The book The
Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is written in first person, from the point
of view of Amir, the main character of the novel.
In the
first chapter, the reader does not get to know much about the story, not even
the narrator’s name. Despite this, in its page and a half the chapter
introduces the main characters and conflicts, in such a way that one gets to
know that something happened and also some names, but it mostly serves as a
mere introduction for the rest of the story. This first chapter is set in 2001,
in San Francisco, and in it the narrator begins to remember his childhood in
Afghanistan and that everything changed in 1975.
After this
brief introduction presented in the first chapter, the second one goes back in
time to Amir’s childhood in his home country, Afghanistan. In order to begin
describing his experiences, the narrator presents some characters in more
detail: his childhood friend Hassan and his father Ali, his own father Baba,
and Baba’s friend Rahim Khan. These characters’ personal backgrounds are set,
as well as their relationships with each other, in order to provide information
about Amir’s life and for it to be understood by the reader, as this is all
narrated as a set of past memories and events, looking back from 2001 into his
personal history. This description of the characters continues into the third
chapter; while the second one focuses on describing Amir, Hassan and their
relationship, the third one focuses on Baba, for whom Amir feels admiration but
also for whom he doesn’t feel good enough. This way, we learn that Ali and
Hassan work for Baba and Amir, and they live in a small hut in Baba’s grounds,
that both Amir and Hassan lost their mothers while being newborns, and that
they were nursed by the same woman, so, in a way, they are like brothers, but
they don’t call themselves friends because Hassan is a Hazara (and Amir is a
Pashtun), and he is a shi’a while Amir is a sunni. We also know that Baba has
done many things that everyone thought he’d never do, such as wrestling a bear,
and he has firm set morals, as he thinks that the only sin that exists is
stealing.
In the
first chapters the narration is mostly focused on the characterization of the
different people that influenced Amir’s childhood, but the focus point changes
as the narration advances. Towards chapter four, the story becomes more active
and less descriptive, even though there are still many descriptive elements
through the text.
In the
fourth chapter Ali and Baba’s childhood relationship is explained, similar to
their sons’, and it’s found out that Amir likes to read to Hassan because he
loves stories, but is illiterate. Because of this, Amir writes his first story
and wants Baba to be proud, but he’s indifferent. Real action starts taking
place in the 5th chapter; it begins with the government being
overthrown by Daoud Khan, but Hassan and Amir don’t understand that and decide
to climb a tree. On their way there, they meet Assef, who was known for being a
bully, and he tries to beat them with his brass knuckles, but they get to run
away thanks to Hassan’s slingshot. In chapter 6, action tends to calm down
again. Baba takes the boys to buy a kite
for the kite running competition. In 7, the kite fighting takes place and Amir
manages to win, with Hassan’s help, making Baba proud too. Hassan runs the last
kite, but Assef finds him and rapes him.
Finally,
chapter 8 is a sad chapter that reflects the effects of Amir having seen the
rape without doing anything to defend Hassan. He becomes insomniac and starts
avoiding his friend more and more, to a point in which he even asks Baba to
replace Ali and him. But Baba won’t, so Amir takes Hassan to the pomegranate
tree and starts throwing fruit at him, asking him to throw back, but Hassan
crushes one against his own face. Later, Amir’s 13th birthday takes
place and Baba organizes a huge party, to which Assef and his friends happen to
be invited. This makes Hassan have to serve his own rapists, and Amir gets
ashamed.
From a
personal point of view, I'm finding the book too sad and tragic, and belief that
Amir could be an stronger person and make everything easier in the story. It is
not a book that I’m loving, so far, but it really shows the perspective of living in another culture, which is
interesting.
