Relationships In The Kite Runner

Hosseini begins his novel in the present, with Amir answering a phone call from the past, before throwing the reader into the midst of what brought Amir to that ringing line. The story follows Amir growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, first touching on his interactions with his father, Baba, as well as their servants, Ali and his son Hassan. After demonstrating the relationships among these four, as well as the community in which they live as a whole, Hosseini mentions kite running, and how it led to Amir witnessing Hassan’s rape in an alley by Assef, while doing nothing to stop it. Overcome with guilt, Amir forces Hassan and Ali out of his home by framing Hassan for theft, until eventually the war itself forces Baba and Amir to leave for Pakistan, fleeing the Soviets. The story jumps forward again, to the pair

This small detail indicates to the reader that while Baba and Amir might present a familial front to outsiders, even in something so simple as a photograph, Amir isn’t really all that close to Baba, and instead would prefer the company of the man that isn’t related to him, despite standing in as a father figure most of the time. This is seen again when Amir touches on the first time he wrote a story and wanted to show it to Baba, while Rahim Khan also happened to be in the room. Rather than discussing how his father sees the book, Amir is very explicit in mentioning that “as always, it was Rahim Khan who rescued [him],” when “Baba went on staring [Amir] down, and didn’t offer to read” (Hosseini, 31). Such a specific point in saying that Rahim Khan “always” saves Amir points to their relationship being a much closer one than what Amir and Baba have, despite the blood relationship being the one that should be closer, according to the public eye. In refusing to read the story, or even support his son’s storytelling