1, Introduction to The Kite Runner
This novel tells the story of Amir in the first person. Amir was born in a wealthy family in a wealthy community in Kabul in 1963. His father "Dad" is a Pashtun, the son of a judge and a successful carpet dealer. Hassan, son of Amir's servant Ali, was born in Hazara.
Amir and Hassan are good playmates. Hassan is a very loyal and upright man. He only thinks of Amir. They often play games together. Amir is an excellent "kite fighter", that is, he is good at cutting the string of others' kites with his own kite; Hassan is also an outstanding "kite runner", because the tradition in Afghanistan is that the kite that falls after the thread is cut belongs to the person who catches it.
Dad loves two children, but he thinks Amir is too timid. Hassan always stands out when two children fight with others. Amir showed his writing talent, but dad didn't pay attention to it. Dad's friend Rahim Khan became Amir's best friend. 1973, Muhammad daud Khan and others staged a coup to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic in Afghanistan.
Assef, a Pashtun child, worshiped Nazis in the community and clashed with Amir and Hassan. Hassan maintained Amir with a slingshot. 1975, in a kite competition, Amir won the championship in order to please his father. Hassan promised to catch a second kite to prove Amir's record.
But on Hassan's way home, assef and others stopped him. Assef asked Hassan to give him the kite, but Hassan refused, so he raped Hassan. All this was seen by Amir, but Amir did not stand up because of cowardice.
In the days that followed, Amir hoped that his father would fire Ali and Hassan because he could not face Hassan, but he was sternly rejected. So Amir framed Hassan 13 on his birthday night, saying that he had stolen his birthday present. Hassan knows everything and admits to stealing. Despite their father's opposition, Ali and Hassan moved to Hazarajat Mountain, where Hazaras live in compact communities.
1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, 198 1 year, my father fled to Peshawar, Pakistan with Amir, leaving his home to Rahim Khan. Later, Amir and his son moved to fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Amir went to college in America and became a writer after graduation. He also met and married Suraya, daughter of Afghan general taheri, at a flea market in San Jose. During this period, my father died of lung cancer. Amir and Suraya moved to San Francisco. They wanted a child, but they never got it.
In 200 1 year, Rahim Khan, who was terminally ill, called Amir from Pakistan and asked him to go to Pakistan because "there is a way to be a good person again". It turned out that Rahim Khan went to Hazarajat to find the Hassan couple after Amir and his son left, and they returned to Kabul to manage Amir's big house together. Hassan also has a son, Solabo.
However, after the Taliban occupied Kabu in 1996, they seized the house because of racial discrimination and shot the Hassan couple in the street. Solabo went to the orphanage. Rahim Khan wanted Amir to go back to Kabul to save Solabo, but Amir didn't want to. Rahim Khan told Amir that Hassan was actually the illegitimate child of Amir's father.
With the help of taxi driver farid, Amir returned to Kabul controlled by the Taliban. After finding the orphanage where Solabo was located, it was found that Solabo had been taken away by a Taliban leader, who would appear at the football match. Amir made an appointment with the leader at the ball game and met him at his residence later. It turns out that this Taliban leader is assef.
Assef joined the Taliban after suffering in the prison of the * * * production party regime supported by the Soviets, fought against the Soviets and became a leader. Solabo became a sexually assaulted dancer. Assef told Amir that he could take Solabo, but he had to deal with some old debts with him first.
After shielding the left and right sides, assef put on stainless steel gloves and easily defeated Amir, who had no combat experience, but was accidentally blinded by Solabo's inseparable slingshot. Amir and Solabo took the opportunity to escape.
In Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, Amir adopted Solabo because he could not prove that he was an orphan and could not obtain an American visa. Solabo needs to stay in the orphanage for the time being. Out of fear of the orphanage, Solabo cut his wrist and committed suicide, and was later rescued.
After Amir and Solabo returned to the United States, Solabo stopped communicating with anyone because his feelings were hurt. On the weekend after September, 200 11,Solabo finally smiled at Amir who was chasing kites in a park.
2, the author
Afghan-American writer Khalid Husseini.
3. Creative background
According to the author's account, he and his brother lived in Kabul just like Amir and Hassan: they spent most of the summer at school. Fly kites in winter and watch john wayne's movies in the cinema. The plot most similar to his experience in the book is the days in America, when Amir and his father try to create a new life.
Like Amir, he is an immigrant from Afghanistan. His house in Akbar Khan district of wazir is very big, where he can hold a grand party; They also went to Pagman for a picnic. He has fond memories of his childhood.
Extended data 1, author profile
Khaled hosseini, 1965 was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and graduated from the University of California, San Diego. He is an Afghan-American writer and doctor. His major works include The Kite Runner, Brilliant Thousand Sunnies, Echo of Mountains, etc.
