[book review]the kite runner
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http://www.wretch.cc/blog/davidwu10001&article_id=9146129
The Kite Runner – Hatred, Forgiveness, and Atonement
Upon finishing the book, I found tears welling up in my eyes. I just couldn’t help but crying. All the characters are so vivid, and the plots, although in Afghanistan, are not unfamiliar to us. It is truly a story about love and bravery. The book sets its background in Afghanistan, which is an extremely conservative Islamic society. In a society far more conservative than ancient China, personalities of people here are more or less distorted. In ancient China, although conservative, we upheld the
“golden mean”, which means never go to extremes. But in Afganistan, especially the Taliban, you can see people killed just on the street without any reasons. They’re like bandmasters but with machine guns in their hands directing the operation of the whole country. The book tells the lives of two young boys. Amir is the son of a rich man, and Hassan is their servant. Amir and Hassan grew up together. Although Hassan is poor, Amir never treated him as a servant. In Amir’s eye, Hassan is an
irreplaceable friend, a role model in his life, and most important of all, his half brother. Until death, Hassan never knew that Amir was his brother. In this book, every role and plot touchs the deepest site in my heart, making me couldn’t help but reading it over and over again.
There are three topics in the book-- Hatred, Atonement and Forgiveness. In the following paragraph, we’ll discuss them one by one.
Hatred
We all know that people may hate each other because of all sorts of reasons, but we never underdsand why they want to do this. Even those of the same relogion may breed hatred toward each other. Hatred is such a personal feeling that we never understand the reason.
Hassan is the illegitimate child of Amir’s father and his servant’s wife. Amir’s mother was dead after she gave birth to him. That is the reason why Amir’s father tends to love Hassan more than Amir. His father once said, “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my child.” His father seems to be very disappointed in his son. Every day, he watchs Amir playing on the street with the neighborhood boys. He saw his son bullied and his toys taken
by the bad boys, it was always Hassan who came to his rescue. Amir would just stand there and never fought back. In order to win his father’s heart, Amir sacrifices the friendship between he and Hassan. In a kite-flying competition, Amir hided behind the walls, watching Hassan being sex abused, and was unwilling to do anything. After this event, Amir is regarded as a hero by his father. Although winning his father’s heart, he lost his friendship of Hassan. Later, Hassan and his father was driven out
of Amir ‘s house, and they never met again.
Another hatred discussed in the book is the racial discrimination. It seems to exist in every society in the world, not only in Afghanistan but also in America as well as Taiwan. There are three major ethnic groups in Afghanistan: the Pushtun, the Tajik and the Hazara. Hassan is a Hazara, while Amir is a Pushtun boy. In those old days, there’s a dislike in Pushtun people toward Hazaras. Pushtun thought themselves as the true residents in Afghanistan. Assef is an extremist who wanted a “clean”
Afghanistan. He wanted all the Hazaras driven out of the country. So whenever he saw Hassan, he punished him without mercy.
We can see many conflicts due to racial difference in the human history. Is it so important to divide human into many different ethnic groups? In my eye, since we are all human beings, we should cooperate instead of oppose those different from us. In this book, the author used very subtle expressions to state the racial problems in Afghanistan. Good at telling stories, the author’s words are also very vividly presented, thus we can read such a significant and evil problem in the lines. It is truly very
impressive.
Atonement
“There’s always a way to be good again ”. This is the sentence I love most in this book. We all make mistakes. Some are featherweight, just like raindrops on your face. We often forgot it the next day we woke up. But there are some mistakes that may never be mended. It follows us through our lives. We cannot rid it of our memories. They are like ghosts or nightmares which prop up every now and then. But as long as we decided not to do that again, such mistake wouldn’t be so significant at all.
According to a China proverb: ”If you put down your knife, we can become Budda at once. ” I think it is quite true. We can still have peace in our mind if we repent and start anew.
In this book, there are several aspects to this issue. Amir did his best to win the kite- fighting champion for his father as an atonement to his mother’s death. Amir’s father ‘s bias toward Hassan is also an atonement. He slept with his servant’s wife, who gave birth to Hassan after that. Being an illegitimate child, Hassan was deprived of all the privileges Amir had. He had to tolerate being looked down upon by others. Unable to give Hassan what he ought to have, Amir’s father show his affection
as much as possible. I was really shocked when I know Hassan was Amir’s half-brother at the end of the book.
Amir’s compensation to Hassan was directed to Hassan’s child when Hassan was killed by Taliban. Taliban are crazy people who want no other ethnic groups besides Pushtuns in Afghanistan. When Amir knew the truth, we went all the way back from America to Kabul in order to rescue Hassan’s only child. I was impressed by Amir’s courage. He gave up his work and even left his beloved wife behind in the U.S. and came to the heavily-armed city just for a boy. Through this trip, Amir got what he deserved.
Forgiveness
It is difficult to forgive others, especially those who has done very evil things to us before. Hassan finally forgave Amir and admitted his steeling of the money, although he knew it was indeed a stitch up. Did Hassan’s son, Sohrab, finally forgive Amir? We may never know. But as we read though the lines, we can feel that relationship between Sohrab and Amir is actually improving. “For you a thousand times over,” said Hassan. Because of this strong feeling of brotherhood, Hassan can do everything
for Amir without second thought. And forgiveness, which is the essential topic in this book, plays an important role in building a stronger tie between them.
Amir forgave his father’s white lie in the end. He was in his father’s shoe, knowing how much chaos might be caused if he unveiled the truth. The author’s tone is soft, but we can see how much shock Amie felt.
I had once betrayed my best friend when I was really young. We hadn’t spoken to each other until after 3 years when we met in the junior high school. I took up my courage and asked if he can forgive me. I told him that he’s the best friend I’ve ever had, and that I was really sorry for that event. To my surprise, he just smiled and patted on my shoulder, telling me that I wasn’t my fault at all. Finally, we became good friends again and kept in touch until now.
To me, forgiveness is an art that all of us should learn.
Through this book, not only did I gain more insight into the Afghanistan society but also learned much. The hatred and antagonism between different religions, countries and ethnic groups has lasted for a very long time. How much do we still need to pay until we realise the importance of peace? Over the past centuries, did we human kind really thought of the meaning of live and let live between different races? For “peace” a thousand times over? Can we ever recognize that?
Finally, let us take a glance at the characteristics of Amir and Hassan. Amir is cowardice, but in the end he has become brave to admit what he had done. His bravery, however, came partly from Hassan. Hassan, on contrary, is a truly brave man. His loyalty to Amir is undoubtful. To him, Amir is a hero in his heart. It is the backbone in him that enabled him to stand up against all the difficulties in life. His sacrificial love to Amir also makes me couldn’t help but sobbing in my room.
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