Flashbacks In The Kite Runner

In his novel “The Kite Runner”, Hosseini follows the core template of Freytag's plot structure, but experiments with the structure by employing flashbacks and presents events out of chronological order. The novel opens with the protagonist, Amir, in the year 2001 reflecting on his life so far. He grimly states that “the past claws its way out”(Hosseini 1) and vaguely details an event in a “deserted alley”(Hosseini 1) in 1975 that changed him, without explicitly telling us what happened. He then recalls a phone call with an old family friend, and how he saw it as a call from his “past of unatoned sins”(Hosseini 1). Through these statements, Hosseini has Amir foreshadow the events in the upcoming chapters and sets a tone of guilt even before the reader knows what Amir has done or experienced.

This helps lay down the theme that guilt is enduring, which is why redemption is necessary to relieve guilt. In the next chapters, Hosseini utilizes flashbacks, bringing us back to Amir’s childhood in Afghanistan, and thus unfolding the exposition. We learn about Amir, his family and his friend Hassan. We then go on to learn of the tragic event at the kite tournament, where Amir sits idly while he watches his loyal friend Hassan get abused by a sociopath, foreshadowed by when Amir mentioned the event in the “deserted alley” in the beginning of the novel. This flashback reveals Amir’s source of perpetual guilt, which will shape his character and influence his later actions. As the flashbacks progress, the past begins to intersect with the present. Amir receives the phone call from his old family friend and immediately agrees to go to Afghanistan. One of the parting lines was when his old family friend told him “There is a way to be good again”(Hosseini