THE KITE RUNNER

BOOK REVIEW: CHAPTERS 6~10

The Best Kites in the City

Hassan congratulating Amir for winning the Kite-Fighting Tournament.

CHAPTER 6

Winter is the best time of the year in Kabul for boys. The schools are closed because of the chilly weather and boys usually spend their time flying kites. Baba takes Amir and Hassan to an old blind man to buy kites because he makes the best ones in Kabul.There is an annual kite-fighting tournament during winter. Boys battle with kites by covering strings in broken glass. When a string is cut, the kite is loose and flies away, so the boys called kite runners chase the loose kite until it falls. The last kite to stay up in the sky is the winner. Hassan is the best kite runner in Kabul because he seems to know exactly where a kite will land before it falls.

CHAPTER 7

In the winter of 1975, the kite-fighting tournament was held in Amir's neighborhood. The nearby districts competed together in this tournament. A few days before the actual contest, Baba casually told Amir that he could win. Then Amir becomes really determined to win as he thinks will earn Baba's approval. Eventually Amir and a blue kite are the last ones to be flying. They battle and with Amir's perseveration, he wins the trophy of honor without a doubt. Amir and Hassan cheer and hug in happiness but Baba motioned them to separate. The Kite Runner; Hassan sets off to bring the kite back for Amir.

Amir reels in his kite and accepts everyone's congratulations. But Amir notices that Hassan is still missing. He goes out to look for him and asks an old merchant if he saw Hassan. The merchant asks back why Amir is looking for a Hazara. Amir replied that Hassan is the son of his father's servant. Anyways the man told Amir that Hazara went south being chased by some boys. Amir searches the neighborhood and finds Hassan in an alleyway surrounded by Assef and his boys; Kamal and Wali. Hassan was holding the blue kite. Assef told Hassan that they would let him go if he gave the blue kite to them. Hassan refused and was not shaken. Hassan believes that Amir and he are friends. Ultimately, Assef and his boys charged Hassan. Amir wanted to say something but stayed quiet and watched what was going on.

Suddenly, Amir remembers that they were fed from the same breast of a Hazara woman called Sakina. He recalls some memories with Hassan and dreams that he is lost in a snowstorm. When the snow is gone, the sky is filled with kites. Amir looks back at the alleyway  where the bullies pinned Hassan to the ground without his pants. Wali told Assef that this is sinful but Assef replies back saying Hassan is only a Hazara. Assef then took his own pants down. Amir hesitated to do something but ran away. Fifteen minutes later, Amir noticed Hassan coming towards him and he pretends that he was looking for him all this time. Hassan came crying and bleeding. Both the boys stay shut of what happened and Hassan passes Amir the kite. When they returned home, Amir weeps in Baba's chest while Baba hugged Amir.

Baba's concern regarding Amir was that he could not stand up for himself. Baba was scared that he would be the same when he grew up. Amir misunderstood this and didn't help Hassan thinking that Baba would be proud of him and forgive him for his mother's death, if Amir won the contest and brought back the opponent's kite. Amir did exactly the opposite of what Baba wanted him to be; to stand up bravely like the event that happened that day.

CHAPTER 8

After the event, Amir and Hassan spent less time together. Baba and Amir took a trip to Jalalabad and stayed at the house of Baba's cousin. Af the large traditional Afghan dinner, Baba boasts that Amir won the kite contest but Amir didn't enjoy it because of the weight that pressurized him for his guilt. After dinner, they all lied down together. Amir couldn't sleep and loudly announced that he saw Hassan getting raped. But nobody was awake to hear it and Amir's feeling of guilt continued. The narrator wrote that this was the night when he became an insomniac. When they returned back home, Hassan requested Amir to walk up the hill with him. As they walked, Hassan asked Amir if he could read to him. Amir changed his mind and went back home.

