Amir was literate and loved writing but his friend Hassan was uneducated. During winter, schools are closed in Kabul and so most boys spent their time kite fighting. When defeated kites fell out, the boys would chase them and bring them home as trophies. They were called the kite runners. Amir as usual would fly kites while Hassan ran kites for him.
Baba was a typical father that expected his son to be into athletic things such as soccer and such, and when Amir tried things of that nature, he felt bad because he was not as good as Baba had hoped. But one thing that interested both Amir and Baba was the Kite tournament. It was Amir’s dream to win the tournament so that Baba could be proud of something that he did. Later on throughout the story, Amir won that tournament and in order to show Baba the winning kite, the price he had to pay was to watch his friend Hassan get raped. In Chapter 7 Amir states, “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world.
Formal Writing- Kite Runner “There is way to be good again.” This remark of Rahim Khan suggested to Amir that he could make up for his past mistakes. This realistic novel highlights the tension between two ethnic groups the Pashtun and the Hazara living together in 1970’s Afghanistan. This is shown in the story through the two main characters and their childhood friendship as Pashtun and Hazara boys. A significant event in Kite Runner is the Assef’s violation of Hassan after the kite flying tournament. When Amir decided to run away from Assef’s attack on Hassan, it meant that he chose to protect himself rather than help his friend.
Amir wants to win the kite tournament, and surely he does. Amir is very happy he was victorious and this is an excellent time in his life that is filled with joy and happiness. But later in the book gears start to turn as there is a turn of events. Amir goes to Afghanistan once Hassan, Amir’s child hood friend, gets killed by the Taliban 40 years later, to pick up a boy named Sohrab. While going to pick up the boy he meets a man, who has the boy, whose name is Assef, Amir’s nemesis.
There is a significant advancement in the plot of the story in chapter seven. This chapter presents the peak of events in the storyline. In the first half of the book, the main characters are developed and the setting is introduced. The reader learns that Amir is looking for acceptance from his father, Baba, and that he believes by winning the Kite Running competition, Baba will finally be proud of him. After Amir has cut down the final kite, the only obstacle left is for Hassan to run and catch it.
The day of the competition comes. The tournament lasts all day, and Amir is doing well. He can see Baba sitting on a rooftop, watching. Eventually all that remain are Amir’s kite and one other, a blue kite. They battle and Amir wins, sending the blue kite flying loose.
In one situation, a bully named Assef is about to violently attack Amir for socializing with a Shi'a, but Hassan stands up for Amir and threatens to shoot Assef in the eye with his slingshot. Betrayal is one of major themes in this story. One day, Amir and Hassan win a kite tournament and as Hassan goes to run the last cut kite, Assef confronts him and says that he must give him the kite. Knowing how important this kite is to Amir in order to make his father proud, Hassan refuses to give the kite up. Amir goes in search of Hassan and as he hears Assef voice, hides.
The friendship was golden, until one day after a kite fight. Assef, a boy who was also a Pashtun like Amir but was different in so many other aspects, finds and chases Hassan in an attempt to steal Amir’s extravagant blue kite. Hassan would not give up the kite, and Assef refers to him in terms of a pet: “A loyal Hazara. Loyal as a dog”. Assef lunges himself onto Hassan
The silent animosity between father and son ends when Amir joins and wins a kite-flying contest and ties his own father’s record in the number of kites he cut down. Later, the relationship between the two strengthens as they flee from war-torn Afghanistan and in the process Baba shows Amir how he stood up even to the point of risking even his own life in order to save an unknown woman from a Russian soldier’s vile intentions. As immigrants in the United States Baba once again shows Amir how he can make personal sacrifices for his son’s sake. Forced to live in a foreign country, Baba dies broken hearted but fully resigned to what Amir had made of himself – a writer happily married to a wonderful
Why does he resent Hassan? After the kite running tournament, why does Amir no longer want to be Hassan's friend? Other topics: 1. Father-son relationship 2. Making decisions 3.