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Theme : Friendship By Alix Crawford
Characters In the kite runner Amir is a character shown to be cowardly, selfish and unfair to Hassan, who is brave and intensely loyal towards Amir. Amir is insecure and desperate for his fathers acceptance and approval, which eventually leads to destroying Amir and Hassan’s friendship, as Amir is willing to sacrifice his friend for this acceptance. This conveys Amir’s selfish character. Amir’s loyalty is shown by him willingly sacrificing himself, he accepts sexual abuse and then supports Amir’s lie that it was him that stole the watch. The relationship is shown to be very close between Amir and Hassan. They are seen as brothers, growing up together and sharing the same milk maid “there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast”. The brotherhood bond that Ali highlights is made deliberate, as they are in fact brothers, which isn’t discovered until later in the story.
The first Symbolism of friendship we see in the book is the pair of kites that Amir describes as he walks in the park. They are described as “floating side by side” portraying the bond and freedom Amir and Hassan once had together. Hassan and Amir’s first words are also symbolic as they indicate who each character long to please and seek approval from. Hassan’s first word is “Amir” but Amir’s is “Baba” who he never seeks approval from until he betrays Hassan. The bond in the friendship is shown to be very strong by Hassan’s words: “For you, a thousand times over”. Highlighting how important Amir is to Hassan.
Although there is a strong bond between them, Amir still treats Hassan unfairly. He denies that Hassan is his friend due to religion and class. Amir’s favourite part of reading to Hassan is teasing him “I’d tease him, expose his ignorance”. Highlighting that Amir doesn’t treat Hassan the same way. But when Amir wins the kite running tournament, the first sign of him accepting and including Hassan is shown- “We won! We won!”. Another symbolism of Amir and Hassan’s friendship is the pomegranate tree. Amir carves there name into the tree which is full of ripe fruit. But years later once their friendship has been destroyed and Amir returns to Afghanistan, the tree no longer bears any fruit.
SUMMARY • Symbolism of kites • Symbolism of pomegranate tree • Amir & Hassan’s first words • The way Hassan treats Amir & vice versa • Brotherhood bond
