Sohrab does not suddenly speak, and shrug off his trauma – but there is a small instance of hope in the
face of a dark world.
Amir offers again, and Sohrab hesitantly takes the kite string. Amir wishes time would stand still. Then a green kite
approaches for a fight and Sohrab hands the spool back to Amir, but he looks alert and alive, interested in the kites. Amir
shows Sohrab what was Hassan’s favorite trick, and soon they have trapped the green kite, with Amir flying and Sohrab
holding the spool. Amir lets himself slip into his memories of Kabul, Hassan, Ali, and Baba, and then he cuts the string of
the green kite.
As when he was in the back of the fuel truck, thinking of something happy, Amir instinctively returns to his memories of
flying kites with Hassan. Hassan lives on in Sohrab, so Amir sharing this moment with Sohrab shows that Amir has achieved
a kind of redemption. He cannot undo the past, but he can find again the happiness of his childhood, and it is almost as if
he has made things right with Hassan.
Behind them people cheer for their victory, and the tiniest smile appears on Sohrab’s face. Amir knows it is only a little
thing, but it is perhaps a sign of better things to come, an omen of hope for the future. Amir asks if he should run the green
kite for Sohrab, and Sohrab nods. Amir says “for you, a thousand times over,” and he sets off running with a smile on his
face.
As it was with Baba, flying the kite becomes a link between Amir and Sohrab, a place where their separate worlds intersect.
Sohrab’s smile is a small thing, but Hosseini implies that it is an omen of more to come. Amir brings the story to a dramatic
close with his own words, repeating the phrase Hassan spoke before his rape. When Amir says these words, they are words
of hope, which suggests that Amir has indeed redeemed himself and been able to bring good out of his guilty past.
Themes
Betrayal
The betrayal of a loyal friend by a wealthier, more corrupt “master” is a recurring motif in The Kite Runner,
and Amir and Baba’s feelings of guilt for their betrayals drive much of the novel’s action. The central betrayal comes when
Amir watches and does nothing as Hassan, who has always stood up for Amir in the past, gets raped by Assef. Amir then
worsens the betrayal by driving Ali and Hassan from the household. Later in the book, Amir learns that Baba also betrayed
his own best friend and servant – Ali, Hassan’s father – by fathering a child (Hassan) with Ali’s wife Sanaubar. This
knowledge comes as another kind of betrayal for Amir, who had always hero-worshipped Baba and is shocked to learn of
his father’s flaws.
These low points in the two men’s lives create a sense of tension and guilt throughout the novel, but the betrayals of Amir
and Baba also lead to quests for redemption that bring about some good in the end – as Baba leads a principled, charitable
life, and Amir rescues Sohrab from Assef.
Redemption
The quest for redemption makes up much of the novel’s plot, and expands as a theme to include both the personal and the
political. Throughout his childhood, Amir’s greatest struggle was to redeem himself to Baba for “killing” his mother during
childbirth, and for growing up a disappointing son who was unlike Baba himself. After Hassan’s rape, Amir spends the rest
of his life trying to redeem himself for his betrayal of his loyal friend. This ultimately culminates in Amir’s return to
Afghanistan and his attempts to save and adopt Hassan’s son Sohrab.
After Amir learns of Baba’s betrayal of Ali, Amir realizes that Baba was probably trying to redeem his adultery through his
many charitable activities and strong principles in later life. Amir is also able to find a kind of redemption in his bloody fight
with Assef (Hassan’s rapist), and his adoption of Sohrab. Hosseini subtly connects these personal quests for redemption to
Afghanistan itself. Despite its violent and corrupted past, Hosseini hopes for a redemption for his country someday.
Fathers and Children
The most important relationships in The Kite Runner involve fathers and their children, usually sons. The central
relationship is between Baba and Amir, as Amir struggles to win his father’s affections and Baba tries to love a son who is
nothing like him. When Amir learns that Baba is Hassan’s father as well, he realizes that Baba also had to hide his natural
affection for Hassan – an illegitimate son who was also a servant, but was in many ways more like Baba than Amir was.
Later in the book the relationship between Soraya and her father General Taheri becomes important as well. As a girl the
independent Soraya had rebelled against her strict, traditional father.
Sohrab becomes the “son” figure of the latter part of the novel. We never see Sohrab and Hassan together, but it is
explained that Hassan was a good father before his death. The father/son relationship then becomes a principal part of
Amir’s redemption and growth, as he tries to become a father to Sohrab by rescuing him from Assef and adopting him. The
novel ends without a neat conclusion, but it does imply that Sohrab will begin to open up to Amir, and that Amir will
continue to find redemption in fatherhood.
Violence and Rape
Rape occurs several times in The Kite Runner as the ultimate act of violence and violation (short of murder) that drastically
changes the lives of both the characters and the country. The central act of the novel is Amir watching Hassan’s rape
by Assef. There are more peripheral instances of rape as well – it is implied that Kamal, one of Hassan’s tormentors, was
raped by soldiers, and Baba saves a woman from being raped by a Russian soldier. Both these examples link the theme
with the “rape” of Afghanistan by violence and war, beginning with the external Russian oppressors, then the bloody
infighting of different Afghan groups, and then the brutal Taliban regime.
The rape of Sohrab is never shown, but it reflects Hassan’s horror and his role as a “sacrificial lamb” – but with Sohrab,
unlike Hassan, Amir is finally able to stand up to Assef and prevent more violence. As Baba told the young Amir, the only
real crime is theft, and rape is a theft of safety and selfhood, the ultimate violence and violation, and in The Kite Runner this
brutality is inflicted upon both individual characters and the country of Afghanistan.
Memory and the Past
Throughout The Kite Runner, many characters are haunted by memories of the past. Amir is constantly troubled by his
memory of Hassan’s rape and his own cowardice, and it is this memory that leads Amir to his final quest for
redemption. Baba is also haunted by his past sins of adultery with Ali’s wife Sanaubar, and his memories cause him to be
both strict with Amir and charitable and selfless with his work and money. Sohrab then becomes another character
tortured by past traumas – his abuse at Assef’s hands – as he flinches when Amir tries to touch him, and attempts suicide
when he thinks Amir is going to abandon him.
There is also another kind of memory in the novel, which is nostalgia for good things. Amir remembers his good times with
Hassan as a child, and the old, beautiful Kabul before it was destroyed by war. These good memories bring sadness for
what was lost, but also hope for what could be.
The Persistence of the Past
All the characters in the novel feel the influence of the past, but none so much as Amir and Sohrab. In Sohrab’s case, his
past has been so traumatizing that it affects all his behavior. The prolonged physical and sexual abuse he endured makes
him flinch anytime Amir touches him. He also fears the abandonment he experienced when his parents died so much that
he attempts suicide when Amir says he may have to go back to an orphanage. For Amir, the past is always with him, from
the book’s first sentence, when he says he became what he is today at the age of twelve, to its final sentence. That’s
because Amir defines himself by his past. His feelings of guilt for his past actions continue to motivate him. Amir even feels
responsible for the Taliban murdering Hassan because he thinks he set in motion the events that led to Hassan’s death
when when he pushed Hassan and Ali out of Baba’s house. As he says on the book’s first page, the past can never be
buried.
Politics and Society
The movements of history are constantly interfering with the private lives of characters in The Kite Runner. The Soviet War
in Afghanistan interrupts Amir’s peaceful, privileged life and forces him and Baba to flee to America. After the fall of the
USSR, Afghanistan continues to be ravaged by violence, and when Amir does finally return to find Sohrab, the Taliban
regime rules the country with violent religious laws. It is the Taliban that give Assef an outlet for his sadistic tendencies,
and it is this political state that facilitates Amir’s final meeting with Assef and his redemptive beating.
Hosseini also critiques the sexism and racism of Afghan society throughout the book. Ali and Hassan are Hazaras, an ethnic
group that most Afghans (who are Pashtun) consider inferior, though Hosseini makes it clear that Hassan is Amir’s equal
and, in many ways, morally and intellectually superior. When Amir starts courting Soraya, both Hosseini and Soraya
comment on the double standard that Afghan society holds for women and men. Men are forgiven for being promiscuous
or flirting, but women will be shamed and gossiped about for life.
Male Friendship
The Kite Runner focuses nearly exclusively on male relationships. While the relationship between father and son is
important to the novel, male friendship is central as well. Amir’s relationship with Hassan is the most obvious example.
Though the two are constant companions, Amir’s superior social status causes a power difference between them, which is
later complicated when Amir learns that Hassan is actually his half-brother. Amir realizes that the favor Baba showed
Hassan was that of a father to a son, and he reflects on the way he let his jealousy corrupt his friendship with Hassan.
Despite this problematic dynamic, Hassan is clearly a wonderful friend, as demonstrated by his willingness to support Amir
even when it is difficult or dangerous to do so. This loyalty is evidenced most clearly by Hassan’s kite-running, and his
refusal to give Assef the kite he runs for Amir, resulting in Assef raping Hassan as punishment. Rahim Khan is another
important character for understanding male friendship in the novel. He is a friend to both Baba and Amir, and in those
relationships, he takes the role of pushing back against the questionable choices both men make. Rahim Khan can take this
role because he occupies the same social position as Baba and Amir. It is Rahim Khan who knows his friends’ innermost
secrets—that Baba slept with Ali’s wife and Amir allowed Hassan’s rape—and yet he does not lord these secrets over them,
instead choosing to be a voice of reason and call the other characters back to goodness. Rahim Khan’s morality is evident in
his phone call to grown-up Amir, in which he states “there is a way to be good again.” As a friend, Rahim provides Amir
with “a way to end the cycle” of betrayals and secrets.
Religion
The Kite Runner illustrates the many ways characters practice Islam, and how a single religion can take on starkly different
forms. Baba is not a religious man, and he openly mocks and questions the hypocrisy of Muslim leaders. Amir’s lack of
religious upbringing later serves him well when it allows him to look past Soraya’s sexual history in a way that other Afghan
men have been unwilling to do. On the other hand, Ali’s diligent recitation of daily prayers is depicted as honorable, and his
devout faith marks him as one of the most admirably humble characters in the novel. When Amir feverishly, almost
instinctively, starts praying after Sohrab’s suicide attempt, not only are the depths of Amir’s desperation revealed, but also
the latent influence of Ali’s faith. Religious zealotry is used by other characters to justify horrific acts of cruelty. Assef, who
becomes a Taliban leader, justifies his murder of Hazaras as “virtuous” and truly believes he is “doing God’s work.” Amir
witnesses Assef stone two adulterers to death, then discovers how he has turned Sohrab into his own child prostitute, all in
the name of Islam. Through this radicalized perversion of religion, Assef and the rest of the Taliban are able to carelessly
justify anything, while Baba and Amir—who, for most of the novel, have little or no religious identity—are burdened by
past mistakes that they must wrestle with.
