I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I don’t care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran.
Thus ends the narration. Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is the tale of Amir whose final act of redemption is caught in the final words of the novel.
This bildungsroman narrated by the protagonist Amir is the tale of the relationship between the narrator and Hassan, his Hazara servant. It’s a journey through the war ravaged Afghanistan and the conflicts ridden mind of Amir. The memory plays a central part in reconstruction of the tale as the protagonist lays bare his inner conflicts and foibles. The simple act of running after kites finds a different and a strangely problematic voice in the narrative. Loyalty, conflicts, fear, strength, weakness mire together to give a colour that is Hosseini’s Kite Runner .
Amir as a child is physically weak and lacks natural courage and he finds resort in the arms of books and the world of letters. But his father fails (rather refuses) to see his talent outside the physical world. Amir’s soul mate is Hasan. Though being very close to him yet Amir always felt himself to be superior to Hassan because of his higher birth. Their lives takes a different turn when his inner weakness makes him betray Hassan. Amir realises his inner weakness but he refuses to accept the flaw even as it continues to eat him from inside. He feels staying away from Hassan would cure him of his weakness. He fails terribly.
The tale is Amir’s journey of redemption and his attempt to win back his nang and namoes (honour and pride) in his own eyes. The use of the narrative I not only gives the novel it’s basic unity, it also helps in creating a web which personalizes the tale and colours it with an honest inner view.
One may often try to identify one’s own inner flaws as personified in others but such an act invariably ends up fragmenting the self and its relationship with the other becomes all the more complicated. Hosseini brings out this aspect deftly in the novel. Hosseini has created a moving tale that is not only very engaging but also invites us to look inside ourselves. A painfully honest story.