LRB #1- The Kite Runner

"The Kite Runner"
Khaled Hosseini



Right from the get-go there is a lot of symbolism in the novel The Kite Runner. One of the most prominent symbols so far in this novel is Ali's disabilities and deformities due to either a birth defect or disease, and how it seems to be his shortcomings that are passes on from him to his dear son, Hassan. The fact that Ali can not freely move his face because of a congenital condition leaving the lower muscles immovable by himself is representative of how the hardships in his life have left him with the inability to really express strong emotion. His parents were killed in an accident, forcing him to be orphaned, but these events led to him meeting Baba, his lifelong friend and master. The fact that Ali is also a Hazara has undoubtedly brought him countless other problems, and his disfigured leg is a symbol of how who he is, what he was born into, and how he cannot move on from that; he is lame and forever stuck with that reality. The polio of life has disfigured who he can be, and only expresses how the culture viewed his people, the Hazaras, in the first place, "mice-eating, flat-nosed, load-carrying donkeys." The cruelty of life ensures that Ali's son, Hassan, is also burdened with the Hazara stigma, even from birth. He is born with the usual features of a Hazara, the flat nose and such, due to his people's mixing with the Mongolian bloodline, and also a cleft lip, which sets him even further apart than most Hazaras. This deformity, Hassan's cleft lip, is a symbol of yet again the stigma that is handed down, but also of the cruel truth that he too is stuck in that reality until the day he dies. Although the symbols in both Ali and Hassan seem to be debilitating, symbols more heavily associated with Amir are symbols of redemption and restoration. Kite running is a big deal where Amir lives, and his father, Baba, is very fond of it due to the fact that he won when he was younger, and holds the record for the most kites cut. The title of winning the kite tournament, paired with the bringing home of the last kite cut would, and does, mean a lot to Baba. When Amir wins the tournament, it completes one half of the goal he has set to win back Baba's heart, but the blue kite represents more than just redemption and restoration, it also represents lifelong pain and torment for both Hassan and himself. The kite represents something, such as money, that can buy a certain amount of something, but when that object or money loses its value, the happiness it brought fades. Who's to say that money can buy happiness, or a kite for that matter? What brings happiness to one brings chronic grief or suffering to another.