Symbols
Kite
Kites are obviously an important image in The Kite Runner, and for Amir they act as symbols of both his childhood
happiness and his betrayal of Hassan. When he tries to remember something happy in the fuel truck, Amir immediately
thinks of his carefree days flying kites with Hassan. After Hassan’s rape, however, kites become a reminder of Amir’s
betrayal and guilt. In the novel’s political theme, kites represent Afghanistan’s “glory days” of the monarchy, as kite-flying
is later banned by the Taliban. At the end of the book Amir flies a kite with Sohrab, symbolizing hope for redemption for
both Amir’s sins and Afghanistan’s.
The Monster in the Lake
On the morning of the big kite-fighting tournament, Hassan tells Amir about a dream he had about the two of them at
Lake Ghargha. In the dream there is a huge crowd of people who are all afraid to swim because there is supposedly a
monster in the lake. Then Amir and Hassan jump into the lake and swim across, proving that there is no monster after all,
and the people cheer and rename the lake “Lake of Amir and Hassan, Sultans of Kabul.” Amir wonders if Hassan invented
the dream to cheer him up because of his nervousness, as Hassan later tells him “There’s no monster, just a beautiful day.”
The tragedy of this is that later that same day Hassan gets raped by Assef. There was a monster after all, but the novel
allows for several interpretations of just what the monster in the lake could be – Assef, Amir’s jealousy and desire
for Baba’s approval, or Amir himself.
The Cleft Lip
Hassan’s cleft lip is one of his most defining physical features, and a symbol of the economic and social disparity between
Hassan and Amir, as Ali doesn’t have money to pay for the surgery to fix the lip. It is Baba who ends up paying for the
surgery, where the cleft lip then becomes a symbol of Baba’s secret parental love for Hassan. At the novel’s
climax, Assef splits Amir’s lip in two with his brass knuckles, giving Amir a deformity much like Hassan’s. This symbolizes
that Amir has become something like Hassan at last – brave and willing to stand up for someone else – and so Amir can
find some redemption in the injury.
Discrimination in the Kite Runner
Discrimination is the cruel treatment a group or an individual is subjected on their race, religion, sex or caste. It kills
people’s ability and talent. It is an emotional sati, because it traumatises them emotionally and psychologically. It also
includes a wide range of acts, ranging of acts, ranging from social exclusion, unfair, verbal insult and physical assaults.
People are also discriminated for their illegitimacy. Discriminatory traditions, policies, ideas and law exist in many countries
of this world. Afghanistan too had this crucial practice. The two ethnic groups of Afghanistan are the Pashtuns and the
Hazaras. The conflict between Hazaras and the Pashtuns has been going from 16th century. The root cause of the conflict
cannot be directly traced back, but the historians tell that after the fall of the Mongolian Genghis Khan, many Mongolians
migrated to Afghanistan. Since the Pashtuns belongs to the Islamic subset of Sunnis, they persecuted the Hazaras who
belongs to the Shia, a significantly minor group. The Kite Runner describes Hassan is treated cruelly by their people.
Trauma in the Kite Runner

The impact of the violent events of unexpected rape by local bullies, war, loss of homeland, death of beloved ones, brutal
reign of the foreigners, discrimination, refugee crisis, guilt and abandonment triggers innocent individuals. The traumatic
memory of being coward and betrayal haunts Amir. He suffers from the trauma of guilt and shame.
Psychological distresses in afghan refugees are equal to the other studies with the populations. Afghans used to settle in
America and in other western countries, at an unprecedented rate with continued exposure to war. Many have not got any
mental support in Afghanistan. People have lost their rich culture and historical heritage. These things have become a
trauma to the Afghans in other countries. When they migrate, they don’t have a safe journey. Women have to face terrible
harassments. Inspite of all the danger people dare to cross borders for their life.
Refugee Life
The refugees are forced to live a congested and a poor life, no matter how rich and luxurious they were. The small
alleyways on the outskirts of the afghan are filled with trash and dirt winding between mud and brick compounds. The
bomb shelters of the people are not very safe for their health; they have more chances of getting disease due to the
unhygienic surroundings.
The majority of afghan refugees in United States didn’t leave their country by choice, but because of necessity. Those
refugees finds hard to get adapted to the new land and its culture especially they had difficulties with the language. The
refugees couldn’t find work; they had lack of social support. The sense of being aliens in an unwelcomed land is a barrier
for all their efforts. Among the educated refugees there were also illiterate refugees who are not literate in their own
language.
United States was not their first country of refugee. Many of them escaped the violence of their own country by moving to
Pakistan. For instance, Amir and Baba moved from Kabul to Jalalabad and from there they moved to America.
Like many other immigrants, Afghans tend to settle in areas where there are already a large number of their own ethnic
group lived. They earned to support their family, maintained their culture and traditional beliefs. They find hard to adopt
with other people in the country. Hence they happen to buy and sell products such as toys, old clothes etc. Few people like
General Taheri hope to return to their country one day. The pain and agony of the refugees were like, a parent who have
lost their child and have adopted the other. The trauma they carried from their homeland haunted them even in America.
They didn’t have a luxurious life as in their homeland. They lived in apartments, had second-hand cars, sold old products
and they had to adjust with the American foods. They didn’t have a Mosque or a Mullah to tell prayers for them. Their
living was based on the charitable funds offered by the American Government. Baba being a prestigious man refused the
funds and chose to live on his earnings.
The Power Relations in the Kite Runner.
The writer has employed many devices to manipulate the text of the novel, The Kite Runner, in favour of his objectives. The
research problem is to investigate how the writer employed the linguistic devices to influence the opinion of the readers by
constructing a particular reality in the said novel.
The Kite Runner deals with the issue of ethnic discrimination in Afghanistan. There is a particular example of the
relationship between Pashtuns and Hazaras. The writer presents another frame of division between Islamic
fundamentalists, like Amir’s teacher, Mullah Fatiullah Khan, and liberal Afghans like Baba. Baba’s words, in Chapter 3,
predict the future takeover of Afghanistan by the orthodox fundamentalists, the Taliban. Baba says: “God help us all if
Afghanistan ever falls into their hands.” The writer uses extremely harsh words for Mullah Fatiullah Khan and those like
him and declares them “self-righteous monkeys”
Point of view
The writer uses the first-person point of view in the novel. He makes readers feel as though they are experiencing
narrator’s personal feeling and thoughts about certain people or particular scenes. For example, when Amir attends the
inaugural ceremony of his father’s orphanage, he says that he “wished they’d all died along with their parents” (p.19), and
this personal emotion clearly reveals his strong desire for his father’s love and attention. The reader is made to feel that his
thoughts are flowing directly through the characters brain. It seems that the character and the reader are thinking in the
same direction. The first-person point of view deeply connects the emotions of the characters and the readers. In contrast,
the third-person point of view lets the writer keep distance and achieve some measure of objectivity.
Linguistic Devices
Another effective linguistic device that the author employs in the novel is the use of the register of Farsi words (Huckin,
1997). Throughout the entire novel, Farsi is woven in the plot naturally, especially in conversations. For example, Amir calls
his father “Baba (12) or Baba Jan (18)” instead of “dad” or “father,” but the reader is able to interpret these words by
context. The words such as “Inshallah” (36) or “Naan” (29) have also been used. It appears more natural to use Farsi in
conversation. It enhances informal level of the text (Huckin, 1997). This technique adds a realistic touch to the text.
Furthermore, most of the events occur in a foreign country where English is not the characters' native language. Therefore,
using Farsi in conversation seems more natural. As a result, this device gives the reader a much more vivid experience, as
though the reader has participated in the scenes and met the characters themselves.
Ommision or Deletion
In his novel, the writer has employed the linguistic device of omission or deletion to construct a particular realty with a
particular objective of representing ethnicity. The writer has framed the character of Assef as an embodiment of evil by
eliminating every positive trait of a human being. He is the main ‘Antagonist’ of the novel. Ironically, he has been presented
as a mixed product- his father is Afghan and his mother is German. It seems very awkward that an individual of mixed
origin has been presented as an advocate of Pashtun dominance over the Hazara. As a teenager, Assef is a bully and Amir
describes him as a ‘sociopath’. As a child, he commits.
the heinous action of raping Hassan and he gives Amir a biography of ‘Adolf Hitler’ as a birthday present. As an adult, he
joins the Taliban and has become like his ideal, Adolf Hitler. He feels pleasure in murdering innocent people in the name of
purity and supremacy. The writer presents Assef as a chain of heinous crimes. He raped Hassan in childhood, and he is now
raping and degrading Hassan's son.
A tool of Propaganda
Propaganda means to spread ideas or rumors to favour or disfavour a person or group of people. In the novel, The Kite
Runner, the writer paints a vivid picture of the Taliban as violent bodies responsible for all the wrongs in Afghanis. Assef
appears in pre-Taliban times as a symbol of evil and then emerges as a leading Talib. Before the regime of the Taliban,
Assef commits the crime of rape, and as a leader of the Taliban, compels Sohrab to dance to music for his enjoyment but
the Taliban has banned dancing and listening to music. Amir criticizes by saying, “I guessed music wasn't sinful as long as it
played to Taliban ears.” The writer shows that the Taliban's oppression of the Hazaras and the Shiites is not new. It is a
greatly intensified outcome of long-held discrimination. The writer frames the characters of the Taliban and the Hazara in
order to point out the nature of their power relationship as asymmetrical, unequal and empowering (Fairclough, 1995b).
The writer depicts one-dimensional characterization of the Taliban as stereotyped characters. He presents them as
inhumane and tyrannical. The novel has been written with the technique of first-person viewpoint. Amir is the narrator for
24 chapters, while Rahim Khan narrates the events of the past in only one chapter, chapter 16. Both narrators express only
their own personal experiences, and both paint a terrible picture of atrocities of Taliban. Decades later, Hassan's rape is
echoed by Sohrab's rape symbolically. One of the most striking references is of the stoning at Ghazi Stadium. This event
also symbolizes the devastation of Afghanistan as a whole, like the rapes of Hassan and Sohrab. Another very fierce event
is Amir's fight with Assef. In chapter 21, the reference of ‘Mullah Nasruddin’ is to laugh at plans of the Taliban.
The writer, with the help of linguistic devices, manipulates the text of the novel for the Propagation of the Western angle
of the Afghan issue. It is an effort to influence the readers and to justify the Western Agenda of international commitment
in Afghanistan. In the last scene of the novel, Sohrab's faint smile is an indication that he is secure and happy with his new
guardians (Van Dijk, 2005, 2006). The writer also uses powerful and multi-layered imagery with rich meanings. For
example, Sohrab hits Assef with slingshot fire. It is an appropriate image that shows the triumph of the weak and
depressed over the high and mighty.
