Khaled Hosseini’s first novel ‘The Kite Runner’ opens the world of two friends and their never ending friendship. Through the stories of Hassan and Amir Hosseini portrays various themes like the search for redemption, the love and conflicts between father-son relationship, the social, political and racial background of Afghanistan. The way Hosseini portrayed Afghanistan is very much different from the stereotyped images of Afghanistan. For Hosseini Afghanistan was home, with the landscape, pomegranate trees and kite.
Many books have primarily focused on loyalty and friendship. But the friendship and relation between Amir and Hassan is different. The change in the attitude towards Hassan is the point where the search for redemption begins. In the beginning race and religion played a very integral role in their friendship. Hassan being a Hazara boy with a cleft lip, it was very difficult for him to be in that friendship. On the other hand Amir, the Pashtun boy with power and money he easily dominated Hassan. But he was unsuccessful in winning Abba’s heart. Abba’s love flowed to Hassan more than Amir. This also created a kind of hatred in the mind of Amir towards Hassan. Thus the friendship was a kind of master slave relationship back then. Hassan was loyal to Amir, no matter how much he ridiculed Hassan. Hassan gave first priority to Amir by saying that “for you a thousand times over”. But for Amir friendship was a kind of authority.
But towards the second half the relation between Amir and Hassan has a shift. From the hatred evolved from jealous, Amir now has a guilt feeling for Hassan. The guilt rised from the understanding that Amir wasn’t able to stand up for Hassan, when he needed that support. The betrayal questions the loyalty of Hassan every time. Finally the loyalty wins. Hassan not only saves Amir from his childhood, but saves him later also. When Amir struggles with regret and guilt the letter of Hassan saves him and leads to the path of redemption. The struggle faced by Amir on his way to save the son of Hassan, is considered as a kind of punishment for himself for the past betrayal. Finally Amir saves Hassan’s son Sohrab, which is a kind of redemption. The relation between Amir and Hassan is something special which unfold behind the kites.
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