Abdell St. Paul
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
Historical Fiction
Just Right
Finished

1.I read the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the ending of the book is not exactly a happy one, and not all loose ends are tied up neatly. It is not certain that the characters we have come to know will get what they want. It is quite the opposite, in fact, and for Sohrab in particular there are fresh wounds that will leave permanent scars. The near endless abuse he has suffered is manifest in almost everything he does. Because of the physical and sexual abuse Assef and the Taliban inflicted on him, he flinches every time Amir reaches out to touch him. He also bathes for long periods because he feels he is literally dirty as a result of his rape. Because of this abuse, as well as the abandonment he experienced when Hassan and Farzana were murdered, he is so terrified of going back to an orphanage, even temporarily, that he tries to kill himself. After he recovers, he says only that he wants his old life back. He stops speaking entirely, instead withdrawing into himself as if into a protective shell, completely unable to trust or open up to another person. In the pink scars on his wrists, he is left with a permanent mark of his trauma.

2. I feel that Khaled Hosseini had a lot of detail in the ending of the book. I liked how Khaled Hosseini explained how the Taliban was abusing Sohrab. I liked how Khaled Hosseini explained why Sohrab took a bath in long period of times. I liked the rising action of the book because it explained the plot more clearly. I liked the foreshadowing in the beginning of the book that predicted what was going to happen at the end of the book. I liked how the book described what Afghanistan looked like.I didn't like that Khaled Hosseini had rape in the book. I didn't like how the main character was a coward, liar, and a thief. I didn't like how the book was too predictable.

3. One of the themes in the book The Kite Runner is Loyalty. This is especially evident in the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Despite the fact that Hassan is actually Amir’s half-brother, he is his servant, because no one but Baba and Ali know the truth. Nonetheless, even though Hassan is the victim of discrimination and class structure, he is completely devoted and loyal to Amir, both as his servant and as his friend. It takes Amir many years to atone for how terribly he treated the loyalty and love that Hassan always offered no matter what the circumstances. 


4.My favorite character in the book is Hassan because he was Amir's best friend. Hassan proves himself a loyal friend to Amir repeatedly, defending Amir when he is attacked and always being ready to listen. His defining traits are bravery, selflessness, and intelligence, though his smarts are more instinctual than bookish, largely because he is uneducated. As a poor ethnic Hazara, he is considered an inferior in Afghan society, and he is a victim of racism throughout the novel as a result. He doesn't know that Baba is his father and Amir is his half-brother.

5.My least favorite character is Assef because he's the antagonist of the story. He is a neighborhood bully and is described as a "sociopath" by Amir. Many of his cruel actions as a child include raping Hassan as a means of revenge against Amir. He has a sociopathic nature even as a boy and admires Hitler for what he had done in eliminating the Jews. He wants to emulate this evil German by destroying all the Hazaras. He never forgets a slight from anyone and plots revenge.  He gave Amir a biography of Adolf Hitler as a birthday present. As an adult, he joins the Taliban and rapes and abuses Hassan's son Sohrab.

6.The didn't expect the ending of the book to be sad. I wasn't expecting Amir to find Hassan's son in the orphanage in Afghanistan. I wasn't expecting that Amir would have flashbacks of Hassan and Ali when he was flying a kite with Sohrab. I wasn't expecting Amir to ask Sohrab if he wanted to chase the kite. I thought that Amir wouldn't find a way to forgive Hassan for what he did as a little kid. In the beginning of the book Hassan ran after the kite for Amir, this foreshadowed that Amir would do this for Hassan's son for forgiveness.