The Reserch Paper on the Kite Runner

The thematic research of The Kite Runner: The everlasting love and the courageous life

Outline

一. The introduction:

二. The thematic research:

1. Class Consciousness, Redempetion and Forgiveness:

2. The relationship between Amir and his father:

3. The Relationship between Amir and Hassan: Hassan as a scape goat

三. The symbols:

1. The Kite

2. The Harelip

四. The conclusion:

一. Introduction:

Living in a war-trodden area, the life will spark just for love . For love , we will feel the life is warm . And that is what I have learn from the novel. As a diplomat’s child, the author leads a better life than any other Afghanisan child. Hewever, he is sensitive as well. Borning into a wealth family doesn’t spoil his nature. Oppositely, he uses his pen to write what he had seen and learnt. First of all, he sensed the uneven class issues. For it, he created the figure like Hassan. He taught us the royality of human lies in their personality instead of their class , which breaks the myth of Afghanisan society. He brought the noble notion to people and eliminate the uneven barrier between the two classes. He is just like a prophet for this point. Secondly, he sensed the flawness of the human being. People always need a redemption. Rare people make no mistake even for the characters like Amir and Amir’s father. Nobody is flawless. That is why the writer points out it and provides a solution as well_ if we want to wiser and grown up than ever, we shouldn’t dare to make mistake and mend it. Then we will get a lesson and grow up finally. In this process, we will get redemption and forgiveness. And the two elements are indespensible at the same time. Thirdly, the writer uses the vivid descriptions to depict how the two relationships among Amir, Amir’s father and Hassan evloved, In this course, we will find the true side of love. That is to say, love includes scar, tears and persperation. Without the three elements, life wouldn’t complete. That is why, I will choose the three topics to illustrate in my paper.

二. Thematic Research

1. Class Consciousness, Redempetion and Forgiveness:

After I read about the first three chapters, I was enchanted by the exotic atmosphere and the innocent dialogue between the two children previously. However, I must say that I was very suprised by the selfish behavior of the main character but also touched by his tremandous transformation. To some extend, it is just like a journey from cowardice to brave, from selfishness to selfishlessness, which brings much shock beyond my imagination. From the early age, we were taught by the adults that all men are equal. However, the reality doesn’t go like that. After our society is entering into an industrial society, we begin to distinguish between the good and the bad, the wealth and the poor and most importantly, the high class people and the low class people. However, this kind of plague is overspread in some specific countries especially like Afghanistan. In this country, people call the low class people as Hazara who serves as the servant in this country. The writer describes this kind of people ambivalently since the class concept and the brotherhood between him and his friend Hassan are conflicting. It is just like a knot for the main character “Amir.” With this kind of conflict, Amir chooses an inmature attitude towards it. He put his presents in Hassan’s room and cheated his father to push Hassan away from his life. For this kind of betraying, Amir’s mind is interwoven by love and hatre always. And for his sinister behaviors, the past is haunted in his heart always in his later life. Besides the class issue, I think one of the core of this book is forgiving, especially forgiving ourselves. In the previous part of the work, Amir’s father seems like a giant who builds the orphanage and manages the sucessful resturants. Compared with his son, Amir, he is courageous and brave. For this reason, we will feel so sad for his life in American as a gas station worker. However, things changed when we find Hassan is his illegimate son. Ironically, just like his son “Amir”, he feels guilty all his life, which makes me understand that men are not flawless always. To lead a better life, sometimes, we need to forgive ourselves firstly. Absolutely, war is very cruel. However, sometimes, the ugly trait of human-being is much crueler for us and that is what I find in this book. However, that is good the writer still gives us a ray of hope. By the adventing of Hassan’s son “Sohrab,” Amir and us got the redemption. Life is just like a circle from the very beginning to the end. And Sohrab is just like the incarnation of Hassan accusing of Amir’s behaviors. For the first time, Amir doesn’t escape from what the fate gives him. When he accepted the attack from Assef, he always laughed becauce his wound was healed at that moment. For the first time, he stands up for his beloved people. That is a brilliant moment. For the first time, Amir was unbound by the past. I believe nobody wants to live in an unfair and uneven society. That is great Taiwan society is not as uneven as the Afghanistan. Living in this kind of society is our blessing. However, the royality of Hassan is impressive for me. And his royality doesn’t lie in identity given by the society but lie in his personality for his behaviors to Amir. For example, after he left Amir, he got married and have a happy family. Origonally, he needn’t to keep the house Amir had. But he devoted his life and finally sacrifice his life for it finally. It is this kind royality that gives us hope, which makes us believe the world is not as bad as we have thought. In some way, we really need this kind of people to rekindle our society especially in the war-trodden country like Afghanistan.

