Ryan C's First Reaction

The beginning of The Kite Runner has been very engaging as Hosseini introduces the characters and builds tension. The novel offers an interesting point of view, as Hosseini is an adult writing from the perspective of a young child experiencing the world for the first time. Hosseini maintains the sense of innocence on inexperience of Amir by constantly realizing he does not know what certain words mean. Hosseini also does a good job of depicting the omnipresent sense of religion that existed in Afghanistan as the clergy runs Amir’s school. However, I think it’s interesting that Amir’s father tells Amir that he will learn nothing from the clergyman in a clearly theocratic society. Amir’s relationships within the novel are very revealing. Amir clearly longs for a father figure a he sometime wishes that Hassan’s father was his father. I sympathize for Amir because his father basically does not approve of Amir, telling him that poetry is not for real men and at one point confesses that if he did not see Amir being born he would not believe Amir is his son. Furthermore, Baba does note even offer to read Amir’s story that he is clearly proud of. The disconnection between Amir and Baba is most clear when Amir admits he was slightly happy that there was an attack on Kabul because his father embraced Amir the next morning. Amir and Hassan also have an interesting relationship. The two are childhood friends but Amir notes hat they will always be fundamentally different as one is Sunni and one is Shi’ite. Amir enjoys having a sense of power of Hassan as Hassan is illiterate and Amir takes full advantage of this fact, seen when he purposely tells Hassan the incorrect definition of “imbecile”. However, Amir does feel bad about lying and justifies the trickery by giving Hassan a toy and a shirt.