1. Introduction

1.1 Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini (1965-) was an Afghan-American novelist and physician. He has published three books about Afghan until now. They are The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns#8217; and The Mountains Echoed. Hosseini graduated from Independent High School and studied biology in Santa Clara University in 1984. A year later he got his bachelor#8217;s degree, enrolled in the department of medicine at the University of California, San Diego and obtained the medical license in 1993 and then finished his internship in Mount Zion Medical College in Los Angeles. Before being a writer, Hosseini had worked as a doctor for over ten years, which he described as ”an arranged marriage” for him.

Because of the huge influence of The Kite Runner, Hosseini received the Humanitarian Award from the United Nations in 2006, and was invited to serve as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassador to promote refugee relief efforts. Hosseini has been dedicating to providing humanitarian assistance for his motherland Afghanistan.

1.2 The Kite Runner

Due to his real life experience in Afghanistan for fifteen years, Hosseini#8217;s stories about Afghan are much more pervasive, which include the political tumultuous issue, Taliban regime, radical conflicts and national war. The Kite Runner offers people a chance to look at Afghan social environment and culture and to some extent changes the world#8217;s attitude to Afghan. The Kite Runner, as Hosseini#8217;s first novel has got various Newcomer Awards, and continued to hold a post on the Amazon ranking list for 131 weeks. Even today, it remains one of the best sellers and recommended books on a world scale. Until now, it has been translated into more than 40 languages and sold out more than 6 million copies all over the world, creating a publishing miracle.

The Kite Runner thrust into the world#8217;s spotlight in the year 2003. The novel describes from the first-person perspective of Amir a spiritual salvation of an Afghan immigrant into the United States, and the social and political transition in Afghanistan, thus presenting the racial discrimination of Sunni Pashtun against the Shia Hazara, Amir#8217;s spiritual journey and self-redemption. Due to the special theme and the moving plot, its publication in 2003 helped its author access many new literary awards and ranked among American major best seller lists. As a special image, the kite reveals the line throughout the story. By analyzing the kite image, the paper may help further understand the content and value of the story.

1.3 Need for the study

As the theme of novel, kite has penetrated the novel and played an important role in the whole story. With the better interpretation of the kite image, we will be able to get a comprehensive understanding to the Afghan and characters in the novel and their great meaning to the development of story or the deep effect to our life and society. But now most scholars mainly focus their attention on redemption and politics or religious, and it#8217;s still lack enough or relative overall research on the image of The Kite Runner. For better understanding the story and digging its contribution to the human society, here it#8217;s meaningful and necessary to research the kite image in The Kite Runner.

2. Literature review