The Kite Runner Basic Book Review

Throughout this mind-blowing novel by Khaled Hosseini we are overwhelmed with tragic events, one after the other. The Kite Runner is a realistic fiction about a boy named Amir who grew up in Kabul and had to flee to America after the Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan. As a college graduate, living in San Francisco with a beautiful wife and home, he gets a life changing phone call telling him that he should come back home to Kabul to become “good again”. Amir then travels back to Afghanistan to clear up his restless past that came back to hunt him. While there, he realizes how badly the invasion affected his home. Amir tries to do everything in his power to make up for all the bad he did, but gets caught up in some life-risking obstacles along the way.

Amir is the main character in this novel. Throughout his childhood, he has a servant named Hassan who is like his best friend. These two characters have a very strange relationship as little kids, mainly because Hassan is Hazara and the society looks down on Hazaras. Therefore,  Amir doesn’t admit Hassan is his friend because he’s ashamed of him. Hassan is always standing up for Amir and dealing with his crap because Amir’s a coward and Hassan’s a loyal friend. Baba, Amir’s dad, seems to like Hassan better than Amir because he has more courage than Amir. And one time, Hassan even got raped for sticking up for Amir, and the cold part is Amir was there the entire time hiding and didn’t say a word! But now Amir is all grown up and takes a visit back to Afghanistan to find Hassan’s son, Sohrab, after the Russian’s invaded the country and killed Hassan and his wife. Amir goes through hell and back trying to get Sohrab to a safe place. He eventually gets Sohrab but before he did, he gets beaten half to death with brass knuckles by the guy who raped Hassan back when they were little. But thank God Sohrab was there to save him with a slingshot. Now this may seem like a lot and very nice of Amir to risk his life for Sohrab , but he’s actually being very selfish. Allow me to explain why.

Amir went to Afghanistan to clear up his past regarding Hassan. Sohrab just happened to be a factor in a way he could achieve this for the simple fact he’s Hassan’s son. He is doing quite a few nice gestures for Sohrab, but when you look at the big picture he’s only trying to get rid of his guilt so he can have a better life and live in peace. When Amir was on the phone with Rahim Khan, he thought,

“I knew it wasn’t just Rahim Khan on the line. It was my past of unatoned sins."(pg.1)

This quote shows that the entire reason Amir went back to Afghanistan was because he had a past of unatoned sins he needed to make up for. Amir neglected and used Hassan and was not a loyal friend to him like Hassan was to Amir. In other words, Amir was being a fake friend mainly because Hassan was Hazara, no other reason but that. Now when his past rises back up to the surface, he feels he owes Hassan, which he does, for how he treated him when they were kids in order to put his past to rest. Getting Sohrab and giving him a safe place to live is the perfect way to repay Hassan in Amir’s case.

Throughout Amir’s life, his dad Baba was not very kind to him but lightened up a bit since Amir grew up. I believe Baba is beginning more nice to Amir because he was growing old and had cancer, and needs someone to take care of him, although he won’t admit it. But Baba is still disrespectful and mean to Amir for no apparent reason.

For example, when Amir had to almost force him to go to the hospital because Baba thinks no doctor can help him. Then Baba finds out that his pulmonologist is Russian and says,

“I don’t care where he was born, he’s Roussi...I swear on your mother’s face I’ll break his arm if he tries to touch me.”(pg.155)

Now I know Baba has a very big grudge against the Russians, but this doctor didn’t do anything to him, he had no right to be as racist as he did.

Even after Baba gets a new doctor, and he offers Baba chemotherapy for his cancer, he rejects the offer in an arrogant way. Then Amir tries to persuade him to get it, once again being mean, old, and stubborn, Baba replies,

“Don’t you challenge me in public, Amir. Ever. Who do you think you are?”(pg.156)

All Amir was trying to do is help him out, not intentionally offend him in any way.

Now some may argue, that Baba isn’t mean because he got Amir a new car for his graduation and he built an orphanage. But when you think about it, money can’t buy love. Baba also spent all day every day building an orphanage for bad kids and one of them was a guy(Assef) who raped his son, Hassan. On top of that, he has never shown Amir any mercy when he is hurt and he has only seemed proud of him twice in his whole lifetime. When he won the kite competition and graduated from community college, and Amir was about 23 already.

Baba knew that he was almost at the end of life and probably regretted how he treated Amir in his childhood, so Baba is doing everything he can to make up for it. Now doesn’t this remind you of a certain someone. Yes, this connects right back to Amir’s feelings towards Hassan. as they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I believe this novel is based upon the ultimate test of friendship. It allows us to realize the heights some go to just to attempt to put their past to rest. It shows us how you cannot do bad things and expect no aftershock, those very things you do come back to hunt you. It’ a little thing called Karma.

