Synopsis of: The kite runner

Amir, living in Afghanistan is the central character of the novel The kite runner. His mother dies while giving birth to him so he is raised by his father, Baba. Amir always feels that his father blamed him for his mother’s death therefore, during his childhood, he makes many attempts to be forgiven by him and also to conquer his father’s love. Unlike Baba, Amir was never an example of honour and courage.

Hassan, another main character in this novel, is the loyal and devoted servant Amir. During their childhood, this boy demonstrates these values to his “master,” many times saving him from the clutches of the villain: Assef. Like his friend, Hassan is raised only by his father, Ali. Sanaubar, Hassan’s mother, runs away with another man just seven days after giving birth to him. They were all part of a minority, the Hazara’s, unlike Amir, Baba and Rahim Khan - a friend of family - who were all part of the Pashthuns, the majority. However, none of them discriminate between the Hazaras and Pashtuns but Amir, who sometimes, subtly and despite their friendship, humiliated Hassan. These situations were probably a consequence of the jealousy that Amir felt about the affection that his father had towards the young servant and which Amir didn’t understand.

One of the most intense moments of the novel is when Hassan is raped by Assef, and Amir cowardly witnessed it. The guilt that he felt since then leads him to get rid of Hassan by accusing him of stealing. As a result, the Hazaras leave Amir’s family’s house. Some years later, Afghanistan is invaded and controlled by the Russians and Amir and his father leave it to escape to America. Then, with a new life in California, Amir finishes his graduation and develops his skills in writing. Later, his father starts to fade away with lung cancer but, during that period, Amir marries Soraya, daughter of Khala Jamila and Iqbal Taheri. After Baba’s death, Amir receives a phone call from Rahim Khan saying that he is dying, which obliged him to go back to Pakistan, to the old house. There, he finds out a hard truth through Rahim: Hassan is his half-brother – his father had had an affair with Hassan’s mother and Ali was sterile so there were no doubts. Amir is so disappointed that he starts asking questions about the values that he had always admired in his father. Rahim Khan tells him that Hassan was assassinated by the Taliban, but his son, Sohrab is still alive, and Amir has to rescue him from an orphanage and take him to a foster family. In the beginning he refuses to go, with the excuse that his life and all that he had to leave in America would also be in danger. Even so, his past always persecutes him and Rahim knew the truth about what he had done to Hassan. Therefore, Amir starts to look for Sohrab but he is no longer in the orphanage. Like his father, he had also fallen into Assef’s hands, now a Taliban leader. IN order to free Sohrab, Amir fights his enemy but it is Hassan’s son who ended up saving his uncle from a painful death. They escape to Islamabad with the help of one of Rahim’s friends, the one who finds out that there had never been a foster family with the names that Rahim had told. When they get to a hotel, Amir promises Sohrab that he won’t have to go back to the orphanage ever again. They face many problems to get a Visa to take the boy to America. That’s when Amir breaks his promise and tells him that probably he would have to wait in the orphanage while he tries to get the Visa. Sohrab tries to commit suicide that same night. After spending some days at a hospital, Amir gets the permission to go to America. His state of empathy continues and it causes Amir and Soraya a lot of suffering. On new year’s eve, Amir sees some kites in the sky and, after a failed attempt to convince Sohrab to run one of them, the half-uncle finds a little smile on Sohrab’s lips and begins to run the kite for him.

Main issues in the novel The Kite Runner

Truth versus Lie

“When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.”

"[…] better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie."

a) As a consequence of having watched Hassan being raped, not doing anything to stop it, Amir believes that, if his father had had the knowledge of such act, he would have lost his love forever. Thus, he starts thinking in a way of get rid of Hassan and his father, as a way to get rid of the truth so, he decides to accuse Hassan of stealing, causing Hassan and Ali’s departure.

b) When Baba goes to Soraya’s house to ask for her hand in marriage on Amir’s Behalf, she chooses to tell him the truth about having already been with another man; she didn’t want to start their relation with lies. He feels very bad, not because of what she had done, but because he didn’t have the courage to do the same and tell her about his past.

c) After many years listening to these words from his father, Amir is confronted with the fact that Hassan was his half-brother and that it had been hidden from them. When Amir finds Sohrab, he decides to reveal it to him, respecting his right to know the true.

