The Kite Runner
Themes, Characters & Relationships
Theme: Atonement – Character: Amir
The significance of Hassan’s rape overshadowed Amir’s life. The underlying
inequality of their relationship, as a Pashtun and a Hazara leads Amir to see
it as a ‘sacrifice’.
Amir’s guilt stems from his own shame - because he didn’t admit to his sin
and didn’t tell anyone what happened.
First step to atonement: feeling remorse and acknowledging it.
When Amir saves Sohrab he can forgive himself and find the courage to
declare that Hassan is his half-brother.
Catalyst: when Amir finally confronts Assef and gets the beating he was
threatened with years ago.
We see the change in Amir’s thinking as he no longer uses the cultural
inequalities between ethnic groups as an excuse to explain his treatment of
Hassan/Hazaras – the reversal of the line ‘for you a thousand times over’
signifies that he has overcome history and religion to be indebted to Sohrab
for saving his life, both physically and symbolically by giving him a chance to
forgive himself.
As a child: what are the driving forces behind Amir’s actions?
 To win Baba’s love
 Using his power as a Pashtun - testing the limits of his relationship
with Hassan
As an adult:
Through Baba’s death Amir no longer sees himself as ‘Baba’s son’ and can
take responsibility for his actions. Amir can redeem himself through
rescuing Sohrab and this brings its own reward by helping Amir’s personal
development.
Why do the major changes occur in Amir so late in his life?
It may be that the image he has of his father as ‘Toophan Agha, or ‘Mr.
Hurricane’’; a figure of mythic proportions has to be challenged and
debunked before he is able to discover his own value.
Theme: Family – Characters: Amir and Baba
Amir feels at times that Baba ‘always hated [him] a little’ and thinks that
Baba blames him for his mother’s death. He comments that to Baba; ‘real
men – real boys – played soccer just like Baba had when he had been
young’. Amir senses something missing in his relationship with his father
but isn’t sure until he overhears Baba say to Rahim Khan that ‘he’s always
shuffling around the house like he’s lost in some dream’ and that there was
‘something missing in that boy.’
In his childhood, Amir feels isolated from Baba, because he ‘hadn’t turned
out like him. Not at all.’ However, as an adult when Amir discovers the
secret that Baba had kept from him – that Baba was Hassan’s biological
father – he can understand Baba’s flaws too: ‘We were more alike than I’d
ever known. We had both betrayed the people who would have given their
lives for us.’
Theme: Friendships/Inequality – Characters: Amir and Hassan vs.
Baba and Rahim Khan
Amir admits in the novel that he ‘never thought of Hassan and [himself] as
friends’ despite their growing up in the same house and spending all of
their free time playing together. While Hassan sees them as friends, Amir
uses the ethnic prejudices to explain that ‘I was a Pashtun and he was a
Hazara, I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to
change that.’ Hassan repeatedly shows his ‘unwavering loyalty’ to Amir,
yet Amir often teases, tricks and takes his frustrations out on Hassan.
This inequality is contrasted against the friendship of Baba and Rahim Khan
– Hosseini represents friendship as something that can only flourish
between those who see themselves as equals – Rahim Khan are both of
equal economic, social and cultural footing as wealthy Pashtun
businessmen from Kabul. They also confide in one another, as Rahim Khan
knows about Baba being Hassan’s father; whereas Amir’s biggest lie
involves not only hiding the truth about what happened to Hassan but also
portraying him as a thief.