Kite Runner Motifs: So far…chapters 1-14
MOTIF
EXAMPLES
EXPLANATIONS
wounds/scars
―Sometimes up in those trees, I talked Hassan into firing walnuts
with his slingshot at the neighbor‘s one-eyed German shepherd‖
(4). Amir goads Hassan into tormenting a disfigured animal,
something that is less than him, something that cannot fight
back. In a sense, this tormenting of something that has a lesser
status is just like Amir‘s taunts of Hassan.
―But polio had left Ali with a twisted, atrophied right leg that was
a sallow skin over bone with little in between except a paper-thin
layer of muscle‖ (8). Ali‘s status as less than (Hazara) is also
represented through his physical disfigurement. He is portrayed
as less than physically; however, his character is of strong morals,
perhaps representing a character that is physically weak but
morally strong – a contrast for Amir.
Hassan‘s mom, Sanaubar, abandons Hassan because of the cleft
lip (10). Like Ali, this physical wound seems to show a contrast
between what can be seen versus the character‘s moral and
ethical traits
Baba has scars on his back because of fighting the bear (12). The
scars show that he is willing to go out of his way to do right, to
defend good. What follows this scene is a description of Baba
building an orphanage. So again we see the wound as a physical
blemish on a character with strong morals and convictions.
Mention of the bear again on 174.
―…the face of Afghanistan is that of a boy with a thin-boned
frame, a shaved head, and low-set ears, a boy with a Chinese doll
face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile‖ (25). This quote is not
only part of the larger motif, it is also symbolic. Afghanistan is a
child, young, naïve, but a disfigured child. This disfigured child,
represented by Hassan, is physically scarred (like the landscape of
Afghanistan has been by war) but morally and strong. The Afghan
people are strong-willed, strong in their beliefs.
Hassan‘s lip is surgically corrected, but nearly the same time
when he is made ―perfect‖ on the outside, he experience such
trauma that his internal self is changed during ―the winter that
Hassan stopped smiling‖ (47).
―Kabul had become a city of ghosts for me. A city of harelipped
ghosts‖ (136).
Wounds/scars are used to highlight the
differences between a character‘s
physical appearance and his or her
internal world. Those characters that are
disfigured physically (Hassan, Ali, Baba)
seem to be internally (morally) strong.
Those characters that are physically
strong (Amir, Assef) are flawed
internally.
Mirrors
―When we were children, Hassan and I used to clim the poplar
trees in the driveway of my father‘s house and annoy our
neighbors by reflecting sunlight into their homes with a shard of
mirror‖ (3). Using the mirror as a prank, a weapon. The glass
reflects on others but not on himself.
―[Ali] would take the mirror and tell us what his mother had told
him, that the devil shone mirrors too, shone them to distract
Muslims during prayer. ‗And he laughs while he does it,‘ he
always added, scowling at his son‖ (4). The boys are being
devilish here. They are distracting other Muslims who might be
trying to pray in their homes and they are being noisy and giggly.
A few sentences later, Amir tells us, ―[Hassan] never told on me.
Never told that the mirror , like shooting walnuts at the
neighbor‘s dog, was always my idea‖ (4). Amir is the devil, not
Hassan. This is perhaps foreshadowing what is to come.
Mirror in the wedding ceremony (page 71).
Mirrors as a weapon to reflect the faults
of others, but not turned on oneself.
