The Kite Runner
[Novel] The Kite Runner - Beautiful One!
March 4, 2016
I just finished reading a novel entitled The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It is an amazing book with stories that open up my mind, especially about relationship, love and hatred, friendship, survival and history :)
With the background of Afghanistan, or to be more specific the city of Kabul, the writer managed to portray how was the life of Afghans once upon a time before the country became unstable like today. Okay, let me share roughly what the book is all about.
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| Amir, Hassan |
There is a Pashtun boy named Amir who spend his childhood with Hassan, a Hazara boy. They are always together although in Afghanistan, Pashtun groups consider Hazara as low class people. They live in a house together with Baba (Amir's father) and Ali (Hassan's father). Amir's mother died when delivering him while Ali's wife was nowhere to be found. In the novel, it is nicely described how and why Amir felt his father dislike him.
Baba has a good friend, Rahim Khan who was also kind of his business partner. Amir feels that Rahim Khan know him better than his own father.
Baba has a good friend, Rahim Khan who was also kind of his business partner. Amir feels that Rahim Khan know him better than his own father.
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| Rahim Khan, Baba |
Back to the title of the novel.
I thought flying a kite is merely a hobby, but not in Afghanistan where it is more like a national sport. I learned that the fallen kites are like a bag of gold, where the kids would wait for the falling of kites and if they manage to catch any fallen kites - they are awesome. :)
There is a kite tournament in which Amir wins the battle. However, something happens to Hassan after that.
Why Amir behaves like that?
There is a kite tournament in which Amir wins the battle. However, something happens to Hassan after that.
"And that led to another understanding: Hassan knew. He knew I'd seen everything in that alley, that I'd stood there and done nothing." - The Kite Runner, page 98
Why Amir behaves like that?
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| Hassan |
Amir does something as well after the incident, trying to kick Hassan and Ali from the house - he was successful. However, Hassan admits the crime he didn't even commit. Why Hassan is willing to do anything for Amir? :(
5 years later, the Soviet Union (Russia basically) intervenes into Afghanistan. Amir and Baba leaves the house to Peshawar, Pakistan, and then to California. Baba works at the petrol station while Amir manages to pursue his study in writing. Then, Baba is diagnosed with a lung cancer - the invasive one. Before his death, Baba fulfills Amir's last favor - to ask Soraya's hands from her father. Who is Soraya and how they know each other?
After 15 years of happy marriage (without any children) and Amir already becomes a great novelist, suddenly there is a phone call from dying Rahim Khan. He asks Amir to come back to Peshawar.
Why Rahim Khan asks him to return? What kind of news he wants to tell Amir?
Amir learns a lot of new things in Peshawar. His mission now is to find a child, named Sohrab. Who is Sohrab and what is the relationship between Sohrab and Amir? What happens to Hassan? If Amir manages to find Sohrab, what would he do then?
The novel ends with a scene where Sohrab is already in America as a very quiet, depressed boy. He does not want to interact with anyone. What happens that make him to be like that?
Amir tries to interact with him - through a kite-flying moment. Some other boys try to challenge them but Amir and Sohrab wins!
 |
| Hassan |
5 years later, the Soviet Union (Russia basically) intervenes into Afghanistan. Amir and Baba leaves the house to Peshawar, Pakistan, and then to California. Baba works at the petrol station while Amir manages to pursue his study in writing. Then, Baba is diagnosed with a lung cancer - the invasive one. Before his death, Baba fulfills Amir's last favor - to ask Soraya's hands from her father. Who is Soraya and how they know each other?
After 15 years of happy marriage (without any children) and Amir already becomes a great novelist, suddenly there is a phone call from dying Rahim Khan. He asks Amir to come back to Peshawar.
"Come. There is a way to be good again." - The Kite Runner, page 177
Why Rahim Khan asks him to return? What kind of news he wants to tell Amir?
Amir learns a lot of new things in Peshawar. His mission now is to find a child, named Sohrab. Who is Sohrab and what is the relationship between Sohrab and Amir? What happens to Hassan? If Amir manages to find Sohrab, what would he do then?
 |
| Amir, Sohrab, Soraya |
The novel ends with a scene where Sohrab is already in America as a very quiet, depressed boy. He does not want to interact with anyone. What happens that make him to be like that?
Amir tries to interact with him - through a kite-flying moment. Some other boys try to challenge them but Amir and Sohrab wins!
 |
| Amir |
[Amir] "Do you want me to run that kite for you?"
[Sohrab] *nod*
"For you a thousand times over!"
:) :) :)
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The story is not typical, totally a fresh one. No cheesy man-woman love, it is more to friendship and humanity.
I learned a lot about differences between Pashtun and Hazara. Check here if you want to know as well :)
Oh yea, I just found out the novel was adapted into a movie! You can watch it here, but I think the book itself carries more values and deep lessons.
p/s - all pictures credit to the movie.
HK, Czech
160304
A Man with Tears and Pearls
February 29, 2016
Kisah ni dipetik dari novel The Kite Runner. I love this book, thanks to its unique story that I haven't found in other novels. :) Khaled Hosseini really described the stories very well and I'm sure other people who read it will experience so many feelings through out the novel, just like I did.
Happy. Curious. Frustrated. Tenang. Lega. Penat. Semua ada.
Happy. Curious. Frustrated. Tenang. Lega. Penat. Semua ada.
That same night, I wrote my first short story. It took me thirty minutes. It was a dark little tale about a man who found a magic cup and learned that if he wept into the cup, his tears turned into pearls. But even though he had always been poor, he was a happy man and rarely shed a tear. So he found ways to make himself sad so that his tears could make him rich. As the pearls piled up, so did his greed grow. The story ended with the man sitting on a mountain of pearls, knife in hand, weeping helplessly into the cup with his beloved wife's slain body in his arms. - The Kite Runner page 29
"Well," he said, "if I may ask, why did the man kill his wife? In fact, why did he ever have to feel sad to shed tears? Couldn't he have just smelled an onion?"- The Kite Runner page 32
I don't why I really love this part of the novel.
Basically, the one who wrote the story was a boy, Amir who lived a wealthy life, thanks to his rich father, Baba. Amir spent most of his childhood with Hassan, a son of Ali who was only a servant to Amir's family. Baba also cared for Hassan in which that arouse Amir's jealousy.
Amir, loved to write short stories, with the aim of being a writer in the future. Meanwhile Hassan was illiterate, could not read and had never written a single word in his entire life. And Hassan's future may be only as a servant, keep the house tidy and prepare meal.
Despite of two different status, Hassan managed to 'criticize' Amir's story in a polite way with obviously strong statement.
*claps* :)
Kadang-kadang, kita perlu tanya pendapat orang lain tentang apa yang kita nak buat. Why? Different people think differently, with their own unique thoughts, perspectives, points of view what so ever. :) Pemikiran tu sudah semestinya dipengaruhi oleh cara hidup, latar belakang seseorang tu.
Setiap orang ada bidang masing-masing, yang walaupun berkaitan namun ada perbezaan. Contohnya seorang doktor mungkin tak semahir ahli farmasi dalam ubat-ubatan. Seorang pelumba kereta mungkin tak semahir mekanik dalam membaiki kereta yang rosak.
Moralnya kat sini, jangan pandang rendah pada orang lain dan jangan rasa diri kita tinggi sangat. T_T Tapi jangan pulak rasa diri kita tak berguna. Remember, we are special in our own way :)
HK, Czech
160229
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