Kite Runner Essay

565 Words3 Pages
All is fair in Kites and War Kite fighting was everything to young Amir. It meant being more like Baba, and receiving his love and affection. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses the kite as a symbol of man’s aspirations and chronicles the coming of age of a child in war-torn Afghanistan. Through the kite, the author develops irony, the importance of human relationships, and war. “I was going to win, and I was going to run that last kite. Then I’d bring it home and show it to Baba. Show him once and for all that his son was worthy.” (p. 56). Fortunately for Amir, he not only wins the kite tournament, he also wins Baba’s heart. So for Amir’s thirteenth birthday, Baba throws him a huge birthday bash. Ironically, Amir is still not happy. He feels that Baba “would have never thrown me a party like that if I hadn’t won the tournament.” (p. 101). He also says, “I finally had what I wanted all those years. Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into.” (p. 85). It is in this way that Hosseini uses the kite symbol to develop irony; Amir believes that the kite would be the savior of his relationship with Baba, but in reality, it is only superficial love. Amir wanted to be like Baba, but he didn’t realize that he already was like Baba. He was incapable of having a real relationship with a person, and valued things like kite fighting over actual relationships. It is because of this that he betrays Hassan, and says, “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (p. 77). Later in life, he regrets this, realizing that love is more important than anything else. Amir gets a chance for redemption when he finds out Hassan has a son, Sohrab. So Amir rescues Sohrab from Assef, adopts him, and takes him back to America. In America, they attend an Afghan party, where a kite fighting competition takes place. When Amir cuts a kite he looks at
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