Journey Narrative

The Kite Runner is a book about love, growth and self-realization. It starts off with two young boys in Kabul, Amir who was born in to wealth and Hassan who was his servant. Throughout the beginning of the story we consistently see Amir as cowardly and timid while Hassan proves himself to be loyal and tough. Amir's father, Baba, notices this as well and it is clear that he holds a special place in his heart for Hassan and at time exhibits disappointment with Amir's demeanor. Amir and his father eventually escape Afghanistan as the Soviet Union invade; Hassan and his father left their service to Baba and Amir prior to this after a traumatizing attack happened to Hassan due to Amir's fear and failure to stand up to a bully and help Hassan. Amir spends the rest of his adolescence and young adulthood in Fremont, California where he goes to college, gets married and becomes a writer. Amir's father passes away yet makes mention of Hassan years after leaving Afghanistan. One day Amir gets a phone call from an old family friend, Rahim, who was like a second father to Amir.  Rahim is dying and asks Amir to come to Pakistan, Amir does so. While on his journey in Pakistan Amir's eyes are opened to secrets about his own life that he never knew. He learns that Hassan was actually Baba's son, making him his half-brother. Hassan and his wife have been killed by the time Amir gets to Pakistan yet he learns that they had a son, Sohrab, who is in an orphanage and needs to be rescued. Amir agrees to save Sohrab from this orphanage, like Sohrab's father Hassan stood up for Amir throughout their entire childhood. When Amir arrives to the orphanage he discovers Sohrab is being held by the same bully who assaulted Hassan when they were all children together there are also indications that this man was doing sexually inappropriate things to Sohrab just as he did Hassan when they were boys. Amir ends up saving Sohrab, after receiving a brutal beating, and brings him back to America with him where he and his wife raise them as their own son. (sniffles...I know, it's a total tear-jerker!)

This novel follows the journey narrative layout. Amir leaves America (his point A) to go to Pakistan (his nature, or point B) and later returns to America (point A). However when Amir returns to America it is not only a geographical narrative we watched but a temporal narrative also. Amir is a cowardly, fearful, meek man who worries that he is the type of man who can't stand firmly for anything. In Pakistan he is met with numerous obstacles and even faces death, yet he remains determined to stand up for what he knows is right. He is fighting what he has done his whole life previous to this which was to run or let others take the fall, and he proves successful. Amir returns to American yet he is not the same Amir, he feels stronger and for the first time in his life he feels like he has done something that his father could be proud of. Amir is able to release his guilt about Hassan, stemming from his inaction as a young boy, because he has now made things right with Hassan, he made amends. He saved Hassan's only child and raised him as he would his own yet at the same time Hassan's son saved Amir also.