The Kite Runner And My Left Foot Similarities

Childhood defines a major part of a person’s life. It is viewed as a time without worries. But, this part of life carries many hidden lessons important to adulthood. Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner and Christy Brown, the author of My Left Foot analyze their own childhoods within their novels. In The Kite Runner, a story about Hosseini's winter breaks as a child, he illustrates the time him and his servant, Hassan spent together building and fighting kites. It captivates the cultural influence of kite fighting and shares the personal emotions he associated with chasing the final kite. My Left Foot, on the other hand, is not as lighthearted, due to the fact that it describes Brown’s struggle with cerebral palsy as a child. Within

In The Kite Runner, he speaks about how during winter break, his father “Baba would buy us each three identical kites and spools of glass string”(Hosseini 152). Without the kites, Hosseini and his father would not have had a relationship. This foreshadows the author’s ability to have a relationship with his own son. Since Baba bought them both identical kites, Hosseini learns to treat everyone as equals even if society views them as lesser. Again, Hosseini incorporates symbolism through the simplicity of the kite fighting rules: “No rules, fly your kite. Cut the opponent's” (Hosseini 153). The bluntness of the rules represents how black and white war is. As a child this allows him to understand that the world around him is straightforward and sometimes brutal. Towards the end of the excerpt, Hosseini asks Hassan if he would eat dirt if he was ordered to. At this moment “Hassan’s face changed… suddenly [he] had the feeling that [he] was looking at two faces” (Hosseini 154). The idea that Hassan has two faces represents how in life many situations have multiple viewpoints. But, it also teaches him that some questions don’t have answers as simple as yes and no. These concepts are difficult to grasp but the cheerful situations they were found in made them easier for a child to