The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Publishing Info: 1st ed., New York, Penguin Group, 2003
Concept Analysis - The Kite Runner
Brief Synopsis:
The novel begins when the protagonist, Amir, a writer living in California, gets a phone
call asking him to return to his home country, Afghanistan. The story then flashes back and
recounts Amir’s childhood in Kabul where he lived well-off with his father, Baba, and their two
servants, Ali and his son Hassan. They are Hazaras, an ethnic minority. Their close family friend,
Rahim Khan also acts as part of the family. One year, desperate to gain his father’s approval,
Amir aches to win the annual Kite Fighting festival. Amir wins the tournament and Hassan runs
after the last kite to keep as their prize. They are attacked by a gang of boys, and their leader,
Assef rapes Hassan while Amir watches and runs away. Stricken by his guilt, Amir pretends he
didn’t see what happened, but shuts Hassan out of his life. Although Hassan forgives him and
remains patient and loving, Amir’s guilt makes him decide he cannot live with Hassan anymore.
He frames him for stealing. Hassan lies to protect Amir by saying he did steal, then Ali and
Hassan move away.
In March of 1981, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan and Baba and Amir escape to
Pakistan before they move to America. They are very poor and Baba works very hard so that
Amir can attend school. On Saturdays, they sell used garage sale items in the flea market. The
reunite with an old friend from Afghanistan, General Taheri, who also sells at the flea market.
Amir falls in love with his daughter, Soraya who has a bad reputation that makes her undesirable
to other suitors. Meanwhile, Baba gets cancer and is dying. He gets to see Amir and Soraya
married, but dies soon after. Amir and Soraya are happy together, but are unable to have
children.
The story has finally come to the point where Amir get the phone call from Pakistan
where Rahim Khan lives and is dying. Amir returns and Rahim Khan tells him how Hassan
married and had a little boy, Sohrab, before moving back to live in Baba’s old house with Rahim
Khan. When Rahim Khan was out of town, the Taliban came and shot Hassan and his wife and
sent Sohrab to an orphanage. Rahim Khan wants Amir to go find him. He also tells Amir that
after his mother died, his father, Baba, slept with his servant, Ali’s wife, and that Hassan is
actually his half brother. Amir is terrified to go into war stricken Afghanistan. When he gets to
the orphanage, he find that Sohrab has been sold to a member of the Taliban, who has been
sexually abusing him. He sets up a meeting to try to buy him back. The man turns out to be Assef
who beats up Amir almost to death. Sohrab saves his life by shooting a slingshot which hits
Assef in the eye, and they escape.
When they return, Rahim Khan has disappeared and the couple he had instructed Amir to
take Sohrab to, never existed. Amir decides he must adopt Sohrab. Soraya agrees and is excited
to have a child, but the broken down government makes it almost impossible for the adoption to
occur. An immigration lawyer suggests Amir release Sohrab to a safe orphanage to help his
chances. When Amir tells Sohrab this, he is devastated. That night Soraya find a way to get
Sohrab a visa to bring him to the United States and then adopt him. When Amir goes to tell this
great news to Sohrab he find he has attempted suicide. He rushes him to the hospital, and he
lives.
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Back in America, Sohrab does not talk and has no vigor for life. One day, Amir grabs a
kite and starts telling him about how he and Hassan would kite fight. Finally, something changes
in Sohrab and he smiles. The novel ends as Amir runs after the kite for Sohrab and calls out,
“For you, a thousand times over.”
Central Question: What is family?
Amir and Hassan are best friends; they do everything together. At the beginning of the
novel we understand them as best friends who grow up in the same household, Amir as the
privileged child, and Hassan as the servant. Amir often uses his superiority to take advantage of
Amir; however, Baba tells Amir that Hassan and his father Ail are family. Later in the novel,
when Baba and Hassan are in America, Baba works hard to give Amir the opportunity to attend
college. They stick together and support each other. When Amir marries, he joins together two
families, and has to combine their family cultures. When Soraya, his wife, cannot have kids, the
consider adoption, but Soraya’s father is opposed to the idea. He does not think that different
races should mix in families or that Afghans should adopt outside of their culture. When Amir
goes back to Pakistan it is because of a call from a family friend, Rahim Khan who is dying.
Although Rahim Khan is not part of his family, he is a family friend, Amir grew up with him.