Their awkward relationship continued. Hassan couldn't hold it and asked what he did wrong to Amir. Amir told Hassan to stop harassing him. After that, the boys avoided each other even more. One day, Amir asked Baba when they would get new servants, Baba became furious and shouted that he would never replace Ali and Hassan. Baba was ashamed by this question. Amir spent hours alone in his room when school started.  One day, Amir asked Hassan to walk up the hill with him.They sat under a pomegranate tree.  Amir began attacking Hassan with pomegranates and waited for Hassan's revenge. Instead, he crushed the fruit on his forehead and left after asking whether Amir was satisfied. Hassan proved his love and loyalty to Amir.

In the summer of 1976, Amir turned thirteen and Baba invited more than 400 people to his birthday party. Baba made Amir greet all the guests personally at the party. Assef arrived and acted politely as he joked with Baba. He told Amir that he chose the gift himself. When he opened the gift, it was a biography of Hitler which he threw away. In discomfort, Amir embarrased Baba by showing rudeness to Assef. Amir sat in the dark at the party, until Rahim Khan showed up and began chatting with Amir. Rahim told Amir that he was in love with a Hazara and was about to marry her but his father was enraged and sent the girl and her family away. He said it was for the best and gave him a leather-bound notebook for writing his stories. He consoled Amir a little saying he was always there to listen. As fireworks alarmed the party, both Amir and Rahim rushed back to the house where Amir saw Hassan serving drinks to Assef and Wali.

CHAPTER 9

The morning after Amir's birthday, he opened his presents. As he opened them, he thought to himself that either Hassan or he would have to leave. Later, Ali gave Amir a gift. It was the newest version of "Shahnamah" which was the book of stories which Amir read to Hassan. The next morning, Amir took his birthday money and a watch that Baba gifted him and put them under Hassan's mattress. He told Baba that Hassan stole them and to his surprise, Hassan lied that he stole them. This is when Amir realized that Hassan saw Amir in the alleyway merely watching. Baba forgave Hassan but Ali insisted that they must leave. Baba pleaded Ali to stay with them but Alit refused and left in the rain, as Amir watched from indoors.

Amir's guilt led him to things that resulted in a loss of Baba's approval. Rather than gaining what he extremely desired, Amir lost the happiness he had. At first he tried to stay away from Hassan because he was a reminder of his cowardice and selfishness. But they met each other often because Hassan was part of the household. One of Amir's constant fears is realized: Hassan emerges as the stronger and better person. Amir drove them away by plotting Hassan into sins. But Hassan sacrificed himself again despite knowing that Amir didn't do the same for him when he was raped. But the most poignant image of injustice toward Hazaras is the moment Amir witnessed Hassan serving drinks to Assef and Wali from a silver platter. Assef didn't express any remorse or shame during the encounter. Instead he grinned at Hassan.

CHAPTER 10

It is March 1981 in the novel. Amir and Baba are in the back of a truck with several other Afghans. They are on their way to Pakistan. The ride made Amir sick but he was worried he could be embarrassing Baba. They left home in the middle of the night for they couldn't trust anyone. The rafiqs, or comrades as the narrator called them have divided society. The truck driver, Karim, had a business arrangement with the soldiers guarding the road. But when they arrived at the checkpoint, the Russian guard eyed a woman in the truck and said the price of passing would be some time with the lady. Baba didn't allow it. the Russian threatened to shoot Baba but another Russian officer stopped him. After they passed the checkpoint, the husband of the woman kissed Baba's hand. When they arrived in Jalalabad, they had to switch trucks but Karim didn't tell them that the truck broke last week. Baba got angry and attacked the driver.

For a week, Baba and Amir stayed with the refugees in a basement.Amir recognized Kamal, who looked sick and depressed with his father. Amir overheard Kamal's father and Baba's conversation of the reason why Kamal is so weak. Four men caught Kamal and when he came back to his father, he was bleeding "down there". Kamal no longer speaks, he only stares. 

