Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried."
-Shakespeare's Richard III I.I.1-4
Winter. The season of snow, chills, and hot chocolate. Yet in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, winter signifies the end, whether they be of a smile, of friendship, or of innocence. Winter has always been associated with old age or even death. In The Kite Runner, winter is ironically the season that families and children get together to witness the kite tournament, an Afghan game involving kites battling until the last one is left standing. Even if the glass strings cut the hands of individual players, the excitement of the game in the middle of winter vacation becomes the talk of the remainder of the school year. The protagonist, Amir, envisions himself that this year he will be the winner, and in truth, he did, but metaphorically, he also lost. The end of the chapter five even states an ominous note that "that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling."
After Amir's win of the kite-fighting tournament, Hassan serves to make him happy by running after the losing blue kite. However, Hassan encounters trouble with Assef, a sociopath, and his gang of ne'er-do-well's. Amir searches for Hassan, and witnesses the horrendous vision of Hassan's raping in a grimy alley. Amir is placed with two choices- to stop Assef or to run away, and being only a child, Amir escapes the sight. Everything changes since that point forward. Amir loses his innocence and like Richard III's speech, the guilt is "in the deep bosom of the ocean buried," and consumes the remainder of his life, affecting his choices and perception of himself. The spring and summer of Amir's childhood days are over, only replaced by the uninhibited loss of innocence, and overwhelming guilt which pervades all aspects of Amir's life. Hassan no longer smiles because Amir does not let him or rather because Amir does not nor cannot forgive himself. Their deep friendship is shattered by the image of Hassan being corrupted, an image so obscure and unthinkable that the only way to end the guilt is to shut down the normalcy of childhood infinitely.
Winter. The season of snow, chills, and hot chocolate. Yet in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, winter signifies the end, whether they be of a smile, of friendship, or of innocence. Winter has always been associated with old age or even death. In The Kite Runner, winter is ironically the season that families and children get together to witness the kite tournament, an Afghan game involving kites battling until the last one is left standing. Even if the glass strings cut the hands of individual players, the excitement of the game in the middle of winter vacation becomes the talk of the remainder of the school year. The protagonist, Amir, envisions himself that this year he will be the winner, and in truth, he did, but metaphorically, he also lost. The end of the chapter five even states an ominous note that "that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling."
After Amir's win of the kite-fighting tournament, Hassan serves to make him happy by running after the losing blue kite. However, Hassan encounters trouble with Assef, a sociopath, and his gang of ne'er-do-well's. Amir searches for Hassan, and witnesses the horrendous vision of Hassan's raping in a grimy alley. Amir is placed with two choices- to stop Assef or to run away, and being only a child, Amir escapes the sight. Everything changes since that point forward. Amir loses his innocence and like Richard III's speech, the guilt is "in the deep bosom of the ocean buried," and consumes the remainder of his life, affecting his choices and perception of himself. The spring and summer of Amir's childhood days are over, only replaced by the uninhibited loss of innocence, and overwhelming guilt which pervades all aspects of Amir's life. Hassan no longer smiles because Amir does not let him or rather because Amir does not nor cannot forgive himself. Their deep friendship is shattered by the image of Hassan being corrupted, an image so obscure and unthinkable that the only way to end the guilt is to shut down the normalcy of childhood infinitely.
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