Weather or not Amir considers him a part of the family, they treat each other as such. Rahim
Khan tells Amir that Hassan is actually his half-brother and asks him to go save Hassan’s son,
Sohrab. Through extremely difficult circumstances, Amir does all he can for Sohrab and loves
him as his own. A few acquaintances even mistake Amir to be Sohrab’s father. Amir and Soraya
adopt Sohrab despite difficult circumstances with the government. They raise him and love him
as part of their family. There is one point when Soraya’s father asks why Amir brought a Hazara
boy back with him. Through his experience, Amir has learned to stand up for himself and his
family. He replies that he is never to be referred to as a Hazara again and that he is part of the
family.
Background Information:
Soviet War In Afghanistan: The Soviet War in Afghanistan began during the Cold War and
lasted for 9 years between the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan with the
backing of the Soviet army against the Afgan Mujahideen guerrilla rebels with backing from
Pakistan, the United States and China. This war is often compared to the Vietnam War because
the Soviet Union stepped in to fight the United States and democracy on this foreign battlefield.
This war was also dubbed “The Bear Trap” for similar reasons. The first Soviet troop entered
Afghanistan on December 24, 1979 shortly after the start of the Afghan Civil war and the
assassination of their president, Taraki. Violence broke out after the passing of new laws
regarding Islam civil and marriage laws. As many as 27,000 people died in the skirmishes that
broke out between 1978 and 1979. During this 9 year war anywhere from 670,000 to 2 million
people were killed and 5-10 million, one third of the population of Afghanistan before the war,
immigrated to nearby countries. Malnourishment, wide spread abuse plagued the people of this
country during this 9 year war. The Afghan Civil War is still being fought in Afghanistan long
after the end of the Soviet War in Afghanistan.
Kite Fighting: This tradition is practiced in many countries including, Afghanistan, Brazil,
Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Korea. Often huge festivals are held in which
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persons use their kites to compete. These kites are small, ranging from .5 meters to 1.5 meters in
diameter. They are flat and the string is often cotton with shards of glass rice-glued to it so that
the kites could use their “cutting teeth” to cut down other kites. Many people receive severe
injuries to the neck and hands from these sharp strings. Still others are killed when they are hit
by cars trying to run down kites after they are cut. These persons are known as kite runners.
The Taliban: The Taliban is a political group of militant fundamentalist Pashtun tribesmen. It
controlled a large portion of Afghanistan from 1996-2001 and enforced a very strict
interpretation of the Sharia Law, which caused friction between this group and other practitioners
of Muslim Law. While in power this group was responsible for many abuses against human
rights including the repression of women, massacre campaigns, human trafficking, and terrorism
against civilians. For a while this group received support from Pakistan, but after the attacks
against the US World Trade Centers, this support was withdrawn and the Taliban was removed
from power by an alliance of forces led by the United States. This group is still in operation in
both Afghanistan and the Northern part of Pakistan and is responsible, according to the UN, for
75% of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan for the year 2010 and 80% of these casualties in
2011.
Topography of Afghanistan: Afghanistan is a small landlocked country in the Middle East and
the terrain is mostly mountainous with valleys in the north and southwest. Most of the country is
dry because ⅔ of the country’s water sources run into neighboring countries, which costs the
country billions to bring in water for irrigation purposes. The country only receives 12.4 inches
of water annually. The average temperature is about 55 degrees Fahrenheit and ranges from 19
degrees Fahrenheit in the winter to e1 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. This harsh climate and
the mountainous terrain make it difficult to find insurgents who are hiding in the country to be
found and stopped.
Issues Related to the Study of Literature:
Themes:
The Search For Redemption: After Amir does not intervene when Hassan is raped, he is
tormented by his guilt. So much so that he rejects Hassan’s friendship and treats him horribly
even though Hassan has forgiven him. He longs for Hassan to fight with him and give him what
he deserves. One time he starts throwing pomegranates at Hassan and tries to get him to throw
them back at him. Finally Hassan takes a pomegranate and smashes it on his own head and
leaves. For the rest of his life, Amir’s past comes back to haunt him. Even when he marries, he
feels such a weight from his past. His wife, Soraya, tells him all the horrors of her past before she
marries him. Amir is jealous of the relief she must feel. When Amir is asked to save Sohrab, it is
his true shot at redemption. His ultimate challenge is met when he has to confront Assef, the boy
who raped Hassan. Assef beats him up terribly and Amir begins to laugh because he feels his
guilt lifted.He says, “My body was broken - just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later - but I
felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed” (289) Until this point, Amir’s decision to help Sohrab came
mostly from the motivation to clear his conscious, but as he continues to help Sohrab he does so
out of love for the boy and for Hassan who are both part of his family.
