The Kite Runner
Themes, Characters & Relationships
Theme: Atonement – Character: Amir
The significance of Hassan’s rape overshadowed Amir’s life. The underlying inequality of their relationship, as a Pashtun and a Hazara leads Amir to see it as a ‘sacrifice’.
Amir’s guilt stems from his own shame - because he didn’t admit to his sin and didn’t tell anyone what happened.
First step to atonement: feeling remorse and acknowledging it.
When Amir saves Sohrab he can forgive himself and find the courage to declare that Hassan is his half-brother.
Catalyst: when Amir finally confronts Assef and gets the beating he was threatened with years ago.
We see the change in Amir’s thinking as he no longer uses the cultural inequalities between ethnic groups as an excuse to explain his treatment of Hassan/Hazaras – the reversal of the line ‘for you a thousand times over’ signifies that he has overcome history and religion to be indebted to Sohrab for saving his life, both physically and symbolically by giving him a chance to forgive himself.
As a child: what are the driving forces behind Amir’s actions?
· To win Baba’s love
· Using his power as a Pashtun - testing the limits of his relationship with Hassan
As an adult:
Through Baba’s death Amir no longer sees himself as ‘Baba’s son’ and can take responsibility for his actions. Amir can redeem himself through rescuing Sohrab and this brings its own reward by helping Amir’s personal development.
Why do the major changes occur in Amir so late in his life?
It may be that the image he has of his father as ‘Toophan Agha, or ‘Mr. Hurricane’’; a figure of mythic proportions has to be challenged and debunked before he is able to discover his own value.
Theme: Family – Characters: Amir and Baba
Amir feels at times that Baba ‘always hated [him] a little’ and thinks that Baba blames him for his mother’s death. He comments that to Baba; ‘real men – real boys – played soccer just like Baba had when he had been young’. Amir senses something missing in his relationship with his father but isn’t sure until he overhears Baba say to Rahim Khan that ‘he’s always shuffling around the house like he’s lost in some dream’ and that there was ‘something missing in that boy.’
In his childhood, Amir feels isolated from Baba, because he ‘hadn’t turned out like him. Not at all.’ However, as an adult when Amir discovers the secret that Baba had kept from him – that Baba was Hassan’s biological father – he can understand Baba’s flaws too: ‘We were more alike than I’d ever known. We had both betrayed the people who would have given their lives for us.’
Theme: Friendships/Inequality – Characters: Amir and Hassan vs. Baba and Rahim Khan
Amir admits in the novel that he ‘never thought of Hassan and [himself] as friends’ despite their growing up in the same house and spending all of their free time playing together. While Hassan sees them as friends, Amir uses the ethnic prejudices to explain that ‘I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that.’ Hassan repeatedly shows his ‘unwavering loyalty’ to Amir, yet Amir often teases, tricks and takes his frustrations out on Hassan.
This inequality is contrasted against the friendship of Baba and Rahim Khan – Hosseini represents friendship as something that can only flourish between those who see themselves as equals – Rahim Khan are both of equal economic, social and cultural footing as wealthy Pashtun businessmen from Kabul. They also confide in one another, as Rahim Khan knows about Baba being Hassan’s father; whereas Amir’s biggest lie involves not only hiding the truth about what happened to Hassan but also portraying him as a thief.