kite runner film review essay

“You should come home. There is a way to be good again.”

Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada and Zekiria Ebrahimi in “The Kite Runner.”

How long has it been since you saw a movie that succeeds as pure story? That doesn’t depend on stars, effects or genres, but simply fascinates you with how it will turn out? Marc Forster ‘s “The Kite Runner,” based on a much-loved novel, is a movie like that. It superimposes human faces and a historical context on the tragic images of war from Afghanistan.

The story begins with boys flying kites. It is the city of Kabul in 1978, before the Russians, the Taliban, the Americans and the anarchy. Amir (Zekiria Ebrahimi) joins with countless other boys in filling the sky with kites; sometimes they dance on the rooftops while dueling, trying to cut other kite strings with their own. Amir’s friend is Hassan ( Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada ), the son of the family’s longtime servant Ali, who has been with them for years and has become like family himself. Hassan is the best kite runner in the neighborhood, correctly predicting when a kite will return to earth and waiting there to retrieve it.

The boys live in a healthy, vibrant city, not yet touched by war. Amir’s father, Baba ( Homayoun Ershadi ), is an intellectual and secularist who has no use for the mullahs. Baba, whose kindly eyes are benevolent, loves both boys.

There is a neighborhood bully named Assef, jealous of Amir’s kite, his skills and his kite runner. On a day that will shape the course of many lives, he and his gang track down Hassan, attack him and rape him. Amir arrives to see the assault taking place, and to his shame, sneaks away.

Then a curious chemistry takes place. Amir feels so guilty about Hassan that his feelings transform into anger, and he tries insulting his friend, even throwing ripe fruit at him, but Hassan is impassive. Then Amir tries to plant evidence to make Hassan seem like a thief, but even after Hassan (untruthfully and masochistically) confesses, Baba forgives him. It is Hassan’s father, Ali, who insists he and his son must leave the home, over Baba’s protests.

The film has opened with the modern-day Amir, now living in San Francisco, receiving a telephone call from Rahim Khan: “You should come home. There is a way to be good again.” Then commences a remarkable series of old memories and new realities, of the present trying to heal the wounds of the past, of an adult trying to repair the damage he set in motion as a boy. For if he had not lied about Hassan, they would all be together in San Francisco and the telephone call would not have been necessary.

Working from Khaled Hosseini’s best seller, Forster and his screenwriter David Benioff have made a film that sidesteps the emotional disconnects we often feel when a story moves between past and present. This is all the same story, interlaced with the fabric of these lives. There is also a touching sequence as Amir and his father, now older and ill, meet a once-powerful Afghan general and his daughter Soraya (Atossa Leoni). For Amir and Soraya, it is instant love, but protocol must be observed, and one of the movie’s warmest scenes involves the two old men discussing the future of their children. I want to mention once again the eyes, indeed the whole face, of the actor Homayoun Ershadi, as Amir’s father; here is a face so deeply good, it is difficult to imagine it reflecting unworthy feelings.

What happens back in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) in the year 2000 need not be revealed here, but the scenes combine great suspense with deep emotion. One emblematic moment: A soccer game where the audience, all men and all oddly silent, is watched by guards with rifles. The film works so deeply on us because we have been so absorbed by its story, by its destinies, by the way these individuals become so important that we are forced to stop thinking of “Afghans” as simply a category of body counts on the news.

The movie is acted largely in English, although many (subtitled) scenes are in Dari, which I learn is an Afghan dialect of Farsi, or Persian. The performances by the actors playing Amir and Hassan as children are natural, convincing and powerful; recently I have seen several such child performances that adults would envy for their conviction and strength. Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada, as young Hassan, is particularly striking, with his serious, sometimes almost mournful face. (The boy now fears Afghan reprisals for appearing in the rape scene, and the producers have helped to relocate him.)

One of the areas in which the movie succeeds is in its depiction of kite flying. Yes, it uses special effects, but they function to represent what freedom and exhilaration the kites represent to their owners. I remember my own fierce identification with my own kites as a child. I was up there; I was represented. Yet there is a fundamental difference between the kite flyer (Amir) and the kite runner (Hassan). Perhaps that sad wisdom in Hassan’s eyes comes from his certainty that all must fall to earth, sooner or later.

This is a magnificent film by Marc Forster, now 38, who since “ Monster's Ball ” (2001) has made “ Finding Neverland ” (2004), “ Stay ” (2005) and “ Stranger Than Fiction ” (2006). All fine work, but “The Kite Runner” equals “Monster’s Ball” in its emotional impact. Like “ House of Sand and Fog ” and “ Man Push Cart ,” it helps us to understand that the newcomers among us come from somewhere and are somebody.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Elham Ehsas as Young Assef
• Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada as Young Hassan
• Khalid Abdalla as Amir
• Nabi Tanha as Ali
• Homayoun Ershadi as Baba
• David Benioff

Based on the novel by

• Khaled Hosseini

Directed by

• Marc Forster

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Afghan History & Politics in The Kite Runner Film Essay (Movie Review)

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Introduction

The setting, the context, the main protagonist, the strengths and weaknesses of the film as an informative source.

Bibliography

The Kite Runner drama film depicts the events that took place in Afghanistan since the early 1970s from the perspective of the main protagonist Amir Qadiri. Reviewing the contents of this film, the viewers have an opportunity to overview the recent events that took place in Afghanistan to better understand the state of political and social life. An interesting aspect is that the film begins with the glimpses of peaceful life in the country when the upcoming struggles of endless war are not yet familiar to the local people.

The viewers begin to become acquainted with the film’s main characters when they are mere children, and when they have no slightest idea about the hard lot the life has prepared for them. The following film review aims to observe the strengths and weaknesses of this film as an informative resource for the students of the political and historical background of Afghanistan.

The Kite Runner film relates a story of an Afghanistan man, named Amir Qadiri, who feels guilty because he left his motherland and his close friend Hassan and became a refugee in Pakistan and then immigrants in the United States. The events of the film seem to be divided by the event of Soviet invasion: at the first part, the audience sees a peaceful life with its minor issues and daily troubles, but later the whole new period begins when millions of people become pushed to leave their houses in the home country and escape as refugees. For the people who continue to live in their homeland, life becomes hard.

When one day Amir returns to visit his father’s friend Rahim Khan, he learns that the new country’s leaders, the Taliban, are cruel and unjust. They act with prejudice over the minority groups of Hazara and Tajiks robbing them of their possessions and persecuting them in other ways. Amir learns that the Taliban killed his friend Hassan and left alive only his son Sohrab. All of a sudden, Amir learns that apart from being his best friend of childhood, Hassan was his half-brother. After learning about the hardships that Sohrab is facing because of his ethnic identity, Amir decides to adopt him. The film ends with a peaceful picture of Amir and Sohrab flying a kite in the peaceful atmosphere of San Francisco and with good hope for the future.

The opening scene of The Kite Runner movie is set in San Francisco in the year 2000. The viewers get familiar with a writer of Afghanistan-American ethnic background Amir Qadiri and his wife Soraya. The characters are shown as they are watching kids flying kites at a bayside park. After their small rout, the couple returns home, where the husband finds the packages with his upcoming novel “Season for Ashes” published by a local printery. The wife speaks of this novel as of Amir’s child, giving an audience a hint that they are not able to have their child. The main events of the film begin here when suddenly a friend of Amir’s father from his motherland is calling.

To fully grasp the value of experiences shown in The Kite Runner, a viewer should become cognizant of the main glimpses in the history of Afghanistan as well as the historical and political twists and turns that took place in the country beginning from the year 1979 when the country was invaded by the Soviets. Before the year 1979, Afghanistan was a quite stable country in Asia with ancient history and its unique culture and ethnic background.

