Assef

          The Kite Runner is based on the nature of human evil. During week 2 l, we learned about Adolf Eichmann who was a member of the SS. He organized the banishment of the Jews while the Holocaust was happening and was charged and convicted with crimes against humanity. He was described as being "shallow, remote, and thoughtlessness of his actions." These qualities immediately reminded me of Assef. He is part German (like Adolf), part Afghan and is one of the most crucial characters in this novel. I found that he seems to adore the concept of Hitler, and brings him up when feuding with Amir and Hassan. His character is very similar to those who were responsible for the Holocaust. Assef represents the complete opposite character of Hassan, who is kind, gentle and calm. On the other hand, Assef is easily angered and depressed. He is an older boy living in the city who constantly bullies Hassan. He is shallow and thoughtless, and this is proven when he rapes Hassan and captures his son. Assef is seen as an evil character because of his actions and corruptive attitude towards Amir and Hassan. When speaking to Hassan he says; "Too late for Hitler. But not for us" (Page 35). He looks down upon Hassan, like he is a child or an animal. Assef treats him like he should not exist, making him feel unwanted. I find that he has no remorse for his actions, or feel any kind of sympathy towards others. Assef's character represents the kind of human evil that exists within someone's soul.  

The Recurring Theme of Rape

                Rape is a prevalent theme in The Kite Runner.   Assef, being in the dominant position in both Hassan’s rape during the climax of the novel that onsets the flood of other events and Sohrab’s rape.  The method in which the two events tie in to the plot are very fitting.  The first rape in the story, Hassan in the alley, installs a seed of guilt into Amir.  Like all seeds, it keeps on growing and growing.  Rape surfaces again in the truck when Amir and Baba desperately try and flee Kabul, and Baba stands up for the woman.  There is also a hint at rape that Kamal’s father tells the story about.  Rape spurs multiple ideas throughout the book.  In the most typical and common sense as we know it, rape is logically viewed as the overpowering of a female by a male to attain his desires.  One thing that should be noted, is that rape is not solely attributed to physical violence and damage.  Rape in the Kite Runner symbolizes the complete and utter flexing of power and dominance by the one in the position of power to the one in lesser standing, the inferior.  Rape sends messages.  It has emotional value attached with dignity.  It’s an act by those with power on those without.  By stopping rape, it symbolically emancipates the potential victim and what he or she stands for.  This evidently relates to the class lectures and the notion of rape being a weapon of war.  The concepts seen in The Great Silence: Rape in the Congo were present in all the scenarios of rape.  I think the title of that video speaks volumes by the way, “The Great Silence..” as it is so true, that victims of rape lose all power and their voice.  As previously stated, Hassan’s rape installed perpetual guilt in Amir until, he is given the chance to “set things right” and redeem himself by stopping his son, Sohrab’s rape, which he prevails in doing. 

Symbolism of the Kites

                The kites is a central symbol in the novel as Amir and Hassan share this common interest in kite fighting and  participating in kite tournaments.  There are two main symbols of the kite. First it symbolises the difference between classes. Amir is naturally above Hassan in society because of his family’s name and wealth. Whereas, Hassan is Amir’s slave boy and works for his family.  In kite fighting there is the one person who controls and flies the actual kite and then there is the person that feeds the first person the string in order for them to fly the kite. Amir is the one who controls the kite and makes the decisions when flying the kite and Hassan assists him by feeding him more string. That alone demonstrates each of their standings in society because just like in kite fighting Hassan assists and serves Amir at home. He makes his food, does his laundry and cleans after Amir, while Amir is technically his master.  Hassan might love kite fighting just as much as Amir and he might help a great deal when it comes to taking down other kites but he will never claim the victory with Amir. Even when he runs to catch the rival kite after it has been cut and returns back with it, the kite initially belongs to Amir and its Amir who gets all the praise for it.

                The second symbol of the kite in this novel is violence. Kite fighting is a violent game where kites and the children battle each other to win. The strings cut into the fliers’ hands as they try to cut down other kites around them. Once they finally have cut down a rivals kite the runners run after it with the same furious determination to retrieve the kite. This creates a violent imagery of predators hunting for their prey. This violent game can represent the violence in Afghanistan or foreshadow it as it demonstrates the tension between groups of people and the determination to come out as the best.

Look of the Lamb

          This novel feeds off of the past events in all the characters lives. Without certain happy and tragic events mentioned, some details wouldn’t connect or make sense to the plot of the story. One symbol that I was able to link to each the beginning, middle and end of the story was the lamb or sheep. At the beginning of the book, there is talk about the cultures tradition of sacrificing a lamb or a sheep in celebration of a Muslim festival. In our course text this resembles the sin or the world or the sacrifice without blemish. In the middle of the book during the time of Hassan’s rape, Amir refers to the look on his face similar to a sheep/lamb. Also, at the end of the book Amir finds that same look on Sorab’s face. In these cases, the lamb represents gentleness, young innocence, and purity. The sheep represents blind, helplessness and unintelligent. I feel like the time when Amir saw Hassan’s face would more so resemble a sheep because of the helplessness state that he was in at the time. Sorab appeared to look for like a lamb because he was so young and innocent.
          Both Hassan and Sohrab are innocents who are figuratively sacrificed by being raped, but these sacrifices have very different meanings. In Hassan’s case, Amir sacrifices him for the blue kite. But in Sohrab’s case, Amir is the one who stops his sexual abuse. In this context, sacrifice is portrayed as the exploitation of an innocent.



