Memory In The Kite Runner

In this novel, “The Kite Runner” written by Khaled Hosseini, portrayed the importance of the memories and the past, good or bad memories that people are reminded throughout their lives. The past is one of the crucial themes in the plot of The Kite Runner, as it is a main driving factor of the plot’s progression. The story begins with an understated quote from the main character, “Amir”. “I became what I am today at the age of 12, on a fridge overcast day in the winter of 1975”. (Hosseini 1).
One single event in the winter of 1975 had shaped Amir forever. The event all begins with an unusual friendship between a son of a rich Pashtun merchant, who is Amir and a Hazara boy, Hassan who was born a servant to him. The two young friends, Amir and Hassan both grew up together like their fathers did, in Kabul, and every year, there was an annual kite fighting tournament in the winter. They both entered together and had won, after the last reminding kite was cut, Hassan had offered to retrieve the fallen kite and promised to bring it back to Amir. During that interaction, it was the time Amir saw Hassan smile, until 26 years later in a photograph (Hosseini 71).

While wondering what took Hassan so long, Amir went to look for Hassan and the blue kite. He had saw that Hassan was cornered by Assef, Wali, and Kamal in an alley. Amir had the choice to stop Assef from raping Hassan or become a coward and run away because he didn’t want the same fate as Hassan. In the end, Amir ran away and lived with guilt for the next several years, becoming a memory of the past.(Hosseini 75-82) Everything started to go downhill, Hassan and Ali left due to life being unbearable, the Russians invading and the Taliban