Sohrab had been enveloped by silence, his misery and horrific past had finally caught up to him. The childlike spirit in his eyes was only returned after he rediscovered the glorious addiction of kite flying. Amir takes the young boy out in his attempt to rekindle their relationship, after defeating a kite in the kite competition, Amir offers to run the kite for young Sorhab "'for you, a thousand times over,' I heard myself say" (371). He was mimicking Hassan when he screamed "'for you a thousand times over!'" (67). Hassan began on his chase for the blue kite and as expressed in an early blog was a symbol of his loyalty.
This repetitive quote creates a contrast as Amir changes from the young boy who betrayed Hassan, to an adult attempting to win over the trust of Sohrab. Amir had won over Sohrab, who had been scarred by male adult interaction. Later he promised to adopt him and never take him to another orphanage, later saying he might have to go to an orphanage to facilitate the adoption "'you promised you'd never put me in one of those places," (341). The trust was broken there and he slipped into his misery complete with an attempt at suicide (343) as well as his silence (365). Only to be broken by the kite race "a smile... lopsided... hardly there... but there" (370). Amir saw this as a sign, this kite race was a snowflake "when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting" (371). The first time he had reached through to him as his wife Soraya had "gradually abandoned her attempts at engaging him (367). The very activity that symbolized his father's loyalty to Amir, shows the unbound devotion that Amir has for Sohrab. Sohrab being the son of Hassan, whom Amir betrayed. Creating a theme involving the devotion and endless loyalty and betrayal throughout relationships.
Having read passages by Foster and Perrine both authors have influenced the way I read greatly. Perrine emphasizes the importance of what is in the text, not including prior knowledge acquired from outside the reading. Foster more predominantly has helped me notice technique and patterns, extending beyond the techniques I have mentioned in prior blog posts. I have noticed the prevalence of significant marks, such as Hassan's cleft lip (10), similarly Amir's scar that resembled a cleft lip (297), and Ali's leg damaged from polio (25). As well as the possibility of Hasan being a Christ figure. Furthermore I had noticed political tones throughout the book, however I don't think that the political aspects are used as anything more than plot. The social divide between the Hazaras and Pashtuns (40) as well as the Taliban presence in Afghanistan (213), are obviously present within the book but function as a means of moving the action and creating backgrounds for the divides and conflicts. The novel becomes more focussed on the reoccurring elements of betrayal and loyalty of life than the specifics of the betrayal and loyalty in the context of the Taliban rule.
In conjunction with the discussions occurring in class regarding the truth of stories such as The Things They Carried and the importance of such validity, there are similar concepts running through this novel. In the beginning of the book he makes references to the similarity of Amir's childhood and his own childhood (xii), the book is also narrated from the first person perspective of Amir who's an aspiring author (32). Similar to the author of The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien plays with the truth writing from the first person perspective and making his characters and fellow soldiers seem to come alive, he goes even further and creates the narrator with the same name as the author himself. But don't get confused the author is not the narrator, which is where the ambiguity sets in. The ambiguity makes it hard to accept that the novel is fiction. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini pulls of the very same style, not quite as flawlessly but breaks down the barrier regarding the clear line between fiction and nonfiction, though the story of The Kite Runner is far too perfect to be real. The sense of perfect being the circle ending with Aseef's appearance in the beginning and the end and his relationships with both Hassan and Sohrab, as well as the mirroring incidents of kite running and fighting.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini while a very dark book draws the reader in making it difficult to separate from the story. I recommend reading this book not only for the literary elements and masterpieces of it but as well as the story. The story shows the evolution of a boy as well as his country which changes drastically, the beginnings (childhood and former country) show echoes throughout the book as memories and images haunt him. The book offers endless literary patterns to be analyzed as each layer is uncovered in this novel.
I really enjoyed reading your blog posts. You provided some really good, in-depth analysis. I especially enjoyed your post about the symbolism of the blue kite. I noticed it as I read the book, but wasn't sure exactly what it stood for. You were able to effectively synthesize the symbolic meaning of the blue kite. I think we both picked up on the themes of loyalty and betrayal within the various relationships in the book. One thing I didn’t really do was elaborate on that theme in regards to a symbol in the book. You were able to talk about the kite running creating a symbol of that theme, which really intrigued me.
ReplyDeleteI also especially enjoyed reading your blog posting about Assef, Hassan, and Sohrab. You did a good job explaining the life cycle of Assef, how he began as a neighborhood bully and became a leader for the Taliban. You touched on the foreshadowing of that in his fascination with Hitler, something I didn’t pick up on. You explained how Hosseini created a perfect circle by bookending the story with appearances by Assef, and making the reader feel like it came around full circle, that was a cool idea that you illustrated. More importantly, I liked what you said about Sohrab and Hassan. You described how Assef ‘creates’ a similarity between father and son by forcing both Hassan and Sohrab to come to the defense of Amir with a slingshot. That definitely created an immense similarity that I didn’t pick up on when reading the book.
Finally, your parallels between The Kite Runner and The Things They Carried were actually pretty interesting to me. I think you mentioned how O’Brien plays with the truth, and makes the reader believe and want the story to be true. You said that Hosseini does the same thing in tearing down the wall between what is perceived as true and fiction. I think I struggled with wanting it to be true and getting attached to the characters because they seemed like non-fiction characters in a lot of ways. It looks like you didn’t do that as much, which is good. Your parallels between the two books were very interesting.