Summary Of Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner'

As one flies a kite, they will struggle to keep the kite up as the wind tosses it back and forth. Eventually, the string will get cut, and the kite will go out of control. Through his use of dramatic scenes in The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini shows how kites are a symbol of Amir and Hassan’s friendship and how it struggles to stay alive, and gets cut off and goes completely out of control.

When the book begins, Amir and Hassan’s relationship is generally steady, as they have grown up together. “[T]here was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break.” (11) They are practically brothers, even though there is the class difference between the two. At this point, the kite is flying high, going steady. Just like any friendship, it does have its ups and downs, it still stays alive.

This event could be seen as the “high point” of the story, as the are the closest they will ever be. The fighting continues, and finally, the last kite is cut, and they are triumphant. “‘We won! We won!’, was all I could say.” (67) At last they have reached a time when there is nothing in the world but them as friends. The kite is not struggling to stay up, it is just flying without any restrictions.

Of course, every victory comes with sacrifice. When Hassan goes to catch the fallen kite, he runs into trouble. Assef and his gang hold him down and they rape him. Amir sees all of this, and does nothing about it. “Did he know I knew? And if he knew, then what would I see if I did look in his eyes? Blame? Indignation? Or, God forbid, what I feared most: guileless devotion? That, most of all, I couldn’t bare to see.” (78) So begins a long, downward spiral of mistrust and confusion. Amir has just witnessed Hassan being raped, he has done nothing about it, and he doesn’t know if Hassan knows that he saw it.

The kite has just been