Finally, Kamir found a truck to take them to Pakistan. It was a fuel truck and the air inside was thick with fumes making it difficult to breathe. But they still arrived in Pakistan. Once they were out of the truck, Kamal's father screamed because Kamal stopped breathing. Kamal's father attacked Karim, wrestling Karim's gun away. Before anyone could have act, Kamal's father put the gun in his mouth and shot himself down.

TO BE CONTINUED...

THE KITE RUNNER

Book Review: Chapters 1~5

Chapter 1

The date is December 2001. The narrator who is Amir, is telling his story in the first person. He recalls an event that occured in 1975 when he was twelve years old and was growing up in Afghanistan. The narrator does not mention what the event was but says that it made him who he is now. Following this, he tells the readers about a call which he received last Summer from Rahim Khan, a friend in Pakistan. Rahim asks Amir to come to Pakistan to see him. After the call, Amir strolls through the streets of San Francisco, the place he lives currently. He observes kites flying the sky which recalls him of his past, including a friend named Hassan, a boy with a cleft lip and whom he calls a kite runner.

Chapter 2

Amir, the narrator then describes his childhood, back in the past. As children, Amir and Hassan used to climb trees and use mirrors to reflect sunlight into a neighbour's window or they shot walnuts with a slingshot at the nieghbour's dog. All of these bad behaviors were Amir's ideas but whenever they were caught, Hassan never blamed Amir. Amir lived with his father, Baba, in a luxurious house in Kabul. On the other hand, Hassan and his father, Ali, lived in a small mud hut on Baba's estate. Ali also worked as Baba's servant. 

Unfortunately, neither Amir nor Hassan had a mother. Amir's mother died giving birth to him while Hassan's mother ran away after giving birth to him. 

One day, the boys were walking together until they met a soldier. The soldier told Hassan that he slept with his mother, Sanaubar, before. Sanaubar and Ali were an unlikely match. Ali was faithful in the Holy Koran, his bottom half of the face was paralyzed and polio destroyed his right leg's muscle which gave him a severe limp. Sanaubar was nineteen years younger than Ali. She was beautiful and reputedly unethical. Most of the people believed that the marriage was arranged by Sanaubar's father to restore honor to his family. Sanaubar merely loathed Ali's physical appearance. As a result, she ran away with a group of travelling performers just five days after Hassan was born.

The soldier referred Hassan to a Hazara, which we learn in the book that it is a ethnic harassment in Afghanistan. The Hazaras orginially came from further East Asia and their features are more Asian. Hassan herited his looks from his parents. Whilst  Amir and Baba are Pashtun. The opposite of Hazaras. Once, Amir discovered that Hazaras had an uprising during the nineteenth century while he was looking through history books. But it was brutally restrained by the Pashtuns. The book also gives some disrespectful names they are called, such as mice-eating and flat-nosed. It says a part of the reason for the antagonism is because the Hazara are Shia Muslims although the Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims.

Chapter 3

In the third chapter, the narrator mixes his memories with Baba. Baba was a huge man, six feet and five inches tall with a thick beard as well as wild, curly hair. According to a story, Baba even wrestled a bear! He did all the things people said it was impossible. Even though he never trained as an architect, he designed and built an orphanage himself! People around him once again said he had no business sense, but he became one of the most successful businessmen in the city! Nobody thought he could marry well for he wasn't from an eminent family, he married Sofia Akrami, Amir's mother. She was a beautiful and intelligent woman from a royal bloodline. Baba also has his own strong moral. When Amir told Baba that a religious teacher; Mullah Fatiullah Khan, at his school said its sinful for Muslims to drink alcohol, Baba told his son that there is only one sin: theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. For example, murdering a man is stealing his life. Then he calls Mullah Khan an idiot including men like him.

