Certain Agony of Symbolism
“If you change the way you look things, the things you look at change” (Wayne Dyre). Once the layers between life and symbolism are destroyed, the true meanings within a story are unlocked and the mind becomes enriched in a flood of knowledge and comprehension. Power is the celestial being throughout life, and the objects that define happiness and destruction in life symbolize the hidden meanings and feelings people tend to overlook. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, profound symbolism is used to illuminate Amir’s struggles and the power his past holds over him throughout the novel through kites, the pomegranate tree, and scar shared between the brothers.
First, kites are used throughout the novel as a symbol of beauty and violence. Kites breach a barrier between the beauty Hassan holds, and the violence and evil inside Amir, “the one paper-thin slice of intersection between those spheres” (43). The act of flying kites is a beautiful and freeing part of the novel, just like the Kite Runner himself, Hassan who is an embodiment of beauty. Once the kites are turned to weapons in the kite tournaments, they symbolize the destruction and evil through their piercing, sharp, glass strings in Amir. Amir cares for no one but himself, and will cut anyone’s string in order to keep his own kite of pride
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The tree and the fruit represent the healthy relationship shared between “the Sultans of Kabul. Those words made it formal the tree was [theirs]“ (24). When Amir and Hassan’s friendship is at a peak, the tree bears healthy and beautiful pomegranates. When Amir tears down the pomegranates to throw at Hassan, he begins to tear down their friendship as well. Years later when Amir returns to Afghanistan, he discovers that Hassan is dead, and when he returns to the pomegranate tree, the fruit no longer exists on the branches, just like the relationship between the