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Standing Up of One’s Self and What One Believes: When Amir is young, he never stands up for
himself and this causes much worry for his father, Baba. Whenever boys tease them in the
streets, Amir just lets them push him around until Hassan steps in and stops them. Baba worries
about his son and says, “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand
up to anything” (22). Amir fails the ultimate test when he chooses to run instead of standing up
for Hassan when he is raped. However, when Amir moves to America he gets the chance to
stand up for his choice of career, a writer, even though his father opposes it. Ultimately he gets
the chance to stand for what is right when he takes Sohrab out of the hand of the Taliban and into
his family. He must fight for Sohrab as the adoption process is not easy and Sohrab has
experienced much adversity. When he finally does take Sohrab back home, his father-in-law asks
why a Hazara boy is now part of the family. Amir stands up for him and tells the complete truth
and says he never wants Sohrab to be referred to as Hazara boy ever again.
Sin: In the very first chapter Amir receives a phone call from his old friend, Rahim Khan.
Thinking back on the phone call, Amir says, “I knew it wasn’t just Rahim Khan on the line. It
was my past of unatoned sins” (1). Amir spends the rest of the novel trying to work out how he
can, “be good again” (2). The schools and society in which Amir grow up as well as the Taliban
all exhibit strict religious principles the Soviet War fought by the Taliban against the rest of the
state is fought partially upon the basis that Afghans are a wicked people. Baba has his own idea
of what sin is and he states his belief that “there is no more wretched act than stealing...when you
kill a man, you steal his 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” (18). Sin is a highly charged issue throughout this novel.
Amir struggles to accept himself after his sin of allowing Hassan to be raped and then
treating him poorly afterwards. He cannot forgive himself so long as he cannot make it up to
Hassan. When Rahim Khan calls, he struggles to undertake the task of saving Sohrab, but knows
that saving Hassan’s son is the only way to atone for the sin of his childhood. It is the only way
he can be good again.
Setting: The beginning of the novel is set in Kabul, Afghanistan, a little before the Soviet War in
1981. The middle of the novel is set in California from the mid 80’s to early 2000’s. The setting
then shifts to post Soviet war in Taliban ruled Afghanistan. The novel finishes in California in
time to experience the attacks of 9/11 in 2001 and continue life afterward.
Point of View/Narration: This novel is told from the perspective of Amir, the main character in
a first person subjective viewpoint. There is however, one chapter written from the perspective of
Rahim Khan. Other things to be aware of are that this novel includes frequent flashbacks, is told
in the past tense and relays information in a confessional tone.
Characterization:
Amir is the protagonist and the story is told from his subjective point of view. The reader first
meets Amir in chapter one when he sets up the framework for his story. He explains that the
story, “made him what he [is] today (2). He is a writer and very intelligent, but is passive and
lacks the audacity to stand up for himself. He often does things that dishonor his elders, but by
the end of the novel, he learns to stand up for himself and support his own opinion. He is the son
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of a well-off businessman and always given what he needs in life. Yet, he seeks desperately his
father’s approval and affection. This is the main reason he does not step in when Hassan is raped.
However, through the course of the novel he goes through a process of repentance by standing
up to his past and sacrificing for cleanse his guilt.
Hassan is a humble boy who lives as a servant to Amir and Baba. The reader is first introduced
to him when Amir gets the phone call that begins the novel. Amir hears Hassan’s voice saying,
“For you a thousand times over” (2), something he told Amir often. This phrase reflects his
unconditional love for Amir, his best friend and half-brother. Hassan is of the Hazara race, and
often discriminated against, and is born with a cleft lip. He is patient, loving, and forgiving. He is
Amir’s best friend (and half-brother) and remains loyal to him throughout his lifetime. Even after
he is raped, he forgives Amir for not helping and tries to mend their friendship. Later he marries
and has one son, Sohrab, and they have a loving family until he and his wife are murdered in the
street by the Taliban.
Baba is Amir’s father and as it turns out, Hassan’s father as well, though this is not revealed
during Baba’s lifetime. ‘Baba’ means father in arabic and his real name is never stated in the
novel. A wealthy business owner and a single father, Baba provides well for Amir and as it says,
“Everyone agreed that my father, my Baba, had built the most beautiful house in the Wazire
Akbar Khan district, a new and affluent neighborhood” (4). This is the first time he is introduced
in the novel, suggesting that his money is one of the most important things to note about Baba.
