Symbols

1. The Slingshot

"You are right, Agha. But perhaps you didn't notice that I'm the one holding the slingshot." (pg. 45)

2. The Kite

"Up and down the streets, kite runners were returning triumphantly, their captured kites held high. They showed them off to their parents, their friends. But they all knew the best was yet to come." (pg. 68)

3. The Cleft Lip

"And the cleft lip, just left of midline, where the Chinese doll maker's instrument may have slipped, or perhaps he had simply grown tired and careless." (pg. 3)

Throughout the novel, "The Kite Runner" the author Khaled Hosseini uses various symbols and connects this literary technique to provide connections from the childhood portion of the novel to advance further into the adulthood section of the novel. One of the more important symbol in the novel would be the slingshot. The slingshot symbolizes courage, strength, loyalty, defense, and identity. In Amir and Hassan's childhood days, the slingshot that Hassan had always carried protects both him and Amir from Assef and his group. It represents strength to overcome and scare away foes and at the same time defends themselves. Later on in the story, Hassan's son, Sohrab, uses the slingshot to harm Assef to defend Amir. The slingshot becomes somewhat of an identity for Sohrab and Hassan who continuously protects Amir and shows courage that they are not afraid to harm others for their safety. The cleft lip symbolizes class, social status in the novel. People who often have cleft lips tend to be ignored or of lower class; normal people making fun of them. This cleft lip which Hassan has declares his social status even more lower than being a Hazara servant. Later on in the story, his cleft lip is fixed through surgery and no longer seems abnormal, and blends in with others. As a Hazara servant, his status was already highly mocked but the symbol of the cleft lip even further pushed him down the status chain. The surgery was a huge relief and a ladder to climb back up from the depths of his low social status. Another influential symbol in the novel would obviously be the kite. The kite has a sense of freedom, flying in the vast sky, dancing the wind, however the kite is attached to a string denying that freedom. The kite symbolizes the start of true betrayal and distance for Amir and Hassan. Hassan gets caught by Assef and gets raped and beaten due to his extreme loyalty to Amir and not giving the kite up to Assef. Amir watches this event but does not act betraying Hassan. The kite also symbolizes guilt that Amir has later in his adulthood days because he did not do anything during the process where Hassan was abused. It is ironic how the kite symbolized the string of connection Amir had with Baba yet now it is a symbol of guilt and betrayal. Amir in the ending of the novel flies kites once more after redeeming himself and the kite now truly symbolizes relief and freedom, freedom from all his guilt and betrayal towards Hassan, salvation through Sohrab, and the kite symbolizes the infinite connection between Sohrab and Amir, whom which Amir would do anything for him a thousand times over. \