The Kite Runner Personal Reflection

I read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini over the break for the assigned piece of reading. It was an incredibly well written book, once I picked it up I drove right into it, I found it extremely hard to put down. It follows the life of Amir and his best friend, Hassan growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan prior to the invasions. The writing itself was good as the author creates a warm depiction of a warm and homey Afghanistan before the coup, Soviet invasion and Taliban control. But it did leave me with a flurry of mixed emotions in which I could not fully grasp. The main character Amir, while relatable, is not the most likeable of protagonists, the reason being that he acts primarily on selfish motives. While it could be said that this is true …show more content…
Although at moral climaxes throughout the story, he did seem to fall short as a child. But later on, after his arrival in America, he kept his father's best intentions in mind. He decided to do something that he loved rather than doing something that would be easy to make money off of which to me, is a scary but courageous thing to do. Even when the times were rough and he had to work the late shift as a night guard, he kept at his dream until he made it work out for him, honoring the memory of his father. Hassan displayed a different kind of bravery to that that Amir showed. Hassan was a hazara to Amir's family meaning that his family was extremely poor and had to work hard just to sustain their lives. They were the lowest of the cast system and were regarded as property rather than people. While Baba did not treat them poorly because of his childhood bond with Ali, they were still looked down upon by society. An example of this is how Asser referred to Hassan as "an animal that needs to be disciplined" when he defended Amir during their initial confrontation. Hassan had to deal with society's view of him, but still he did not let that bring …show more content…
I wish that I had that drive to push forth no matter what, not letting the world hold me down, but sometimes I feel powerless. It was fascinating to see the way that the characters dealt with their problems throughout the novel. And when they did mess up, how it impacted their later actions and situations. Prior to reading Kite Runner, I knew little to nothing about the Afghan culture. The first thing that hit me was the warm, cozy atmosphere depicted early on in the book, where everyone knew each other and went over for meals and all that. To me, Afghanistan was always that war-torn country and it never occurred to me to look up what it was like before the war started. While I always knew how oppressive the Taliban was, I once again did not realize just to what extent they were. Everything they claimed was in the name of God, but they hurt the country and the people beyond repair, ruining a beautiful culture and country all for the sake of power. Before the wars and occupations, every winter they would hold kite fighting competitions in which every child participated in. The Taliban did away with this tradition when they took over once again showing how they suppressed a beautiful culture while slowly breaking the