Ali and Students

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (New York: Riverhead books, 2003) is a unique novel written in English as second language of the author. The author’s experience may be one of the most important motives of this story. It is set against a background of events, from communist coup d’état and Russian military occupation to the escape of refugees to Pakistan and America and the Taliban regime. In this story, there are many themes, such as conflicts among family, refracted friendship, love and jealousy, secret and betrayal, guilt and redemption, and even ethnic, religion and sex discriminations. In my opinion, this is a beautiful story because it has lots of good points, even if there are some criticizable weaknesses in the construction of fiction.

The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a well-to-do boy from Kabul, who is troubled by the remorse of betraying Hassan, his devoted childhood friend who is the son of Ali, a servant. On the day of kite fighting, Amir witnesses Hassan be raped but not helps him cowardly. He goes so far as to drive his servants out of house. When the Russians invade Afghanistan, Amir and Baba, his father, escape to Pakistan and then to America. In America, Amir gets married to Soraya, Baba dies of cancer, and Amir becomes a successful writer. After many long years, Rahim Khan, Baba’s business partner and his confidant, asks Amir to go to Pakistan, for "there is a way to be good again."(1) Amir agree to go to Pakistan to redeem his sin, and returns to Taliban-controlled Kabul, rescues Hassan's son, Sohrab, and adopts and takes him back to America. In the vortex of adoption, the Sohrap commits suicide, that’s why he is emotionally hurt and only keeps silence. In the end, Sohrab begins to interact with Amir again through the kite. Amir runs the kite for Sohrab, saying, "For you, a thousand times over,"(417) like Hassan said him.

The Kite Runner, first of all, is a piece of successful work because of some literal merits. In general, an outstanding literary work needs the writer’s power of description. For instance, for me, the expressions such as “The sky is seamless and blue, the snow so white my eyes burn.”(45) sound like a poem. Another characteristic in booming works is the originality or specialty of writing ideas. The author illustrated the particular life of Afghan including the kite tournament, racism to Hazara, and even traditional wedding clothes vividly. I could comparatively improve my comprehension of Afghanistan through this novel. In addition to, a good novel means the pleasure of reading. The writer realistically showed the passing history and actual state of the strange land to me. That is why this novel is worthy of my notice. Before I read this story, I did not know about the tragedy of Afghan and Afghanistan. Fortunately, reading the Kite Runner was a wonderful experience for me.

The Kite Runner, however, has some defects of its qualities in the fictitious construction. These plots are too artificial due to a curious coincidence. For example, as a teenager, Assef, a Nazi sympathizer, rapes Hassan, and as an adult he sexually assaults Sohrab, after he becomes a Talib-executioner. I cannot believe a father and a son, both of them can be violated by one person. Besides, Sohrab severely damages one of Assef's eyes by a slingshot. This action scene is not a real situation like James Bond style movies. Likewise, Sohrab’s suicide also is not a rational scene. Usually, children around that age would not even think of suicide at all. Moreover, the author tends to forcibly tell his story through a logical leap. Especially, it is hard for me to approve the story flow a typical coward can become a brave fighter abruptly. It may be not necessary to configure the plot to reveal suddenly the secret of Hassan’s birth, even though it is to lay writer’s intention to show Baba’s lie and make Amir decide to rescue Hassan’s son. Accordingly, I felt the flows of this story were too common and unprofessional.

The Kite Runner, absolutely, is a remarkable and extraordinary story. That’s why this novel had not only become a New York Times bestseller, but also translated in many languages. In addition, it even adapted into the movie of the same name. In spite of the fame, this story might be a patronizing Afghan-American hero’s epic at the slightest slip. This pro-American book, personally I think, timely justified the America’s attack against Afghanistan under the rule of Taliban. To conclude, this novel will be a great book just as long as we disregard some weak points in the flows and watch carefully the hidden propaganda.