After much researching, I finally found my last criticism.
Writing the abstracts weren’t as bad as I thought; I hope I didn’t do them incorrectly. Some other things I learned through reading my criticisms is that Hassan in The Kite Runner is the subordinate and that one author, Lee Erwin, believes that a woman living in a domesticated place and is of fairly high class is still lower than the subordinate working man. I found this quite interesting.
I must admit that I became a bit frustrated when most of my criticisms were denied since literary criticism on Khaled Hosseini and The Kite Runner is so scarce, I had a very difficult time finding something that was valid. However, when I found a book by Rebecca Stuhr called Reading Khaled Hosseini, I started to feel less hopeless. Reading Khaled Hosseini contains a biography on Hosseini and it analyzes Hosseini and his works. The chapters on his books, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns were mainly summaries of the novel, so I didn’t use them. But Chapter 2: Khaled Hosseini and His Work, was really helpful. I learned that Hosseini separates himself from the Western tradition of storytelling and follows the Afghan tradition, which is oral tradition (we learned this in class), however Stuhr, says so otherwise.
I also found another article from The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. It focuses on the topic of subalterns in The Kite Runner as well as other works.
I went to the Oakland University Library and unfortunately, there weren’t any books on Khaled Hosseini or any of his works. I was already expecting this and I knew what I was getting into since all of Hosseini’s works are recent. However, the librarian was really kind in showing me how to access their database from the library homepage. He also showed me Google Scholar and jstor.org, which later became helpful.
I have completed The Kite Runner. I love the book even though the ending was ehhh to me.
I’ve become really fond of Sohrab. Maybe because Hassan was my favorite character and Sohrab is an exact copy of Hassan when he was a child. I loved how mature and pure both characters are. I’m not sure if pure is the right word I’m looking for, but I can’t think of another word to describe them. At first I described Hassan as innocent, even after he got raped, which is ironic because he got his innocence taken away from him, but I realized that he got mature and the word ‘pure’ fits more. Innocent is childlike and pure to me, is someone with a good heart. Even after all that Hassan and Sohrab have to go through, they still remain good people. Hassan knows that Amir saw everything that night, but he still attempts to befriend Amir even after they’ve grown a bit far apart, which I think is really mature of Hassan. Hassan asks Amir what he did wrong even though he knows and Amir knows that it’s Amir that’s the one at fault. And when Hassan asks Amir this that I think Hassan is innocent and becomes very naive and childlike.
When Sohrab attempts suicide, I felt extremely sad and kind of angry. I don’t really know how to feel about Amir at this point. He is trying really hard to redeem himself, but he makes a huge mistake in breaking his promise with Sohrab, which is the reason why Sohrab tried to commit suicide. Of course I didn’t want Sohrab to die, which is why I was a bit frustrated that Khaled Hosseini decides to make all these terrible things happen to all the good people in the book.
When Sohrab arrives in America, I was a bit disappointed in him. I understood that he felt physically and mentally exhausted after he tries to commit suicide, but I wanted him to be himself when he came to America. I wasn’t totally happy with the ending, but I’m content with it.
Rahim Khan tells Amir everything that he has missed. In the end, Rahim Khan reveals to Amir that he and Hassan are actually half-brothers. The truth prompts Amir to go back to Afghanistan to look for Sohrab, Hassan’s son. My bad feelings towards Amir began to fade away, but when Amir almost refused to go back to Afghanistan, the hating feelings came back. Afghanistan is a dangerous place because of the Taliban at the time, but after all Hassan has done for Amir, Amir still selfish and only thinking about himself.
Amir finally decides that either him or Hassan has to go, and Amir chooses Hassan. Hassan and Ali leave. I thought Amir was really selfish for framing Hassan and only thinking of himself.
In this section, Amir and Baba have left their home because the Soviets have invaded Afghanistan. Their goal for the Communist regime is to make everyone equal. And since Amir and Baba are considered privileged and would be a target, Baba and Amir leave Afghanistan before anything happens to them.
This section is kind of slow and boring. Amir and Baba are in a fuel tank on their way to Pakistan. They arrive in Pakistan and then they end up in Fremont, California in chapter 11. Baba almost becomes a different person when he is in California and it’s obvious that Baba misses Afghanistan dearly.
In California, Amir graduates high school at age of 20, enters college and becomes a writer. He marries a girl named Soroya; they try to have children, but fail with each attempt. Baba gets cancer and dies.
When Amir gets a call from Rahim Khan is when the book starts to pick up again. After the call Amir goes back to Pakistan to meet Rahim Khan. Amir seems to have grown up at this point as he’s an adult and he isn’t a whiney baby who only thinks about himself anymore.
In chapter 5, Hassan receives plastic surgery from Baba for his birthday to fixed his hairlip. Hassan finally has a beautiful smile, but it’s ironic because Amir says “that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling” (47). And this is where it gets interesting and things happen.
Winning the kite competition is the only way Amir feels like he can make Baba proud. But Amir winning the competition is ironic because the kite is what causes his friendship with Hassan to diminish.
Hassan getting raped by Assef is one of the most important events in the book. I did not expect that to happen and I was really shocked. After reading it I also began to hate Amir. Amir did nothing to help Hassan. I understand that he was just a child and that he was in a state of shock, but if he was too scared to confront Assef personally, I thought the least he could’ve done was to tell someone and to get help. But Amir did nothing. The guilt was obviously eating at him, but he decided to forget about the whole issue which only made it worse on him. Amir calls himself a coward, and I agreed with him.
