The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel, ‘The Kite Runner’, is an extremely wonderful piece that tells about the beauty of Afghanistan and the change after war. The writer’s way of expressing and describing the feelings of characters and background is excellent. When I read the book, I dealt with all of my emotions. It had been able to create vivid images of characters and surroundings. This book has portrayed the beautiful part of Afghanistan which we mostly don’t think of and has shown the changes brought by terror.

The Kite Runner has the two main characters; Amir, privileged Pastun boy and Hassan, a low class Hazaara boy who lived in Kabul. They both were very fond of flying kite. They used to climb trees in driveway of their house and Amir always used to read his story books for Hassan since he was uneducated. Hassan’s bravery and loyalty nature was one of the reasons for Amir’s hatred toward Hassan. Though Hassan, one day, faces the tragic sexual harassment by Assef, Amir doesn’t go ahead to save him which marks the turning point of the story. Amir’s jealousy towards the love for Hassan from his father compels Hassan to leave the house. Then the story follows as Amir also leaves the country because of war. The challenges they both face for being privileged and unprivileged is the most heart saddening part of the story.

The story depicts about the war and its consequences in Afghanistan and the autocratic rule of Taliban. However, Hosseini with his simple language has elucidated the real meaning life and hardship we suffer. The line by Hassan, for you a thousand times, to Amir at the end becomes the line for Sohrab, Hassan’s son, which was bestowed to Hassan for his brotherly friendship. Overall, the story is about loss of lives, friendship, emotions, joy and pride. But the best part of the story is it ends with hope.