In Chapter eleven, after the arrival of Amir and Baba in America, Amir explains that Baba loved ‘the idea of America’ very
much. He believes that the only valuable countries are America, Israel and Britain. Even though his support of Israel drew
allegations of his being anti-Islam from other Afghanis. Baba says: “There are only three real men in this world, Amir,” he’d
say. He’d count them off on his fingers: America the brash savior, Britain, and Israel. “The rest of them--” he used to wave
his hand and make a phht sound “--they’re like gossiping old women” (Ch.11).
In chapter 21, the writer presents a vivid picture of fundamentalism, extremism and intolerance of the Taliban. Amir
attends a soccer match at Ghazi Stadium. There is entirely different scene. The lush green playing field has now turned into
barren field with two deep holes behind the goalpost. The Taliban walk up and down the lanes. They whip anyone who
makes too much noise. During halftime, Amir knows the shocking reason for the two deep holes in the ground. They are to
be the graves of two accused adulterers. They shall be stoned in front of thousands of the people. A Talib announces to the
crowd that the ‘will of Allah and the word of the Prophet Muhammad’ said death by stoning is a just punishment for
adulterers. As Amir listens to this distortion of Islam, he recalls the words of Baba: "God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls
into their hands."
By narrating this incident, the writer makes the point that the Taliban are responsible for social inequalities and injustices.
They continue and legitimize their activities in the name of Islam (Van Dijk, 2005). The writer has tried to establish the idea
that the United States is an escape route from all of the problems. He feels that the United States is like an outlet from
injustice, cruelty and ethnicity. His attitude is negative throughout the whole story and uses the escape of Amir and Baba to
America as a symbol of change and a rout of emancipation. The writer is trying to justify that only America can play role in
the line of changing, amending and removing inequalities from the Afghan society (Van Dijk, 2006).
The writer very skilfully talks about dominant American culture in the country. Amir and Hassan like the Western movies,
American actors, especially John Wayne and Charles Bronson. They watch movies dubbed into Farsi. The boys spend their
money on imported snacks like rosewater ice cream and pistachios. Baba drives a black Ford Mustang, which is the same
car that the actor Steve McQueen has used in the American movie “Bullitt.” On the other side, Assef never speaks of these
things. He talks about purity of Afghanistan. Assef and his fellows demand not only ethnic purity but also cultural purity.
The purpose is domination of a pure Pashtun people and culture in Afghanistan. As a consequence, the influence of
American culture in Afghanistan will be eliminated, almost entirely, during the period that Amir calls the end of
Afghanistan.
Analysis of Hassan’s Tragedy in the Kite Runner from the Three-dimensional Ethical Perspective
A Deformed Family Ethic Order
Hassan, born with a cleft lip, was the son of Amir’s father and the wife of his servant, and abandoned by his biological
parents. His mother abandoned him and eloped with other man seven days after he was born for her own happiness, while
his biological father chose to abandon him for his honor. Hassan spent his childhood in the absence of maternal love, he
had not been able to experience his mother’s thoughtfulness and caring like other children. More sadly, he had to endure
the others’ jeers and insults for his mother’s scandal. On the face, hassan seemed to have never lost father’s love, but in
fact Ali was only the father in name, and Amir’s father was Hassan’s biological father. In the social context of the time,
Amir’s father could not acknowledge the fact that Hassan was his own son, because Hassan was born to the wife of his
servant Ali. To the Pushtuns, this immoral sexual relationship was an unforgivable sin. To protect his own reputation,
Amir’s father’s had to abandon Hassan. He was often bullied and ridiculed by people around him because he was at the
bottom of the society, but Ali couldn’t help it. Hassan would not have been bullied or humiliated if Ali had belonged to the
upper class like Amir’s father, or just a Pushtun. Unfortunately, Ali was also a Hazara at the bottom of society.
On the other hand, Hassan and Amir didn’t know about the dysfunctional family relationship. As a result, Amir could not
understand his father’s love and atonement for Hassan, his father’s indifference to him, which greatly aroused Amir’s
strong jealousy, especially when dad specially invited India cosmetic surgeon to sew cleft lip for Hassan, Amir even hope
himself have the similar blemish so that he could also get his father’s love. Thus it can be seen that Amir is eager for
father’s love. Moreover, in Amir father’s eyes, Hassan was brave and strong-willed unyielding like the Pashtuns, while Amir
liked writing poems and had a weak character, his father was full of dissatisfaction and indifference to Amir, he wanted to
cultivate Amir to love sports, strong-willed unyielding character. This unwholesome father-son relationship was so painful
for Amir’s young mind that he regarded Hassan for his father-loving enemy. Therefore, he tried to get Hassan out of his
house, Amir did not know that Hassan was his half-brother, and that his father was not just for his kindness, but for his
guilt.
In fact, Hassan’s tragedy was avoidable. If baba had dared to admit that Hassan was his own son, Hassan would have grown
up under his father’s umbrella. Firstly, Amir would not be unscrupulous and bully his half-brother. Secondly, Hassan would
not be left in the war, even if he had been killed by the Taliban, who had not been discriminated against by the Hazara.
Apparently, the estranged father-son relationship between Amir and baba led to Amir’s jealousy of Hassan, eventually
betraying Hassan, who was willing to sacrifice everything for him. And the invisible “father-son relationship” between baba
and Hassan was the most direct cause of Amir’s betrayal of Hassan, and the effect of this deformed family ethic on the fate
of the characters.
3. Ethnic and Ethical Order of Inequality
“The kite runner” is a novel based on Afghanistan, which illustrated the social changes in Afghanistan in the last 30 years,
while there was serious racial discrimination in Afghanistan. By writing the relationship between people in the novel, the
author had also revealed the complex ethnic relations in Afghanistan, namely the relationship between the Pashtun ethnic
group and the Hazara ethnic group. The Pashtuns were the main ethnic group in Afghanistan and had long dominated
political, economic, religious and military affairs, from the upper echelons of society. The minority Hazara, however, were
dominated by the people who belong to the lower class. In such an unequal ethnic ethical order, the Hazaras, as ethnic
minorities, were destined to be discriminated against and persecuted by Pashtuns.
In his novel, Assef was the face of Afghan nationalism. In his eyes, Afghanistan had always been the Pushtuns, and they
were the pure afghans. The Hazaras were aliens and should be cleared out of Afghanistan like garbage. In addition to Assef,
the novel mentions the soldiers who humiliated Hassan or the passers-by, especially the teachers of Amir. Clearly, the
Pashtuns’ racial discrimination was deep-rooted and difficult to eradicate. The Hazaras were often brutally treated by
Pashtuns, and they did not need a good reason to be killed. In particular, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, the more
extreme national policies were introduced, and the idea of an unequal national hierarchy became more specific and more
acute. This had brought greater misery to the Hazaras, and massacred Hazaras in 1998. In 2001, in retaliation for the long-
insubordination of the Hazara clan, the Taliban indiscriminately massacred nearly a thousand Hazara members in the
suppression of their armed rebellion.
Therefore, to see the social roots of Hassan’s tragedy, as professor Nie Zhenzhao said, “the ethical factors that influence
the fate of the characters should be analyzed in the social ethical position of the time. If it goes back to the context of
Afghan ethics described in the novel, it is not difficult to interpret the ethical reasons for Hassan’s tragedy.” In the novel,
Amir Hassan’s attitude and way, also reflected the social attitude and form of Hassan, because “Amir domestic inequality is
between nation inequality.” the idea of racial discrimination was born, and it had already taken root in the hearts of
Hassan and Amir. Grew up drinking milk of the same woman, living in the same place, because Hassan was a Hazara boy,
though loyal to Amir, never be regarded as a friend, because there was a racist barriers between them. The sense of
national superiority made him take it for granted that Hassan “would only be in the kitchen all his life, and he would dare
to criticize me? This Hazara was illiterate. Apparently, Amir seemed to play with Hassan often, and sometimes even to
soothe Hassan. In fact, he subconsciously placed Hassan at the bottom of the heap. On the face of it, Amir betrayed Hassan
in order to win recognition and approval from his father. In fact, the idea of racial discrimination is the primary cause of
Amir Hassan betrayal, and listen to the inner monologue Amir, “In order to win back my dad, maybe Hassan is must pay the
price, is I must kill the lamb,” because he “was just a Hazara, isn’t it?”.
Hassan didn’t complain about Amir’s treachery and framing, Hassan sacrificed himself to preserve narrow and selfish Amir
because he was bounded by the class and social ethics, which made him willing to bear everything in their own ethics and
class environment. As a result, Hassan had never shown any dissatisfaction with this unequal status, nor had he tried to
change his fate. When Assef was raging against Hassan, he was willing to sacrifice himself to help Amir achieve his father’s
approval. Hassan was again persecuted by racial discrimination in order to take care of the yard and return to Kabul. They
shot Hassan brutally for they thought the lower Hazaras like Hassan could not live in a house like the Amir’s .
There was no doubt that this inequality of the ethical order of the nation is a social cause of the tragedy destiny Hassan.
Hassan was a victim of Afghanistan’s ethnic tensions. His experience was a microcosm of many afghans and the vicissitudes
of Afghanistan’s half-century. It can be said that his tragedy is the tragedy of the whole Hazara and the Afghan society.
A Narrow Religious and Ethical Order
In “the kite runner”, in addition to ethnic relations, Hussein also showed readers the religious ties of the Afghan nation.
There was a serious ethnic hierarchy in Afghanistan, so did the religious sects. To some extent, religion had not only played
a leading role in the military, political and economic development of Afghanistan, but also had a significant impact on the
establishment of the social ethic order in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the dominant Pashtuns were devout Sunnis, they
claimed to be orthodox Islam, and ruled and dominated the political, economic and religious affairs of Afghanistan, while
the Hazaras were also ruled. As Amir mother described the history books “Pushtun had persecuted Hazaras, killed the
Hazaras hazard, and burned their home, sold their women, forced them to flee their homes. The book argued that the
Pushtuns persecute the Hazaras, partly because the former was Sunni Muslims and the latter were Shia. When Amir
showed his teacher with confusion, his teacher referred to the word Shia as if he were referring to a disease, and saw the
persecution of people by a narrow religious ethic.
Hassan was a dominant figure in both ethnic and religious relations. Hassan himself, from the bottom of his heart, accepted
the inherent inferior position, while Amir couldn’t treat Hassan as a friend. Ethnic and religious ethics were heavy chains
that held Amir and Hassan tightly. This subliminal religious hierarchy was also one of the social causes of the tragic fate of
Hassan.
