Kite Runner Reflective Essay

    Kite Runner is a historical fiction novel by Khaled Hosseini. It’s about a man who sinned as a young boy and the sacrifices he made to redeem himself. Throughout the story, the main characters’ characteristics and personalities, and the weaknesses of the book  reveal themselves to the reader.
    Amir is one of the main characters throughout the entire story. There are events in the story where Amir’s characteristics are clearly reflected. Take this quote for example:

“I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan-the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past-and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran(77).”

This quote clearly shows that Amir doesn’t want to get injured, even if it means that his best childhood friend was about to get raped. He ran away because he was a coward who refused to help others. Amir put himself before others.
    After Amir and Baba begin the journey to Pakistan, they encounter a Russian soldier who wanted to have a half hour with a woman in the back of the van. Baba stood up to the soldier and told him that he’d take a thousand of his bullets so the woman wouldn’t be raped. Here’s a quote of Amir’s reaction to the scene:

“‘Tell him I’ll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place,’ Baba said. My mind flashed to that winter day six years ago. Me, peering around the corner in the alley,...’Baba, sit down please,’ I said, tugging at his sleeve. ‘I think he really means to shoot you(116).’”

Amir didn’t want to be alone in the world without Baba to look after him. He asked Baba to sit down so that Baba wouldn’t be shot and killed by the soldier. This event shows his cowardice again and how dependent he is of Baba. Without him, Amir would be lost, not knowing what to do and how to survive in the real world.
    At the fight between Amir and Assef, Amir willingly fought him to get a chance to bring Sohrab away. He might have fought Assef so that he could have a chance to redeem himself, or he was hoping he would be redeemed if he tried to help Sohrab. Or, it could have been that he wanted to get revenge on what Assef did to Hassan, or both. Either way, by fighting Assef, Amir has finally become a man who stands up for what he believes in, like Baba.
    Hassan, as the person who pushes the story along, is also another important character whose characteristics should be examined. Most of his personalities are shone at the beginning. When Amir framed Hassan for stealing his watch, Hassan told Baba that he stole the watch. He did this because he cared for Amir. This shows that he’s very forgiving even if his best friend ran away as he got raped.
    After the rape, Hassan seemed to know that Amir didn’t help him. This may have been because he was anxiously waiting for him at home and seemed to know something had happened to him. Also, when Rahim Khan asked Hassan and his wife to live with him so that Baba’s house get tended to, Hassan agreed to go, maybe because he knew Rahim Khan would always provide enough food for his family and his baby would prefer living in Baba’s house rather than the small hut they used to live in. In both of these events, Hassan understood everyone around him. By being understanding, he knows how to calm others, help others, etc., which is an important skill when you’re a servant.
    Hassan does chores in Baba’s house, prepares food, cleans the house, and much more. Compared to most children today, Hassan is a gift from heaven to parents. This makes him a very good servant and his owners, if he had any, would have loved having him around. It might be because he was born a Hazara and has to serve others, but he does everything he’s told to do. This shows how responsible he is and his sense of integrity.

The story wears heavy plate armor with chain mail underneath. It’s so good there is only one weakness that I know of, and that’s the ending of the book. At the ending, the reader loses interest, mostly because the high point of the story has already passed. To me, the high point is when Amir successfully brings Sohrab to America. That would have been a perfectly good ending for the story, and Amir would still have redeemed himself. But instead of ending the story, Khaled Hosseini decided to continue to write. With all the tension gone, it’s really hard for the readers to be hooked again until tension builds up. I think the ending was an attempt to hook the reader again so that he can end the story with the reader making up the rest depending on his/her own imagination. The readers can often make up better stuff than the author with their imagination.

    In our class discussion about the third section of the book, the topic about the ending was common. Everyone was saying that the ending was very boring and that they didn’t want to read it again. I have to say that I agree, because the ending did no’t have much meaning, except for the fact that Amir said what Hassan said decades ago to Sohrab. It didn’t hold much meaning or interest the readers.
    The novel Kite Runner is an interesting book that I hope will forever be read by others. In the book, two of the main characters' characteristics are unveiled to the reader, as well as the only weakness in the book. All in all, this book goes into great depth of real life and human nature.