Kite Runner

Kite Runner
Final Questions

1. The tortured souls are said to be Amir and Baba according to Rahim Khan’s letter. Baba was tortured soul because he was always hard on himself for not telling the truth and other things in that happen in the past. Baba had kept the truth about Amir and Hassan being half-brothers for his entire life. Baba couldn’t love Hassan the way he longed, openly as a father. Baba always became furious with himself, so he took out his anger, guilt, on Amir instead. Rahim Khan says that, all the things that Baba did, feeding the poor, building the orphanage and giving money to friends in need, was to redeem himself from all the guilt and hardship he faced in the past.

Amir was a tortured soul because he was ashamed of what he did in his past, in his childhood. Amir thinks that the god will never forgive him, but most importantly Amir will never forgive himself. Amir watched Hassan get beat up by Assef and his friends. Amir never thought to go up to Hassan and help him. Amir wanted Hassan to suffer so he can have Baba all to himself. Amir could never handle the fact that Baba loved Hassan more than he loved him. Amir put handful of money and a wrist watch under Hassan’s bed to frame Hassan of stealing. Hassan took the fall and Hassan and Ali had to leave the house. Years later Amir finds out that Hassan was his half-brother, and realizes that his life had been a lie right from the start. Amir couldn’t imagine what he had done to Hassan was to his own brother. Amir thought that Hassan would’ve been alive if it weren’t for him, and thought about how he treated him for all those years. Rahim Khan says to Amir that, what you did in the past was because you were a troubled child. Amir has a chance to do the right thing, with Sohrab, and make him little less miserable and stop being hard on himself for once in his life.

2. The first irony of the novel occurred in when Amir put some of his money underneath the bed of Wahid. This is ironic because Amir had done this to Hassan before. Amir had put some money and a wristwatch under Hassan’s bed to frame him of stealing, because he couldn’t stand to look at Hassan with all the guilt he had inside him for letting Hassan get beat up. Amir even tried provoking Hassan, but Hassan would just do nothing and take the sacrifice for Amir. Back then Amir was very troubled child with lot of issues in his head. It was hard for him to get around them. Always thinking of him before others. When Amir realizes that Wahid’s sons were not staring at the watch, but instead they were staring at the food he was eating. He felt anguished of his past and put some money under the bed. For once he had thought about others first. He made himself less miserable and started helping out others, right where he was born, in Afghanistan.

The second irony is when Sohrab stands up for Amir in a fight with Assef. When Amir and Hassan were young, Hassan always stood up for Amir in any kind of situation. Hassan was loyal to Amir; he put himself on the spot before he let Amir. Assef was about to hit Amir but Hassan stood up with his slingshot with a little pebble in it. Hassan warned to shoot the slingshot at Assef’s left eye if Assef were to hit Amir. Assef backed off and left with his friends. When Amir came to get Sohrab, Amir saw Assef. Assef had become a chief leader of Taliban. Assef said that Amir had to fight him in order to get Sohrab. Assef wanted to finish what he should have finished years ago. Assef was constantly throwing punches after punches with his stainless steel brass knuckles. In the middle of the fight Sohrab gets up and tells Assef to stop hitting Amir. Sohrab stood up with a slingshot, in it was a metal ball, in his hand. Assef warned Sohrab to put it away, but Sohrab didn’t want Amir getting hurt. Sohrab shot Assef in the left eye with slingshot, just like Hassan had said he would do. Like Hassan, Sohrab respected everyone and couldn’t see anyone getting hurt.

The third and final irony of the book occurs at the end of the novel. Amir’s family and some other Afghan families were gathered at Lake Elizabeth Park for a barbeque. Sohrab was still silent. To make Sohrab smile Amir bought him a kite and tar. Amir asked Sohrab to join him and help him fly the kite. Sohrab was still silent. Amir decided to go out and try to fly the kite himself. He felt like a child again, and Sohrab had followed him. Amir gave the tar to Sohrab to hold the kit in the air. They got into a kite battle with someone and Amir had pulled Hassan’s favorite move, the Life and Dive. The other kite was cut, and Amir asked if Sohrab wanted the kite. Sohrab nodded. Then Amir said “for you a thousand times over”. Hassan had said those words right before he ran for the blue kite when they were young. Amir needed to prove himself that he was a changed man and that he can make some of the things right with his past.

3. Kite-flying reads as a metaphor for the desire of freedom, the freedom to do whatever you wish in your life. For example, Amir enters in the kite tournament hoping that he will never win it. But as the tournament goes on Amir’s confidence rises and gives him hope that he can win the tournament and can do anything in his life. And he does win the tournament all by himself. Also in the last part of the novel, by the cutting his opponent’s kite he felt like he was young again, reminded him how much he used love kite flying with Hassan. Kite-running as a metaphor emphasizes the evolution of Afghanistan and the characters in the novel. Afghanistan was taken over by the Soviet Union when Amir was still in Afghanistan. Amir over came those obstacles and went to America to start his new life. But when he returned to Afghanistan, the world was changed again. There were more orphans, more violence, and more people without homes. When Sohrab comes to America to live with Amir, Amir kite-runs for him, who starts his new life after all the violence he has seen over the years. Amir’s life is said to change direction constantly, just like a kite that has been cut, you don’t know where its going to land.

4. (8.) Hassan accepts injustice because he wasn’t raised the way Amir was. Hassan wasn’t educated like Amir was. Most importantly Hassan was a poor Hazara. For me injustice moment for Hassan comes when Amir witnesses Hassan serving drinks to Assef and his friends on Amir’s thirteenth birthday. Hassan cannot do anything about the fight in the alley because of his inferior status as a poor Hazara, and Assef, whose family is rich and powerful, knows it. Hassan dutifully serves Assef. Assef expresses no remorse or shame during the encounter. Instead, he grins at Hassan and kneads him in the chest tauntingly with his knuckle.