P+3Danielle+and+Ashley

**Danielle and Ashley**

 * __Kite Runner__**

The biggest theme in chapters 13-19 is that through death comes rebirth. After Baba dies Amir is forced to grow up. At the funeral he reflects on this realization, “Now he was gone. Baba couldn’t show me the way anymore; I’d have to find it on my own” (Hosseini 174). Before Baba’s death he was always showing Amir how to live but now he has to figure out life on his own. This theme is the most important to understand the purpose of Kite Runner because one of the major relationships in the book is Amir and Baba’s. Amir and Baba had a rocky relationship when he was a child. After Amir and Baba arrive in America their relationship grows stronger than it ever has. Amir learns many things from Baba and ends up learning how to be courageous. After Baba’s death Amir becomes a completely different man. He takes on a journey that he never would have if Baba hadn’t have given him the tools, and he wouldn’t be able to use that courage if Baba was still alive. This theme explains the book in its entirety because Amir learns throughout his life from Baba and finally is reborn into a new man who is stronger than ever.
 * Theme: Through death comes rebirth**

**Event: Amir going back to Afghanistan**
The importance of Amir going back to Afghanistan shows that he has to stand up for himself and not depend on others to do stuff for him. “There is a way to be good again, he’d said. A way to end the cycle. With a little boy. An orphan. Hassan’s son. Somewhere in Kabul” (226). As children, Hassan always had Amir’s back whenever they were getting bullied. When Hassan left Amir and Baba, Amir never saw or talked to his best friend again. When Amir goes back to Afghanistan, he finds out that Hassan has died and he also finds out that Hassan is his half brother. Rahim Khan gives Amir a letter and picture of Hassan and his son Sohrab. Amir is surprised by the news that he finds out and wants to take Sohrab back to America with him. By going back to Afghanistan, Amir then realizes that he needs to give Hassan a favor back by taking care of his son.

**Symbol: Infertility**
The symbol of infertility is present throughout the second half of Kite Runner. Amir and his wife Soraya were having trouble getting pregnant. They couldn’t conceive a child and had months of failed attempts. Amir comes to this realization, “I had this: that perhaps something, someone, somewhere, had decided to deny me fatherhood for the things I had done. Maybe this was my punishment, and perhaps justly so” (Hosseini 188). This symbol of infertility is crucial to understanding Kite Runner because the whole book is built around this symbol. When Amir was younger he wasn’t the best child, in fact he has demons from his childhood that still haunt him even at the end of the book. As stated in the quote he thinks this could be the reason he couldn’t conceive a child, because someone or something was punishing him for the mistakes he made as a child. Then at the end of chapter 17 it is revealed that Hassan is his half brother and is dead. Rahim Khan also tells him that he wants him get his only son out of Kabul. This is a sign that Amir can be redeemed and that the reason he couldn’t conceive was because there was a child waiting for him all along. This symbol of infertility is important because it is a sign that Amir can be good again and finally experience fatherhood as a favor to his best friend.


 * Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003. Print.**