The ethnic structure of the country population is another interesting fact that is of importance for understanding the plot of The Kite Runner. The main nations populating Afghanistan are Pashtuns, Tajiks, and Hazaras. Pashtuns are the leading ethnic group that traditionally occupies the man positions and possesses the major authority. Tajiks and Hazaras are inferior nations. People belonging to the nations mentioned above serve as the support personnel for Pashtuns.

The main protagonist of The Kite Runner and simultaneously, its narrator is Amir, a representative of the leading Pashtun ethnic group. Amir was born in Kabul in 1963 in the family of a wealthy and well-respected man, Agha Sahib. Amir acquired a brilliant education and immigrated to the United States after facing the political changes in his home country. Viewing the character of the main protagonist from the prism of historical light, Amir seems to be a witness of hardships both insider and outsider ones that the country of Afghanistan has faced. On the on hand, the life of Amir, a Pashtun man, reveals the problems of ethnic enmity in Afghanistan, on the other hand, Amir’s persona and his living experience help see the trials in his country has faced at the international arena.

An obvious strength of The Kite Runner film as an informative source is its effort to overview the historical events that took place in Afganistan beginning from its peaceful and prosperous times, and ending with the time of war, political instability and terror. This aspect of this film art piece undoubtedly makes it an interesting agenda. As for the weaknesses, it should be noted that although the film dedicates much of its attention to the problem of ethnic enmity between Pashtun and Hazara, it does not fully reveal the issues that stand behind such cruelty and animosity. The question of why Assef acts with such a degree of utter hostility remains in the mind of numerous viewers after watching The Kite Runner.

In conclusion, it should be pointed out that the film The Kite Runner presents a thought-provoking framework for observing historical, political, and ethnic issues of Afghanistan. An important aspect of the political studies is that the film begins with the glimpses of peaceful life before the war, terror, and instability arise and shifts to the detailed depiction of the changes that take place. Watching this film, the viewers have an excellent opportunity to overview the new historical events that took place in the country to better understand the peculiarities of its political and social life.

Dan, Susan. “A Study of the Kite Runner from the Perspective of Cognitive Poetics.” Foreign Language and Literature (2014): 1-10.

Khan, Muhammad Usman. “The Kite Runner-A Historical Novel or Stereotyping Propaganda against Pashtun Majority of Afghanistan?” International Journal of Research (2014): 452-462.

Malik, Muhammad Asghar, Ghulam Murtaza, and Kazim Shah. “Representation of Power Relationships in The Kite Runner.” US-China Foreign Language (2014): 17.

The Kite Runner . Directed by Mark Foster. 2007. Universal City, C.A.: DreamWorks Pictures, 2008. DVD.

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IvyPanda. (2020, July 17). Afghan History & Politics in The Kite Runner Film. https://ivypanda.com/essays/afghan-history-amp-politics-in-the-kite-runner-film/

"Afghan History & Politics in The Kite Runner Film." IvyPanda , 17 July 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/afghan-history-amp-politics-in-the-kite-runner-film/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Afghan History & Politics in The Kite Runner Film'. 17 July.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Afghan History & Politics in The Kite Runner Film." July 17, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/afghan-history-amp-politics-in-the-kite-runner-film/.

1. IvyPanda . "Afghan History & Politics in The Kite Runner Film." July 17, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/afghan-history-amp-politics-in-the-kite-runner-film/.

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Review: ‘The Kite Runner’ Trips From Page to Stage

Amir Arison stars as a guilt-ridden Afghan refugee brooding over a childhood friendship in a stiff adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel.

By Maya Phillips

Unsurprisingly, the most memorable image in “ The Kite Runner ,” which opened at the Helen Hayes Theater on Thursday night, is of the kites. They’re miniature, attached to thin poles that several actors wave, white tissue-paper flitting, birdlike, over their heads. The paper crinkles as the kites part the air with a soft swish.

If only the rest of this stiff production, adapted by Matthew Spangler from the popular 2003 novel by Khaled Hosseini, exuded such elegance.

A redemption story about an unlikable — sometimes downright despicable — protagonist, “The Kite Runner” opens in 2001, with Amir (Amir Arison), a Pashtun Afghan who explains that a cowardly decision he made at 12 years old shaped the person he is today.

He doesn’t tell us what it was immediately; he steps back in time to show us scenes of his life in Kabul, with his single father, Baba (Faran Tahir); their servant Ali (Evan Zes), a member of the oppressed and harassed Hazara minority group; and Ali’s son, Hassan (Eric Sirakian). The rest of the cast of 13 fills in as other figures in Amir’s life, including his future wife, Russian soldiers, and various nameless characters from the Afghan community on both sides of the world.

Arison (who plays the preteen Amir as well throughout) reads to the illiterate Hassan, though not without mocking him for it. He lets Hassan take the fall when they get in trouble. Yet Hassan faithfully partners with Amir in a competitive game where kite owners maneuver and use coated or sharpened strings to cut their competitors out of the sky; runners chase and catch the fallen kites as a prize.

When Amir fails to stop an act of violence against Hassan, the boys’ friendship is irreparably damaged. Hassan never truly leaves Amir, though; he carries the guilt to America, to which he and Baba escape after Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan ushers in the vicious regime of the Taliban. After finding love and a successful career, Amir eventually returns to his homeland to redeem himself from his past transgressions.

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Movie review: the kite runner.

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The Kite Runner is a film which not only provides an interesting glimpse into Afghani culture but also provides an example of a clear case of social stratification. This essay, written for sample use by one of our freelance writers , reviews the Kite Runner in great detail; while it is not necessarily a critical review, it illustrates contemporary Afghani society, touching on concepts like socioeconomic class discrepancies in the Middle East.

The Kite Runner : A Critical Review

The Kite Runner is the story of a two young boys growing up in Afghanistan before the invasion by the Soviet Union. Amir is the son of a wealthy philanthropist. His best friend Hassan is the servant’s son. Despite their friendship, distinct class differences are present throughout their relationship. The class differences become ever more evident after a horrific incident shatters their friendship and shapes whom they will become as men.

Different classes of people depicted

The social stratification in the film is based on not just money but also on which ethnic class you belong. Hassan is a Hazara, which is a group of people in Afghanistan who have been discriminated against. Throughout the film, Hassan has to deal with the prejudices of being a servant and being part of a discriminated group of people . Hassan would still have been a servant if he hadn’t been a Hazara and he would have faced some injustices. However, the film indicates that Hassan faced far worse discrimination being that he was a Hazara and not just a servant.

The social stratification is evident on the first appearance of the boys. Amir is well dressed and tends to wear more western clothes. Hassan wears traditional Afghani clothing that appears to be older and worn away. Their living situations also demonstrate the class disparity. Hassan lives in a small hut with little furniture or decoration. Amir, on the other hand, has a lavish room that is bigger than Hassan’s living arrangements. Amir is also educated and can read while Hassan is illiterate. 

The class difference is also depicted in the way in which the characters in the movie speak to each other. Hassan will frequently look down rather than look Amir straight in the eye. Hassan would also speak to Amir with a term of respect by calling him “Amir Jaan”. Amir never uses these terms when addressing Hassan. It also appeared throughout the film that Hassan was careful around Amir as he would use his words carefully or would always support anything Amir said. Even Hassan’s father who is a servant speaks to Amir in a tone of respect. Although it should be Amir addressing Hassan’s father with respect as he is older than him and is the father of his friend. 

