The Kite Runner Summary
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Setting
The kite runner is mainly set in Afghanistan and the United States between the 1960s and early 2000s.
Main characters
Amir- is the narrator and protagonist in the novel. Amir is the sensitive and intelligent son of a well-to-do businessman in Kabul, who grows up with a sense of entitlement.
Hassan- he is Amir’s best friend and half-brother as well as a servant of Baba’s.
Baba- he is Amir and Hassan’s father. Baba is a wealthy, well-respected businessman.
Ali- he is Hassan’s acting father and Baba’s servant.
Sohrab- is the son of Hassan and Farzana who acts as a substitute for Hassan in the novel.
Assef- is the antagonist in the novel. Assef is Hassan’s and Sohrab’s rapist.
Rahim Khan- he is a Friend of Baba and Amir. Rahim Khan is Baba’s closest confidant and the one man who knows all of Baba’s secrets.
Farid- he is Amir’s driver and friend. Farid is a former mujahedin fighter who is unfriendly.
Sanaubar- she is Hassan’s mother and Ali’s wife for some time.
Soraya- she is Amir’s wife who is steady, intelligent, and always there for Amir when he needs her.
General Taheri- he is Soraya’s father and Baba’s friend.
Jamila- she is General Taheri’s wife and Soraya’s mother.
Kamal- is a boy from Amir’s and Hassan’s neighborhood who helps Assef rape Hassan.
Sharif- he is Soraya’s uncle.
Sofia Akrami- she is Amir’s mother who dies during childbirth,
Farzana- she is Hassan’s wife and Sohrab’s mother.
Wali- is one of the boys from the neighborhood who helps Assef to rape Hassan.
Plot summary
The Kite Runner is about the story of Amir, an Afghan man living in San Francisco. He receives a call from an old friend of his father's, living in Pakistan, which brings back bittersweet memories of his childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir tells of his childhood in Kabul, where his father enjoyed much financial success and prestige. Amir and his father provide housing for their servants, Ali, and his son, Hassan. The two boys are separated from true friendship by social class. They however share much of their time in boyhood. Hassan respects and admires Amir; he even protects him from neighborhood bullies.
Amir wins the neighborhood kite-fighting tournament in his twelfth year. He prays to earn his father’s respect since all of his childhood; he feels his father wishes for a son who is manlier. Hassan acts as Amir's helper during the tournament, holding the spool as Amir works the strings and tries to cut the strings of his opponents' kites. When Amir finally cuts the last kite, Hassan runs it down, as promised. Hassan fails to return by dusk and Amir looks for the other boy. He finds a group of bullies taunting Hassan once again. They overpower him easily. Assef, the group’s leader, rapes Hassan as Amir Watches, horror-stricken, from his hiding place.
He runs home partway and pretends to see Hassan for the first time when he emerges from the alley with the kite. Amir keeps the crime to himself and tries to bask in his father's attention. However, he is overcome by guilt for years and ruins his relationship with Hassan. He finally makes it look like Hassan stole his birthday money and Ali decides that he and his son will leave. Baba weeps as they drive away. Baba and Amir are soon driven away from Kabul by political unrest. They eventually make their way to America, where Baba becomes a gas station attendant. Amir graduates from high school and enrolls in junior college. He falls in love with Soraya, who is also Afghan, and they marry just one month before Baba dies of lung cancer.
The call from Rahim Khan, Baba's friend, and business partner in Kabul, brings memories and a promise of forgiveness. Amir flies to Pakistan to see the ailing man. He tells Amir about Hassan coming to live with him in Kabul, about Hassan's wife and son, Sohrab. The Taliban killed Hassan in the streets months before Amir's arrival in Pakistan. Rahim Khan further admits that Baba fathered Hassan, making him Amir's half-brother. Amir finally decides that he will try to rescue Sohrab from the orphanage in Afghanistan.
The trip to Afghanistan proves fateful. Amir learns that Assef, now powerful within the Taliban, bought Sohrab. He challenges Amir to a fight to the death. Assef almost beats Amir to death before Sohrab hits him with his slingshot, as his father always threatened to do. They escape to Pakistan and find themselves in Islamabad, where an American Embassy official tells Amir how hopeless Sohrab's adoption is. Soraya’s relatives in INS, Immigration and Naturalization Services, pull strings. Before Amir can tell Sohrab, the boy becomes hopeless and tries to take his own life.
He recovers for days in the ICU and eventually, he flies to America with Amir. Soraya treats him like a child they could never have while there but Sohrab lives in silence. Finally, at a New Year's party of area Afghan's, Amir flies a kite with Sohrab and sees a hint of a smile from him. He cuts a competitor's kite and runs it down, offering the same promise Hassan did twenty-six years before.
Themes
- The search for redemption. Amir strives to redeem himself in Baba’s eyes, primarily because his mother died giving birth to him, and he feels responsible. Amir thinks he must win the kite-tournament in order To redeem himself to Baba.
- The love and tension between father and son. Amir has a very complicated relationship with Baba; he rarely feels Baba fully loves him back. Amir’s desire to win Baba’s love pushes him not to stop Hassan’s rape. Baba has his own difficulty connecting with Amir. He feels guilty for treating Amir well when he can’t acknowledge Hassan as his son.
- The persistence of the past. All the characters in the novel feel the influence of the past, but not as much as Amir and Sohrab. Sohrab’s past has been so traumatizing that it affects all his behavior. The prolonged physical and sexual abuse he endured makes him flinch anytime Amir touches him.