1.1 INTRODUCTION 1.2 Background of the study The Kite Runner is a touching tale revolve around Amir, the son of a wealthy and well-respected businessman in Kabul, Afghanistan. The novel receives a widespread reader and become one of the bestseller book by the end of 2005 despite the protagonist brought up in an unfamiliar culture to the Americans. One of the reason for its success is the relatable and appealing familiar story at the heart of the novel: a struggle of personal recovery. It tells about how Amir’s childhood memories haunted him till the present and how he seek redemption for his unatoned sins. Guilt is the major theme Hosseini chose to establish the plot. Hosseini used the emotion guilt as the drive of the story, Amir’s guilt for betraying his friendship with his slave, Hassan. As I reads the book, I discovered that the real factor of Amir’s guilt is not because of his cowardice facing the incident however because of his father. This leads this writer to generate “How Hosseini portrays the father-son relationship in his book’s The Kite Runner to depict the guilt shown in the son, Amir?” as a research question. 1.2. Significance of the study This study will give the reader more understanding of the main themes of the novel thus the reader can deeply understand the message of the novel. Amir’s relationship with his father is the hidden message Hosseini tried to convey. The strain relationship between a single parent and a child deeply impact the child’s life.