The Kite Runner Book Talk

AMIR

(Characterization)

Quote 1

Quote 2

After Hassan takes the blame for stealing Amir's money, Amir thinks,

While Amir watches Hassan get raped in an alley from afar he realizes to himself,

"He knew I'd seen everything in the alley. He knew I had betrayed him, that I'd stood there and done nothing. He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time. I loved him in that moment, loved him more than I'd ever loved anyone, and I wanted to tell them all I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake. I wasnt worthy of this sacrifice; I was a liar, a cheat, a thief. And I would have told, except a part of me was glad. Glad that this would all be over soon. Baba would dismiss them, there would be some pain, but life would move on. I wanted that, to move on, to forget, to start a clean slate. I wanted to be able to breathe again" (Hosseini 105)

"I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into the alley, and stand up for Hassan- the way he stood up for me all those times in the past- and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run.

In the end, I ran.

I ran because I was a coward....I was afraid of getting hurt...That's what I made myself believe. I actually aspired cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba" (Hosseini 77).

What makes him human?

Lens Analysis

Redemption

Through formalist criticism, the reader sees that Khaled Hosseini uses symbolism to show that redemption is all around, though it may not come in an obvious form.

After Sohrab smiles when Amir cuts the last kite, Amir runs for the kite and thinks,"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything alright. . . But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting" (Hosseini 371).

At the park, Amir and Sohrab share an intimate moment when Amir is trying to cut a kite, "A green kite was closing in. . .The green kite drew closer yet, now rising a little above us, unaware of the trap that I'd set for it. . . The green kite hovered directly above us now. . . A series of quick sidearm jerks and our kite shot up. . .Suddenly, I was on top. I pulled hard and our kite plummeted. I could almost feel our string sawing his. Almost hear the snap. Then, just like that, the green kite was spinning and wheeling out of control" (Hosseini 369-370).

Culture & Art

"We had crossed the border and the signs of poverty were everywhere. On either side of the road, I saw chains of little villages sprouting here and there, like discarded toys among the rocks, broken mud houses and huts consisting of a little more than four wooden poles and a tattered cloth as a roof. I saw children dressed in rags chasing a soccer ball outside the huts. A few miles later, I spotted a cluster of men sitting on their haunches, like a row of crows, on the carcass of an old burned-out Soviet tank, the wind fluttering the edges of the blankets thrown around them. Behind them, a woman in a brown burqa carried a large clay pot on her shoulder, down a rutted path toward a string of mud houses.

'Strange,' I said.

'What?'

'I feel like a tourist in my own country,' I said." (pg. 231, Chapter 19)

Amir

Soraya

Hassan

Sohrab

"I'm Sorry"

by John Denver

"Fly Like an Eagle"

by Steve Miller

Amir

Soraya

Amir

Soraya

Hassan

Sohrab

It's cold here in the city

It always seems that way

And I've been thinking about you almost everyday

Thinking about the good times

Thinking about the rain

Thinking about how bad it feels alone again

Hassan

Sohrab

I want to fly like an eagle

To the sea

Fly like an eagle

Let my spirit carry me

I want to fly like an eagle

Till I'm free

Oh, Lord, through the revolution

Feed the babies

Who don't have enough to eat

Shoe the children

With no shoes on their feet

House the people

Livin' in the street

Oh, oh, there's a solution

"It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realized I have been peaking into that deserted alley for the last twenty six years." (Hosseini 1)

"Rubble and beggars. Everywhere I looked, that is what I saw...And the beggars were mostly children now, thin and grim-faced, some no older than five or six." (Hosseini 214)

Soundtrack

What makes text so timeless?

It Relates to us!

"Come Sail Away"

by Styx

Amir

Soraya

1970's

Hassan

Sohrab

I'm sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea

I've got to be free, free to face the life that's ahead of me

On board, I'm the captain, so climb aboard

We'll search for tomorrow on every shore

And I'll try, oh Lord, I'll try to carry on

"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile... But I'll take it. With open arms." (Hosseini 324)

By: An, Sara, Melissa, and Savannah