The Kite Runner Essay

 3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?
    8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.

4. How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?

• You must include a passage or two from the text if you choose this question.

Vic Xuan 
Sutherland
English, Period 2
November 23, 2010 

The Kite Runner is a historical fiction novel written by Khaled Hosseini. It portrays a story of the main character Amir, an ignorant Afghan child who matures into a responsible adult. He encounters numerous stumbles in his path to joy, but his outcomes with strangers always lead him towards the correct pathway. The writer allows Amir to survive throughout the book even though he faces the toughest challenges. Amir fought with a long time enemy and retrieved a mysterious nephew who was surprisingly his relative. Even when Amir was in deep danger, he wasn’t ever replaced with a new character. He belonged in the story and lived through depressing events. He did not ask for these challenges, but never gave up when they arrived. In the Kite Runner, all but Amir remain around during the whole book because if his life ended, the book had no storyline.

    Overall, the book was an uprising of conflicts that ended with kite running. As soon as Hassan got hurt by Assef, Amir kept bringing pain to him and threw fruit at him. Hassan wasn’t making a big deal out of the assault, but Amir was. The ending with kite running between two characters was an unexpected end to the book. It was unexpected because it was right after a social conflict of trying to take Sohrab to America. The conflict before the ending had no big event. In my opinion, I expected a breakdown of Amir or Sohrab wrapping himself in a life threatening situation because Sohrab was a troublemaker in Amir’s life. He didn’t commit any trouble by himself, but because Amir had to care for him, he was trouble. Amir finally discovered a method to bring Sohrab back to America, and he was in the bathroom, and when Amir tried to tell him the plan,

    “We won’t have to put you in the orphanage, Sohrab. We’re going to America, you and I. Did you hear me? We’re going to America!... Suddenly I was on my knees, screaming. Screaming through my clenched teeth. Screaming until i thought my throat would rip and my chest explode. (pg 343)

    “...He says the boy had cut himself deeply and had lost a great deal of blood and my mouth begins to mutter that prayer again.”(pg 348)

The intensity of events such as these, astonished me when Sohrab finally had a chance to go to America and it happened without interference. In my opinion, I believed the ending with,
    “...but suddenly i was twelve again and all the old instincts came rushing back.” (pg 368)
The ending with happiness approached me as weak because throughout the whole book, predicaments arose, one after another and suddenly after a soft conflict of America, they succeed and live happily. In such a conflicted book, I hoped for a huge event to take place in the end, just as tense events occurred during the book.
    The author writes this historical fiction novel in first person point of view to reveal Amir’s thoughts and feelings. However, when he uses “I” it does not refer to the writer himself but Amir. The purpose for using first person is to give more details on the perspective of the subject from the main character’s point of view. The author also manipulates a sense of flashback, not in his own sense since it his a fictional novel, but in a fictional sense of Amir’s life. When he flashes back and Amir is telling the story, throughout the book, Amir contributes passages from his story that help readers recognize that the story is written from past experiences. When sitting with Kamal and Baba in the truck he describes his memory with Hassan.

    “I think it’s YA MOWLAH on RUBAB strings....
    “ I didn’t remember what month that was, or what year even. I only knew the memory lived in me, a perfectly encapsulated morsel of a good past, a brushstroke of color on the gray, barren canvas that our lives had become.” (pg 123)

Amir says he doesn’t remember and acts throughout the book as if he was telling the story. amir was responsible for describing all his events and if he didn’t, he’d just not remember it. The author, Khaled Hosseini’s style of writing causes readers to fall into the flashback manipulation. My opinion on this style of writing is positive. I enjoyed reading about Amir’s story and how he described it as if he was really telling the story.

    “The rest of that ride is scattered bits and pieces of memory that come and go, most of it sounds and smells: MiGs roaring past overhead; staccatos of gunfire; a donkey braying nearby; the jingling of bells and a mewling of sheep; gravel crushed under the truck’s tires; a baby wailing in the dark; the stench of gasoline, vomit, and shit.” (pg 123)

I do enjoy this style of telling a story in a book because it allows me to feel like he is three dimensional in front of me and explaining his life. I also enjoy this writer’s style because the things he doesn’t remember don’t affect the story in any way but only brings up the idea that there is more to what he is describing. Overall the manipulation of Amir’s storytelling and his flashback way of description is an enjoyable flow of reading which guided me through the important details of the novel.
    All of the characters were different from each other. Some of which Rahim Khan, Hassan, Amir, Ali, and Baba all were part of the same household in Afghan. Rahim Khan and Baba were brave and respectful people. They couldn’t inspire Amir enough for Amir to cowardly run away when Hassan was being assaulted by three teenagers much larger in size than Amir and Hassan combined. Hassan was loyal and much more like his father, Baba, than Amir was. Hassan once protected Amir when Baba mentioned,

    “Hassan steps in and fends them off. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.” (pg 22)

This quote is about Amir acting in cowardly ways. Hassan is smaller and less fit than Amir, but still, he is willing to stand up for Amir.
    Amir is a selfish coward. Amir framed Hassan for stealing his watch just so his pain would be relieved. Previously, he felt so bad that he threw pomegranates at Hassan so he’d fight back. Amir’s nothing like Baba. Baba stood up for a man in the truck. Amir turned out differently from everyone in his household.
    Amir showed his selfish self when Rahim Khan generously asked him to pick up Sohrab, Hassan’s son. When they spoke, all Amir could think about was,

    “I have a wife in America, a home, a career, and a family. Kabul is a dangerous place, you know that, and you’d have me risk everything for...” ( pg 221)

Amir was too scared to die so he didn’t want to save Sohrab, at first. but he was guilted into going to pick up Sohrab by Rahim Khan. Baba would have agreed and not feared the risks. Amir was too spoiled, having everything done for him when he was a child. Amir finally grew up later and understood the poverty some people face. Amir donated money to Farid’s friend. He wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.
    Amir grew up as a coward but after his family and childhood died, he fulfilled his regrets by offering generosity to people who are generous to him or just ones who deserved it. He doesn’t just give away money though. He gives it to the ones who really need it and are suffering. There's always a cause for Amir's actions.
    As we’ve seen, this novel contains complex characters and a protagonist whose narrative style helps bring the story to life. It also contains a strong description in chronological order of Amir’s life. The book brings enjoyment and entertainment to readers. This book would be beneficial to readers who enjoy constant conflicts. Conflicts rise, one after another even as the reader believes the biggest event has occurred, another conflict occurs. The book might offer an important perspective on the world when readers encounter bullying and disruption in places like Afghan. It can offer a lesson in regret and redemption and also the route to take when in panic. The book The Kite Runner exhibits a story of Amir being guided through a life of hardship.