From 65438 to 0980, khaled hosseini moved to America with his father. He obtained a medical license from 1993, started writing from 1999, and published his first novel The Kite Runner in 2003. He has won many awards, such as the United Nations Humanitarian Award and the john steinbeck Prize for Literature, and was invited as a goodwill ambassador of UNHCR.
2. Creative characteristics
Khalid Husseini's first novel, The Kite Runner, tells the story of Amir, a rich young master in Kabul, and Hassan, a servant, and integrates political events such as the end of the Afghan monarchy, the rise of the Taliban and "9. 1 1" into the novel's life background. In the process of growing up, the protagonist in the book witnessed the eternal topics of human beings such as war, religion, love, guilt and atonement.
The second novel, Brilliant Thousand Yang, is regarded as the female version of The Kite Runner, which tells how two Afghan women struggle to survive in marital violence, drought and poverty.
Echo of the Mountain tells the story of a brother and sister who were abandoned by poverty and war in 60 years. Around parents, brothers and sisters, even cousins and stepmother, how they love each other, how they get hurt, how they betray each other and how they sacrifice for each other. This novel explores exile, self-sacrifice and complicated family relations. Family is the most important theme in Husseini's writing, and the writing of Echo of the Mountain begins with the concept of family.
Housainy especially prefers 12 years old or 13 years old. He likes to write about children of this age, which may be related to the fact that he followed his diplomat father to live in France at the age of 12 or 13 and began to live far away from home.
His own explanation is that this is an era when children are gradually approaching the adult world, an era when innocence and simplicity are about to be lost, and an era on the verge of "loss", which is also one of the themes of Husseini's Echo of the Mountain and all his stories. Readers find what they have lost from others, and "loss" connects people together.
The novel The Kite Runner focuses on Amir's growing experience from childhood to middle age from the perspective of a child. This narrative style can be regarded as a typical bildungsroman. Justice, the owner of this book, is such a typical growth figure. Young Amir is immature and simple, and lives a carefree life with his little friend Hassan.
However, after this wonderful childhood was suddenly interrupted, it went through a series of tests, such as being displaced, difficult to escape, choosing dreams and pursuing love. The protagonist began to grow up slowly, realizing that the meaning of his life must be realized through self-redemption, putting down the burden of his heart for many years and becoming a real man.
Although Amir is far away from home, his childhood environment and his father's education have a far-reaching influence on him. This kind of influence accompanied his growth, and finally he embarked on the road of redemption, which was undoubtedly influenced by this culture. This shows that Afghan immigrants are mourning the loss of their motherland and trying to integrate into American culture, but it also shows that deep-rooted national traditions and culture are still the ultimate emotional destination.
Khalid is also a typical exiled writer. He has a similar experience with the protagonist: he was born in Kabul and fled to the United States because of the war. In fact, this is a novel about the author's own culture and love for the motherland. The author not only remembers the past, but also retains his own subjective characteristics.
Around the collision of betrayal and redemption, Islamic culture and western culture, with obvious color of initiation novel, it describes a beautiful and sad story of a teenager's growth. It is worth noting that the book ends with the hero completing redemption, growing into a real man and returning to his own culture.
Therefore, taking it as a bildungsroman to see its cultural color, the importance of cultural influence is self-evident for both an individual and a nation. He not only affects a person's choice and growth trajectory, but also affects the value of the nation.
For individuals, there are joys and sorrows in their growth, and there are ups and downs, but the culture of their own nation will naturally flow in people's bodies like blood, leaving a deep mark.
From The Kite Runner, Brilliant Thousand Sunnies to Echo of the Mountain, the protagonists in Husseini's three novels all live in a harsh environment of anxiety at home and abroad: the Afghan revolution and war have broken the hero's family. Panic and helplessness at the same time, they exiled, immigrated and separated.
But this is not the whole of their lives. These Afghans are brave and active, full of energy, dreams and potential. Husseini unveiled the mysterious and little-known other side of Afghanistan for the world-the bottom people who are under heavy pressure and suffering, the kinship with blood thicker than water, and the tenacious spirit of longing for freedom and happiness.
Husseini carefully sketched out every important character in the book, and even made them have complete values and outlook on life in the process of growing up. Mariam, Lila, Hassan, Amir, Parry and Abdullah ... These people in the book are like real people to readers, so their fate is particularly worrying.
Husseini accurately expresses many emotions and feelings in the reader's mind, but he can't describe or find the answer. Husseini's works span a long time: Amir returned to Afghanistan 25 years later, when Hassan was gone; It has been 50 years since Abdullah saw Paley again. He is old and in a state of dementia.
In the book, Husseini always conveys the feeling that "some people or things, once missed, may be a lifetime."
Baidu Encyclopedia-The Kite Runner
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