The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini

Overview
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Biography of Author

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Setting

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Characters

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Plot Summary

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Rising Action

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Climax

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Falling Action

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Themes

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Symbols

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Motifs

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Video Clip

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Critical Questions

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Reference

Khaled Hosseini
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The Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini

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Bachelor’s degree in
Biology

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Medical School

Main Characters
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Amir

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Baba

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Hassan

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Assef

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Sohrab

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Rahim Khan

Amir- Protagonist
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The narrator and the protagonist of the story

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Amir is the sensitive and intelligent son of a well-to-do businessman in Kabul, and he grows up with a sense of entitlement.

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His best friend is Hassan, and he goes back and forth between acting as a loyal friend and attacking Hassan out of jealousy whenever Hassan receives Amir’s father’s affection.

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Amir is a gifted storyteller and grows from aspiring writer to published novelist.

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His great desire to please his father is the primary motivation for his behaviour early in the novel, and it is the main reason he allows Hassan to be raped.

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From that point forward, he is driven by his feelings of guilt as he searches to find a way to redeem himself.

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Ultimately he does so through courage and selfsacrifice, and he tells his story as a form of penance.

Baba
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Father of Amir and Hassan and a wealthy, well-respected businessman. •

Baba believes first and foremost in doing what is right and thinking for oneself, and he tries to impart these qualities to Amir.

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He also never lets anyone’s lack of belief in him stop him from accomplishing his goals.

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Although he distrusts religious fundamentalism, he follows his own moral code and acts with self-assurance and bravery.

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When necessary, he is even willing to risk his life for what he believes in.

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Yet his shame at having a child with a Hazara woman leads him to hide the fact that Hassan is his son.

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Due the fact that he cannot love Hassan openly, he is somewhat distant toward Amir and is often hard on him, though he undoubtedly loves him.

Hassan
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Amir’s best friend and half-brother as well as a servant of Baba’s.

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Hassan proves himself a loyal friend to Amir repeatedly, defending Amir when he is attacked and always being ready to listen.

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His defining traits are bravery, selflessness, and intelligence. •

As a poor ethnic Hazara, he is considered an inferior in Afghan society, and he is the victim of racism throughout the novel as a result.

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He is Baba’s illegitimate child, though he is not aware of this fact

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His rape is an early catalyst in the story, and even though he is not present in a significant portion of the novel, he plays a major role throughout. Assef- Antagonist
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Hassan’s and Sohrab’s rapist and the novel’s antagonist

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Assef represents all things wrong in Afghanistan.

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A racist who wishes to rid
Afghanistan of Hazaras, he is incapable of remorse and enjoys inflicting violence and sexual abuse on those who are powerless. •

He even claims Hitler as a role model. Rahim Khan
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Friend of Baba and Amir

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Rahim Khan is Baba’s closest confidant, and the one man who knows all of Baba’s secrets.

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For Amir, he serves a father figure, often giving Amir the attention he craves and filling the holes left by Baba’s emotional distance.

Plot
Summary
Amir recalls an event that happened twenty-six
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years before, when he was still a boy in
Afghanistan, and says that that made him who he is. •

Before the event, he lives in a nice home in
Kabul, Afghanistan, with Baba, his father.

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They have two servants, Ali and his son, Hassan, who are Hazaras, an ethnic minority. Amir is always jealous of Hassan because he gets more attention from Baba.

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Baba’s close friend, Rahim Khan, is also around often. •

One day after a Kite Running tournament,
Amir looks for Hassan and finds him trapped at the end of an alley, pinned with his pants down. •

Amir witnesses Assef raping him but