Q3-Q4 outside reading blog #1

In the kite runner by Khaled Hosseini, there are two parts to the book. The first is in Afghanistan and takes place from the monarchy to the soviet invasion. The second half takes place in America where Amir the main character and his father Baba get settled then Amir returns to Afghanistan which is now under the Taliban’s rule and tries to find his nephew and bring him out of Afghanistan.

            The first section starts with characterization. We meet Hassan, immediately we are informed that Amir and Hassan have a deep bond because they both drank the same milk as infants. Even though they are friends they are very different. This inequality is brought to our attention very quickly. Amir says how at the end of the day he and Hassan part ways, Amir to the big white mansion and Hassan to the mud hut at the back of the house. This theme of inequality is mentioned a lot. For example Amir says, “history isn’t easy to overcome. Neither is religion”(25). He is referring to how he is a Pashtun and a Sunni and Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a. The author also demonstrates this by the fact that Hassan is illiterate. Amir often tries to feel superior by making fun of Hassan when he does not know what a word means. Also he tricks Hassan once, telling him the word imbecile means intelligent and then uses it in a sentence “when it comes to words Hassan is a imbecile.”(29). This trick is designed to make Hassan look stupid later when using the word incorrectly. It is this kind of cruel trick that clearly demonstrates the inequality because Amir would never had played such a nasty trick on anyone he regarded as an equal.

             Another major theme in the book is Amir’s relationship with is father Baba. Amir characterizes Baba as being a very great man. He is strong, athletic, entrepreneurial, popular, successful and very brave. Baba is very disappointed in Amir. This is because he can’t relate to Amir. When Baba was a kid he played soccer, was good with a slingshot, could easily hold his own with the other boys and won the kite tournament. Amir likes to read books, is poor with the slingshot, is bad at soccer, is a coward and has never won the kite tournament. What Amir doesn’t know is that Hassan is his half brother and Baba approves of him but can’t openly be affectionate. This is demonstrated in many ways. For example Baba never forgets Hassan’s birthday and usually asks Amir to invite Hassan to a family outing. This relationship has caused problems. For example to win Baba’s love Amir feels like he has to win the kite contest at all costs and that goal blinds him to what is really important when Hassan, after running the last kite, gets cornered and eventually raped by Assef and his friends while Amir can only watch in horror.     

            The author has a lot of intent in his writing. A big example of this is the setting. In the first half of the book Afghanistan is depicted as a land worth loving. “He emptied the box and picked up a handful of dirt from the middle of the unpaved road. He kissed the dirt. Poured it into the box. Stowed the box in his breast pocket, next to his heart.”(121). In this scene Baba and Amir are about to leave Afghanistan and papa shows his great love for the country when he empties his stuff box and puts some of Afghanistan in it instead, next to his heart. When Amir returns however, Afghanistan does not seem like such a good place. Many are poor and Amir sees some men. One of them is selling his false leg to feed his family. Amir is also very surprised to see that one small district still has roofs on the houses.

            Another intent of the author is to show that not all Afghans are crazy. Because of the media, it has become a bit of a stereotype that everyone from the Middle East is a terrorist and wants to blow up America. The author shows how this is not true at all by showing afghan culture to be interesting and not negative at all. The author also explains that not all Afghans are religious fanatics when Baba says “piss on the beards of all those self righteous monkeys … they do nothing but thumb their prayer beads and recite a book written in a tongue they don’t even understand… god help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into their hands” (17). Baba is telling Amir his opinion of the Taliban. That perspective is held throughout the entire book.