Cold weather, Eh?

OMG I am freezing my ace off and it's raining! Apparently it's going to be like this all weekend and maybe all next week but I hope not because I don't want my break to be ruined! I love the rain, but I really dislike being in it. Especially when it's just really cold, barely sprinkling, and windy because that weather just messes up my hair. I kind of want to go to karaoke night Tuesday, but if it's like this I highly doubt I will be attending. Well it's almost eleven, so I guess I'll go to sleep now. Bye! 

Kite Runner Part Three, Last but Not Least !

The last part of this book was very intense and left me very depressed. I thought that when Hassan got raped was the biggest highlight of this book. I was mistaken and turns out it was just a warm-up to prepare for what Hosseini had in store for us. The events that take place in this book are unimaginable and very easy to believe. I had to remind myself multiple times that this story was only fiction and so were the most of the events & characters in it. The scenes that stood out to most people was probably the rape and fight scenes. But what happened right before Amir entered Assef's mansion engaged me. As Farid and Amir arrived at the house, they sat for a moment in silence.

"Farid shifted on his seat and toyed with the keys still hanging from the ignition switch. I could tell he was readying himself to tell me something.'I guess I'll wait in the car for you,' he said finally, his tone a little apologetic."

As I re-read this, I took a moment and thought, why would Farid's tone be a little apologetic? It's almost like Farid is apologizing in advance to Amir. 

Now why would Farid do this? What reason does he have to apologize to Amir after all he's done for him. After reading through the entire fight scene and going back to do my annotations, I realized that Farid knew something very bad would happen to Amir when he was inside of that house. Farid and Amir both saw what Assef had done to that poor man at the soccer game so for what reason would he have to show Amir mercy? I also believe that Amir knew before hand ,and not when he was in the room and blurted out those words, that something bad might happen to him if he went to that meeting with Assef. But this shows that Amir really cared about Sohrab, or just wanted to get him to cleanse himself of guilt.

Response post to "The One"

As I was looking through the blog posts, I came across an interesting one written by sophomore, Andy Tsang.  The central topic of his post was finding "the one", or perfect soul mate. Now some of us may never find that perfect someone who will stay faithful, honest, love you for who you are, and stick by your side no matter what. And the others that do, are by far the luckiest people in the world. As I began reading through the post, his introduction paragraph specifically stood out the most to me.

 The other day, I was discussing relationships with one of my friends. He had recently started dating, but was unsure if his +1 was “the one” for him. They were obviously an odd couple, evident racially and by the fact that they barely knew each other. However, they both seem to really want to make their relationship work, ignoring jeers and insults on the side. But does this make them soulmates, or are they just going through their honeymoon period? Is she really “the one” for him? And how many girls out there are “the one”(s) for any guy?

Now Andy brings up very interesting points here. Maybe they are soul mates, maybe they aren't. In my opinion, the key word here is recently started dating. It will be fairly hard to tell if she was the right one for him if they've only been dating for a short period of time. From my knowledge, usually couples date awhile before they decide if their partner is 'the one' for them or not. I think that his friend should just see how it goes with the girl before he begins to question his relationship with her.


Also, secondly Andy brought up the point that they were obviously an odd couple, evident racially and by the fact that they barely knew each other. Being racially different doesn't make two people an 'odd' couple, neither does the fact they barely know each other. Would two people have to be the same race and be best friends for them not to make an 'odd' couple? No. The other day a friend and I were discussing a matter similar to this and she told me, "Well opposites attract." This a very old saying, but it is true. If two people were almost exactly the same and liked everything that the other did, at some point very early in the relationship they would get sick of each other and want change. 

Now the fact that they barely know each other is not a reason to be an 'odd' couple. When two people date, they do it because they have feelings for the other person and want to get to know them better. So I do not understand what Andy is saying when he argues that they barely know each other, therefore they're an odd couple. But I guess that's just my opinion. 

Religion: The never ending debate

Since seventh grade, I have argued with numerous people about religion. But since this past summer to this day, there has been this one particular guy who is an atheist, who has argued with me about religion. I would get very heated at him, every time he would say something like God isn't real or religion is stupid.  It wasn't until the other day, I heard him arguing with my other friend, who believes in God, about religion. And I was looking at her blog and saw a blog post about another encounter they had about religion. I got this quote from her,

 I believe it was about a month ago when a rude and pathetic and freshman friend of mine (who I will call X) said to me, "Yeah sure. You believe in something that is really not up there!"

Now this is very offensive and I remember when I was in that same position just a few months ago, fighting for what I believed in. But I noticed, you can't force someone to see the world from your point of view. You can't convince someone not to express their opinion without offending yours. And you sure as hell can't argue with someone until you win, especially when that person isn't going to give up until they are sure you see where they are coming from.