Need for power

“Never mind that we taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands, or to build a fully functional homemade camera out of a cardboard box. Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites. […]

Never mind any of those things. Because history isn’t easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashthun and he was a Hazara, I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.”

“But he’s not my friend! ‘I almost blurted.’ He’s my servant! Had I really thought that? Of course I hadn’t. I hadn’t. I treated Hassan well, just like a friend, better even, more like a brother. But if so, then why, when Baba’s friend came to visit with their kids, didn’t I ever include Hassan in our games? Why did I play with Hassan only when no one else was around?”

a) During their childhood, Amir and Hassan always had a relationship based on the roles of ruler and ruled, respectively. Hassan was a submissive servant, like his father. Despite being regarded as equals by Baba, the Hazaras were not seen in the same way by Amir. In his deepest thoughts, he discriminated between the Hazaras and the Pashtuns, considering himself to belong to a superior race.

b) Assef, the villain, not only considers himself superior to the Hazaras but some Pashthuns too, such as Amir who interacts with one of the “inferior beings.” He reaches the acme of his power inside a Taliban group, as their leader. He inflicts suffering and pain on his own people, claiming that he had the right to purify Afghanistan.

c) The affair between Amir’s father and Sanaubar (Hassan’s mother) could be considered an abuse of power; in fact, it is so by Amir after Rahim revealed the truth to him. Through Amir’s eyes, his father wields his master’s power over Ali, who was betrayed by Sanaubar and Amir’s father.

Loyalty and devotion

“For you a thousand times over.”

“I’d sooner eat dirt” […] If you asked, I would, […] But I wonder, would you ever ask me to do such a thing, Amir agha?”

a) Ali’s family had served Baba’s family for three generations. Throughout the novel, Ali and Hassan are going to provide real evidence of these principles: loyalty and devotion. Even being betrayed by Baba, Ali never tells anybody the truth; Ali admires Baba and Amir likewise. Despite being submissive, Hassan faces Assef two times: the first one to defend Amir from some teasing boys from the neighbourhood (Assef’s friend’s group), and the second when he refuses to surrender the winning kite to the villain. However, Amir never acknowledged that as an act of courage and, these principles didn’t dissuade him from his plan of accusing his friend of stealing. When Amir and his father leave Afghanistan, Rahim Khan and later Hassan occupy their house in order to preserve it with the hope that one day Amir would come back to live there again.

b) Amir’s father was a very respected man. He had many loyal friends and they all recognised his value. He had built an orphanage for the children and he helped many poor people. He tried to raise his son at his own image during his life but sometimes, not knowing it, he fails but after his father’s death, Amir shows his strength of character when he saves his half-brother’s son from Assef clutches.

Redemption

“There is a way to be good again.”

a) At the end of the story, we became aware of the fact that throughout his life, Baba always tried to redeem himself for what he had done to Ali. He rised Hassan as a son and sometimes he showed the boy an enormous affection: when Hassan was accused by Amir of stealing his birthday presents, Baba forgives him despite considering stealing as the most serious sin.

b) In Amir’s case, he only redeemed himself when he rescued Sohrab, fighting Assef almost to death and after telling Soraya what had happened with his best friend in their childhood.

Suicide

“I pushed the door open. Stepped into the bathroom.

Suddenly I was on my knees, screaming. Screaming through my clenched teeth. Screaming until I thought my throat would rip and my chest explode.”

“Tired of everything. […] I want my old life back. […] I wish you hadn’t…I wish you had left me in the water.”

a) After getting the news from his uncle that he probably would have to go back again to the orphanage, Sohrab tried to commit suicide. This is not very common among children of his age but it was the way he found to escape from a life of suffering. He not only was a victim of the violence and torture against the Hazara’s people on his country but he also was a victim of Assef’s revenge.

b) Although not being considered a suicide, Amir’s father refused to receiving the treatments for his disease. He preferred to profit from his last days with his son than having longer suffering days.