In “the kite runner”, author Hosseini succeeded in portraying a narrow, selfish Amir, while also vividly portraying a brave
Hassan. The author’s real intention was not just to expose ethnic problems, religious relationship, but also to describe the
current life situation of the ordinary Afghans, and made the readers know Afghanistan. Though Hassan smart, kind, brave
and loyal, but still unable to escape the clutches of the traditional ethical order in Afghanistan, it served to show the
traditional rigid ethical spirit of the Afghan people suppressed and distorted. There was no doubt that the novel Hassan’s
tragic fate was the consequences of ethnic and religious contradictions intensified, but also the tragedy of the social ethics,
it was the Afghan society of traditional ethics order and spirit of the Afghan people thought suppression, caused Hassan’s”
tragedies.
Cultural Crisis in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner
He tries to sketch cultural hybridity of Muslim people in America. Because of the violence in the Afghanistan, some people
migrated to America where they faced many problems related to their cultural identity. Displacement, mimicry,
assimilation, transculturation, science and technology, cultural admixture, cultural diversity etc. play the role for loss of
cultural root. Identity less, rootlessness, diaspora, feeling of loneliness etc. make search for the cultural root in the book.
This novel presents the journey of Muslims to America and the memory of Muslim culture. The question arises like; why
they came to America? Why one migrant is unable to remain in pure cultural root?
America is a destination place for immigrants from many countries. Many immigrants stay in U.S for different reasons such
as studying, working, or running away from economic or politic crisis, religious conflict and warfare in their homeland. In
America, the immigrants come along with their original culture. However, they face many kinds of problems in the host
country; they realize that they are different with the local people, by having a different name, physical appearance, culture,
ethnicity, and religion among other things. Nevertheless, they have to adopt and develop in the host country. Religion and
color, namely complexity of conflict toward friendship and other conflicts that happen in Afghanistan during colonization
and post colonization era. It is very different with other writers that most of them tell about alienation, cultural shock, and
depression. Hosseini can open the eyes of the readers to know Afghanistan life truly which for a long time is closed from
outside. Hosseini wrote about Afghanistan before the Soviet war because that is largely a forgotten period in modern
Afghan history. For many people in the west, Afghanistan is synonymous with the Soviet war and the Taliban. Hosseini
wanted to remind people that Afghans had managed to live in peaceful anonymity.
Afghanistan officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country that is located in south Asia. Afghanistan is
a culturally mixed nation, a crossroads between the East and the West, and has been an ancient focal point of migration. It
has an important geostrategical location, connecting South Asia, Central Asia and Southwest Asia. In the 19th century,
Afghanistan became a buffer state in "The Great Game" played between the British Indian Empire and Russian Empire. On
August 19, 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war, the country regained full independence from the United Kingdom
over its foreign affairs.Since the late 1970s, Afghanistan has suffered continuous and brutal civil war, which included
foreign interventions in the form of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan, in
which the ruling Talibangovernment was toppled. Besides, many conflicts reveal namely internal conflict as pressure of
repression, ethnic conflict and interreligion conflict that become dominant conflict in Afghanistan society. The economy
has suffered greatly from the recent political and military unrest since the 1979 Soviet invasion and subsequent conflicts,
while severe drought added to the nation's difficulties in 1998–2001.
This history influences Hosseini to lead the writing of his first novel ―The Kite Runner‖. Because his memories of peaceful
pre-Soviet era, Afghanistan is as well as his personal experiences with Afghanistan‘s Hazara people.The Kite Runner reflects
condition of Afghanistan society that becomes major issues such as discrimination, racialism and identity. . The other
conflicts that appear internal conflict in Amir are ethnic conflict and inter-religion conflict in both of them. As we know, the
civil war in Afghanistan caused by ethnic conflict. Afghanistan is ethnically a very diverse country, namely Pashtun, Tajik,
Hazara, Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Baluch, and another small group.In this story, the main characters who undergone those
conflicts come from a Pashtun and a Hazara ethnic. The Pashtun is described as an ethnic group that has positive attribute
and exclusive, namely high social status, honorable, high class, good appearance and success men.
Besides, the Hazara has negative attribute, namely low social status, poor, low class, physical defect and low job such as
waiter, servant and beggar. In this case, the different background in both of them appears the issues of cultural
identitywhich Amir also keep his cultural identity until he lives in America. Based on the statement that Amir has internal
conflict based on the cultural identity, the writer is interested to analyze the issue of cultural identity in The Kite Runner.
This novel presents the different identities based on two separate ethnical positions, Hazara and Pashtun. These identities
are given meaning through thelanguage and symbolic through which they are represented. The writer will focus on the
main characters, Amir and Hassan. In this research, the writer wants to analyze the issue of cultural identity using the
concept of Stuart Hall‘s Cultural Identity.
The Two Distinct Identity Between the Half Brothers
Finally, Amir can solve his problem by departing for Afghanistan. He departs for Afghanistan with the situation is
dangerous, because of many foreign countries and militants enter to Afghanistan. He wants to bring a son of Hassan in the
orphanage in Afghanistan. His return to Afghanistan which the dangerous condition shows that Amir has internal conflict
deeply, so that, he wants to sacrifice himself to escape from his problems.
For Amir, Afghanistan is like two sides of a coin, namely hating and missing. Those matters melt to become one, namely his
willingness to atone his sin and wipe off his guilt. His trip to Afghanistan is to take a part from himself remained and to
wipe off all bad memories with a kindness, with rescue a half-nephew, Sohrab grandfather into his own household.
(Hosseini 2003, 21). After that, Baba never refers Ali as his friend in Baba‘s stories. However, in the winter of 1975, the
internal conflict which Amir envies toward Hassan happens in both of them that makes their cultural identity is different
(superior and inferior). Amir comes from the superior ethnic who always does everything to wipe Hassan off his life like
letting Hassan to become a victim of sexual harassment and accusing Hassan of stealing his watch and money. Besides,
Hassan comes from the inferior ethnic who always accept everything from the superior ethnic, Amir.
Their cultural identity is very strong that cannot be changed by anything. It can be seen when Hassan always gets the
cruelty from superior ethnic, especially from Amir. He cannot against what Amir does toward him. Hassan only accepts it
and Hassan also recognizes that he is just a Hazara. He is a minority ethnic group in Afghanistan Hassan identity is like his
father, Ali, as a Hazara and Shi‘a Muslim. The Hazara kinship is organized in lineages; descent is traced through the male
line. The male in specific area consider themselves descendants of common ancestor. I can still see Hassan up on the that
tree sunlight flickering through the leaves onhis almost perfectly round face, a face like a Chinese doll chiseled from
hardwood: his flat, broad nose and slanting, narrow eyes like bamboo leaves, eyes that looked, depending on the light,
gold, green, even sapphire
Besides, the Hazaras has attribute completely negative, like: low social, poor, low class, has defect in body such as Hassan
has harelip and Ali has leg polio, and only move in low job area likes waitress, beggar, and servant like Ali and Hassan as
servants. In addition, most Hazaras is illiterate like Hassan and Ali that cannot read the books, because they do not have
money to attend school. So, most Hazaras have been decided to illiterate the minute he had born. From that‘s description,
the people have stereotype for the Hazara ―Poor and illiterate‖. Because Hassan has negative attribute, the other boys
have epithet name to Hassan such as Flat-Nose, A loyal Hazara, Loyal as a dog. This case shows that Hassan is inferior that
always accepts everything from the other. Never mind any of those things. In the end I [Amir] was a Pashtun and he was a
Hazara, I [Amir] was Sunni and he was Shi‘a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing. (22) Amir recognizes his
identity as a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim. His identity cannot be changed by anything, because history is not easy to
overcome. Amir as a Pashtun is different with the other boys especially his servant, Hassan, a Hazara in physical
appearances, religion, ethnicity and personality. The differences make him as superior, better class in Afghanistan. Besides,
it can be seen from the different in his physical appearances with the other as in this quotation.
Discussion
Cultural Identity belongs to a particular ethnic group and how that influence one‘s feeling, perception, and behavior.
Cultural Identity is that part of a person‘s self-concept that comes from the knowledge and feelings about belonging to a
particular cultural group. From those definitions, it can be concluded that Cultural Identity is one‘s feeling belongs to
particular ethnic group. This matter also explains that sense of belonging is an important factor in forming identity.
Besides, the strength of our cultural identities involves the degree to which we see our culture as important in the way we
define ourselves. We tend to see our cultures as important in how we define ourselves. We are in another culture than
when we are in our own cultures. We are more aware of our cultural identities when we found ourselves in another culture
than when we are in our own culture. Addition, based on the problem that is Amir tries to apply his original culture
(Pashtun) in his host country (America) in his family like his father (Baba) wants his culture still exists although they are in
America.
Crisis is a term to describe a turning point in the course of anything; decisive or trouble a state of affairs involving, great
danger or trouble, often one which to result in unpleasant consequences. In this sense crisis refers to any event that is
going to lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community, or whole society. Crisis are
deemed to be negative changes in the security, economic, political, societal or environmental affairs, especially when they
occur abruptly, with little or no warning.Afghanistan is the land of many ethnic groups, which is why the country has so
many different cultures yet they are all call themselves proudly an Afghan.The culture of Afghanistan reflects its ancient
roots and position as a crossroads for invading ethnic groups and traditions.
The population of Afghanistan includes many different ethnic groups. Afghanistan has been disrupted over the past 25
years by civil wars, invasions, rule of the Taliban, and terrorist activities which have destroyed much of the country's
culture, family and tribal connections, thus creating hundreds of thousands of refugees. As a result, it becomes difficult to
discuss Afghanistan's culture as many of the traditions and ways of life have been ignored and overturned. However, family
and tribal life is resuming, refugees are slowly returning and being resettled, and some of the traditional patterns of life are
being re-established.
Afghanistan's ethnically and linguistically mixed population reflects its location astride historic trade and invasion routes
leading from Central Asia into South and Southwest Asia. While population data is somewhat unreliable forAfghanistan,
Pashtuns make up the largest ethnic group of the population, followed by Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Baluch,
and other small groups. Dari (Afghan Farsi) and Pashto are official languages. Dari is spoken by more than onethird of the
population as a first language and serves as a lingua franca for most Afghans, though Pashto is spoken throughout the
Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan. Tajik and Turkic languages are spoken widely in the north. Smaller
groups throughout the country also speak more than 70 other languages and numerous dialects. Afghanistan is an Islamic
country. An estimated 80% of the population is Sunni, following the Hanafi school of jurisprudence; the remainder of the
population and primarily the Hazara ethnic group predominantly Shi'a.
