The Betrayal and Redemption---Analysis of the Growth of Amir in The Kite Runner

背叛与救赎---析《追风筝的人》中阿米尔的成长历程

Introduction

Research background

The Kite Runner is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini who was born on March 4, 1965 in kabul, an Afghan-born American novelist and physician. His father worked as a diplomat for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul while his mother worked as a Persian language teacher at a girls high school. In 1970, Hosseini and his family moved to Iran. When Hosseini was 11 years old, they moved the family in Paris. After graduating from college, Hosseini worked as a doctor in California. Finally, he gave up medicine to write full-time. In 2003, Hosseini released his first novel which is called The Kite Runner. He has published three novels in all which feature an Afghan as the protagonist under the background of Afghanistan. All three of his novels became bestsellers.

The Kite Runner is a novel of friendship, betrayal and redemption between the Pushtun boy Amir and the Hazara boy Hassan, who is his loyal friend and son of servant Ali under the background of the 70's in Afghanistan. Due to the difference of their class, they lived in different worlds even though they are raised together in the same house. After many years, Amir was still unable to forget his betrayal to Hassan, and at last he decided to make redemption by searching for Hassan#8217;s son.

The Kite Runner is a bildungsroman which originated in Germany and then spred into the whole world. It is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood in which character change is extremely important during that period.

Need for the study

Due to the fact that The Kite Runner was published in recent years, there are few researches on it. Therefore, it is of vital importance to analyze this novel from different perspectives. In this novel, Khaled Hosseini described the story under the background of the Afghanistan where the readers can know more about their religion, social environment and the life of people. In addition, The Kite Runner is an educational novel which can help children cultivate positive values and foster their inside kindness by reading this novel.

Literature Review