The Kite Runner: Exploring the Complexity of Human Relationships

If you want to read a great world fiction book about culture, loyalty, and passion, the fiction, 'The Kite Runner', is for you. Written by Khaled Hosseini, this fiction is about a man named Amir (no official last name) and his life starting when he was a little boy, going all the way until he was much older and later in his life. It tells about how he lived his childhood, the struggles with dealing with the Taliban, and trying to forgive himself and his father by helping out his lifelong friend's son. This is an interesting story dealing with friendship, trust, loyalty, and love for others. This fiction also shows a great display of the culture in the Middle East and the traditions they hold. Throughout the book, there were two thematic topics. The reader will find two thematic topics because as they get later in the book, Amir’s father (Baba) wasn’t talked about as much, so it was more difficult to use a thematic topic for him. Two of the central thematic topics in this book were the relationship between father and son and holding onto the past.

What Are the Main Topics of the Book?

The first and main thematic topic that was used was the relationship between father and son. Throughout the book and the movie, we see that Baba plays a very important role in Amir's life. Amir had mixed feelings for Baba, and that’s why this thematic topic is so important. For example, on page 44 of the book, it says “Baba never missed Hassan’s birthday. For a while, he used to ask Hassan what he wanted, but he gave up doing that because Hassan was always too modest to actually suggest a present. So every winter Baba picked something out himself”. This shows that sometimes, Baba treated Hassan even better than Amir, and Amir became jealous of that. The relationship between father and son in this story shows that while Baba was Amir’s father, Baba didn’t always treat Amir like his true son. He treated Hassan like his true son. In the movie, Baba tells Amir that he will never get new servants to replace Ali and Hassan, and that also made Amir jealous. In the end, Baba loved Amir as his own son, but just didn’t always show it. Baba made Amir feel special later in his life, like when he graduated college, but Amir seemed to just take it for granted and was never really thankful for what he had. This develops the story by making it more suspenseful when Amir has to return to Afghanistan and redeem himself for Hassan and his own father, Baba.

The other main thematic topic used throughout the story was holding onto the past. When the reader gets closer to the later chapters of the book, Baba isn’t mentioned too much, so the other prominent theme used holding onto the past. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Afghanistan to save Sohrab, and he passes by his old house. On page 263, he says “I found the window to my old bedroom, second floor, third window south of the main steps to the house. I stood on tiptoes, saw nothing behind the window but shadows. Twenty-five years earlier, I had stood behind that same window, thick rain dripping down the panes and my breath fogging up the glass. I had watched Hassan and Ali load their belongings into the trunk of my father’s car.” This shows that even though Amir had been living in the United States many years prior to this, he still reflects on where he used to live when he was a younger boy. Amir also has many flashbacks of himself and Hassan when they would be playing together when they were younger. The movie doesn’t showcase any flashbacks when Amir was older, but sometimes you could just tell that he was thinking about his past. This thematic topic helps develop the story because without any flashbacks, we would have no context of what Amir was feeling at certain times. In the end, Amir's feelings and actions were determined by what he held onto from the past.

The actual theme that the relationship between father and son indicates is pretty self-explanatory. This theme is about how well the bond between a father and son is and how well they get along. If the reader really wants to get in-depth, they could even connect this topic to compare relationships with friends and their own families. This topic can be used in real life because it can tell how much a person is liked and if others are willing to be associated with you. The other thematic topic is holding onto the past, and this can be related to using your past to help make decisions moving forward. In the movie, for example, Amir knows what he has to do to redeem himself for what happened to Hassan, and so he goes and saves Sohrab, Hassan’s son. Both of these themes have to do with real-life situations and we can use these themes to help us in our lives.

In conclusion, 'The Kite Runner' is a story about a boy named Amir who has to deal with the Taliban, the relationship with his father and best friend, and redeeming himself for his past actions. Two of the central thematic topics in the story 'The Kite Runner' are holding onto the past and the relationship between father and son. These two thematic topics appear throughout the book and movie and they tell how this story develops. Baba plays a very important role in Amir's life, and this helps develop the relationship between father and son throughout the book. Amir tries to be better for Baba and gets jealous of Hassan. In the end, Baba loves Amir very much but he just didn’t show it. Holding onto the past is another central theme of this book. Amir has many flashbacks, including seeing his old home in his later years and has many flashbacks of all the good times he used to have. These topics help develop the book as a whole, and it gives it a great message to think about. From this book, the reader can learn that they should use their past actions to make decisions in the present time. The reader can also understand that they should have a good relationship with their father because we never know what might happen at any given moment. This was a great movie, and the book was even better, and it tells an intense story.