The Kite Runner
General Information:
Writer: Khaled Hosseini
Title: The Kite Runner
Year: 2003
Summary:
The Early Years in Kabul
The early years in Kabul are charmed. Our protagonist, Amir, lives in a fairly posh
house with his father, whom he calls Baba, and their servants, Ali and Hassan. (Who,
if you're keeping score, are also a father and son duo.) Amir's mother died giving
birth to him, and Hassan's mom ran off soon after he was born – so the two young
boys both grow up without mothers. As the book likes to point out, they also share
the same wet nurse (a woman who nursed them as babies). This apparently makes
people very close.
There's some tension, though, in the household. Ali and Hassan are Hazaras, which
means they're from an ethnic minority. They don't have the same status as Amir and
Baba. Though Amir and Baba rarely toss off ethnic slurs at them, Ali gets some
abuse from the neighborhood boys. To make things a bit more uncomfortable, Amir
doesn't get nearly enough attention from his father. Baba seems to dislike Amir – he's
weak and likes poetry instead of bloodthirsty sports, etc. In fact, it sometimes seems
like Baba has more affection for his servant boy, Hassan.
What's our protagonist to do? Well, the only thing he can do: win a kite-fighting
tournament and thus earn his father's love. In Afghanistan, people not only fly kites,
they fight them. This involves long kite strings coated in tar and glass; the point is to
cut the string of the other kites. So Amir and Hassan set off to win the annual winter
kite-fighting tournament. After some snazzy strategy and a little luck, Amir actually
wins. All he needs now is for Hassan to chase down the defeated kite, and he'll have
his father's love. (Question: Is this a reverse case of a parent trying to buy a child's
love?)
Hassan takes off after the defeated kite. He snags it, but he also runs into three
unsavory characters: Wali, Kamal, and Assef. Amir and Hassan have had run-ins
with these no-good punks before and now Assef, the ring-leader, wants revenge. To
teach Hassan a lesson, Assef rapes Hassan in an alleyway while Wali and Kamal
watch. To make matters worse, Amir has just arrived but he doesn't have the guts to
stand up for Hassan. It's horrific on a number of levels: Amir's cowardice, Assef's
cruelty, Hassan's victimization, and the general feeling of all parties involved that a
Hazara doesn't deserve the respect afforded to the ethnic majority in Afghanistan.
Hassan is shaken up after the incident in the alleyway, but he doesn't talk with Amir
about it. Both boys pretend it didn't happen. But the guilt begins to wear on Amir –
how can he go on with life if just seeing Hassan reminds him of his cowardice? Also,
Baba seems even more affectionate toward Hassan, which adds jealousy to Amir's