Materialism in The Kite Runner 

The way in which the character approached materialism was also indicative of the social standing between the two. The wealthy family appeared to strive for material excess with their lavish vehicles and parties. Hassan and his family appeared to be happy with what they have and only strived to work hard. Hassan’s sole motivation throughout the film is to serve Amir and his family. When Amir’s father tells him, he is giving him a gift he does not expect it to be something material such as a kite. 

The horrific act that occurred to Hassan could also be seen as occurring due to Amir’s drive for material objects. While the film does not give a clear reason for why Amir did not attempt to protect his film several assumptions can be made. Amir may have been afraid or may have felt that he could not have done anything. However, the assumption could also be made that Amir wanted the kite to take back to his father to prove that he won the competition. The kite is later shown to be hanging in the hallway in the family home as a trophy another indicator of material excess.

The downfall of Hassan in the film could lead to some interesting assertions by Karl Marx . The assertion could be made that Hassan belonged to the proletariat class and Amir belongs to the bourgeois class. Through this analysis, it could be determined that Hassan’s ever-striving need to please and serve his master led to his destruction. If Hassan had chosen not to go back and work for Amir’s interests, he might still have been alive. Furthermore, had Hassan left the home rather than choosing to protect it he would also have still been alive. The assumption could also be made that Amir fit the role of belonging to the bourgeois class well as he did not appear to stand up for Hassan until he found out he was his brother. Once he heard this, Amir went into even more dangerous territory to save his nephew.

Two scenes in the film bring the audience right into the issue of social stratification. The first is the scene in which the older boys attack Hassan. As Amir watches the attackers encourage Hassan to give up the kite. They state that he is just a servant to Amir and he does not care for him. They also state that Amir would never stand up for him, which Amir subsequently proves. During this scene Hassan is unwavering of his support of Amir as he chooses to get beat rather than give up the prize Amir has won. In this scene, Hassan is beaten because he is of a lower ethnic group but primarily as the servant of Amir he chooses to perform his duty at any cost.

In the second scene, Amir projects his feelings of guilt onto Hassan. While Hassan is attempting to learn to read on his own Amir insults him. Amir then begins to throw pomegranates at Hassan in an attempt to incite him. As Hassan has promised him that he would do anything for him, even eat dirt if Amir asked him to, he does not hit Amir. Rather he takes a piece of pomegranate and hits himself with it. 

The hurt is evident in Hassan after these moments in the film, as he does not want to get out of bed or interact with others. However, after a while, Hassan returns to his dutiful role as the servant’s son. Hassan even confesses to a crime he did not do so as not to get Amir in trouble. His unwavering support towards Amir is left unfulfilled as Amir’s guilt causes him to shun Hassan. Although Amir appears to be in pain and missed his friend, he does not attempt to reconcile.

Lower class is a death sentence

Which social class they belong in also sets the future of the boys. When the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan, Amir is able to flee with his father and eventually arrives in the United States. Although as a Hazara it would have been more beneficial for Hassan to leave the country, lack of money prevents him from doing so. Hassan is forced to live in a village in Afghanistan and is eventually killed by the Taliban, an Islamic terrorist group . It could be assumed that if Hassan was not in the social class that he was, he might also have been able to flee the country to the refuge of the United States.

The Kite Runner is an excellent depiction in the way in which social stratification affects the way of life a person must lead but also the eventual outcome of a person’s life. In the film, Amir appears to have first world problems. He has to worry about his guilt and cowardice rather than how he will survive. Hassan, on the other hand, has to put survival first and foremost despite having experienced the worst atrocities. Hassan cannot focus on his guilt rather he has to keep working and serving those above him to eat.

The final act of the film in which Amir achieves redemption also depicts social stratification. In this act, a rich man commits a selfless act of charity in bringing a poor orphan boy into his home. Had we stayed with the family longer we may have seen a glimpse of the emotional pain the orphan is going through. We may also have seen the family having difficulty with the orphan not appreciating the material excess that he has now been given. Rather we are shown a happy ending in which the orphan appears to begin to trust his new family and rise in the ranks of a social class, which was something he would never have been able to do in Afghanistan. With arriving in the United States and losing the label of Hazara, the orphan was able to achieve the American dream. 

Interested in other books turned into movies? Check out our comparative essay on The Sun Rises by Ernest Hemingway .

Forster, M. (Director). (2007). The Kite Runner [Motion picture]. USA: Dreamworks SKG.

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The Kite Runner

Content caution.

In Theaters

• Khalid Abdalla as Amir; Zekeria Ebrahami as Young Amir; Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada as Young Hassan; Homayon Ershadi as Baba; Atossa Leoni as Soraya; Shaun Toub as Rahim Kahn; Ali Dinesh as Sohrab

Home Release Date

• Marc Forster

Distributor

• Paramount Vantage

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

The Kite Runner brings Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling 2003 novel to the big screen. It’s a sweeping tale of friendship and loyalty, betrayal and redemption as a young man haunted by a horrible choice discovers, in the words of a wise friend, “There is a way to be good again.”

As the story opens, we watch through the eyes of Amir as kites dance in the sky above San Francisco Bay. Amir is a promising writer who has just published his first novel and gotten married. He has little time to enjoy that idyll, however, before an unexpected call from a family friend forces him to face the dark secret he’s run from since he was 12.

His memory drifts back in time to his childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan. The year is 1978, and Amir is the timid, bookish son of a fiercely independent, well-to-do man known as Baba. The boy spends carefree days with Hassan, the son of Baba’s lifelong servant, Ali.

All is well the day Amir and Hassan win a citywide kite-fighting competition. But when Hassan goes to retrieve a kite Amir has downed, he’s ambushed by an older bully named Assef. Assef pummels the smaller boy—then rapes him.

Amir secretly watches the assault and does nothing to defend his friend.

The result is a gulf of guilt Amir can’t cross. And he makes more choices that utterly separate him from his friend. He’s still grappling with shame the day Soviet invasion forces roll into Kabul and force him and his father to flee, first to Pakistan, then to California.

Regret stalks Amir as he grows up and as his father slowly succumbs to lung cancer. Then he’s given a shot at redemption when a friend of his father’s asks him to come to Pakistan. Why? Hassan’s son has fallen into the clutches of Taliban extremists.

[ The depth of this film’s themes, and the twists and turns it takes to reveal them require us to spoil a few plot points in this review. ]

Positive Elements

The Kite Runner is a heartrending story about redemption, atonement, coming to grips with one’s weaknesses and making amends for wrongs done. Amir makes a horrible choice as a boy when he refuses to defend Hassan. Then, years later, as an act of humble penance, he returns to his homeland to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab. That requires venturing into Taliban-held Kabul, and then a fortress controlled by that fanatically legalistic Muslim sect. Finally drumming up the courage he should have shown as a lad, Amir comes through for Sohrab, and he proceeds to raise him lovingly as his own son. (Hassan and the boy’s mother have both been killed.)

As children, Amir and Hassan are inseparable, disregarding class and ethnic divisions. What Hassan lacks in education, he makes up for with fierce courage. That courage earns the praise of Amir’s father, who wishes his own son could be more like his servant’s.

Hassan is also a model of loyalty. He tells Amir he would eat dirt for him—and his actions match his talk. Even as Amir distances himself from Hassan after the rape, the servant boy never falters in his devotion. And we learn that Hassan and his wife die because Hassan is unwilling to surrender Amir’s family property (which he has become a steward of in Amir’s absence). In a poignant letter to Amir which is read years after they’ve had any contact, we hear how Hassan longed for renewed relationship and prayed that his friend would know God’s good graces.