2. The relationship between Amir and his father

When Amir was a child, his mother died for the Amir’s birth. That is why Amir always feels guilty towards his father. He feels that it is he that takes away his mother. Therefore, he is always eager to get his father’s love and approval. However, for he can’t win over his father’s love, he attributs to Hassan’s existence sometimes.

As a Hazara, for Hassan’s brave trait, he got Amir’s father’s attention easily for his characteristics. Compared with Hassan, Amir belongs to the prilivige class but can’t get his father’s love. From the early age, Hassan’s father expected his son to be an athlete playing soccer like him. However, Amir didn’t act like that. On the contrary, he likes reading books. He can recite many poems and make up good stories. For this reason, Amir’s father once said that “ If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son.” In this way, Amir always envys Hassan in many ways. When Amir’s father took the doctor back home for Hassan’s harelip, Amir felt very unbalanced. In this stage, we can find the uneven realtionship between Amir and his father. Just like running the kites, Amir can never seize his father’s love.

However, things changed after Amir won the Kite tournament. That is the first time Amir’s father held the birthday party for Amir. For the winning, Amir begune to have a good relationship with his father. Ironically, all this happiness was granted by Hassan’s sacrifice.

When the war erupts, Amir saw the fear on his father’s face for the first time. In that specific moment, Amir was glad because Amir’s father was always aloof for Amir. Amir’s father built an orpahange and helped for so many poor people.However, all the greatness was vanished after Amir and his father came to American. In America, Amir’s father became a gas station clergy. After all the greatness disappeared, Amir and his father gathered together completely. However, from the previous part, we may find Amir is too sinister to be put together with his father. But it is a turning point for them after Amir found Hassan is his father’ After Amir’s father’s greatness shed, both of them have a better relationship.

If we compare this two characters Amir and his father, besides from their intimacy after Amir is grown up, we can find a trend that Amir is more brave and mature while Amir’s father is not so mature as we have thought from the very beginning. For instance, Amir was willing to take the responsibility of Hassan’s son after finding the truth that he and Hassan are brothers. Before that, we can find he used to be a boy refusing his father to save the fellow woman almost being raped by the soilder. However, things changed after he grown up. Although his father died and can’t witness his son’s brave behaviors, Amir begins to take up the responisibility as a man. That is the first time Amir didn’t keep the silence and was willing to speak up that Hassan’s child is a Hazara, his brotehr’s kid.
3. The Relationship between Amir and Hassan: Hassan as a scape goat

When Hassan was raped by Assef, Amir describes Hassan’s face as “the look of lamb.” Amir recalled when they need to sacrifice a lamb for Eid-e-Qorban, in honor of the prophet Ibrahim 's near sacrifice of his son. As for Amir, the look of the lamb is like he knows that his death is for the higher purpose. The cruel memory overlapped the reality that Hassan’s being raped.

For the cowardice of Amir, Hassan endures the tremendous trauma. When Amir escapes from the spot. He murmured to himself that “ He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” ,which implies his class consciousness. However, he also understands that all his happiness granted from the sacrifice of Hassan. For him, Hassan is a sacrificial lamb.

After a few days, Amir asked Hassan to climb the hill. Amir took the pomegranates and threw it towards Hassan. He demanded Hassan to throw back. However, Hassan is not willing to do that. At that moment, Hassan’s body was stained in blood-red juice and simply said that"Are you satisfied? Do you feel better?"

To some extend, the lamb symbolizes Jesus. In this way, the red juice of Pomegranate symbolizes the blood of Jesus.