           These innocent and helpless looks made Amir feel a huge amount of guilt because he took all the blame upon himself. With this symbol you could link it to torture as mentioned in the lectures in class. Torture and torment must be consistent. One part of the book in particular stands out to me and that is when Amir goes back to Kabul and is at the stadium and watches two people get stoned to death. The fact that they make it such a public event is scary and disturbing. The picture to the left is very similar and has the same aspects of torture and torment that people experienced in this country at the time. The only difference is the victim is getting beheaded From the start of the book, Assef tormented and tortured from start to finish and not only to Amir and Hassan but also to Sorab and other members of the community. I wonder if these evil actions from Assef is his way of seeking out suffering as a path to God? Maybe he views all pain positively.

          The only way Amir could escape these constant looks of helplessness from people close to him was to find redemption from evil and to overcome the guilt he felt his whole life. Also relating to this is the video we watched in class called The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib at the beginning when the government does an experiment to test how many volts a human can endure before death. It is just unecessary torture and evil.

Helplessness

                                Throughout this novel there are moments where the characters feel as if they do not have control over their own actions, or what happens to them throughout their lives.  The feeling of not being able to make decisions for yourself and be treated differently can be damaging to one's self-esteem. Hassan is the one character in this book who suffers the most. He is a Hazara boy, and when one is Hazarian they are considered the lower class in Afghanistan.  Hassan cannot do anything about the fact that he is Hazarian, therefore he is extremely helpless when being bullied by Assef and his friends, who represents evil and all that is bad. I believe Assef should be represented as evil because of the cruel act he did to Hassan. When Hassan is raped, this will destroy any hope for Baba's affection. He is upset because he know he cannot change his past, and he feels like if he says something it will dishonour Baba and his family. I believe the act of rape as being a form of evil. In our very first lecture, we discussed the different ways we deal with evil. Number 4 was "Sometimes we don't respond at all or respond inadequately." I found this as a great connection with the sexual abuse Hassan endured. This represents a big part of Hassan's life and affected him very much on the inside, yet he did not show how he was feeling on the outside. He chose to ignore what had happened to him and continue life as nothing happened. This being very hard on Hassan, he was silenced of this moment forever. Amir compares the rape of Hassan to a sheep being sacrificed for its life. The sheep dies, and a part of Hassan that day died as well. Watching Hassan's eyes when he is being raped reminds Amir of the feared look in the sheep's eyes when he was being sacrificed. Hassan was being sacrificed that day for Amir, his good friend. In our text, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols, I found many meanings behind the various symbols found in The Kite Runner. I found that sheep meant "Blind and unintelligent following; helplessness." (p.151)  I believe this is a perfect underlying meaning to this work because proven in this novel, Hassan is indeed helpless when being raped.

The Complexity of Evil

     In the last section of the novel, Amir travels back to his homeland to search for Hassan’s son. While searching at the orphanage, Amir talks with the orphanage operator and experiences yet again another immoral effect of war. 
     The orphanage worker has spent his life savings on the orphanage to provide for the children and support them in all possible ways. A member of the Taliban often comes to the orphanage with money for the orphanage leader in exchange for a girl. The leader accepts this money and lets the man take this girl, and only sometimes she comes back. Amir does not agree with this because he is selling children for money. This is an example of human trafficking. But the leader of the orphanage said, “ If I deny him one child, he takes ten. So I let him take one and leave the judging to Allah. I swallow my pride and take his goddamn filthy, dirty money. Then I go to the bazaar and buy food for the children” (page 270). This is perhaps one of the greatest examples of evil I have seen in this entire book. It is cruel to sell a child for money. But in this case, this form of evil is used for good. This is the only way the leader of the orphanage can provide for the children by using one person as a scapegoat. This man does whatever he can to do for the children’s well-being and he still has faith in Allah. This displays the complexity of evil. But, all in all, this goes to show that wherever there is evil, love will shine through and wherever there is love, evil and hate will shine also. Although at times, one may shine brighter it is up to God, Allah, or whomever your god is to decipher evil occurrences in the world.   

The Moon and Irony

     On his wedding day at the alter, he remembers escaping Afghanistan only a few years previous. What triggered his memory was a traditional Afghan wedding song. The song is as follows: Make morning into a key and throw in into the well, go slowly, my lovely moon, go slowly. Let the morning sun forget to rise in the east, Go slowly, my lovely moon, go slowly. According to Cooper’s book, the moon has many meanings. Firstly, the moon is represented as the feminine power. Indirectly, the author is referring to not only his newly wed wife, but also his mother. When it comes to feminine power one thinks of the gift of childbirth. Therefore it is ironic that his new wife will never bear children suggesting that she does not have this feminine power. Another female power is the gift of nourishment for example breast feeding. Amir is aware that himself and Hassan were fed from the same breast as newborns, which gave them a close companionship. Little does he know Hassan is his half brother, representing more irony.

     The moon can also represent the dark side of nature. This displays that every good thing has a dark side. And also, as discussed in class, everyone is capable of committing evil deeds. This dark side is the guilt that Amir has that he never helped his friend when he was being raped.  

     And further, Amir says that the last time he heard this song was when he heard a Russian soldier at the Mahipar checkpoint the night him and Baba left Kabul. Leaving Kabul means leaving his past and deepest secret, to the bright side of the moon in America.