Retrieving the Fallen Kite: Kite Symbolism in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner | ||
| هرمس | ||
| Article 10, Volume 6, Issue 2, April 2017, Pages 215-245 | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/herms.2017.160976 | ||
| Author | ||
| Muhammad Jalal | ||
| Associate Professor of English Literature, English Department, Faculty of Arts, Zagazig Univeristy | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This paper examines the symbolic representations of the kite and the way in which it is used as a unifying thematic device. A close reading of Hosseini’s novel in relation to the kite symbolism lays bare the relationship between Amir and his kite-assistant and childhood friend Hassan. In addition, it is through the kite symbolism that the relationship between Amir and his father is re-established. Apparently, the kite gradually acquires additional symbolic resonance when the novelist forges a connection between Amir and the kite, a relationship that ultimately enables the former to reconcile with his flawed but redeemable self. Thus, the kite is used as a symbol that represents the hope of building a new secure life, the kind of life that Amir as well as his fellow citizens were unable to achieve in a strange unbearable place like Afghanistan where “mines were planted like seeds of death and children buried in rock-piled graves” (119). | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Khaled Hosseini; kite symbolism; Afghanistan; self-fulfillment | ||
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