Point 12: Theme

Familiar with the saying, “Everything happens for a reason”? Often it is used in religious contexts as it echoes, “He has a plan,” in the deep undertones of this ordinary axiom. For an author, the divine creator of his or her work, this adage has extraordinary relevance as it hints to the theme of the novel, the heart of everything meaningful that any literary work possesses. For Khaled Hosseini, the god of The Kite Runner, this apothegm is a reference to his commentary on: the power of friendship, the weight of a guilty conscience, a father's understated love, and the freedom of redemption. Through these themes, the author gains the ability to whisper his own truths about society and life and develop the story from an emotional prospective.

In the novel, one of the most pivotal relationships was that of Amir and Hassan. Their friendship was destined on the arrival of Hassan to life; Amir, the elder of the two comrades, and Hassan bonded like two insuperable brothers, which, as time tells, was the reality. The duo were even noted to both having shared the same breast-feeder at nearly congruent times. As the years dashed by, the relationship of Hassan and Amir hit several snags, the largest being racism. This racism came in multiple forms, one of the earliest being Assef. With Assef threatening the well-being of Hassan and his everlasting friend, Amir, Hassan threw himself in harm’s trajectory and raised to the occasion and fought Assef’s blatant hate. Hassan would repeat this another time as he imprudently protected Amir’s kite; this time we would be cruelly raped. As time zoomed by again, Amir began to loath his guilt and took it out on his true friend, Hassan. This guilt lead Amir to hiding his birthday gifts under Hassan’s mattress; something that Hassan took the bullet for anyway. Hassan seemed to always take the bullet, as he was a noble child of innocence; his loyalty knew no physical or emotional bounds. His caring and purity drove Amir insane. It was only years later that Amir returned the favour and defended Hassan’s child to near death from Assef. This proves that after nearly four decades of living, the bond between Amir and Hassan was still alive and flourishing, even with the unfortunate death of Hassan; this is the message that the author whispers in the reader’s ears on friendship. In other words, the bond between two people can easily transcend any and all adversity. Overall, Hassan and Amir were essentially two puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly-so perfectly that racism, hate, war, and death could not separate the two.

 A side-story often underappreciated is the roller-coaster relationship of Amir and Baba, his father. Throughout the novel, it is apparent that Baba lives with a truth bundled-up on the inside, waiting for its opportunity to be released, but it never finds freedom via Baba’s permission. This truth, explained by Rahim Khan after Baba’s passing is that Hassan was truly his child, but it was hidden away, for Baba feared the loss of respect. Because this truth was tightly locked-up inside during Amir’s childhood, Amir was always jealous of the way that Hassan was treated equal compared to him. Amir felt rejected by his father because Hassan received his father’s love as well, this caused a strain on their relationship for many years, although it was more of a childish jealousy. The problem that the author points out is that Baba seemed to fail to state his love enough and was incredibly difficult on Amir at times. In addition, Baba also completely neglected to state his relationship and affection for Hassan as well. The author attempts to teach a moral on parenting: a parent must show his undying infatuation and affection for his or her child or they will emotionally starve. This lesson most likely originates from the author own emotional struggles with his father seeing that the author somewhat based Amir’s parents on his own. To elucidate, Hosseini’s mother was a teacher of Farsi and his father was a prominent, respected Afghani diplomat during his early years of living. In summary, the theme of a father’s understated love or parental duty runs deep within the novel and causes many emotional struggles as well. Two examples: Hassan missing his mother and Sohrab missing his parents once they died.

One of the greatest lessons that Hosseini taught in the entire novel is that of the weight of guilt. Similar to the theme of “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Coleridge, Hosseini addresses the atramentous effects that guilt has on the culpable through Amir. It seems as if everything negative that happens to Amir is through guilt’s guidance. The main reason that Amir faced such an abundance of guilt was because he let fear take control. With fear at the helm, Amir turned his back to a Hassan in dire need and ran to safety; this created the unfathomable guilt that weighted Amir down until his freedom decades later. In addition, Amir also found guilt in the death of his mother and his abandonment of a weak Afghanistan. This guilt persisted him to his core as it gave him nightmares and a lack of fulfillment. The fact that it lasted over three decades shows that the power of guilt can go underestimated as it can drown many in the unquenchable waters of defeat; this is the lesson that the author is attempting to highlight. One could even speculate that the author has some of the same guilt as Amir, namely for Afghanistan and his life growing up. The author was born into a higher echelon and never truly experienced the detrimental effects of poverty, especially in Afghanistan. In tandem with that thought, the author also left his homeland, family and friends included, and completely avoided the terror that ensued from the eighties onward. In total, the theme of the weight of a guilty conscience is important in changing Amir and giving the author a way to vent his own guilt and personal melancholy for the events that took place in Afghanistan.   

Finally, the missing center-piece of the entire puzzle is the key to the restoration of peace for the main character.  As Amir confronts Assef after thirty years of running from his destiny, Amir is beaten into the oblivion. As he is down, drenched in his own blood rather than somebody else’s metaphorical blood, Assef continued to whale on him. With the cracking of numerous bones and the unparalleled, excruciating ache of fate, he bursts into uncontrollable laughter as three decades of guilt and sorrow fled from his dilapidated frame; he was set free. He searched for years, but now that he has put himself in harm’s way for Hassan’s innocent child, he discovers a world without constant guilt, a world with true freedom. Amir’s liberation correlates to the theme of the freedom of redemption. Amir only found his freedom through facing his fears and standing-up for what is morally right; this is the overall message that the author seeks to leave the reader on the topic of culpability and redemption.  One could suggest that perhaps the author speaks as such because he, himself, is facing his demons by writing so emotionally about Afghanistan. To sum this point up, this theme contributes to the clean-cut ending for Amir, with the sole exclusion of Sohrab’s silence, and gives the readers what they yearned for as well.

In conclusion, the themes give the novel reason; the reason is to educate the broad audiences on moral lessons that the author wants the masses to recognize and assimilate. But for an author of factor like Hosseini, he or she typically whispers the lesson so the reader can have the illusion of thinking for themselves; this may sometimes prove to be more effective than the direct method. However, Khaled Hosseini does not always shy away from getting slightly controversial with his writings, but in this specific case it proves effective seeing that several aspects of the story are taken from his life; this also makes his writing more personal and, as a result, persuasive. The largest theme of guilt is easily the most personal and effective. Although some events or images may seem to be out of place, one should just remember the adage, “Everything happens for a reason”.