The Kite Runner: A Heartbreaking Story of Personal Guilt and Redemption

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a heartbreaking story of the bond between a wealthy boy and his poor friend. The essay narrates the story of Sohrab, a character from the novel and from his perspective. It explores themes of personal guilt and redemption and offers insight on Afghanistan's history and culture.

1
The Kite Runner
<University>
Khaled Hosseini
by
<Your Name>
<Date>
<Lecturer’s Name and Course Number>

2
Introduction
“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini is a heartbreaking story of the bond between a
wealthy boy and his poor friend. It was the first fictional work in English that depicts the Soviet
War in Afghanistan and the Rise of Taliban. The novel explores these of personal guilt and
redemption and the conflict between the good and the evil (Hosseini & Schmitt 2012, p. 166).
The Kite runner offers insight on Afghanistan monarchy during the seventies, invasion by the
Soviet Union and the emergence of the Mujahideen in the late seventies, efforts made by the
United Nations to bring peace in the eighties, Civil War during the nineties and the control by
Taliban (Silvester 2018, p. 309). The novel is set against the backdrop of the tumultuous ethnic,
religious, and political events within Afghanistan.
The essay narrates the story of Sohrab, a character from the novel and from his
perspective. It is interesting to note that how Hosseini engages the tragedy from the Persian epic,
"Rostam and Sohrab," as a structural framework for the novel. Rostam is a great warrior who
learns that Sohrab is his "long-lost" son (Blumenthal 2012, p. 258).
My yellow kite
I had the same dream again. I was flying kites with my uncle Amir somewhere in
Afghanistan. We were flying a bright yellow kite that looked striking against the clear blue sky.
Many other kites joined in while some disappeared. It was lovely to imagine the vast blue sky
like a massive canvas filled with rippling colors. I wanted the dream to go on and on but always
woke up at the same time when I saw those dark clouds creeping up from the horizon. This time
too, I woke up with a star when I saw the dark menacing colors of gray spread across the cheery

3
sky. I woke up with a cold sweat on my forehead. I looked outside from his small apartment in
San Francisco. It was still raining. I checked the time. My aunt would be home anytime.
I arrived here in California a couple of months back with my uncle and aunt. They had
promised me that now I was far away from the violence of our homeland and would be safe and
happy here (Shabangu & Naidu 2018, p. 45). Well, I did feel safe but was not sure if I felt happy.
I was a quiet child and didn’t speak much. Those terrible memories of the loss of my parents and
the sexual abuse still haunted me (Banu 2016, p. 191). I liked Uncle Amir but there was this
strange silence between us, and I often wondered why. After all, my uncle has not done any
wrong? I had overheard my aunt telling him that I need to come out of my shell and take an
interest in my environment and communicate more (Kalpakli 2017, p. 83).
I missed Afghanistan and my old life there. But could I go back? I was afraid to ask my
uncle. Moreover, I knew I was a Hazara, and there was something wrong about being a Hazara. I
had heard my uncle and aunt discussing how the Taliban has seized Kabul and was purifying
Islam for the sake of Sharia and going against the Hazara (Dwivedi & Sharma 2018, p. 6). I had
heard my uncle admonish General Taheri not to call me Sohrab a Hazara boy. I wondered what
was wrong in being a Hazara. Uncle Amir told me stories about my father Hassan and how much
I resembled him. He always created a positive picture of my father and how brave he was
(Rehman, Khan & Wali2017, p. 45). It made me wonder about my father. Would life had been
different if he was alive? I often wondered about my friends in Afghanistan. Were they still there
or had fled the country like him? I was sure that not all of them had uncles who could shift them
to safety in another country. I wanted to ask my uncle if running away to America was the only
solution. What about those who were not able to leave?

4
I was lost in my thoughts when I heard my uncle and aunt arrive. I went to the bathroom
to wash my face and freshen up. I heard my uncle asking me to come out. When I entered the
living room, I could smell freshly brewed coffee and saw my aunt unpacking Bagels from a
brown packet.
“Come, Sohrab! Have some Bagels, they are nice and fresh “said my aunt.
My uncle looked at me and cleared his throat. I felt that he wanted to say something. But
he didn’t. I sat down on the table, playing with the bagel and sipping coffee.
“Here, I have something for you. “I heard my uncles saying.
I looked in his direction and saw him taking out something from the bag. It was a bright
yellow kite. How he managed to get a kite that big in size, it was impossible to know. It was
huge in size and was bordered with a shiny green color. I loved its tail which was sort of long
and frilly. I felt my eyes light up. After all, it had been ages that I had flown a kite. I looked
outside, and the rain had stopped.
I asked my uncle” Can we fly the kite today?”
“Of course! “He said, “It would be nice if you wrote your name on the kite in Arabic.”
I felt very excited and happy, and for some strange reason felt as if those emotions were
new to me and I was not used to them.
We went to the terrace. Although the landscape and the surroundings were very different
from Afghanistan, I felt that the sky was the same. I felt a rush of excitement as the bright yellow
kite soared in the sky. This was no dream. I closed my eyes and imagined I was back in
Afghanistan. It felt nice. I was afraid to open my eyes. Suddenly I heard a joyful cry from my

5
aunt. I looked up and saw my yellow kite soaring up in the sky. It looked beautiful and bright
against the blue sky. I wondered how my uncle knew that I liked yellow kites.
I was suddenly afraid and looked over the horizon for any dark clouds. But there were
none. For the first time, I could feel the warmth of the yellow kite, like a sun. I smiled and
looked towards my uncle.

6
Bibliography
Banu, S.S., 2016. Discrimination, War and Redemption in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner
and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Language in India, 16(8), pp.180-193.
Blumenthal, R 2012, Looking For Home In The Islamic Diaspora Of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Azar
Nafisi, And Khaled Hosseini, Arab Studies Quarterly, 34(4), p. 250,
Dwivedi, A, & Sharma, A 2018,'Re-reading Khaled Hosseini's Works: A Revival of the Lost
Afghan, Language In India, 18(4), pp. 1-13.
Hosseini, K, & Schmitt, J 2012, The Kite Runner', The Literature Of War, Credo Reference,
EBSCOhost, Gale, 1(1), pp.165-166.
Kalpakli, F. 2017, The Relationship Between Nature And Human Psyche In The Kite Runner,
Journal of International Social Research, 10 (48), pp. 82-85.
Rehman, S, Khan, W, & Wali, M 2017, Kipling, Khan, and Hosseini: An Analysis of
Perceptions and Misperceptions in their Works regarding Pashtun Identity before and after 9/11,
FWU Journal Of Social Sciences, 11, pp. 41-48.
Silvester, JD 2018, Reconstruction of a Nation: A Reading of Khaled Hosseini's Fiction',
Language In India, 18(6), pp. 304-317.
Shabangu, M. & Naidu, S. 2018. The First World's Third World Expert: Self-Exoticization in
Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, 3(1),
pp.40-56.