Despite his wealth, he is always kind to Hassan and Ali, the servants of his house. While he does
not adhere to the strict moral code that is endorsed by Amir’s school and other religious zealots
throughout his country, he does adopt his own sense of morality and even builds an orphanage
for homeless children. The one sin Baba believes encompasses all sins is stealing. After moving
to America as a refugee Baba works at a gas station, which is hard for him because back home he
was a wealthy man and now he is forced to work for minimum wage in a country where he
hardly speaks the language. Baba dies of lung cancer only a short time after Amir is married.
Ali is the best friend of Baba as well as his servant. He is actually introduced before Baba and it
is noted that he, “used to catch [Hassan and Amir] and get mad, or as mad as someone as gentle
as Ali could ever get” (4). Ali is always presented as a kind and gentle man. He and Baba grew
up together because Ali’s parents were killed by a drunk driver and Baba’s parents took him in.
Ali is a Hazara and believed to be the father of Hassan, until after Baba dies and it is discovered
that Ali was sterile and that Hassan is actually the son of Baba. Because of a bout of Polio, Ali
walks with a limp and part of his face is paralyzed. Ali is a humble man and eventually dies in
Hazarat after stepping on a landmine.
Literary terms:
Flashback: Throughout the novel, Hosseini uses flashbacks to give his audience key information
without reporting. According to the common core standard RL.11-12.5, students are expected to
“analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of
a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a
comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as
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well as its aesthetic impact.” Questions like, “why does the author flashback throughout the
novel? and Why doesn’t he just write this novel sequentially? will help students start to think
more thoughtfully about why Hosseini incorporates flashback as a technique in this novel.
Tone: Because the narrator, Amir, is looking back and telling a story from the past, the tone is
reminiscent. The novel begins, “I became what I am today at the age of twelve...” Sentences
often begin with “I remember,” and stories are told about the past. Tone is created by many
elements of the novel including word choice, syntax, content, and narrative structure. Students
need to understand how elements of a story create meaning in RL.11-12.3. The tone is not
didactic, but there are lessons to be learned. Sometimes Amir learns from his mistakes and the
reader can as well. The tone is also honest and confessional as Amir keeps no secrets as he
divulges his darkest secrets. It is also remorseful in regret for what happened, but is not void of
hope as Amir does find redemption. Even though he had a hand in ripping apart his family when
he was young, he is able to put back together what he can and form a new family.
Antihero: Amir acts as an antihero as he struggles through his weaknesses and experiences much
pain as well as causing other people pain. Having weaknesses is a part of being human, and
readers should be able to relate to Amir even with their own set of weaknesses. In the end, Amir
struggles through his weakness, and conquers some of them. He is able to save the fate of one
boy, Sohrab despite great challenges and his personal weaknesses.
Symbols: There are many symbols in this novel, perhaps the most prevalent is the kite. The first
page of the novel begins with Amir recanting the experience that shaped his entire life as he
watched his best friend, Hassan, being raped after running down a kite for Amir. Amir says on
this first page, “I glanced up and saw a pair of kites, red with long blue tails, soaring in the
sky...And suddenly Hassan’s voice whispered in my head: For you a thousand times over.
Hassan the harelipped kite runner” (1-2). The kite is a symbol of love. It is the love of Hassan for
Amir. It is the “key to Baba’s heart” (71), from his yearning son, Amir. And it is the key to
opening Sohrab’s heart when Amir runs a kite for him and begins to mend their relationship
(371). The kite is also a symbol of power. The winner of a kite fighting tournament is someone
to be admired, and the last kite run and captured is the ultimate in bragging rights, “a trophy of
honor” (52).
The Harelip is another symbol. Hassan is the son of Baba and half-brother of Amir, who
is born with a harelip. For his birthday one year Baba gets the harelip fixed for Hassan and after
the surgery Amir recalls how, “soon it was just a pink jagged line running up from his lip. By the
following winter it was only a faint scar. Which is ironic. Because that was the winter that
Hassan stopped smiling” (47). Just like the harelip was an imperfection, Hassan was an
imperfection. He was a bastard son, a Hazara, a secret. The harelip is a symbol of an
imperfection Baba wants desperately to hide, so Baba tries to fix it. However, when he does,
when he squishes out the imperfect harelip that is when the horrors of this novel begin. That is
when Baba loses what he loves, Ali and Hassan, who leave to ease the tension between Amir and
Hassan. Amir cannot deal with his imperfections of not helping Hassan from being raped and so
Hassan tells a lie so that they can leave. The harelip is a symbol of imperfection, but also of the
humanity that exists within these imperfections.