Other characters also extend grace at key moments. Amir’s father treats his timid boy with disdain early on, but he slowly learns how to affirm Amir and eventually gives his son’s writing career his blessing. He buys Hassan a kite for his birthday and forgives the boy when it seems he has stolen some of Amir’s property. Escaping from Afghanistan in a dark fuel tanker trunk, Baba tells Amir, “Don’t be afraid. I am right here with you.” He proves his mettle when he courageously risks his life by standing up to a Soviet officer.

Years later, Sohrab’s actions mirror Baba’s when he stands up to his Taliban tormentor.

Amir’s wife, Soraya, supports her husband’s writing. She chooses to tell the truth about a relationship she’s had before they get married. And the importance of telling the truth, it turns out, is also one of the film’s main messages. Another character who exhibits kindness is Baba’s friend Rahim, who encourages Amir to keep writing and praises his stories even when his father cannot do so. Further, Rahim tries to convince Amir that his father really does love him, even though he’s harsh at times.

Spiritual Elements

Perhaps in an effort to make the film more accessible to American audiences, the name of Allah is used infrequently; instead, Muslims simply refer to “God.” And despite the city and country in which he lives, Amir grows up in a secular home. His father believes in neither Islam nor Communism, saying, “Mullahs want to rule our souls. The Communists tell us we don’t have any.” He calls mullahs “self-righteous monkeys.”

Baba also shares an interesting perspective on sin. He tells Amir that the only sin is theft, and that all sin is a version of theft.

Rahim doesn’t buy into Baba’s secularism, and he repeatedly says, “If it be God’s will” (and variants thereof). Hassan and his father, Ali, are shown to be simple but devout Muslims. (They are part of a detested, marginalized ethnic minority of Shia Muslims known as the Hazara.) The film depicts Hassan’s faith as a significant shaping force. His letter to Amir praises “God the merciful and compassionate.”

It’s clear that Hassan’s faith has been passed down to his son when Sohrab goes to a mosque to pray. Amir follows, and ends up praying himself. A song during that scene speaks of God’s forgiveness, mercy, love and peace. It also mentions “peace and blessing for the prophet [Mohammed] and his family.”

On the other end of the spectrum, the Taliban are shown to be bloodthirsty, legalistic hypocrites. A group of them stones two adulteresses to death, for instance, yet behind closed doors they drink, smoke, listen to Western music and (it’s implied) sexually abuse children.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Easily the most shocking scene comes when Assef and his henchboys find Hassan alone. The beating they administer is bad enough. But Assef then informs Hassan that he’ll never forget this day, yanking the younger boy’s pants down (we briefly glimpse underwear) and pinning him to the ground. It’s then visually implied that the bigger boy rapes Hassan, who painfully limps home afterwards. Droplets of blood on the snow confirm what happened. Amir arrives just as the assault is beginning, and watches, hidden, from a distance.

Years later, Sohrab has been taken by a Taliban general from an orphanage, and it’s implied that the boy is being sexually abused by him. The orphanage owner tells Amir that this Taliban general regularly comes for young girls and boys, and that most of the children are never seen again. When Amir confronts the man for prostituting the children, the orphanage owner replies that it’s better for one to be taken than for many to be punished. And that he uses the money given him to buy the other children food.

Another sexually oriented scene involves a Soviet officer demanding half an hour with a new mother in exchange for letting a truck full of fleeing Afghans pass. Baba stands up to the man, saying, “Where is your shame?” The officer replies, “There is no shame in war.” Willing to sacrifice his life to protect the woman, Baba counters, “War doesn’t negate decency.”

An affair is talked about.

Violent Content

Beyond the sexual violence perpetrated, two women, who are covered from head to toe, are brought to a public soccer match to be stoned for adultery. Taliban men graphically execute this dark deed, and we see rocks hit them and bloody stains spreading on the women’s garments as they lie dying.

A fight between the Taliban and Amir breaks out, and Amir ends up on the receiving end of fists and feet. He gets thrown into walls and the floor, and his face is badly bloodied. Sohrab then shoots the general in the eye with his slingshot, triggering a daring escape amid machine-gun fire.

Crude or Profane Language

At an American bar, Baba exclaims in broken English, “F— the Russia!” The phrase is repeated in unison by amused patrons. Assef uses the sexual slur “f-ggot” twice to describe Amir and Hassan. There are also two uses each of “g–d–n” and “p—” in this mostly subtitled movie.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Baba drinks and smokes frequently—which leads to terminal lung cancer. Baba takes Amir to a bar for a drink when the young man graduates from college, buying a round for everyone. Several scenes depict people drinking wine and beer at parties and at Amir’s wedding.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Surrounded by shame, Amir begins to treat Hassan meanly, including throwing rotten fruit at him and calling him a coward. Amir then plants his watch under his friend’s pillow and accuses him of stealing it. Hassan dutifully admits to the crime, and the boy and his father leave Baba’s employment because of it.

Amir believes that his father “hates him” because Amir’s mother died while giving birth to him. Assef persecutes Hassan in part because of his Hazara heritage.

The Kite Runner is one of those films that leaves you emotionally reeling while, paradoxically, filling you with hope and gratitude. I think it would be nearly impossible not to reflect on your own relationships and the places you’ve failed—and need grace as well—after watching this movie.

The path to those ends is unquestionably wrenching. Amir’s betrayal of his friend is heartbreaking—all the more because Hassan’s loyalty never wavers. And that, in turn, makes Amir’s willingness to risk his life to save Sohrab all the more poignant. We see that forgiveness, change and freedom are not just possible, but that they are the only way life can continue.

We also see Hassan being raped. Though the scene is not explicit by today’s theatrical standards, there’s certainly enough implied and briefly shown to more than suggest what’s happening—which raises a significant question: Should child actors ever be asked to participate in scenes that suggest such brutality? And should moviegoers ever be asked to watch?

The young actor who played Hassan claims he would have answered those questions with a clear “No!” had he known ahead of time what was to happen to his character. Twelve-year-old Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada said of his role, “They didn’t give me the script. They didn’t give me the story of the kite runner. If I knew about the story, I wouldn’t have participated as an actor in this film.”

As word about this painful scene began to leak out, the actor and his family became concerned that fellow Afghans would believe the rape actually occurred. “The people of Afghanistan do not understand that it’s only acting or playing a role in a film. They think it has actually happened,” Mahmidzada told the Associated Press. “It’s not one or two people that I have to explain to. It’s all of Afghanistan. How do I make them understand? We won’t be able to walk in our neighborhood or Afghanistan at all.” A former Afghan ambassador to the United States underscored the seriousness of the actor’s concerns, telling slate.com , “To be raped or to be gay over there—it’s unfortunately absolutely unacceptable.”

Worries over Mahmidzada’s safety eventually caused Paramount Vantage to delay The Kite Runner ‘s release. And to take the significant step of moving all four Afghan boys who star in it to Dubai until after the film’s opening.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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The Kite Runner

Details: 2007, USA, Cert 12A, 122 mins

Direction: Marc Forster

With: Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada ,  Homayon Ershadi ,  Khalid Abdalla ,  Zekeria Ebrahimi and Zekiria Ebrahimi

Our reviews

Philip french.

