Kite Runner the Dual Themes

Kite Runner

The Dual Themes of Women in Hosseini's the Kite Runner

In his stunningly riveting book, The Kite Runner, Khaleed Hosseini introduces Western readers to a culture that is far different from their own. In addition to piquing Westerner's interest in the nuances of Afghani culture -- the delicious food described, the practice of kite flying and kite running, and liberal friendships that are shared between families -- Hosseini also introduces his reader to a story packed with emotion, reflection, and significant themes. Having moved to America during the Cold War, Amir, the main character, has the chance to reflect on his Afghani youth as an adult. What the reader experiences are both a first-hand account of the traumatizing events in Amir's life as a child, as well as a depiction of how they have affected his life as he grows older. Having witnessed the prejudices of Kabul, the violent rape of his best friend and servant Hassan, and his own attempts to gain love from his father as a child, Amir becomes an adult who is haunted by the past. Though most of the novel's main characters are men, however, the females who do appear in the novel allow for deeper reflection into the culture and the novel's themes. In fact, through his introduction of female characters, Hosseini emphasizes two primarily themes -- women's absence and women's understanding.

Probably the strongee of the two themes that Hosseini involves in his novel is the theme of women's absence. In the first few pages of the book, the reader learns that both Amir and Hassan are motherless, and that they both had the same wet nurse. While Amir's mother dies giving birth to him, Hassan's mother runs away with what is described as a performing circus. Known to be a rather promiscuous woman, Sanaubar's decision to leave her family was "a fate worse than death," in Afghan society (Hosseini 6). But even though their mothers left them in very different ways, both Amir and Hassan are profoundly impacted by their absence. Hassan's mother's absence causes him to be the butt of even more jokes than his Hazara ethnicity. Amir describes one of the occasions upon which Hassan is teased for his mother's absence, saying that a soldier followed the two and recalled having sexual relations with Hassan's mother. Although "Hassan never talked about his mother," the teasing affected him (6). He cried after the incident with the soldier (8). For Amir, his mother's absence affects him deeply. Amir wonders if Hassan dreams and thinks about his mother the way he "ached for the mother I had never met" (6). Amir's mother's absence affects him in an even deeper way, as he believes that he killed his mother, whom his father loved greatly. He immerses himself in his mother's things, wondering what it would be like to have her with him and to be spared his father's bitterness on account of his birth. In addition to these major examples of women's absence, Hosseini continues this theme throughout the novel, as he continues to associate women with absence. When Rahim Khan tells Amir the story of his forbidden romance, he explains that his hopes for marriage were dashed when his would-be bride, the daughter of servants, is sent away. Rahim Khan never considers marriage again, a fact that Amir seems to be grateful of. Even Assef's mother, Tanya, is described as absent in a way, with her unconvincing smile. She is "small, nervous woman who smiled and blinked a lot," trying to communicate something that she did not want to say out loud (Hosseini 95). Her absence is more an absence of mind -- as she prefers to be absent from reality -- than a physical absence. Later in the novel, after Amir gets married, Soraya does not accompany him on his redemptive trip to Afghanistan; no woman is with him during what is probably the most important trip of Amir's life, the trip that allows him to reconcile with his past.

Despite the fact that readers can identify the theme of the absence of women in both the first and second halves of the novel, it is much more pronounced in the first half. In the second half of the novel, women are characters with much more regularity. The two primary female characters in the second half of the novel are Soraya, Amir's wife, and his mother-in-law Kahanum Taheri. During this part of the novel, Hosseini emphasizes the theme of women's understanding, using primarily Sonyora, although Kahanum Taheri is supportive of their marriage. Just prior to the engagement, she says, "You're barely in the house and I'm crying already," (Hosseini 167), showing her support of the engagement that is about to take place. After their wedding, Amir acknowledges that the absence of women that had characterized his childhood is now over. He says, "All of my life, I'd been around men. That night, I discovered the tenderness of a woman" (Hosseini 171). Thus, the character of Amir's life changes after he gets married. Showing her characteristic of understanding, Sonyora supports Amir in his writing, sharing with him the excitement he experiences once he has been published. Even when the two discover that they cannot have children, Sonyora is meek and worried that she is being selfish instead of angry, and she discusses her feelings with Amir, suggesting that she is understanding of their marriage and the commitment they have made to one another. At the end of the story, Sonyora is supportive of adopting Sohrab, preparing a home and room for him with the couple.