Thematic Study of Khaled Hosseini’s Novel The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is Khaled Hosseini‟s debut novel, which not only exhibits a person‟s growth, but also the history of the soul of nation and of outdoor sufferings. It is a well known novel for it‟s decimate and painfully true depiction of identity, betrayal, deception and atonement. It is a novel of salvation and return of humanity. The story describes the journey of a boy escaping from his haunted childhood while torturing with his own contrition. These two notions of redemption and atonement play a crucial role in creating the line that ties the characters together. Amir‟s „unatoned sins‟, as they are described in the novels opening chapter, have played his conscience and cast an oppressive shadow over joys and triumphs. The present paper investigates guilt and cowardice of the protagonist as the motivation for an individual to seek redemption and attain salvation from what he has done to his best friend Hassan, who has obtained the power of pursuit of love, loyalty, responsibility, dignity and courage. The Kite Runner is a journey of self discovery while admitting the past through the analysis of the experiences of Amir from childhood to maturity, from betrayal to redemption. Amir‟s return to homeland, tarnished and tattered by war, and the turbulence of a Taliban led regime unfolds his journey towards self identity and redemption. Amir faces no sense of identity crisis in the adopted homeland, rather he feels himself a stranger when he returns to Kabul.