Despite the attempts during the years of communist rule to secularize Afghan society, Islamic practices pervade all aspects
of life. In fact, Islam served as a principal basis for expressing opposition to communism and the Soviet invasion. Islamic
religious tradition and codes, together with traditional tribal and ethnic practices, have an important role in personal
conduct and dispute settlement. Afghan society is largely based on kinship groups, which follow traditional customs and
religious practices, though somewhat less so in urban areas.Amir and Hassan have tradition according to Islam. In tenth day
of DhulHijjah, the last month of the Muslim calendar, and the first of three days of Eid Al Adha, or Eid-e-Qorban, as Afghans
call it-a day to celebrate how the prophet Ibrahim almost sacrificed his own son for God. Usually Amir, Hassan and their
fathers stand in the backyard to see this ritual every year. Besides, there are some customs in Eid Al-Adha such as divide
the meat in thirds, one for the family, one for friends, and one for the poor. Then, the other custom is to not let the sheep
see the knife and feed the animal a cube of sugar to make death sweeter. (Hosseini 2003, 67). Besides on Eid, three days of
celebration after the holy month of Ramadhan, Kabuli dressed in their best and newest clothes and visited their families.
People hugged and kissed and greeted each other with Eid Mubarak. Happy Eid. Children opened gifts and played with
dyed hard-boiled eggs. In this moment, Hassan gets the gifts from Baba and he plays together with Amir.
In Afghanistan, yelda is the first night of the month of Jadi, the first night of winter, and the longest night of the year. As
was the tradition, Amir and Hassan used to stay up late, their feet tucked under the kursi, while Ali (Hassan‘s father) tossed
apple skin into the stove and told them ancient tales of sultans and thieves to pass that longest of nights. Besides, if the
people ate watermelon in the night of yelda, they wouldn‘t get thirsty the coming summer. In addition, yelda was the
starless night tormented lovers kept vigil, enduring the endless dark, waiting for the sun to rise and bring with it their loved
one. (Hosseini 2003, 125) Afghans display pride in their religion, country, ancestry, and above all, their independence. Like
other highlanders, Afghans are regarded with mingled apprehension and condescension, for their high regard for personal
honor, for their clan loyalty and for their readiness to carry and use arms to settle disputes. As clan warfare and internecine
feuding has been one of their chief occupations since time immemorial, this individualistic trait has made it difficult for
foreign invaders to hold the region. Afghanistan has a complex history that has survived either in its current cultures or in
the form of various languages and monuments. However, many of the country's historic monuments have been damaged
in recent wars. The two famous statues of Buddha in the Bamyan Province were destroyed by the Taliban, who regarded
them as idolatrous.
Cultural Crisis is one of the most used term in postcolonial studies. It commonly refers to an incident that leads to a
dangerous situation, affecting individual and society as a whole. Since culture has a varied connotation varying from
personal to the collective frame of life, cultural crisis may also appear in different fields like education, politics, human
resource management etc. Muslims were migrated to America from Afghanistan. The domination make compelled to
Muslim to escape to the U.S.A. Holocaust was a very pathetic for Muslims. They had pain for the loss the native culture but
living alive became more important for them. So, they moved to foreign land.
When they came to America, they cannot stay untouched from foreign culture. They had a fear of loss of culture. The
period of long time, open easy culture, freedom and lack of continuation make them accept the foreign culture. Migration
is forceful or voluntary. This is not a natural process, but one in which great efforts need to be made, sometimes in an
effort to maintain one‘s own culture, but also with regard to the host society. In other words, these migrants differ in their
cultural and religious backgrounds, in their migrations, and the extent to which they adapt to local societies.
The process of globalization include massive migrations and relocations, thus challenges the traditional concept of nation-
state and opening up borders and boundaries. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin view in The Post-Colonial
Studies Reader that the transitional movement of goods, information, and bodies, we need to reconsider the effects of
relocation, displacement, and the transition between cultures and how these things affect the construction of identity.
Ashcroft believes that the issues of started to be important after the experience of the colonial invasion: A major feature of
the post-colonial literature is the concern with place and displacement. It is here that the special post-colonial crisis of
identity comes into being; the concern with the development or recovery of an effective identifying relationship between
self and place. A valid active sense of self may have been eroded by dislocation, resulting from migration, the experience of
enslavement, transportation, or voluntary removal for indentured labour.
Ashcroft ‘s view is that identity concerns with the place. Displacement brings identity crisis. Mutual connection of the both
cultures, Muslims are ambivalent. Both cultures are basically different but mutual connection between them it seems one
contradictory but comfortable.
Reading namaj is the key part of their culture which they have forgotten to recite properly. They have the illusion in the
faith towards Allah. They have settled in the country where eating pork and celebrating Christmas is common. But these
practices are against Muslim culture. Migration, displacement and dislocation play the role of learning different kind of
culture. So, assimilation, acculturation, mimic, of different cultures and celebration of native culture together goes cultural
hybridity. On the one hand, it is the opportunity to adopt higher culture. On the other hand, it is the possibility of loss of
native culture. Mimicry plays the of cultural hybridity and loss of culture. There is compulsory to adjust with various ethnic
groups from different countries. They spent their life as Americans. They have dreams of America to be rich, intelligent,
transcendental and rational. They don ‘t believe on superstitious belief on god and religion.
The message behind the very ending could be interpreted differently by different readers, it offers a small sense of hope
for both the future of its characters, and perhaps for war-torn Afghanistan as well. While this has meant increased
government surveillance and hostility, 9/11 has also opened up a new space for Muslims to distance themselves from
foreign influences and stake their claim as full-fledged Americans. Attempts to define a uniquely American brand of Islam,
however, in fact began twenty odd years ago as immigrants from Muslim countries who arrived in the mid-1960s
increasingly began to think of the US as home. This novel focuses on Muslim American selfperception and self-
representation.
Integration of Muslims into America and their encounter with the Americanized Muslim brand.
On the eve of the lifting of the 1965 quota laws that paved the way for Muslims to become a major immigrant group to the
United States, American Muslims were for the most part descendants of the small numbers of immigrants from the
Ottoman Empire and the Middle East who had arrived during the great immigration wave of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. These descendants followed a process of integration and acculturation not different from that of the
much larger numbers of Poles, Italians, and Eastern European Jews who arrived during the same period. It was in the 1950s
and early 1960s, when identification with a religious community was increasingly designated as a necessary component of
Americanism that the first wave of mosque-building began in the United States. It was their children‘s questions about
their own religious heritage, the founders of these early mosques often recall, that provided the necessary spark for the
creation of mosques in those communities with enough Muslims to support them. These early mosques were intended first
and foremost as a vehicle of integration into American society and adapted to American social and cultural norms of the
day. Men and women, often with uncovered heads, prayed together more often than not, and mixed-gender events for
young people, including Halloween parties and Valentine‘s Day dances took place regularly in the social hall of the mosque
basement.It was in 1965, when the quota system privileging immigrants from Northern Europe was lifted, that these small
Muslim communities began to be overwhelmed by a much more substantial wave of Muslim immigrants from Southern
Asia and the Middle East.
The ideological orientation and demographic profiles of these new immigrants were very different from those of the first
wave. The first post-1965 arrivals were students and young professionals from India and Pakistan. Most of them, especially
those who were religious in orientation, planned on returning home once their education was completed. As a result,
integration into American society was initially not an issue of communal concern. Furthermore, these immigrants had been
influenced by the Islamic revival of the post-Colonial era, and the religiously inclined among them tended to think of the
West as ―dar el harb‖ (the land of war), a place where Islam could never take root and flourish. The influence of this ―re-
Islamization‖ of the Muslim world was even stronger in the 1970s and 1980s, as immigration from Southern Asia and the
Middle East became more important. During this era, dubbed by one scholar of the contemporary Islamic world as the age
of the ―the ascendancy of Islamic ideologies,‖ a wide variety of competing religious and socio-cultural movements-from
the Islamic Brotherhood to Saudi Arabian Wahabism and advocates of the brand of political Islam that formed the
ideological basis of the Iranian Revolution—promoted Islam as a moral and ethical system that stood in contrast to
degenerate Western values and hence provided the answer to rebuilding a strong, independent post-colonial Muslim
world. The influence of these cultural paradigms meant that those new immigrants who actively identified with Islam were
often shocked by the Americanized brand of Muslim culture that they found upon their arrival. The small existing
MuslimAmerican communities often came into conflict with these new arrivals, and the newcomers‘ much stronger
numbers meant that their own conservative, assertive brand of Islam soon prevailed. The fact that Muslims began arriving
in the United States in substantial numbers during the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, when parental control
over teenagers was loosening, recreational drugs became popular, and taboos against pre-marital sex were falling away,
also created a larger gap between behaviours deemed acceptable for young people in the United States and traditional
cultural and sexual norms in the Muslim world. 
Ethnicity and Racism in the Kite Runner.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity is in fact the cultural differences that exist among people of a nation. Thus, ethnicity could be called cultural
identity. Hence, it is culture that plays a role in division of people into different groups since people’s cloths, rituals, and
even morals are structured by it. These cultural objects are materials like costumes and cloths or nonmaterials like
language and customs. Generally, ethnic group is characterized by Yinger as: A segment of the larger society whose
members are thought, by themselves and/or others, to have a common origin and to share important segments of a
common culture and who, in addition, participate in shared activities in which the common origin and culture are
significant ingredients
Racism
Race is said to be the biological heritage which is disclosed in the form “physical features, gene pools, and character
qualities” [5] and is transmitted through generations. Although communities and cultures are different, results of racism
which are oppression, repression, discrimination, and exclusion are alike. In accord with, as assumed by Gordon W. Allport:
“Civilized men have gained notable mastery over energy, matter, and inanimate nature… But, by contrast, we appear to be
living in the Stone Age so far as our handling of human relationships is concerned”
Consequently, Racism is divided into two types; one is the racist behavior of the powerful countries against the colonized
countries and the other is the conflicts and challenges among the ethnical groups in whether the colonized or colonizer
countries that this type is mostly recognized as ethnicity [7]. For decades, Afghanistan which is a racist and ethnocentric
country has been suffering from foreign interventions e.g. attack from Soviet Union in 1979 and also internal conflicts and
wars including the period of Taliban rule over Afghanistan who were a severe racist group that vastly killed minority ethnic
groups in Afghanistan like the Hazara.
The Idea of Race and Ethnicity as a Social Construct and not inherent factors of superiority.