Amir wants to please Baba by resembling him but he is not successful. He admits that he feels responsible for his mother's death. Since Baba likes soccer, Amir tries to like it and play it well but there's no hope in soccer. With the exception of poetry and reading, Amir is unable to catch up with his father. Later on, Amir mentions when he and Baba went to see a buzkashi match. It is a popular game in Afghanistan in which a rider has to put an animal carcass in a scoring circle while the other riders try to take it away from him. A rider was trampled after falling from his horse. From this view, Amir cried and Baba could not hide his detest for his own boy. Baba tells Rahim Khan that he is worried that Amir might not be like the other boys and not be able to stand up for himself as a child, then so will he be unable to stand up in his adulthood. Amir overhears this conversation with the business associate.

Chapter 4

The novel jumps back in time to the year 1933, when Baba was born and Zahir Shah became the King of Afghanistan. Around the same time, two drunk men who are driving at a high hit accidentally kills Ali's parents. Amir's grandfather takes the young Ali in. Eventually Baba and Ali grew up together. However, Baba never calls Ali his friend. Similarly, because of their ethnic and religious differences, Amir also denies Hassan as a friend. Nevertheless, Amir's youth seems like a long stretch of playing games with Hassan to him. But while Amir woke up and went to school, Hassan would do the housechorse and get groceries. Hassan was illiterate so Amir would often read to him.

During a reading session under their favorite pomegranate tree, Amir began to make up his own story while reading to Hassan. Hassan compliments that it is one of the best stories he has ever heard of. That night, Amir proudly writes his first short story. It is about a man who finds new ways to make himself sad for his tears turn into pearls. So he tries to find ways to make him richer using his tears. The story ends with the man sitting on top of a mountain of pearls, sobbing over his stabbed wife. Amir tried to show Baba the story while he was speaking to Rahim Khan but Baba doesn't show much interest. Instead, Rahim takes the story. Later on the same night, Rahim passes Amir a note. In the note, he tells Amir that he has a great talent in writing. Amir directly wakes Hassan and reads him the new story. When Amir nervously finished reading, Hassan exclaims that the story is stupendous! But he asks Amir why the man couldn't cry onions. Amir annoyed, thinks that he never thought of it and started nasty thoughts about Hassan being a Hazara but never said it aloud.

Chapter 5

The chapter starts with gunfires in the streets. Ali, Hassan and Amir hid in the house til morning. Amir says that the night was the beginning of the end of the Afghanistan they knew. It slipped away further in 1978 with the communist takeover and disappeared completely in 1979 when Russia invaded. The gunshots were actually part of a coup in which Daoud Khan, the King's cousin took over the government. Baba didn't arrive home until dawn because the roads were closed that night. In the morning, Amir and Hassan hears what happened on the radio, but they didnt understand the meaning of Afghanistan becoming a republic. Instead, they decided to climb a tree.

A rock hit Hassan while the narrator and Hassan were walking. They discover that Assef and two other boys from the neighborhood threw it. Assef is described as a notorious bully. He also mocks Ali's limp and calls him names. He carries a set of brass knuckles and calls Hassan a flat-nose and ask if they heard about Afghanistan becoming a republic in the radio. He says that his father knows Daoud Khan and that next time, Daoud would be over for dinner and was going to talk about Hitler. The narrator wrote that Hitler had the right idea about ethnic purity. Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns and the Hazaras pollute the country. Assef takes his brass knuckles out and says that Amir is a problem being friends with a Hazara. For a second, Amir thinks of Hassan as his servant but soon realizes that his thought is wrong. As Assef approaches Amir to hit him, he suddenly freezes because Hassan aimed his slingshot at him. Hassan's good aiming allowed them to run away.

After Daoud's coup, life goes back to normal. On Hassan's winter birthday, Ali calls Hassan inside. Baba is waiting for him with a man called Dr. Kumar. We get to know that Dr. Kumar is a plastic surgeon. Dr. Kumar explains what he does and soon Hassan's lip is raw as well swollen. But he smiled during the period his lips were recovering. As winter passed, Hassan's remains of his cleft lip was only a light scar.