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Affective Issues:
This novel is full of affective issues. Discrimination is huge. The Hazaras are looked
down on by the Pashtuns and forced into subservient roles within the Afghanistan caste system
(see page 9). Women are also discriminated against by the new Taliban regime. For example in a
letter written to Amir from Hassan, Hassan describes how his wife, after asking a simple
question of a young Talib, was beaten and yelled at for speaking so “loudly” (216). Many think
since the Civil Rights Movement occurred that discrimination has has not been a problem, but it
is still hugely prevalent in the world and in the United States of America. It is something that
informed students need to be aware of and this novel does a great job of laying out some of the
atrocities that discrimination can create.
Immigration is another issue to be aware of. Amir and Baba and thousands of others are
forced to immigrate to the United States as refugees. Chapter 11 details some of the experiences
of Baba and Amir as immigrants. At one point Baba is kicked out of a store after a
misunderstanding due to a difference in culture and the store owners tell Baba he is “not
welcome anymore” (128). Immigration also makes it difficult for Amir to adopt Sohrab. Starting
on page 326 is the saga of Amir trying to adopt a foreign child. At one point a case worker
simply says to Amir, “Your petition to adopt this young fellow. Give it up. That’s my advice to
you” (330). Immigration is still a huge issue in the United States and it is important to help our
students understand how this affects our economy and the lives of these immigrant families.
Vocabulary Issues:
The narrative style should be fairly easy for students to navigate through. There is
occasional swearing as well as the discussion of tough topics such as rape, murder, and suicide.
There is also the inclusion of some Farsi words, but they are always defined in close proximity.
Although it is not useful for students to learn Farsi words, they can be benefited from
understanding the significance of the author’s choice to use Farsi in some places instead of
English. A list of Farsi words used can be found here.
Implications for Students of Diversity: This novel is centered around the struggles of the
Middle East to accept people of different races and the conflict of the cast systems in place there.
For students in the classroom, it is important to be sensitive to students who may come from
middle eastern heritage or especially in the United States be sensitive to students who may have
lost loved ones in the war on Iraq or in terrorist attacks. Helping students be aware of their own
prejudices is important as they read the novel, because it will allow them to think more critically
about the implication of these racial prejudices in the novel.
Immigration is another huge issue today and affects many of our students whose parents
may be immigrants or who may be immigrants themselves. Helping students become aware of
the reality of immigration today and also the truth behind some of the stereotypes may help
students exercise compassion when faced with issues of immigration.
Gender Issues: In this novel, the society is mainly a patriarchal one. The novel is told from a
male perspective and the women in the novel all play rather minor roles. Beyond this, the society
that is depicted when the new Taliban regime moves in is highly degrading against women and
considers them second class citizens. It is important to talk with students about the implications
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of all of these issues so that they can see that even in today’s society and in the recent past, men
and women still have a long way to go in creating equal standings for men and women.
Research Issues:
○ The War in Afghanistan (US involvement)
○ Effects of terrorism in the Middle East
○ Mistreatment of Women in Afghanistan
○ Race, religion, social status, and caste systems
Project Ideas:
Symbol Project: Used as a during and after reading strategy to help students identify important
symbols throughout the novel. They then use the research and visual they create to help them
write an analytical paper.
Afghanistan Today Mini-Project: Used as an after-reading strategy, students have the
opportunity to learn what Afghanistan is like in contemporary time. They do this through
research, presentation, and listening to classmate’s presentations.
Setting Poem: This activity give students an opportunity to be creative while grasping the three
different shifts in setting of the novel. It also allows them to examine different aspects of the
setting and imagine what it might be like to experience these settings themselves.
Immigration Day: An experimental during readingl learning experience used to help students
understand what it is like to be an immigrant and the struggles faced by these people. It is meant
to help all learners, especially kinaesthetic learners, make stronger connections with the
literature.
Amir Debate: A during discussion strategy used to help students understand the character of
Amir better. Through research and group discussion students will learn about the motivations of
Amir.
Point of View Letters: Created as a during-reading strategy, this assignment allows students to
take the perspective of a character and write a letter from his point of view. Additionally, it asks
students to take a step outside of their own points of view and see things from different
perspectives.
Text Sets:
NPR Podcast by Khaled Hosseini
New York Times: Taliban
Malala Yousufzai’s Blog
With Color Panache, Afghans Fighting a Different Kind of War
Graphic Novel: The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
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The Kite Runner Movie
The Kite Runner on Tape
Maps
Images of war torn Afghanistan
The Kite Runner movie screenshots
Check out more here
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