There have been various discussions and definitions on the topic of racism. The notion of race has often been challenged
and there are different and sometimes unfavorable ideas on this subject. From the cultural point of view and as said by
John Arthur in Race, Equality and Burdens of History racism is the way in which individuals exhibit their concealed and
open attitudes toward people in community [2007]. Scientifically, race is defined as “an arbitrary selection of identification
of specific physical or biologically transmitted characteristics” [3]. There is also an idea that genetically all people in every
part of the world share the same origin [9]. In this regard, a tall blonde blue-eyed person would share some genetic
structure with a short black person. Regardless of all these definitions, it can be said that race is a socially constructed
concept that segregates people into different groups and in spite of the fact that these divisions are not true by nature;
people’s social and economic place in society is influenced by them. The belief that one specific group is superior to the
other groups due to its biological features has got an ideology that illuminates this point that some people owing to their
physical and facial differences with other people are incapable to do the bests in their life and thus they should always
obey their superiors in order to have a good living for themselves. Thus, culture acts as an ideology that is based upon a
sort of false consciousness that plans to tyrannize and dictate a group of people [10]. This ideology affects people’s way of
living and stops the unprivileged social and cultural progression and sometimes leads them to the slavery. For instance,
when children are given such socio-cultural identities as a “Hazara”, they are fixed into a concept which is by no means
natural, and it is instead only a socio-cultural construct that limits their physical and cognitive freedom to become who
they want to be as adults [11].
In the late 1700s and early of 1800s, the discussion of human difference was centered on the subject of race. During
colonization of the European nations in Asian and African countries, Europeans used their whiteness supremacy to rule
over the colonized people. Among them was Darwin who in the Norton Critical editions illustrated that people with specific
body types and color skins are from “barbarous races” that lack incapability to work, receive education, and etc.
Ethnicity as a Social construct with its actual roots in natural resources and Geographical locations
In a general outlook, the difference between ethnicity and racism is that racism is based on the biological classifications
while ethnicity reveals cultural identity of a group of people with the same nationality. Within these ethnic groups lie
various types of cultures; diverse types of clothing, different religions, unlike languages and accents, and so on. They are
also different from one another in terms of socioeconomic position, geographic location, and etc. In most societies, several
social ranking organizations do exist simultaneously. Some classify people by their racial or ethnic group, whereas others
rank people by their gender, age, or class position and each ranking system has its different social classes; rewards,
privileges, and such inequality continue from one generation to the next. Likewise, in The Kite Runner the working system
is based on the ethnical classification. Mostly, it is the Pashtuns that run the country and have the power in their hands and
Hazaras are just common slaves of them.
Discussion
Since Afghanistan is an ethnically assorted nation, the objective of the present research is to study the racist and ethnic
views among Afghans in the Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner. The text is analyzed and interpreted by using
Feagin’s argument on the human difference with the individuals’ role in construction of this notion in society. This idea is
rejected by Feagin that some specific groups because of their physical and biological are distinguished from others and
according to him such definitions that are said to be based on the scientific observations are not true and real and they are
actually far from close scientific observation. These artifact definitions are considered by Feagin to be based on the popular
beliefs that gradually formed in the 16th till 19th century. The following explanations and analyses are provided to give an
obvious picture of ethnicity views in Afghanistan.
Bias on the basis of Race and Ethnicity.
In the small country of Afghanistan where its population till 2009 was approximately 28 million people, there are many
ethnic groups like Tajiks, Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Baluchi, and Turkoman. Accordingly, Afghanistan is defined as “a
country comprised of various groups with differing cultural traits, including language, religious practices, physical
appearance and attire, and customs…” [13]. The plot and events of the novel The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini,
is set in Afghanistan and America and is around the two groups of Pashtuns and Hazara that are respectively the majority
and minority ethnic groups in Afghanistan, who respectively include 46% and 9% of population of Afghanistan. Besides, the
term “majority” refers to the extensive number of Pashtuns in Afghanistan, it also implies their power, influence, and
wealth in this society. In contrast, while the term “minority” discloses the low number of Hazaras, it also reveals lack of the
economic, political, and social power and influence faced by certain groups (Hazaras) and as a result exclusion from a
positive participation from social, political and generally full participation in community. It is said by Amir in the novel that
Hazaras were deeply oppressed by Pashtuns. They were killed by Pashtuns and forced to get out of their lands and homes
and were considered as Pashtuns’ slaves. “The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their
lands, burned their homes, and sold their women.” [14]
Pashtuns had many reasons for their violent behavior. One of their justifications was that Afghanistan was ruled by
Pashtuns since the establishment of the Durrani Empire in 1747 [15]. In the past, Afghanistan was a region of the Persian
Empire. When in the 18th century the king of Persia announced that all people must convert to Shism, Pashtuns who lived
in the south of Afghanistan, opposed this edict and eventually attacked Kabul and soon with the leading of Durrani they
gained the control of Afghanistan. Hazaras were a small group in the central territory of Afghan state that were thought to
be from the Mongolian race and as Amir says: “they were Mongol and that they looked a little like Chinese people.” [16].
The Hazaras arrived in Afghanistan in the 13th and 14th century and when they rebelled against the oppression of the
Pashtuns in the 19th century, they were repressed by the Pashtuns and thus excluded from many social rights including the
right for receiving education. This point has also been mentioned in the novel by Amir
School textbooks barely mentioned them and referred to their ancestry only in passing. Then one day, I was in Baba’s
study, looking through his stuff, when I found one of my mother’s old history books... and was stunned to find an entire
chapter on Hazara history. An entire chapter dedicated to Hassan’s people! In it, I read that my people, the Pashtuns, had
persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. It said the Hazaras had tried to rise against the Pashtuns in the nineteenth century,
but the Pashtuns had quelled them with unspeakable violence [14].
Another big reason was that the populated Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims and the minority Hazaras were Shi'a Muslims.
This subject alone made Hazaras more secluded in society and for this reason they sometimes were offended by Sunni
Muslims of Afghanistan. An example of this is when Amir is justified by his teacher in this way:
The following week, after class, I showed the book to my teacher and pointed to the chapter on the Hazaras. He skimmed
through a couple of pages, snickered, handed the book back. “That’s the one thing Shi’a people do well,” he said, picking
up his papers, “passing themselves as martyrs.” He wrinkled his nose when he said the word Shi’a, like it was some kind of
disease. [14]
Moreover, the US Department of State country report on Afghanistan for 2012, in a part titled “National/Racial/Ethnic
Minorities”, illustrates: "Ethnic tensions between various groups continued to result in conflict and killings. For example, in
November riots occurred at Kabul University after Sunni students tried to prevent ethnic Hazara students from observing
Shiite religious practices.
Additionally, Hazaras were mocked and insulted by Pashtuns for the form of their eyes and generally their face, the subject
that severally was repeated in the novel by the author, especially in the first parts of the novel. One instance for such
behaviour is when Amir says: "It also said some things I did know, like that that people called Hazaras mice-eating, flat-
nosed, load carrying donkeys. I had heard some of the kids in the neighborhood yell those names to Hassan" [14].
From the above lines it is understood that Pashtuns misused the history and the facial difference between themselves and
Hazaras so that they could run and control the country. It is recognized by Feagin that from 1400s to the early 1900s the
power handlers used the racist ideology and brought colonial exploitation to more than 80% of the world. Many of the
ideological frameworks for Feagin such as the racist frameworks “are typically created, codified, and maintained by those
at the top of society, although this construction takes place in ongoing interaction with the views and practices of ordinary
citizens” [8].
Like what Feagin says about the foundation of human difference by people themselves, the Afghan society with a false and
unreal representation of Hazaras as some stupid and cockeyed souls, conducted by Pashtuns, was convinced that other
Afghan ethnic groups in Afghanistan are biologically different from each other and Mongolian Hazaras are not equal with
other Afghans at all. In The Kite Runner, almost all non-Hazara characters, consciously or unconsciously, have accepted the
negative labels stuck to Hazaras, even Amir who befriends Hassan is strongly under proclamations of these tags. One
example for this situation is when Amir was apparently reading a book for Hassan but in fact he was making some
sentences offhand and he enjoyed himself when he saw that Hassan was excited for the stories of the book.
All these justifications made Pashtuns think of themselves as superior to the Hazaras and behave toward them violently. In
the novel, Amir and Hassan are represented as the two opposite pillars of the same society; the wealthy and the poor,
Sunni and Shi’a, Pashtun and Hazara, powerful and the feeble. One significant point about the novel is that from the very
beginning of the story the theme of ethnicity and racism is announced by the protagonist of the novel: I became what I am
today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching
behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek [14].
Here, Amir is referring to the time when Hassan was raped by a group of teenage Pashtun guys who were against the
Hazara ethnic group. By referring to the sexual violence at the start of the story, the severe condition of Hazaras in
Afghanistan and the negative acts of Pashtuns toward Hazaras is divulged by the author. Such a beginning foreshadows the
place of ethnicity thoughts in the minds of characters of the story. At the end of this chapter, the theme of ethnicity
through Amir’s clarification is reemphasized by the author: “I thought of the life I had lived until the winter of 1975 came
and changed everything. And made me what I am today” [14]. This matter is also expressed by Feagin who notes that both
the performers of racist acts and its recipients are alienated by these systems of racist relations. He keeps on saying that
racism separates people from each other, superior and inferior race, and makes them to be in struggle with each other;
one tries to hold its unjustly standing in society and the other is in attempt to conquer the oppression of the privileged race
or ethnic group and this struggle hinders both groups from development of common consciousness [8].
Although Amir and Hassan were grown together and no one was so much close to them, Amir never displayed his feelings
toward Hassan since his unconscious mind was filled with the words that were based on the human differences and
superiority of Pashtuns over Hazaras. Similarly, Amir’s father in spite of his flexibility toward Hazara people showed a
different manner of himself toward Hazaras:
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 ……. 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 [14].
These lines also expose the strong racist and ethnic relations in Afghanistan and that even if the powerful individuals want
to have a more positive attitude to the minority ethnic groups, the society prevents them to do so, therefore this ethnic
view in the community of Afghanistan acts as “torture” for both the superiors and inferiors, accordingly in The Kite Runner
it torments both Amir and Hassan, respectively the representatives of Pashtun and Hazara ethnic groups.
Another scene that portrays Amir’s acceptance of his dominance and authority over Hassan and other Hazaras is when
Assef and his friends, who are all Pashtuns, through the ignorance of Amir find this opportunity to rape Hassan. In addition,
at the hospital in a dream Amir is reminded by Assef that they are both two Pashtuns who had the same reaction toward
Hassan: “We‘re the same, you and I. You nursed with him, but you‘re my twin” [16]. Assef did not make any difference
between Amir and himself; both of them were Pashtuns and from wealthy families and both committed the same act;
Hassan was raped by Assef and with the Amir’s silence he was supported. Thus this fact is disclosed that although Amir was
aware of the violent act of Assef, he was just a viewer and did make any attempt to help Hassan.
