A symbol is something that stands for or represents something else. In the book Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Hosseini uses many symbols along with direct and indirect characterization to show that guilt and regret over one incident can impact a person throughout their lifetime. The symbols of the blue kite, the slingshot, the pomegranate tree, the cleft lip and the brass knuckles develop throughout the book to create a deeper connotation for the inner theme. In the beginning of the book, Kite Runner, Amir and Hassan enter a neighborhood kite fighting tournament.Amir was determined to win so he could finally win his father’s, Baba, love. “I was going to win, and I was going to run that last kite, Then I’d bring it home and show it to Baba. Show him once and all that his son was worthy” (56 Hosseini). As the tournament begins Amir cuts a kite and then another until his kite and a blue kite remained. About a hour later he cuts the last kite and Hassan turns and runs the kite for him. He sees Baba cheering for him, finally proud. “Then I saw Baba on our roof. He was standing on the edge, pumping both of his fists. Hollering and clapping.
And that right there was the single greatest moment of my twelve years of life, seeing Baba on that roof, proud of me at last” (66 Hosseini). As Amir walks into his house after the tournament he sees Baba and Rahim Khan, his father finally showing how proud he was of Amir. “Then a smile played on my father’s lips. He opened his arms. I put the kite down and walked into his thick hairy arms. I buried my face in the warmth of his chest and wept. Baba held me close to him, rocking me back and forth” (79 Hosseini). The blue kite symbolizes to Amir how he wants his father’s affection.
The meaning behind the blue kite for Hassan is his friendship and loyalty to Amir. Throughout the book Hassan is always trying to win Amir’s friendship and respect. Hassan says he’d do anything for Amir. “Would I ever lie to you? I don’t know. Would you? I’d sooner eat dirt. Really? You’d do that? He threw me a puzzled look. Do what? Eat dirt if I told you to? … If you asked, I would” (54 Hosseini). In the winter of 1975 while running the blue kite Hassan runs into Assef and his gang, the Babalu Jeer.
Assef asks for the blue kite but Hassan shakes his head saying “Amir agha won the tournament nd I ran this kite for him. I ran it fairly. This is his kite” (72 Hosseini). Even though Hassan suffered through Assef’s cruel act he wouldn’t give up the kite because he was afraid he would lose Amir’s friendship. The slingshot symbolizes protection, devotion, security to both Amir and Hassan; protection from the older boys, Hassan’s devotion to Amir, and the security of being safe. When Amir and Hassan are confronted by Assef he goes to hit Amir but Hassan threatens to shoot his eye out. “I looked in his crazy eyes and saw that he meant it. He really meant to hurt me.
Assef raised his fist and came for me… I saw Hassan bend down and stand up quickly… I turned and came face to face with Hassan’s slingshot… If you make a move, they’ll have to change your nickname from Assef to ‘the ear eater’ to One-Eyed Assef,’ because I have this rock pointed at your left eye” (42 Hosseini). The boys finally leave him alone, for the time being. Later when Hassan is bringing the blue kite back to Amir, the Babalu Jeer, corner him and threaten to hurt him. With no protection they ask Hassan “Where is your slingshot, Hazara? What was it you said? ‘They’ll have to call you One-Eyed Assef. ’ That’s right.
One-Eyed Assef. That was clever. Really clever. Then again, it’s easy to be clever when you’re holding a loaded weapon” (71 Hosseini). Without his slingshot he has nothing to protect himself from the boys. Ironically enough the slingshot shows up again in almost the same situation. In the end when Amir goes back to Afghanistan to get Sohrab he is faced with Assef. While in Assef’s office Amir and Assef begin fighting and Assef begins to beat up Amir. Sohrab picks up a brass ball from a table and uses it to shoot Assef in the eye when he won’t stop hitting Amir. “Please stop… Put it down, Hazara, Assef hissed.
