The main character Amir remembers an event that occurred 26 years ago when he was just a boy living in Afghanistan. Amir claims that his life their made him the person he is. Living with his father Baba, Amir spends much of his time with their servants son, Hassan. In winter, there is a kite fighting tournament. The boys cover their kite strings with glass and fight to see whose kite can slice the opposing players. When the kite is cut, the boys must run and retrieve the kite. Amir won the tournament while Hassan went running for his broken kite. After a while, Amir goes to look for Hassan when he finds him trapped at the end of an alley pinned with his pants down. Two boys older then him held him while the other rapes Hassan. Amir quickly runs away and waits for Hassan to return. When Hassan returned with the kite, Amir pretends that he does not know what happened. Not wanting to associate with Hassan, Amir hides money and a watch under Hassan’s pillow and tells his father that Hassan had stolen them. When Baba addresses Hassan, he told Baba that he did try to steal them and shortly after him and his father when forced to leave.
This story takes place in Afghanistan and focuses on the lives of Amir, Baba, Hassan, and Ali. From the reading so far, I think one theme is the search for redemption. Amir aims to redeem himself in the eyes of his father Baba. Amir’s mother died while she was giving birth to him and Amir now feels responsible. Amir feels that he has to win the kite tournament to redeem himself to his father. Also, Amir feels guilty as to what he did to Hassan. The guilt he experiences leads to many other events in the story. Baba reminds him that “a boy who doesn’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.”
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