Philip French: A deeply moving drama set in Afghanistan is a welcome antidote to some truly witless comedies

Peter Bradshaw

Peter Bradshaw: A workmanlike, if decaffeinated version of Khaled Hosseini's bestselling novel: the story of two boyhood friends, brothers in spirit, who grow up in 70s Kabul

Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini's bestselling novel, The Kite Runner, was set against the devastated landscape of his native Afghanistan. In the run-up to the story's release as a film, the author recounts the horrors and hopes of his first visit to Kabul since 1976

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Books — The Kite Runner

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Exploring The Complex Dynamics Between Amir and Hassan in "The Kite Runner"

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Theme of Betrayal in "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

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Cruelty and Abuse of Power in "The Kite Runner"

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May 29, 2003, Khaled Hosseini

Novel; Bildungsroman, Drama, Historical Fiction, Coming-of-age Drama

Assef, Rahim Khan, Sanaubar, Soraya, General Taheri, Sohrab, Amir, Hassan, Khala, Baba, Farid, Farzana, Ali

The story has been based on Khaled Hosseini life in Afghanistan before he left for the United States.

Father-son relationship, courage, friendship, childhood, change of regimes, guilt and redemption

The Kite Runner is a challenging book to read since it speaks of guilt and redemption, true friendship, and the changes that a person is going through decades later. Most importantly, it is the run of events that run from the fall of Afghanistan's monarch to the refugees era, and the Taliban regime. The red line is the friendship and the way how human relationships change. It has a complex setting through the decades when the main protagonist Amir, a young boy, is telling about his life, his relationship with Hassan and the events that he could not prevent.

The Kite Runner is a story of Amir and his father who are living in Kabul, Afghanistan. They belong to a major ethnic group called Pashtuns. Amir's best friend is called Hassan who lives with his father, yet they belong to a minor ethnic group called Hazaras. Even though the boys belong to different groups, they are the best friends. As the events unfold, Amir is unable to rescue Hassan from a tragedy that takes place due to lack of courage, which is his guilt years later. As Amir grows up, he moves to the United States where he learns that his friend's (Hassan) son is in the orphanage. Saving the boy with his wife, Amir finds redemption.

According to the author, the book became so popular because it "connects with them in a personal way, no matter what their own upbringing and background" are. The book became the best seller at The New York Times for more than two years. It is believed that the September 11 tragedy has contributed to the novel's admiration in the United States since it has allowed people to see the Afghan culture. The story has also been inspired by the news story about Taliban's banning the kite flying in the country, which has inspired Khail Hosseini for the title and some parts of the story. The short version of the book has been rejected by some publishing houses. The Kite Runner is the first English publication written by the Afghan author. The author did not return to his home country Afghanistan until the time when the book was published. Hosseini believes that his novel is a love story because love is the main protagonist.

“For you, a thousand times over” “It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...” “There is only one sin. and that is theft... when you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth.” “When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.” “I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had. But I didn’t.”

This book became an important example of friendship and living with the guilt that took place as the lack of courage and being brave. As the multi-generational story, it deals with many sides of culture, family life, human relationship, discovering different cultures, and staying true to who you are. The author shows the way Amir grows and how he finally finds his self-identity that he has been seeking so long.

The book, according to the author, is about seeking love and finding it in everything, about friendship, about looking back, and finding redemption and one’s self-identity. While this novel is quite challenging and might even bring up tears while reading, it serves the role of a powerful story about being sincere and earning trust. One can write an essay about it by focusing on cultural, social, or even political aspects as the book runs from the 1970s to 2002.

1. Aubry, T. (2009). Afghanistan meets the amazon: reading the kite runner in America. PMLA, 124(1), 25-43. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/afghanistan-meets-the-amazon-reading-the-kite-runner-in-america/2D11194B0891CCB91EABAEB5E6BD865D) 2. Jefferess, D. (2009). To be good (again): The Kite Runner as allegory of global ethics. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 45(4), 389-400. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17449850903273572) 3. O'Brien, S. (2018). Translating Trauma in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. Transnational Literature, 10(2), 1-A5. (https://www.proquest.com/openview/5202ba584abd167130cae69acbe52985/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1596384) 4. Jocius, R. (2013). Exploring adolescents’ multimodal responses to The Kite Runner: Understanding how students use digital media for academic purposes. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 5(1), 4. (https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle/vol5/iss1/4/) 5. Kai-fu, C. (2019). A Study of Amir's Psychological Change in" The Kite Runner". English Language Teaching, 12(5), 190-193. (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1214311) 6. Du, J. (2017). A journey of self-actualization of Amir in The Kite Runner. English Language and Literature Studies, 7(3), 90-93. (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9c07/8bb1388903fab1fe437f604fb6c0a15299a6.pdf) 7. Ghafoor, S., & Farooq, U. (2020). Can subaltern be heard: an analysis of the kite runner and the thousand splendid suns by Khalid Hosseini: can subaltern be heard. International Review of Literary Studies, 2(1), 29-38. (http://irlsjournal.com/ojs/index.php/irls/article/view/10) 8. Hunt, S. (2009). Can the West Read? Western Readers, Orientalist Stereotypes, and the Sensational Response to The Kite Runner. (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/129489717.pdf) 9. Adhikary, R. P. (2021). Crisis of Cultural Identity in Khaled Hosseini‘s The Kite Runner. Scholar Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, 5, 179-187. (https://saspublishers.com/media/articles/SJAHSS_95_179-187.pdf)

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The Kite Runner

By khaled hosseini.

• The Kite Runner Summary

The story is narrated from the year 2002. Amir , who is thus far a nameless protagonist, tells us that an event in the winter of 1975 changed his life forever. We do not know anything about this event except that it still haunts him and that it involves something he did to Hassan , whom he calls "the harelipped kite runner." Amir takes us back to his childhood, in the final decades of the monarchy in Afghanistan. His father, Baba , was one of the wealthiest and most charitable Pashtun men in Kabul, where they lived in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood. His mother died in childbirth. Amir's closest friend, the harelipped Hassan, was also his servant and a Hazara. He was very close to his father, Ali , who was Baba's servant.

Despite their differences, Amir and Hassan were inseparable. Hassan would have done anything for Amir; his first word was even "Amir." Baba was aloof and did not pay Amir much attention. He was a huge and imposing man who was rumored to have wrestled a bear. Baba did not subscribe to popular belief, preferring to cast his own opinions about issues. Baba wished Amir was athletic and brave like him instead of cowardly and bookish.

Amir explains how Ali and Baba knew each other. Baba's father took Ali into his house after Ali's parents were killed in an accident. Ali and Baba grew up together just like Hassan and Amir. In each generation, the boys could never truly consider themselves friends because of their class differences. One big difference divider was literacy. Amir was proud of his literacy and lorded it over the unsuspecting, illiterate Hassan. Yet when Amir wrote his first short story and read it to Hassan, it was the latter who found the plot hole in the story.

That same night, July 17, 1973, there was a coup d'etat in Afghanistan, changing it from a monarchy to a republic. Unbeknownst to the boys or anyone else, it was the first of many political changes that would eventually ruin Afghanistan as they knew it. One day, Amir and Hassan got into a confrontation with a boy named Assef and his two friends. Assef idolized Hitler and hated Hazaras. As usual, Hassan stood up for Amir; he got Assef to leave by aiming his slingshot at Assef's eye. That same year, Baba got Hassan surgery to fix his harelip.

In the winter, schools were closed in Kabul and the boys spent much time kite fighting. When defeated kites fell out of the sky, boys chased them to try to bring them home as trophies. They were called "kite runners." Amir usually flew a kite while Hassan ran kites for him. Hassan was the best kite runner anyone had ever seen. He had an innate sense of where a kite would land.

In the winter of 1975, there was a massive kite tournament. Amazingly, Amir won, and Hassan went to run the last kite for him. Before he chased it, he shouted, "For you, a thousand times over." When Hassan did not come home, Amir went out looking for him. He found Hassan confronting Assef and his two friends in an alley. Amir did nothing to help Hassan as Assef raped him. Later he found Hassan walking home, kite in hand, with blood dripping from his pants. He pretended not to know what happened and did not tell Ali the truth when he asked.

