kite runner Essay

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The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini

Overview


Biography of Author



Setting



Characters



Plot Summary



Rising Action



Climax



Falling Action



Themes



Symbols



Motifs



Video Clip



Critical Questions



Reference

Khaled Hosseini


The Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini



Bachelor’s degree in
Biology



Medical School

Main Characters


Amir



Baba



Hassan



Assef



Sohrab



Rahim Khan

Amir- Protagonist


The narrator and the protagonist of the story



Amir is the sensitive and intelligent son of a well-to-do businessman in Kabul, and he grows up with a sense of entitlement.



His best friend is Hassan, and he goes back and forth between acting as a loyal friend and attacking Hassan out of jealousy whenever Hassan receives Amir’s father’s affection.



Amir is a gifted storyteller and grows from aspiring writer to published novelist.



His great desire to please his father is the primary motivation for his behaviour early in the novel, and it is the main reason he allows Hassan to be raped.



From that point forward, he is driven by his feelings of guilt as he searches to find a way to redeem himself.



Ultimately he does so through courage and selfsacrifice, and he tells his story as a form of penance.

Baba


Father of Amir and Hassan and a wealthy, well-respected businessman. •

Baba believes first and foremost in doing what is right and thinking for oneself, and he tries to impart these qualities to Amir.



He also never lets anyone’s lack of belief in him stop him from accomplishing his goals.



Although he distrusts religious fundamentalism, he follows his own moral code and acts with self-assurance and bravery.



When necessary, he is even willing to risk his life for what he believes in.



Yet his shame at having a child with a Hazara woman leads him to hide the fact that Hassan is his son.



Due the fact that he cannot love Hassan openly, he is somewhat distant toward Amir and is often hard on him, though he undoubtedly loves him.

Hassan


Amir’s best friend and half-brother as well as a servant of Baba’s.



Hassan proves himself a loyal friend to Amir repeatedly, defending Amir when he is attacked and always being ready to listen.



His defining traits are bravery, selflessness, and intelligence. •

As a poor ethnic Hazara, he is considered an inferior in Afghan society, and he is the victim of racism throughout the novel as a result.



He is Baba’s illegitimate child, though he is not aware of this fact



His rape is an early catalyst in the story, and even though he is not present in a significant portion of the novel, he plays a major role throughout. Assef- Antagonist


Hassan’s and Sohrab’s rapist and the novel’s antagonist



Assef represents all things wrong in Afghanistan.



A racist who wishes to rid
Afghanistan of Hazaras, he is incapable of remorse and enjoys inflicting violence and sexual abuse on those who are powerless. •

He even claims Hitler as a role model. Rahim Khan


Friend of Baba and Amir



Rahim Khan is Baba’s closest confidant, and the one man who knows all of Baba’s secrets.



For Amir, he serves a father figure, often giving Amir the attention he craves and filling the holes left by Baba’s emotional distance.

Plot
Summary
Amir recalls an event that happened twenty-six


years before, when he was still a boy in
Afghanistan, and says that that made him who he is. •

Before the event, he lives in a nice home in
Kabul, Afghanistan, with Baba, his father.



They have two servants, Ali and his son, Hassan, who are Hazaras, an ethnic minority. Amir is always jealous of Hassan because he gets more attention from Baba.



Baba’s close friend, Rahim Khan, is also around often. •

One day after a Kite Running tournament,
Amir looks for Hassan and finds him trapped at the end of an alley, pinned with his pants down. •

Amir witnesses Assef raping him but