Put it down or what I’m doing to him will be a gentle ear twisting compared to what I’ll do to you… Stop. Put it down. Don’t hurt him anymore. Put it down. Please. put it down! … The slingshot made a thwiiiiit sound when Sohrab released the cup. He put his hand where his left eye had been just a moment ago” (290- 291 Hosseini). Sohrab’s uses to slingshot to protect Amir against Assef as Hassan had done many years before. In a cemetery there was a pomegranate tree in which held a symbol of Amir and Hassan’s friendship. They carve their names in the bark of the tree and later they return to the tree to read.
As they sit under the tree an overripe pomegranate fell to the ground and Amir asks “What would you do if I hit you with this? ” (92 Hosseini). Amir then throws the pomegranate at Hassan, trying to get him to hit him back in hopes that he will be punished for not doing anything about Hassan getting raped in the alley. By throwing pomegranates at Hassan, he hopes to provoke a fight. “I hurled a pomegranate at him. It stuck him in the chest… Hit me back! … Get up! Hit me! I said. Hassan did get up, but he just stood there… I hit him with another pomegranate, in the shoulder this time. The juice splattered his face.
Hit me back! Hit me back, goddamn you! I wished he would. I wished he’d give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I’d finally sleep at night Maybe then things could return to how they used to be between us… Then Hassan did pick up a pomegranate. He walked toward me. He opened it and crushed it against his own forehead. There. Are you satisfied? Do you feel better? ” (92-93 Hosseini). When Hassan hits himself instead of Amir it symbolizes how he could never do anything to hurt Amir. Even if it meant fighting back. The pomegranate tree also symbolizes Amir and Hassan’s loss of friendship.
The two boys used to be best friends but after Hassan’s rape and they are no longer friends the tree stops bearing fruit, the fact that it eventually dies means that there is no way for the boys to regain what they had before the incident. Hassan’s cleft lip represents his status in society and his brotherhood with Amir. It signifies his poverty, simply because his family does not have the money to fix the deformity. Later Baba pays a surgeon to fix his lip, signifying his secret fatherly love. “Hassan, Baba said, smiling coyly, meet your birthday present… my job is to fix things on people’s bodies.
Sometimes their faces” (45 Hosseini). Hassan ends up with only a scar showing where the cleft lip once was. “The swelling subsided, and the wound healed with time. Soon, it was just a pink jagged line running up his lip. By the following winter, it was only a faint scar” (47 Hosseini). Later in the book, after getting beat up by Assef, Amir ends up having a cleft lip, like Hassan once had. “The worst laceration was on your upper lip, The impact had cut your upper lip in two, clean down the middle. But not to worry, the plastics guy sewed it back together and they think you will have an excellent result, though there will be a scar.
That is unavoidable” (297 Hosseini). Showing that they are brothers and will always have some sort of connection to each other, whether or not they ended up being friends. The final symbol is Assef’s brass knuckles. Assef uses the brass knuckles to create fear in everyone who he is faced with. Anytime Assef comes across Amir or Hassan he pulls out his brass knuckles to make them afraid of him. “To an outsider, he didn’t look scared. But Hassan’s face was my earliest memory and I new all of its subtle nuances, knew each and every twitch and flicker that ever rippled across it. And I saw that he was scared.
He was scared plenty” (42 Hosseini). The first time Assef threatens to beat up Amir and Hassan he slips on his brass knuckles and threatens to beat them up. “I saw with a sinking heart what he had fished out of his pocket. Of course. His stainless-steel brass knuckles sparkled in the sun” (41 Hosseini). When Amir returns to Afghanistan to get Sohrab, he comes across Assef once again and when he beats up Amir he uses his brass knuckles. “His brass knuckles flashing in the afternoon light; how cold they felt with the first few blows and how quickly they warmed with my blood… The knuckles shattering my jaw” (288 Hosseini).
The brass knuckles represent protection for Assef and fear for anyone who Assef threatens. Concisely, the book Kite Runner, is full of symbols that all create a deeper meaning for the innermost subject. The blue kite which represents Amir’s need for his father’s affection and Hassan’s friendship and loyalty to Amir; The slingshot symbolizes protection, devotion and security; The pomegranate tree stands for Amir and Hassan’s friendship; Hassan’s cleft lip embodies his brotherhood with Amir and Assef’s brass knuckles represents protection for Assef and to create fear in others.