After the kite tournament, Amir's relationship with his father improved because Baba was so proud of him. His relationship with Hassan degraded. Amir was too ashamed of what he had done to face Hassan and avoided him at all costs. One day he even suggested to Baba that they get new servants. To his surprise, Baba was furious and threatened to hit Amir for the first time. He said that Ali and Hassan were their family. Amir tried to resolve his guilt by teaching Hassan not to be so loyal to him. He took Hassan up to the hill and pelted him with pomegranates. No matter how much he begged, Hassan would not hit him back. Hassan smashed a pomegranate into his own forehead and asked Amir if he felt better.

Amir's guilt intensified at the lavish thirteenth birthday party that Baba threw for him. He knew Baba never would have given him such a great party had he not won the tournament, which was inseparable in his mind from Hassan's rape. Assef came to the party and gave Amir a book about Hitler. Amir was disgusted to see him teasing Hassan during the party. Baba gave Amir a wristwatch. Rahim Khan gave him the only present he could bear to use, which was a blank notebook for his stories. He also received a good deal of money. To his chagrin, Ali and Hassan gave him a copy of his and Hassan's favorite book. After the party, Amir decided to betray Hassan a second time and frame him as a thief. He hid his wristwatch and money under Hassan and Ali's mattress. The next morning, he accused Hassan, who took the blame as usual. Baba forgave him immediately, but Hassan and Ali were too humiliated to stay. As they left, Amir saw Baba weep for the first time. They never saw Ali or Hassan again.

Five years later, during the Soviet occupation, Amir and Baba fled Afghanistan in a truck full of refugees. When they reached a checkpoint, a Russian soldier demanded to sleep with one of them, a married woman. Baba stood up for her even though the soldier was armed. They were allowed to pass. After hiding in a basement in Jalalabad, they departed for Peshawar, Pakistan in the filthy tank of a fuel truck. Among the refugees were Amir's schoolmate, Kamal, and his father. When they arrived, they discovered that Kamal was dead. Kamal's father put a gun in his mouth and shot himself. Luckily, Amir and Baba managed to emigrate to the San Francisco area.

Baba and Amir's life in Fremont, California was very different from their life in Wazir Akbar Khan. Baba worked long hours at a gas station and even though he loved "the idea of America," had trouble adjusting to its everyday realities. For Amir, America represented a fresh beginning, free of all his haunting memories of Hassan. He graduated high school at the age of twenty and planned to enroll in junior college. His graduation gave Baba a reason to celebrate, but he said he wished Hassan were with them. Eventually, Baba and Amir started selling used goods at a local flea market. They found it to be a miniature Afghan haven, filled with people they knew from Kabul.

At the flea market, Amir fell in love with a young woman named Soraya Taheri. Around the same time, Baba got sick. A doctor diagnosed Baba with terminal cancer and Baba refused palliative treatments. Then one day Baba collapsed with seizures in the flea market; the cancer had spread to his brain and he did not have long to live. Very soon after, Amir asked Baba to go khastegari, to ask for Soraya's hand in marriage. The Taheris accepted happily. Over the phone, Soraya told Amir her shameful secret. She had once run away with an Afghan man. When General Taheri finally forced her to come home, she had to cut off all her hair in shame. Amir told Soraya he still wanted to marry her. He felt ashamed that he could not bring himself to tell her his secret in return.

After khastegari came lafz, "the ceremony of giving word." Because Baba was so ill, Soraya and Amir decided to forgo the Shirini-kori, the traditional engagement party, as well as the engagement period. Baba spent almost all his money on the awroussi, the wedding ceremony. Soraya moved in with Amir and Baba so they could spend his last days together. She took care of him until the night he died peacefully in his sleep.

Many people attended Baba's funeral, each with a story of how Baba had helped them in Afghanistan. Suddenly, Amir realized that he had formed his identity around being "Baba's son." Amir and Soraya moved into their own apartment and worked towards their college degrees. In 1988, Amir published his first novel. Around the same time, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, but new conflicts erupted. Soon after, the Cold War ended, the Berlin Wall fell, and the riots occurred in Tiananmen Square. In San Francisco, Amir and Soraya bought a house and discovered they were infertile. There was no medical explanation for the infertility, so Amir privately blamed it on his own shameful past.

One day, Amir received a call from Rahim Khan. He was seriously ill and was living in Peshawar. He told Amir, "There is a way to be good again." Amir flew to Peshawar to see Rahim Khan, who told him that he was dying. He explained that the Taliban had destroyed Afghanistan as they knew it and the people there were in grave danger. For a chapter, Rahim Khan becomes the narrator and tells Amir about what happened to Hassan. For a long time, Rahim Khan had lived in Baba's house alone, but he became weak and lonely. In 1986 he went looking for Hassan and found him living in a small village with his pregnant wife, Farzana. Hassan did not want to come to Wazir Akbar Khan until Rahim Khan told him about Baba's death. Hassan cried all night and in the morning, he and Farzana moved in with Rahim Khan.

Hassan and Farzana insisted on staying in the servants' hut and doing housework. Farzana's first baby was stillborn. One day, Sanaubar collapsed at the gate of the house. She had traveled a long way to finally make peace with Hassan, who accepted her with open arms. Sanaubar delivered Hassan and Farzana's son, Sohrab and played a large part in raising him. She died when he was four. Hassan made sure that Sohrab was loved, literate, and great with a slingshot. When the Taliban took over in 1996, people celebrated, but Hassan predicted that things would get worse, as they did. In 198, the Taliban massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Rahim Khan gave Amir a letter that Hassan had written six months earlier along with a snapshot of him and Sohrab. In the letter, Hassan described the terror of living under the Taliban. He said he hoped Amir would return to Afghanistan and that they would reunite. Then Rahim Khan devastated Amir with the news that Hassan was dead. After Rahim Khan left to seek medical treatment in Pakistan, the Taliban showed up at Baba's house. They demanded that Hassan relinquish the house to them. When he refused, they took him to the street, made him kneel, and shot him in the back of the head. They shot Farzana too when she ran out of the house in a rage.

Rahim Khan asked Amir to go to Kabul and bring Sohrab back to Peshawar. He said that a nice American couple, the Caldwells, had a goodwill organization and would take care of him there. When Amir refused, Rahim Khan told him a life-changing secret: he and Hassan were half-brothers. Baba had shamed Ali by sleeping with Sanaubar, and because Ali was infertile, Hassan had to be Baba's son. Amir flew into a rage and ran out of Rahim Khan's apartment. After thinking things over at a café, he returned and said he would bring Sohrab to Peshawar.

A driver named Farid drove Amir from Peshawar. He looked down on Amir for leaving Afghanistan because he had stayed to fight the Soviets and suffered along with his country. He even told Amir that he had never been a real Afghan because he grew up with so many privileges. Amir did feel like a foreigner because he had to wear a fake beard and was dressed in traditional Afghan clothing for the first time. He barely recognized the landscape around him because it was so ravaged by war. They spent the night with Farid's brother, Wahid . Wahid's boys were malnourished and later that night, Amir heard one of his two wives complaining that he had given all the food to their guests. The next morning, Amir hid money under Wahid's mattress before they left.