Assef is also a character that strongly desires the elimination of the Hazara from Afghanistan. He is a German-Afghan guy
that is exactly what John Arthur says about racist people. Assef with blue eyes and blonde hair holds “attitudes [that]
include unjustified hostility toward a racial group” [18]. He strongly dislikes Hazaras and some sort of sense of violence
could be seen in his behavior toward them. His hate toward Hazaras is derived from the past when some Germans were
sent to Afghanistan by Hitler and especially to Nuristan where its people had blue eyes and blond hair [19] since these
Germans due to their facial appearance did not approve to be from Aryan origin, the matter that was important for Hitler.
In The Kite Runner, Assef is determined to remove all the Hazaras from the region of Afghanistan and actually it is as a
mission for him since Afghanistan was the ground of the Pashtun people and Pashtuns were the real Afghans and the true
heirs of it. Assef also blames Amir and his father, Baba, and calls them “a disgrace to Afghanistan” [14] for their support of
Hassan and his father because they are Hazaras. In adulthood, Assef joins Taliban, who were mostly Pashtuns, in order to
fulfill his mission. He tells Amir that "Afghanistan is like a beautiful big house that was filled with garbage (Hazaras)" [16]
and it is his duty to remove the garbage. All these lead him to kill many Hazaras in Hazarajat, the hometown of Hazara
ethnic group, in a massacre that was arranged against the Hazaras. For Assef this massacre is an honor and Amir to him is a
traitor who escaped from his country and left it for Hazaras.
In spite of all the points that were mentioned about the harsh presence of ethnicity and conflicts of some ethnic groups
like Pashtun and Hazara and violent acts of some persons like Assef toward Hazara, there are several signs in the novel The
Kite Runner that reveal the fact that these quarrels can be solved in the Afghan society and Afghanistan can be changed to
a united country. One big example of it is the friendship of Amir and Hassan, one from Pashtun and the other from Hazara
ethnic group and their reciprocal sacrifices; Hassan in his childhood helps Amir over and over at the expense of being raped
by Assef and his friends and Amir in his adulthood proves his sacrifice spirit when he goes back to Afghanistan and rescues
Sohrab, Hassan’s son, at the cost of having a mortal and fatal quarrel with Assef and going to the death edge. Thus, it
cannot be judged that the conflicts struggles between ethnic groups in Afghanistan are the outcomes of racism and
ethnicity, though they have roles in this course, they are not the main reasons.
Conclusions.
According to the definition of racism and ethnicity, it could be concluded that racism is more a social construct than a
biological difference which roots in acts of some groups of people that use their facial preference to obtain their goals.
Racism has negative outcomes with itself and its most important destroying product is exclusion from social participation
and at last exclusion from all human rights that includes the other negative effects of racist outlook like oppression,
discrimination, and as a result imbalance in society. Majority of ethnic groups with having money and power in their hands
provokes wrong attitudes toward minority ethnic groups and try to take control the society, fix their position in society,
and destroy whoever they dislike. They use the misconception of human difference that was created between 16th and
19th centuries to prove that they are superior to other people. In The Kite Runner, the novel written by Khaled Hosseini,
the subject of racism and ethnicity is thoroughly conspicuous and perceptible in the early parts of the book when Amir and
Baba are in Afghanistan and in the chapters that are related to the dominance of Taliban in Afghanistan. The unfair
behavior of Pashtuns including Baba and Amir is detailed by Amir himself throughout the novel and the severe and terrible
actions of Taliban toward Hazaras who are immediately killed whenever they encounter with a Taliban member is
explained by him. As it was mentioned before, the idea of human difference was not accepted by Feagin who believed that
facial or biological differences do not indicate that some people are superior to other people and thereby they should not
impose their power over other people. Accordingly, in the novel The Kite Runner, Pashtuns are noteworthy in this case by
whom the Hazaras’ appearance is mocked and they are mostly positioned as slaves of Pashtuns who are not respected by
the community of Afghanistan.
A Study of Amir’s Psychological Change in The Kite Runner
From Mistrust to Doubt
In infant stage and early childhood stage, children need to get enough love and care from their parents to help themselves
develop their sense of trust. They need to learn how to view the surrounding environment in a positive way. However, as a
kid, Amir did not receive enough care from his father in his infancy and early childhood stage. He lost his mother as soon as
he was born. As his mother died, his father hired a nurse to take care of him. In most of time, his father almost just focused
his own business, politics and soccer, failing to spend sufficient time accompanying his son. As a result, Amir developed a
sense of mistrust to the surroundings.
Children in toddler stage need to get familiar with the environment and learn to connect themselves with this world.
However, his father was indifferent to Amir and did not make him feel fatherly love or care, which led Amir even
sometimes to blame himself for causing his mother’s death. In his opinion, his father’s indifference to him is because of his
loss of wife, and he was the killer for killing his father’s princess. Besides, when Amir confronted with his father’s refusal
and indifference, he had difficulties trusting his father. When he wanted to sit with his daddy, his daddy would prevent him
from getting into the room and say “This is grown-ups’ time”. Then he would shut the door, leaving Amir alone. Then Amir
would sit at the door for one hour or two hour, listening to their talk and laughter.
His father’s indifference made him doubt his own identity. He was always afraid that his daddy would be taken away and
thought his daddy loved Hassan better than him. So when his daddy wanted to bring Hassan and him to the lake to play,
Amir lied to him that Hassan had something to do. All of this was a reflection of his desire for love. He wanted to talk more
with his daddy, but at the same time, he usually thought his daddy hated him. This revealed his self-doubt. Amir’s father,
from his point of view, wanted Amir to become a brave person and be good at soccer. This also made Amir fail to finish his
growth to the next development stage. In conclusion, Amir did not accomplish the task of these two stages----developing a
sense of trust and autonomy in his infant stage and toddler stage.
From Guilt and Inferiority to Jealousy
According to Erikson’s theory, from pre-school age to school age, children are learning to master the surroundings. In this
stage, they need to learn to develop initiative and independence with parental encouragement and support. If they find
their parents’ demands are difficult to meet, they would feel guilty. When Amir was in this stage, he found himself unable
to meet his father’s requirements to become good at soccer and brave enough to defend himself. He developed a sense of
guilt about himself. He found it hard to get his father’s attention so that he chose aggressive behaviors, such as throwing
pebbles to hit neighborhoods’ windows or climbing trees. Each time when he was discovered by Ali, he would say it was
Hassan who did it. When he did something wrong, he learned irresponsibility rather than initiative.
In addition, during school stage, children’s confidence is of great importance for their future development, and they begin
to find their real interests. If they receive parents’ recognition and encouragement, they would take efforts to accomplish
their tasks and keep persistence. When he was ten years old, Amir became interested in reading and writing. However,
when he went to show his father the story he wrote, his father just looked at him and did not offer his time to read it. This
made Amir feel being treated with indifference. In this stage, he should have been encouraged to pursue his interest by
doing more activities. However, he developed a sense of inferiority because of the lack of support from parents.
Children in this stage can easily be influenced by the attention of their caregivers. In his inner world, Amir was eager for his
father’s love and care. It is his father’s indifference that made him keep inferiority for a long time, which became even
stronger when he found his father loved Hassan as if better than him. Wrong psychological feeling led to his jealousy of
Hassan. When his father claimed that he would give a harelip surgery as a gift for Hassan’s birthday, Amir was firstly
surprised. He thought it was not worthy to give a servant such a gift, thus he became jealousy. Actually, such kind of feeling
was kept for a long time and became stronger as he grew up. For himself, years of longing for love had made him sensitive.
Even a little love from his father left him exult or jealousy. He could have been brave to rescue Hassan when Assef raped
Hassan, but he did not. In his mind, getting his father back need some sacrifice, so he chose to be coward and indifferent.
Such a betrayal was not only because of his cowardice but also because of his jealousy of Hassan. That was also the reason
why he slandered Hassan, claiming Hassan had stolen his money and watch. And this behavior led to Hassan’s departure.
From Self-accusation to Role Confusion
According to Erikson’s theory, children’s development of each stage can have huge influence on their next stage. After his
betrayal to Hassan, Amir led a life full of self-accusation. He could never forget the scene in which he looked through
himself and found his cowardice. He crouched behind the wall, peeking into the alley and later he found himself peeking it
for twenty-six years. When a choice is made, from that moment on, people begin to walk on the road of accepting its
consequence. No matter how much they regret, they have to take it on their own shoulder. After Hassan’s departure, Amir
owned all the love of his father. However, he can not get rid of such guilt, being accusing himself whenever he thought
about that day and his life with Hassan. When he had to leave Afghan with his father, he thought of Hassan. He hoped
Hassan was still there to accompany him. But at the same time, he knew it was impossible.
After they had arrived in the USA, they need to build their new life on their own. So at this time, Amir need to made clear
that who he was and what he could do for his family. The USA was totally a new place for him, and his father was no longer
like a strong model for him. People in adolescence stage need to connect themselves to the society where they can figure
out who they are and build a sense of themselves. However, Amir in this stage faced a role confusion. His life in Afghan was
carefree and without any worry about life. But in the USA, they need to make their own living. So when he faced this
situation, he did not know what he can do for improving their life.
From Being Willing to Love to Devotion
In early adulthood, people tend to end their role confusion and begin to blend into the society. Once they have established
their identities, they can be prepared to love and make commitments. In this stage, Amir gradually became aware of his
own identity and became more mature. When his father had conflicts with others, he would make the right choice to
maintain their friendly relationship with surroundings. In addition, he eventually became firm that he would major in
English writing and become a writer. From this point, it can be seen that he had found his dream and learned how to live
with his father in a right way. Besides, in the USA, Amir met Soraya and fell in love with her. Even when he got to know her
past, he accept it. And this time, he learned to love and understand others. When his father got a cancer, he gradually
understood him and tried to pray for him. He also learned to give his love to surroundings. When there were so many poor
people and his father wanted to kill sheep to help them, Amir stopped him and told him to give them money instead of
killing livestocks.
The early adulthood stage is generally from twenty to thirty-nine years old. During this stage, Amir went through big
changes. He decided to devote himself when he got to know he needed to rescue Hassan’s son Sohrab. Here was a contrast
of his psychology. Before his adolescence stage, he seemed to live in his own world and just got Hassan’s love and loyalty
instead of actively devoting himself. When he knew how to love and devote himself, his psychological condition totally
changed. He was determined to bring Sohrab back to the USA and to give him a better life. During his fight with Assef, he
also showed his willingness to devotion. Coming back to Afghan, he learned to be sympathetic for the hard life of people in
Afghan aroused his sympathy.
