Alex Maffeo

Alex Maffeo

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. This book was Hosseini’s first novel and it was a wonderful one. The Kite Runner took place in his own country of Afghanistan in the 1970’s and later on in America. This book is about a boy named Amir, his father, and their servant Hassan, who is Amir’s friend. Amir is struggling to deserve his father’s love, finally regains his love by winning a kite flying competition. On that day Amir had witnessed a horrible sight when he went to go retrieve his kite. This awful event had happened to his friend Hassan and he does nothing about it. This secret troubles Amir for the rest of his entire life. After that had happened his friendship with Hassan is affected and he shiftily gets rid of Hassan. In the middle of all of that ruckus Russia is invading Afghanistan and this causes Amir and Hassan to separate. Amir moves to the United States and goes to Fremont, California. While in California, Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan, the leader of Afghanistan and he is very sick, he is dying. He decides to go back to Afghan and he dreams of Hassan on the flight back. Amir had learned that Rahim, Hassan, and his wife had moved into Baba’s house. Hassan had a kid and named him Sohrab. Cruel events happen to Hassan and his wife leaving Sohrab orphaned with no protection at all. Rahim wants Amir to go find Sohrab and rescue him. Amir wants to take Sohrab back to America, it will take a while but in the end it will work. While at the hotel Amir and Sohrab both fall asleep. When Amir wakes up he notices that the bathroom light is on. He opens the door and finds Sohrab in there with his wrist slit. Amir takes Sohrab to the hospital and he is in the ICU and he’s on suicide watch. Once he gets out of the hospitable they go back to the US. When they get to the house in California Sohrab still remains silent. Amir decides to take Sohrab to the park. When they get there Amir buys a kite. He tells Sohrab how Hassan was the best kite runner back in Afghanistan. He asks him if he wants to fly with him and he says no. Amir takes off running with the kite flying through the air just like a bird. He notices that Sohrab is standing next to him and he takes the spool right from his hands and starts flying the kite. When Sohrab goes to retrieve the kite Amir yells “for you, a thousand times over.” A picture of young boy symbolizes that Amir was happy to get a friend (Hassan). The picture of the boy with a cleft lip symbolizes Hassan’s cleft lip, his family didn’t have a lot of money so he couldn’t get it fixed. The lamb was a symbol of Hassan’s face because it reminded Amir of his innocence and how young he was. The slingshot symbolizes the weapon that Hassan would use if someone bothered Amir. The three crosses symbolizes the religion of Amir which is Muslimism. The kite symbolizes memories and emotions that Amir saw when Hassan got beat up and abused.