The Kite Runner- Day 4

1) Some of the most important abstract ideas in the novel The Kite Runner are regret/remorse, friendship, forgiveness, loyalty, pride/honour and secrecy. The symbols used to convey these abstract ideas are the blue kite (pride/honour), Amir’s nephew (forgiveness, regret amd remorse), the pomegranate tree (friednship) and Hassan’s Shack (loyalty, secrecy). In the case of Hassan’s shack, the secrecy behind it is that of the family and the conflicts between the servants and owner of the house. Hassan is also Amir’s father’s son, and Amir’s half brother. When it comes to the ‘theft’ and Hassan and his father choose to leave, the loyalty of Hassan’s father towards his friend, Amir’s father, does not allow him to stay. He also feels he needs to protect Amir’s father’ honour, and makes the difficult decision to leave. Later in Amir’s life, after he framed Hassan for the theft, he feels remorse and regret for the framing, and takes Hassan’s orphan back to America, and uses that to gain closure and forgiveness for Hassan’s death.

2) The author chose to use these symbols because they show a progression of the protagonist as he lets go of the object or accepts the person or moves from the place. He also chose these symbols to have to oppurtunity to let the true Afghanistan show through the actions, words, thoughts and feelings of the protagonist towards the symbols. It shows Afghanistan both before and after the war. They were very effective, and helped me as the reader to understand more about Afghanistan before the war than I ever had.