The devastation in Kabul took Amir's breath away. Children and mothers begged on every street corner, and there were few men to be seen because so many had died fighting. Amir met an old beggar who was once a professor at the university alongside Amir's mother. Amir learns only a few random facts about his mother from the man, but this is still more than Baba ever told him. At the orphanage in Karteh-Seh, Farid and Amir discovered that a Talib official who was a pedophile had taken Sohrab a month before. Farid was so enranged at the man that he tried to strangle him to death, but Amir intervened. The man told them they could find the Talib at Ghazi Stadium. Farid drove Amir to Baba's house, which had become decrepit and was occupied by the Taliban. He and Farid spent the night in a run-down hotel.

Farid and Amir went to a soccer game at Ghazi Stadium. At halftime, the Talibs brought two accused adulterers out to the field and made them stand in pits in the ground. Then the Talib official came out and stoned them to death. Amir managed to make an appointment with this Talib for the same day. Farid drove him there, but Amir went in alone. The Talib had his men rip off Amir's fake beard. Then he called in Sohrab and made him dance for them. Sohrab looked terrified. Amir was horrified to discover that the Talib was Assef. Assef explained that he was on a mission to kill all the Hazaras in Afghanistan. Then he announced that he and Amir would fight to the death and none of his guards were to intervene. Sohrab was made to watch as Assef beat Amir nearly to death. As Assef straddled Amir, preparing to punch him again, Sohrab aimed his slingshot at Assef's eye and begged him to stop. When he did not, Sohrab put out his eye. Farid drove them away and Amir passed out.

Amir flitted in and out of consciousness in the Pakistani hospital where Farid took him. He dreamed about Baba fighting the bear, and realized that he was Baba. When he finally came to, he found out that he had almost died of a ruptured spleen. He had broken his ribs and a bone in his face and he had a punctured lung, among other injuries. Most poignantly, Amir's lip had split open to make him resemble Hassan. Sohrab visited Amir in the hospital but did not talk much. Farid brought a letter and a key from Rahim Khan. In the letter, Rahim urged Amir to forgive himself for what he did to Hassan. He had left Amir money in a safety deposit box, which the key would open.

Amir had to leave the hospital early in order to avoid being found and killed by Taliban sympathizers. He and Sohrab stayed at a hotel in Islamabad. The first night, Amir woke up to find Sohrab gone. After hours of searching he found him staring up at the city's big Shah Faisal mosque. Sohrab revealed that he was afraid God would punish him for what he did to Assef. He felt dirty and sinful from being abused. Amir tried to reassure him and promised to take him to America. He also promised Sohrab that he would never have to go to another orphanage. That night, Amir spoke to Soraya. After all their years of marriage, he finally told her what he did to Hassan. Then he told her he was bringing Sohrab home. Soraya was very supportive and promised to call her cousin Sharif, who worked for the INS.

At the American Embassy, an official named Raymond Andrews told Amir that it would be near impossible to get Sohrab a visa. To Amir's disgust, he told him to give up. Then a kind lawyer named Omar Faisal told Amir that he might have a chance of adopting Sohrab if he put him in an orphanage temporarily. When Amir told Sohrab about the orphanage, the boy was devastated. Amir rocked him to sleep and fell asleep as well. Soraya's call woke Amir. She explained that Sharif would be able to get Sohrab a visa. Realizing Sohrab was in the bath, Amir went in to tell him the good news. He found him dying in the bathtub, having slit his wrists.

In the hospital waiting for news about Sohrab, Amir prayed for the first time in fifteen years. He begged God to let Sohrab live because he did not want his blood on his hands. Eventually, he received the good news that Sohrab was alive.

The story jumps to the present year, 2002. Sohrab and Amir were able to come back to America safely. It had now been a year since they arrived and Sohrab had not spoken once. He barely seemed to have a will to live. Amir kept Sohrab's past secret from the Taheris until General Taheri called him a "Hazara boy." Amir was furious; he told the general never to refer to Amir that way again. Then he explained that Sohrab was his illegitimate half-nephew. General Taheri stopped asking questions after that. After September 11, General Taheri was called back to Afghanistan. In the wake of what happened, Amir found it strange to hear people on the news and on the street talking about the cities of his childhood. It saddened him to know that his country was still beind devastated after so many decades of violence. Then one day, a miracle happened.

At a rainy Afghan picnic, Amir noticed kites flying in the sky. He bought one and went over to Sohrab, who had secluded himself as usual. He told Sohrab that Hassan was the best kite runner he had ever known and asked Sohrab if he wanted to fly the kite. Sohrab was shy, but he followed Amir as he launched the kite into the air. Soon after, they noticed a green kite closing in on theirs. Amir used Hassan's favorite "lift-and-dive" move to cut the kite. Amir noticed the smallest hint of a smile on Sohrab's face. He offered to run the kite for Sohrab and as he ran off, he shouted, "For you, a thousand times over."

The Kite Runner Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Kite Runner is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini chapter 2&3

I'm not sure what your question is here.

Baba gets lung cancer. What has Baba been trying to teach Amir?

He wants to teach Amir how to be on his own.

What must grooms do before they ask a girl to wed?

Grooms must ask the father's (of the bride) permission first.

Study Guide for The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner study guide contains a biography of Khaled Hosseini, 100 quiz questions, a list of major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Kite Runner
• Character List

Essays for The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

• Amir’s Quest for Salvation in The Kite Runner
• A Journey for Redemption in The Kite Runner
• Redemption in Kahled Hosseini's The Kite Runner
• Assef: Why Is He the Way He Is?
• Emotional Intertextuality Between Death of a Salesman and The Kite Runner

Lesson Plan for The Kite Runner

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Kite Runner
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Kite Runner Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Kite Runner

• Introduction

The Kite Runner

91 pages • 3 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Pre-Reading Context

Thought & Response Prompts

Paired Texts & Other Resources

Essay Questions

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay. 

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the play over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The hero’s journey, developed by Joseph Campbell, presents an ancient pattern of tropes that are ever present in the themes and motifs of The Kite Runner . When Amir receives Rahim Khan’s phone call, he is literally answering the call to action, which beckons the hero of myth into adventure.

• What other heroic patterns of the hero’s journey does Amir fulfill? ( topic Sentence)
• Pick one or two different stages in the hero’s journey and provide direct quotes or examples from the book showing when Amir experiences them.
• Conclude with any other general similarities or differences between Amir and the hero’s journey process. Is Amir a hero or not?

2. Amir’s mother has a distinct and defining influence on Amir’s life, though she is largely absent from the text, having died giving birth to Amir. In what ways does her death affect Amir’s character arc?

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'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini - Book Review

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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is one of the best books I have read in years. This is a page turner with complex characters and situations that will make you think hard about friendship, good and evil, betrayal, and redemption. It is intense and contains some graphic scenes; however, it is not gratuitous. A great book by many measures.

Reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

On one level, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is the story of two boys in Afghanistan and Afghan immigrants in America. It is a story set in a culture that has become of increasing interest to Americans since the September 11, 2001, attacks. It also explores the history of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. On this level, it provides a good way for people to learn more about Afghan history and culture in the context of the story.

Looking at The Kite Runner as a story about culture, however, misses what the book is really about. This is a novel about humanity. This is a story about friendship, loyalty, cruelty, longing for acceptance, redemption, and survival. The core story could be set in any culture because it deals with issues that are universal.

The Kite Runner looks at how the main character, Amir, deals with a secret in his past and how that secret shaped who he became. It tells of Amir's childhood friendship with Hassan, his relationship with his father and growing up in a privileged place in society. I was drawn in by Amir's voice. I sympathized with him, cheered for him and felt angry with him at different points. Similarly, I became attached to Hassan and his father. The characters became real to me, and it was difficult for me to put the book down and leave their world.

