Natalie: Reaction 1

            I have to say I was very relieved when I opened The Kite Runner and realized that it did not have 8-point font or 1069 pages. I had heard many good things about The Kite Runner and so far I must say that it has lived up to my expectations.

            The beginning of The Kite Runner has a very ambiguous tone. It opens up with the narrator explaining what happened to him in 1975 when he was a child living in Afghanistan. Although he doesn’t say exactly what occurred he explains that this story has made him the person he is, even though in the moment he did not know its importance. He reflects on his childhood and mentions a couple of friends that he had. He then switches the tone when he recounts that he had recently gotten a Rahim Khan who tells him to return to Pakistan. This leaves the first chapter concluding in a very ominous tone, it seems that something bad must have occurred to him in 1975 and left me questioning why his friend requests he returns to Pakistan.

            When the narrator, Amir, begins telling the story of his childhood, I immediately felt bad for him. Amir is clearly always looking for his father’s approval yet his father, Baba, is very reserved and distant from him. There was one moment in this section that left me feeling extremely sad for Amir. This was when Amir listens in on Baba’s conversation with Rahim Khan. He over hears Baba state that he is basically embarrassed to have him as his son because he doesn’t act the same way he did as a child. Baba wants Amir to be the typical masculine boy, he doesn’t want him to be into literature instead he wants him to share his same love for sports and be able to stand up and fight for himself. This was a really sad section because no child deserves to hear this from their own father especially since his mother passed away and he really has no one else. This is also really prominent when Amir gets jealous of Hassan for being hugged by Ali, clearly he wish’s he had this same relationship with his father because in the end he is a child and needs this comfort.