The Kite Runner was a great novel, which I very much enjoyed
reading although it did touch on many sensitive topics. The Kite
Runner taught me many things about Afghanistan and Afghani culture. Prior to
this novel I knew very little about Shia’s and Sunni’s and the history of
Afghanistan. Race and ancestry plays a large part in this novel. The reason that
Hassan and Ali are restricted to being servant’s their entire life and
constantly being harassed and looked down upon is due to their race. This is a
very sad fact, but it is something that inevitably happens to people from many
different races and cultures. One of the most painful scenes of the novel is
when Amir sees Hassan serving Assef at his birthday party. After having been
violated by Assef, again due to his race, he is forced to serve him. This part,
although short, left a large impact on me. It made me so sad and hurt that
Hassan would have to face this.
Hassan and Amirs friendship is complicated. Although Hassan
can clearly be classified as Amir’s best friend, I feel that Amir struggled to
realize this because of the fact that Hassan was a hazara. Even though he
always plays with him there are still many times when Amir clearly believes he
is above Hassan. For example Amir would mock Hassan by lying to him and making
him believe something that was false. Hassan who cannot read, is not able to
notice Amir’s lies. Although Amir said that he would always feel bad after
doing that, he would keep doing it. Also Amir always hated whenever Hassan knew
more than him because as he said he was the one who attended school. Amir gets
mad at Hassan when he points out what is wrong with his short story. Despite
all this Hassan loves Amir very much, and clearly would do anything for him.
When I first began reading the book people would tell me
that I would grow to love Amir despite what he does, but for me that was not
the case. At the end of the novel I still felt the same way I had felt about
him at the beginning. In the beginning of the novel I gave Amir the benefit of
the doubt. I told myself that he grew up in this culture and in this
environment, he didn’t know what else to believe. He grew up constantly being
above hazaras. He grew up with the same person as his bestfriend and as his servant.
I felt bad for him, always searching for his fathers love and yet never quite
getting it. Despite knowing how horrible his actions were, I thought that maybe
it was not all completely his fault. What bothered me most was when he returned
to visit Rahim Kahn. When Rahim Kahn tells him there is a way, which he can
better his actions, and finally do the right thing Amir is hesitant. Rahim Kahn
tells Amir of Hassan’s orphan son and where he can find him, but then Amir says
that he doesn’t want to go save him, that it’s “too dangerous”. After
EVERYTHING that had happened, I couldn’t believe that Amir would say that. He’s
lived with this guilt his entire life and there is one way he can make things
right yet he doesn’t want to put himself in danger. Then it felt to me as if
the only reason he went was because he realized that Hassan was his half
brother. Hassan basically grew up being his brother, and Amir should have done
it anyway.
My favorite character in the novel was Hassan. Hassan was a
genuinely nice and great person. Time after time he proved how respectful and
great he was. His outcome left me very sad. I had hoped that after having been
put through all that he would have maybe had a happy ending, and of course this
was not the case. The way in which he died also showed how respectful and
caring he was. In the end he died trying to protect Baba’s house from the
Taliban.
Overall I very much enjoyed reading the novel and would
highly recommend it. Despite it being a very sad novel I thought that it was a
very interesting and intense story.
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