The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a story that highlights love, friendship, poverty, guilt, redemption, and freedom. Set against the backdrop of Afghanistan during the years of 1960s to 2000s, the book progresses as the lives of characters are decided by the ever-changing fate of their motherland Afghanistan and its tempestuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan monarchy, the Russian invasion, refugee crisis, the rise of Taliban and the country’s mortification at their hands.

Amir, son of a wealthy and prominent businessman of Kabul is friends with Hassan, son of his father’s servant. Amir and Hassan are inseparable who spend their day with each other munching on walnuts and dried mulberries sitting atop a poplar tree, watching cinema, flying kites, playing panjpar, reading stories, etc.  Despite being fed from the same breasts, Amir and Hassan, both motherless since birth, were separated by class, tribe, and religion. Amir lives in a mansion whereas Hassan, along with his crippled father, lived in a mud hut. Going by the societal norms, Hassan is Amir’s servant. Amir is a bookish boy who loves to read and write while Hassan is an unschooled Hazara.

Another important virtue that distinguishes the two boys is the core they are made up of.  Hassan, although illiterate and poor, is forgiving, brave, pure, and innocent. His loyalty and admiration towards Amir are highlighted throughout the book. Amir, on the other hand, is sensitive and intelligent who has grown up with a sense of entitlement. And although he stores immense love for Hassan in his heart, that love is often shadowed by Amir’s desire to gain his Baba’s undivided attention and affection who is very fond of Hassan. As a result, Amir often turns hostile and mean towards Hassan.

On one jubilant day of annual kite flying tournament in Kabul, Amir wins the tournament he so very wanted to earn his father's praise. On the same day, Hassan, who is an excellent kite runner, runs to catch the last cut kite for Amir, which is a symbol of victory. However, after he finds the kite, Hassan is cornered by a few bully kids who are critical of the Hazara community who ends up beating him brutally. Amir, engulfed in cowardice fails to stand up against the bullies and save Hassan. With further series of events, Hassan and his father ends their services towards Amir’s father and leaves for some unknown place. Amir’s father is deeply saddened by their departure and Amir is haunted by his secret deeds and betrayal for life.

The tragedy of politics and war in Afghanistan enter into the picture at this time and Amir and his father flee Afghanistan to settle in Fremont, California where Amir becomes a successful writer. He finds America as a place where he could let his ‘sin’ drown to the bottom. When Amir learns that his childhood friend and a father figure, Rahim Khan is ailing back in Pakistan, he decides to visit him. However, the greater purpose was something Rahim Khan said to him at the end of the telephone call almost as an afterthought. “There is a way to be good again.”

Upon meeting Rahim Khan, unknown truths and hard disclosures unfold in front of Amir. What follows from here on is his journey towards righting the wrongs he committed years ago as a boy in Kabul, his quest for redemption.

The kite runner stores in itself countless human nature and their complications. One of them being the prominence of gray over black and white. When seen from Amir’s point of view, what one can find is that there is both evil and goodness in a person. What makes him are the choices that he makes. Guilt struck Amir, who as a boy was jealous and timid, made his final decision as a man of acceptance and utmost bravery years later.

The book throws an indistinct light on the lives of commons amid warfare as against a striking contrast to peaceful living. The story traces two timelines, one being the life of Amir as a boy in a pleasant city of Kabul and later his life as a well-established writer at the States. What connects the two timelines are the untold truths and past deeds that Amir was supposed to face eventually. As the book proceeds, it gives us a feeling of remorse, nostalgia, and longing as if we are losing a part of our own childhood.

To put it down in the simplest of words, it all happened because of Hassan’s sentiments towards Amir which he once conveyed using a beautiful set of words and years later when the same words were spoken by Amir to someone who exemplified Hassan.

The words being:

“For you, a thousand times over”.

What seems like a simple moral story at the outside is actually a deeply rooted string of emotions knitted by Hosseini as if the words on the books are the tale of his being. What the book essentially emphasizes is that there is no religion greater than love, no bond stronger than one backed by loyalty, and no sin that never finds redemption.

If you want a heart wrenching yet a beautiful tale on humanity, its cruelty, and its purity, grab this book and set out on an exhilarating journey!