Religion is a never ending debate. Religion has been the main issue of this world since the beginning of time, and lots of people have been killed for believing in certain religions. But now in present-day America, anyone is allowed to believe in any religion they want and can express it in whatever way they want. Some people are very deeply religious and have a problem when somebody says a certain remark regarding their religion. This can lead to physical or verbal harassment, and even murder. So I would recommend that a person should think before they make a mean remark regarding someone's religion because one day they will say it around the wrong person and let's just say, it's going to be all bad.

Kite Runner Response Post

So far, throughout Amir’s life, his dad Baba has not been very kind to him but has lightened up a little bit now. I believe Baba is being more nice to Amir because he is growing old and has cancer now, and needs someone to take care of him, although he won’t admit it. Baba knows that he is almost at the end of life and probably regrets how he treated Amir in his childhood, so Baba is doing everything he can to make up for it. He may seem nicer now, but I think he is still a stubborn jerk.

For example, when Amir had to almost force him to go to the hospital because he thinks nobody can help him. Then Baba finds out that his pulmonologist is Russian and says,

“I don’t care where he was born, he’s Roussi...I swear on your mother’s face I’ll break his arm if he tries to touch me.” 

Now I know Baba has a very big grudge against the Russians, but this doctor didn’t do anything to him, he had no right to be as racist as he did.

Even after Baba gets a new doctor, and he offers Baba chemotherapy for his cancer, he rejects the offer in an arrogant way. Then Amir tries to persuade him to get it, once again being mean, old, and stubborn, Baba replies,

 “Don’t you challenge me in public, Amir. Ever. Who do you think you are?”

 All Amir was trying to do is help him out, not intentionally offend him in any way.

Now some may argue, that Baba isn’t a jerk because he got Amir a new car for his graduation and he built an orphanage. But when you think about it, money can’t buy love. Baba also spent all day every day building an orphanage for bad kids and one of them was a guy who raped his son, Hassan. On top of that, he has never shown Amir any mercy when he is hurt and he has only seemed proud of him twice in his whole lifetime. When he won the kite competition and graduated from high school, and Amir is about 23 already.  

Kite Runner Part 2

This book makes me feel like it actually happened and sometimes I get carried away and have to remember that it is only fictional.There was one quote that caught my attention when Baba and Hassan were sitting in Hassan's new car.

'Then Baba rolled his head toward me. "I wish Hassan had been with us today," he said. A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan's name. I rolled down the window. Waited for the steel hands to loosen their grip.'

A question I have is did Amir feel these 'steel hands' because he felt guilty for what he had done to Hassan in the past? Or was it because he missed Hassan and knew that he would most likely never see him again? Now usually when a person has lost someone or moved away from them, they would probably cry at the sound of their name. But since Amir felt like he was choking, a feeling of guilt probably overwhelmed him almost into shock mode by making him feel like he couldn't breath. So maybe Amir's past was hidden deep down inside of him and arose to the surface of his memories almost instantly.

Right before the end of chapter seventeen, we find out something very surprising. That Baba was Hassan's real father and his 'dad' Ali was sterile. Why didn't Baba just tell Amir and Hassan when they were younger that he was Hassan's dad too? Hassan would have had a better life and it would have saved Amir a whole lot of trouble. Just because people would talk about Baba if he said he was Hassan's dad, he decided to keep it a secret for thirty eight years. By this, we can tell how Baba thinks his reputation was more important than his family. I can't wait to see what happens in chapter eighteen.

K!te Runner Part 1

     So far I have enjoyed this story. it is very intense and like no other book I have ever read. The thing about this story that surprised me the most was that it's fiction! But besides that, while i was reading a few questions popped up in my head. Earlier in this book in chapter four, Amir says,

"The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either. Not in the usual sense, anyhow." (pg.25)

     When I first read this, I thought how could Amir not consider Hassan to be his friend? And what was the usual sense? But as I read on, and Amir explained in a sort of harsh tone how they were different ethnicities and different religions and through that they were distinct. Almost like someone had told him this and he had to live by it. But then he goes back and rebuts against himself how they grew up together, spent every waking time together, and nobody could change that.

     The second question I have is why didn't Amir help Hassan in the alley? How could he just sit there and watch as it all happened before his eyes. How could he live with knowing he didn't do anything to help him? If that was me, I don't care how scared i was, somehow I would've worked up the courage to do something. That was a very intense scene and felt very realistic. I guess the differences between Amir and Hassan overruled their friendship and all the times Hassan stood up for Amir. Honestly, after that scene, Amir lost my respect. Although, he is a make believe character.