I highly recommend this book, especially for book clubs. For those of you who are not in a reading group, read it and then loan it to a friend. You are going to want to talk about it when you finish.

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Kite Runner Film Review Touching on the heartstrings of human compassion, "The Kite Runner" is a movie that is not stylistically typical of Hollywood. For the most part, it takes place in Afghanistan exposing the modern day violence that it is now known for and contrasting it with the main character's once peaceful and carefree childhood in his home country, Afghanistan. The director effectively switches from the protagonist in his adulthood back to his childhood, which he introduces through a phone call from a friend that he once knew. The switch is smooth and provides insight as to how the protagonist arrived in the moment at which he is at present day. Curious to understand his ... Already a member? 6/29/2013 02:01:36 AM Premium Paper 460 2 | � � � � � � � � � � | | Copyright © 2024 Essayworld. All rights reserved 220 IMAGES Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Free Essay Example Kite Runner Essay Kite Runner "The Kite Runner" Film: History and Cinematography The Kite Runner Review Movie Review: The Kite Runner (2007) VIDEO Kite Runner THE KITE RUNNER NOVEL ANALYSIS The Kite Runner The Kite runner book review 5 Lines on Kite // Easy Essay on Kite in english// Short Essay on Kite The Kite Runner Full Movie Facts , Review And Knowledge / Khalid Abdalla / Homayoun Ershadi COMMENTS "You should come home. There is a way to be good again." The boys live in a healthy, vibrant city, not yet touched by war. Amir's father, Baba (Homayoun Ershadi), is an intellectual and secularist who has no use for the mullahs. Baba, whose kindly eyes are benevolent, loves both boys. There is a neighborhood bully named Assef, jealous of Amir's kite, his skills and his kite runner. The Kite Runner The Kite Runner. Directed by Marc Forster. Drama. PG-13. 2h 8m. By Manohla Dargis. Dec. 14, 2007. Much like the best-selling novel on which it's based, "The Kite Runner" tells the story of ... Afghan History & Politics in The Kite Runner Film Essay (Movie Review) The main protagonist of The Kite Runner and simultaneously, its narrator is Amir, a representative of the leading Pashtun ethnic group. Amir was born in Kabul in 1963 in the family of a wealthy and well-respected man, Agha Sahib. Amir acquired a brilliant education and immigrated to the United States after facing the political changes in his ... 'The Kite Runner' Review: A Story of Betrayal and Redemption New York. $69-$159, 212-239-6200, closes Oct. 30. Matthew Spangler 's adaptation, first produced in San Jose, Calif., and later in the U.K., comes closer than most such book-to-stage ... The Kite Runner The Kite Runner is one of the best films of 2007 with its emotionally resonant story. Director Marc Forster has done a marvelous and fluid job of conveying the sweep of years covered in the drama and has drawn some incredible performances out of the ensemble cast. The cinematography by Roberto Schaefer captures all the glory of the kite ... Review: 'The Kite Runner' Trips From Page to Stage The Kite Runner Through Oct. 30 at the Hayes Theater, Manhattan; thekiterunnerbroadway.com. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes. Maya Phillips is a critic at large. The Kite Runner The Kite Runner Movie Review: The Kite Runner The Kite Runner is a film which not only provides an interesting glimpse into Afghani culture but also provides an example of a clear case of social stratification.This essay, written for sample use by one of our freelance writers, reviews the Kite Runner in great detail; while it is not necessarily a critical review, it illustrates contemporary Afghani society, touching on concepts like ... The Kite Runner Critical Essays Critical Evaluation. The Kite Runner is Khaled Hosseini's first novel. Born in Kabul, Hosseini draws heavily on his own experiences to create the setting for the novel; the characters, however ... The Kite Runner The Kite Runner brings Khaled Hosseini's best-selling 2003 novel to the big screen. It's a sweeping tale of friendship and loyalty, betrayal and redemption as a young man haunted by a horrible choice discovers, in the words of a wise friend, "There is a way to be good again.". As the story opens, we watch through the eyes of Amir as ... The Kite Runner The Kite Runner. Details: 2007, USA, Cert 12A, ... A Story of Children and Film review â Mark Cousins's 'spine-tingling' visual essay. More film reviews. Across the site ... The Kite Runner Essay • Examples of Topics, Prompts The Kite Runner. Topics: A Thousand Splendid Suns, Atonement in Christianity, Conscience, Exclusive Books Boeke Prize, Fighter kite, Guilt and Redemption, Khaled Hosseini, Riverhead Books, Sin, The Kite Runner. Exploring The Kite Runner: A Comparative Analysis of Book and Film (PDF) 5. The Kite Runner Summary The Kite Runner Summary. The story is narrated from the year 2002. Amir, who is thus far a nameless protagonist, tells us that an event in the winter of 1975 changed his life forever. We do not know anything about this event except that it still haunts him and that it involves something he did to Hassan, whom he calls "the harelipped kite runner." The Kite Runner Based on one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, The Kite Runner is a profoundly emotional tale of friendship, family, devastating mistakes, and redeeming love. In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amir and Hassan, are about to be torn apart forever. It's a glorious afternoon in Kabul and the skies are bursting with the exhilarating joy of a kite-fighting ... The Kite Runner: an honest review Sep 25, 2023. The Kite Runner, Bloomsbury Modern Classics. Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner' is one of the most beautiful historical novels I have ever read, although it is not my genre ... The Kite Runner Key Ideas and Commentary Family, Fathers, and Fatherhood. In a novel where family relationships are crucial, the absence of mothers is striking. Although Soraya becomes a loving mother to Sohrab, both Amir and Hassan grow ... A Review of The Kite Runner The Kite Runner might use brute force at times to get its point across, but it's a deeply powerful and moving book that explores both the universal human experience and Afghanistan's culture and history. ... Movies & Movie Reviews. Film in 1984: A Review and Christian Perspective of "Amadeus"--a Story That Reflects the Human Condition in 'Real ... The Kite Runner The Kite Runner Essay The film adaptation of the kite runner does diminish the complexity of the story presented in the novel. This essay will include the following topics: The difference in the plot and characters that are present in the novel and film. The kite runner film is not an accurate representation of the novel in terms of the plot. The Kite Runner Essay Questions 1. The hero's journey, developed by Joseph Campbell, presents an ancient pattern of tropes that are ever present in the themes and motifs of The Kite Runner. When Amir receives Rahim Khan's phone call, he is literally answering the call to action, which beckons the hero of myth into adventure. Pick one or two different stages in the hero ... Reviews: What Do Critics Think of Broadway's The Kite Runner? July 21, 2022. Amir Arison and Eris Sirakian in The Kite Runner Joan Marcus. The stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, adapted for the stage by Matthew Spangler, has made its long ... 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini Updated on July 27, 2018. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is one of the best books I have read in years. This is a page turner with complex characters and situations that will make you think hard about friendship, good and evil, betrayal, and redemption. It is intense and contains some graphic scenes; however, it is not gratuitous. Kite Runner Film Review Kite Runner Film Review Touching on the heartstrings of human compassion, "The Kite Runner" is a movie that is not stylistically typical of Hollywood. For the most part, it takes place in Afghanistan exposing the modern day violence that it is now known for and contrasting it with the main character's once peaceful and carefree childhood in his ... The Kite Runner Book Vs Movie Essay The Kite Runner Book Vs Movie Essay. 1534 Words 7 Pages. The film adaptation of the movie was not as similar to the book as I thought it would be, for example since the beginning of the movie it could be observed that the director of the movie changed the order of the events that occurred in the book. Although the movie had a lot of the details ... essay homework paper phd project resume review study thesis