The Process of Self-Actualization of Amir
Self-actualization is a term which was originally introduced by Kurt Goldstein for the motive to realize one’s full potential.
Expressing one’s creativity, quest for spiritual enlightenment, pursuit of knowledge, and the desire to give to and/or
positively transform society are examples of self-actualization (Goldstein, 1993). Carl Rogers (2015) used the term self-
actualization as the actualization of the individual’s sense of self. In person-centred theory, self-actualization is the ongoing
process of maintaining and enhancing the individual’s self-concept through reflection, reinterpretation of experience,
allowing the individual to recover, develop, change and grow. As researcher Rui Yuping (2004) claims that Amir’s self-
actualization follows the pattern: naive temptation—ran away from home—confusion—experiment and test—lost
innocence—be insightful—awareness of life and self.
The Naive Childhood
Amir had a happy and naive childhood. The story took place in Kabul, Afghan. Amir and Hassan, the son of a servant were
like brothers and close friends. Hassan is “the all-sacrificing Christ-figure, the one who, even in death, calls Amir to
redemption” (Rankin-Brown, 2008). He always helped and protected Amir. He was a kind boy and “never denied me
anything.” (Hosseini, 2007, p. 25) Amir’s father did not show too much care to Amir. So Amir was confused and he was so
naive that he thought he could change this by constantly trying to please his father. As a result, he made a serious mistake
later.
The Betrayal During Adolescence
In order to get his father’s love, Amir attended the kite-fighting tournament and he wanted to be the winner, which was
the fuse of his lost. Then Hassan decided to help him. Because of cowardice, Amir hid himself and witnessed the scene of
Hassan being insulted. At that time, Amir was conflicted. He had to make a decision whether to protect Hassan from their
hurt or not. “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.” (Hosseini, p. 78) In the end, Amir ran. Although he was very
contradictory in mind, he chose the evil behavior at last. He was fully aware of his choice: “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. ...I actually aspired to cowardice, because
Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world.” (Hosseini, p. 78) To make it worse, in order to escape from shame and
guilt, Amir put his money and watch in Hassan’s house and said Hassan stole it. Then, Hassan admitted it, and left with his
father later. Amir didn’t do anything to let them stay at his home. In Amir’s sub consciousness, he would leave Hassan
behind at any time no matter how faithful Hassan was to him: “If this were one of the Hindi movies Hassan and I used to
watch, this was the part where I’d run outside, my bare feet splashing rainwater. I’d chase the car, screaming for it to stop.
I’d pull Hassan out of the backseat and tell him I was sorry, so sorry, my tears mixing with rainwater.” (Hosseini, p. 112) He
just stepped back and saw Hassan struggling by his own. He betrayed Hassan and lost himself.
The Redemption During Adulthood
Winkler (2007) suggests Hosseini constructs a world where redemption is at least possible. In the universe of the nivel, one
can return to the site of his misdeeds. This is action instead of inaction; bravery instead of cowardice; selflessness instead
of self-absorption. Perhaps this streak of good deeds will atone for his betrayal of Hassan.
In order to wash his sin, Amir decided to face his past. He returned to Kabul and saved Hassan’s son Sohrab. In the process
of saving Sohrab, he met Assef who was an evil person. In fact, Amir was very scared of him and had been thinking about
escaping there. But finally, he insisted on and stayed there to accept Assef’s challenge. Fortunately, he saved Sohrab and
himself. It was the first time Amir had felt peaceful in his mind since his childhood.
He laughed because his sin began to be washed. He remembered the day on the hill he had pelted Hassan with
pomegranates and tried to provoke him: Hassan’d just stood there, doing nothing, red juice soaking through his shirt like
blood. Then he’d taken the pomegranate from Amir’s hand, crushed it against his forehead. “Are you satisfied now?”
Hassan’d hissed, “Do you feel better?” Obviously, Amir hadn’t been happy but bad instead. When Amir was beaten by
Assef, he felt better, though he was hurt seriously. “My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later-but
I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.”(Hosseini, p. 201) At this point, he had been healed. He completed his self-
redemption.
The Return of Humanity
“There is a way to be good again.” (Hosseini, p. 2) As a core image in the novel, kite is a symbol of friendship, justice,
kindness, honesty, brave and wisdom. According to Rebecca (2009), the pursuit of kite is actually pursuing the exploration
of the better human nature. The two main kite fights in the novel—the tournament Amir wins and the one at the end—
symbolize the juxtaposition of roles, for at the end Amir has become the kite runner. Thus, kite symbolizes the
interrelationship between betrayal and redemption. The pursuit of the kite is the pursuit of human nature; the fighting of
the kite becomes the metaphor of Amir’s frustration and rebirth. Interactions with significant others are key to the process
of self-actualization: “As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evolutional interaction
with others, the structure of the self is formed—an organized, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of
characteristics and relationships of the “I” or the “me”, together with the values attached to these concepts”
The Positive and Negative Guiders
Rahim Khan was the main positive guider. He was the best friend and business partner of Amir’s father. When Amir was a
child, his father often left him and criticized him. Every time Rahim Khan would help Amir. He was not only Amir’s elder,
but also more like his friend: he always treated Amir equally, and encouraged him. Rahim Khan thought Amir was good at
writing and reading and enjoyed these very much. He was wise and knew how to respect Amir. Many years later, he
pointed a way out for Amir to be good again, and this becomes the key to Amir’s maturity. Rahim Khan not only focused on
Amir’s interest, but also cared about Amir’s growing. He knew Amir’s sin, but he was so patient that he didn’t say out and
just waited Amir to admit his faults himself. Later, he was ill, and so he told Amir all facts and believed Amir could bear
those: “A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer. I hope your suffering comes to an end with this
journey to Afghanistan….” (Hosseini, p. 118) He knew that Amir was so eager for his father’s love and how hard Amir had
tried to get it. He helped Amir understand and forgive his father eventually.
In the novel, Amir’s father was a handsome man who was a force of nature, a towering Pashtun specimen. He was a brave
man who would stand up for justice. On the way to Pakistan, his father risked being shot by Russian soldiers in order to
protect a young woman. Amir was inspired by his father’s courage. Even when Amir went back to rescue Sohrab, this scene
was repeated in his mind. “That night, I’m afraid, ultimately, very proud.”
Rahim Khan understood everything Amir’s father did such as feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage,
giving money to friends in need and so on. It was his way of redemption. As Rahim Khan said that was what he wanted him
to understand, that good, real good, was born out of his father’s remorse, when guilt led to good.
However, Amir’s father was also the negative guider. Hill (2003) claims that Amir’s motivation for the childhood betrayal is
rooted in his insecurities regarding his relationship with his father. As a father, he was cold and curt. He didn’t care about
Amir’s feelings. He had no patience with Amir. He taught Amir to be honest and told Amir that there was only one sin, only
one, and that was theft; every other sin is a variation of theft. “There is no act more wretched than stealing, Amir.”
(Hosseini, p. 196) He regarded theft as the most serious sin in the world, but he was the thief himself. And a thief of the
worst kind, because the truth was scaring that Amir had a brother, from Hassan his identity, and from Ali his honor. From
this point, Amir’s father was also a negative guider.
The Positive Companions

Hassan and Soraya accompanied the growth of Amir, and they helped Amir regain his humanity. Hassan was the most
faithful companion of Amir. As a Hazara, Hassan was often looked down upon and insulted by others. However, he never
showed his resistance. But when Amir encountered any trouble, he would stand up and fence them off. For Amir’s glory,
Hassan would rather be beaten and humiliated than give up the kite because he knew how important the kite was to Amir.
“For you, a thousand time over” was Hassan’s promise to his master which showed how committed Hassan was to Amir.
Although Hassan’s mother abandoned him, many years later, when she came back, Hassan welcomed her and even nursed
her to death. Hassan knew that Amir betrayed him, but he never hated him and finally forgave him. When Amir set Hassan
up by telling Baba that Hassan had stolen his watch and money, Hassan admitted and apologized as if he did. He accepted
the shame and sacrificed himself to save the friendship between them. Moreover, he had never resented anyone because
he had his own belief. Two decades later, he even wrote a letter to Amir and expressed his desire for reconciliation. Hassan
was an honest, kind, brave, pure, tolerant, considerate and loyal man. He, who was like a mirror, helped Amir find out his
weaknesses in his character, and set a good example of kindness, forgiveness, loyalty and justice for Amir. His merit
initiated Amir’s self actualization.
Soraya was Amir’s wife. She was also a key figure in the process of Amir’s self-redemption. Because of her appearance and
help, Amir began to think about his past. This laid a certain psychological foundation for Amir to have the power to go on
the road of self-salvation. Before they got married, Soraya confessed to Amir that when she was 18 years old, she had lived
with a drug man together for nearly a month. But later her father forced her to leave the man and took her home. Amir
envied Soraya for her courage because she had spoken out her secret. He opened his mouth and almost told her how he’d
betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out, and destroyed a forty-year relationship between his father and Ali. Despite all the
improvements and good deeds, Amir remained silent about his past deeds. Little by little, he was inspired by her. He
started to admit his faults and guilt. After he had saved Sohrab, he told her everything. Having known Amir’s past, she
didn’t show any disgust or doubt. She still loved him. What’s the most important is that her understanding of Amir had a
good effect on Amir, which drove him to bring Sohrab home. Soraya was not only a loyal wife, but also the positive
companion on Amir’s road of growth.
The Different Growing Places
Amir grew up, changed, and was affected by where he was living—whether that was Afghanistan or California. Kabul of
Afghan was the growing background of Amir’s childhood. It was a peaceful and beautiful place before the war broke up. In
Kabul, Amir belonged to upper class. Almost everyone showed respect for him. He needn’t face the pressure from the
outside world. What’s more, he had a faithful servant who always helped and protected him. He was a master who could
get almost everything that he wanted. After the war broke up, he and his father had to escape to America. There
everything had changed. Although he got his degree in the university, got married with his lover and became an excellent
writer in the US, and everything seemed to be perfect, he still hadn’t the sense of belongingness. Moreover, during the first
few years, Amir and his father were lower class in America. Somehow America was a new place which could hide the past;
it allows him blankness, a forgetfulness that would be impossible in Afghanistan. Everything he experienced in America
sped up his growing up. With different social status, Amir had totally different experiences in two countries. It helped Amir
understand different social values among different classes, races, and more important, humanity.

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The Kite Runner

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Summary and Analysis

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ACTIVE THEMES--Redemption Theme Icon, Fathers and Children Theme Icon,

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ACTIVE THEMES--Politics and Society Theme Icon,

ACTIVE THEMES--Betrayal Theme Icon, Politics and Society Theme Icon,

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Fathers and Children

Violence and Rape