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Allusions
Flashbacks
Explanation and Analysis:
The Kite Runner is a novel with many interlocking settings. It introduces Amir as an adult, then flashes back to his childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan in the early 1970s. This part of the novel depicts a peaceful, almost idyllic Kabul before the 1973 military coup in Afghanistan. King Zahir Shah, who had ruled for about 40 years, was overthrown by his cousin, Daoud Khan, while the king was visiting Europe. Daoud Khan then ended the monarchy and declared Afghanistan a republic. This part of the novel shows Amir's childhood and early adolescence before the specter of war entered his life.
Later in the book, the setting focuses on the changes the Soviet occupation of Kabul brings. Amir, Hassan, Baba and their friends and companions have a very different experience in the city when it’s rocked by the violence and instability of war. Later, in the 1980s, Amir and Baba move to Fremont, California in the United States as refugees. Much of Amir's adulthood takes place here, and he’s preoccupied with trying to adjust to his new life as a member of the Afghani diaspora in the US.
In the late 1990s, Amir returns to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to try and rescue Hassan’s son Sohrab. Under Taliban rule, the beautiful public spaces of Kabul that Amir used to know and love are now places of ugliness and violence. Buildings lie in ruin and people live under strict, brutally enforced religious laws. Public executions and punishments for small misdeeds happen openly in stadiums. Kabul residents who belong to ethnic minorities—especially Hazaras like Hassan and his family—face daily discrimination and the threat of violence from the Taliban. The novel ends in the United States, where Amir brings Sohrab to Fremont and where Sohrab himself has to adapt to a new life in an attempt to move on from the trauma of his abuse at the hands of the Taliban.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Lake :
As Amir flashes back to an idyllic childhood picnic with Baba, Hosseini uses visual imagery and a simile to show how fondly Amir remembers the moment:
We sat at a picnic table on the banks of the lake, just Baba and me, eating boiled eggs with kofta sandwiches—meatballs and pickles wrapped in naan. The water was a deep blue and sunlight glittered on its looking glass–clear surface. On Fridays, the lake was bustling with families out for a day in the sun.
The visual imagery describing the “deep blue” lake water and the “glittering” sunlight paints a very sensory scene for Hosseini’s reader. It’s one of the few memories Amir has where he feels like he and Baba were a family like all the others “out for a day in the sun.” The memory feels full of life and warmth because Amir’s mind clings to every detail to keep it alive. The way he describes the sunlight “glittering” on the water adds a dreamlike quality to the flashback.
The other simile—comparing the lake’s surface to a looking glass— adds to this fairy-tale, dreamy vision. In Amir’s memory the water is perfectly still and calm, like a mirror reflecting his perfect day. In contrast to the insecurity and anxiety that shapes much of his relationship with Baba, this moment is a rare instance of peace and happiness.
Related Themes:
