91 pages • 3 hours read
Khaled HosseiniThe Kite Runner
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Essay Topics
Throughout The Kite Runner, Afghanistan’s turbulent political climate is alluded to, often interrupting, intertwining, and sometimes totally upending the lives of the novel’s key characters. In what ways do Afghanistan’s political struggles, as shown in the novel, parallel or reflect the main conflict between Amir and Hassan? How would Amir and Hassan’s life be different if war had never come to Afghanistan?
The Kite Runner frequently makes use of symbols by way of important items. Three distinct watches appear in the narrative: the watch with the blue face and lightning bolt hands that Amir uses to frame Hassan; General Taheri’s pocket watch, which he winds every day as he waits for Afghanistan’s monarchy to be restored; and the watch Amir gives to Wahid’s starving boys. What might these watches symbolize? Support your answer with surrounding context.
The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell presents an ancient pattern of tropes that are ever-present in the themes and motifs of The Kite Runner. When Amir receives Rahim Khan’s phone call, he is literally answering the call to action, which beckons the hero of myth into adventure. What other heroic patterns of the hero’s journey does Amir fulfill?
The scenery of Afghanistan, described through vivid illustrations of fruits and flowers, colors much of Amir's recollections of his childhood. How do these symbols make meaning, reflect, or subvert the drama of the narrative?
In The Kite Runner, men outnumber women by a vast majority. Soraya Taheri, Amir’s mother Sofia Akrami, and Sanaubar each undergo vicious and incredible instances of peril or trauma at the hands of men, even men who love them. What does the role of women in the narrative suggest about the world in which the novel is set?
In modernist literature (late 19th and early 20th centuries), cities were often depicted as nightmare-scapes where states of life, society, and family were forever altered following the immense carnage and industries of war. In what ways does The Kite Runner embody these themes? How does it question them?
Amir’s mother has a distinct and defining influence on Amir’s life, though she is largely absent from the text, having died giving birth to Amir. In what ways does her death affect Amir’s character arc? In what ways, subtle or unsubtle, is her absence felt in the text?
Both Baba and General Taheri often refer to nang and namoos, honor and pride, but both men are ambivalent characters whose true natures and shameful acts Amir learns about from other sources. What do Baba’s and General Taheri's secrets suggest about masculinity? How does Amir subvert these expectations?
When Amir first speaks with Soraya, she is reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, a Romantic-era novel that grapples with themes of childhood trauma, status and shame, Europe’s epidemic of family separation, and child labor following Europe’s rapid expansion into industrialization. In what ways does The Kite Runner reflect the themes present in Wuthering Heights?
As children, Amir and Hassan watch various Western films starring popular American actors Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson. At the flea market, on his way to flirt at Soraya’s stall, Amir passes a stand of shirts featuring “Jesus, Elvis, [and] Jim Morrison” (127). In late chapters, Assef is often identified sporting round glasses like John Lennon’s. What does the inclusion of these Western icons in the text suggest of America’s role abroad?
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By Khaled Hosseini