三. Symbols:
1. The Kite

Originally, Kite means freedom and innocence in the western society. However, the kite bears more meanings in this work. It can been the shameful past for Amir. It can be the thing to gain his father’s love for Amir. What is more, it also means the loss of innocence for Hassan for his raping by Assef. However, with the transformation of the meaning of the kite, Amir redeemed by it when he plays the kite with Hassan’s child” Sohrab”.

That is a turning point when Amir winned the kite for the first time. For it, he got his father’s love. For it, Hassan lost his innocence. That is the kite to reverse the relationship between Amir, Amir’s father and Hassan. Originally, we may feel the kite represents the freedom. But it is the kite to make thier relationship tangled.

We may wonder why the writer uses the title” The Kite Runner” instead of The Kite Fighter. I think the range of the kite fighter is narrower compared with the kite runner. And just as the kites, people are always pursuing something like Amir and Hassan. Amir is pursing his father’s love. And Hassan is pursuing the royality for Amir and Amir’s father. However, no matter what they are pursuing, they lose something when they are pursuing. When Amir got his father’s love, he lost Hassan’s friendship as well. When Hassan is pursuing his royality, he lost his innocence and life as well. And that is one of the novel’s moral for us “ We gain something, and we lose something.

The Harelip:

The harelip could be a mark of redemption for Amir. I think it also implies some fate and irony within it. Originally, Hassan is a low class people with harelip. And Amir always can look down with him for this trait and his illiteracy. For this kind of emotion, he even feels envious that his father brought the surgeon to deal with Hassan’s harelip. Ironically, he got the harelip after he fights with Assef.

Besides of this kind of irony, the harelip also implies something which means although Hassan has this kind of defect, he is much more brave and complete than Amir. With this kind of comparison, we feel the splendid part of Hassan’s character. I think the writer is illustrating the thing that we shouldn’t judge a person from his class and his appearance. Even we have some defects like Hassan, we still can lead a distinguished life.

With the harelip after fighting with Assef, Amir is finally like a grown-up man. And he begins to realize that harelip is not a defect since it is the harelip redeemed him. Finally, he got the father and Hasaan’s love for the mark.

四. The conclusion:

Have you ever been haunted by the past memory? I think there is no exception among us. We are all similar to the protagonist Amir. We are all cowardice and lack the true brave. But as the title said, I believe the everlasting love can heal us finally no matter how hurt the past for us. To gain the true brave, we need to hurdle for several times.

Just as the opening of the book had told us, the past is like a monster crawing out time by time.“That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” Nobody can escape from the past, unless he or she can face it and battle for it. And that is the core of the book in my opinion. For instance, Amir needs to get forgiveness from Hassan. And Amir’s father needs to get the same thing form Hassan and Hassan’s father. And that is why Amir could be the hero of the book since he battles for the past and win over it in the end.

To turn over a new leaf of our life and to be a true hero, I think the writer inspires us very much. Besides of the class consciousness, he set an example how to be an authentic hero in out life. In this process, love and life will be everlasting. At the same time, the meaning of the kite is going through a transformation as well. From the very beginning, the kite ma be presented us as a symbol of the shameful past for Amir. But in the end of the book, its meaning shifts. No more being a shameful past, it implies the Amir’s everlasting love for Hassan and Soharb. Within the kind of tramsformation, life just implies more wisdom like the kite. And for the wisdom, we can pass down our life and be a courageous person.

Work Cited:

Ligard, Terry.” Symbolism in The Kite Runner.”Bright Hub. Sallyfd, Jun. 2001. web. 13 Jun 2010.

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Kite Runner.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2010. Web. 9 Jun. 2010

Wasowski, Richard P. CliffsNotes on The Kite Runner. 13 Jun 2010

Hosseini, Khaled. “Kite Runner Symbolism, Imagery and Allegory.” Shommp. Shommp University, 2010. web. 9 Jun. 2010

Cited: Ligard, Terry.” Symbolism in The Kite Runner.”Bright Hub. Sallyfd, Jun. 2001. web. 13 Jun 2010. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Kite Runner.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2010. Web. 9 Jun. 2010 Wasowski, Richard P. CliffsNotes on The Kite Runner. 13 Jun 2010 Hosseini, Khaled. “Kite Runner Symbolism, Imagery and Allegory.” Shommp. Shommp University, 2010. web. 9 Jun. 2010