The Kite Runner is a truly gripping read from beginning to end. However, the success of the story is that it's the not your traditional feel-good plot. The book takes place primarily in pre-revolutionary Afghanistan, not the typical setting for your average American reader. The main character is Amir, a young Afghani boy growing up in relative luxury. He is inseparable from the son of his father's servant, Hassan. Amir is internally tormented by a single event in his childhood––witnessing the rape of his childhood friend by a bully. Furthermore, Amir witnessed the entire rape and did nothing to stop it. Meanwhile, the protagonist is plagued by feelings of inadequacy because he doesn't quite measure up to his father's standards. Although the majority of the book continues in a relentlessly depressing fashion, the end provides some resolution; Amir is able to resolve some of his feeling of guilt by helping Hassan's son.
Some of the most memorable scenes in the book are moments when the young Amir is made to feel guilty by his or other people's actions. Almost immediately after the rape, Amir and Hassan climb to the top of their favorite hill. Here, Amir is unable to cope with the tremendous feelings of guilt from letting his friend get raped (something his father would have never let happen). He then proceeds to take pomegranates from the tree and hurls them at the face of his recently victimized friend. Finally, Hassan, in frustration, splatters a pomegranate at his own face and asks Amir if he is happy. Thisw action demonstrates the relationship between the master and the servant, but also shows Hassan’s loyalty. Another instance of remarkable imagery in the novel takes place at Amir's birthday party. Here, Hassan is serving the guests with punch and other refreshments and is faced by Assef, the bully who raped him. Assef makes small talk and then playfully punches him. While all of this is going on, Amir is watching from the inside of his house, which shows Amir’s inability to act once more. Another scene that does a wonderful job of juxtaposing Amir's guilt and his feelings of inferiority to his father takes place later in the book. Amir and his father have to leave Afghanistan for Pakistan because of political turmoil in their homeland. They are traveling with a group of these migrants in a truck. At a checkpoint, an officer offers them passage on the condition that he gets to spend “30 minutes” with one of the married women on the truck. At this point Amir’s father can tolerate no more. He argues with the officer and risks his own life in the process. Ultimately, the officer gives up on his attempts to be with the woman. What Amir must be going through at this point must be truly indescribable.
In the end, we learn that Amir as the witness may have fared worse than Hassan as the raped. It was Hassan’s outlook that helped him cope. He wasn’t worried with living up to his father’s legacy. Rather, he was just focused on his life. On the other hand, Amir was constantly suffering from what happened to Hassan. He had insomnia and was unable to properly handle what he was facing. In the end, however, Amir is able to live a seemingly normal married life. He also adequately addressed the demons of the past by helping his friend’s son escape from cruelty and subsequently adopting him. (579)
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Basil, guilt, loyalty, addressing the demons of the past--you do a good job addressing some of the major themes of this novel. I suspect that until Hosseini published this novel most American readers had never read a novel set in Afghanistan and didn't know much more about the country than the US war against the Taliban after 9/11. So for both of those reasons I think it's a good and an important book. Thanks for a good entry.
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