This graphic novel is an adaptation of the original novel The Kite Runner. The story follows Amir and traces his life
for about 30 years from the 1970 to 2001.
As a child, Amir grows up in Kabul and lives with his father, who he
calls Baba, and their servants, Hassan and his father Ali. A close friend of the family, Rahim, is
frequently present at Amir’s home. Amir
and Hassan are best friends and they love to fly kites and have kite battles,
where boys from around the neighborhood fly kites at the same time and attempt
to “cut” each other’s kites down. When a
kite is “cut,” it falls to the ground, and whoever gets it first gets to keep
it. But after one big tournament, Amir cuts
the last kite, and Hassan (his kite runner), runs to find the fallen kite. Tragically, Hassan is cornered in an alley
and is raped by bullies who treat him as sub-human, because he is a
servant. Amir witnesses the rape, but
doesn’t step in. He even later ignores
that the rape even happened. This causes
a rift at home, and Hassan and Ali decide to leave.
Following this, the Soviet Union invades Kabul forcing Amir
and his father Baba to escape to the United States. There they make a living (which is much less
than they are used to in Afghanistan), but they begin to rebuild their
lives. Shortly after Amir’s father dies,
he is called back by Rahim to “make things right.” At this point Amir is a married adult, but he
decides to travel back to Afghanistan, which is incredibly violent because the
Taliban have taken over. Amir discovers
that Hassan has been killed, but that he had a son who has no home. Although this boy, Amir’s nephew, his held
captive by the Taliban, Amir decides to rescue him and adopt him with his
wife. As a twist, the primary member of
the Taliban Amir must face to save this boy is the same person who raped Hassan
long ago. Amir nearly gets killed, but
he escapes with his nephew to the U.S., and offers him a new life in honor of
Hassan.
I read this graphic novel because I’ve heard that it’s a
good story, and I also wanted to read a graphic novel on the I-pad, which I’ve
never done before. My initial impression
is that it is an excellent story, though it’s very difficult to sit and read
about Amir not intervening while his best friend Hassan is being raped – he was
a coward in that moment. But I did feel
that he redeems himself at the end, because entering spaces controlled by the
Taliban, and confronting them face-to-face, requires way more courage than
anything Amir had ever experienced.
I personally love graphic novels, and this one only made me
want to read more. It is a unique
experience to read a digital copy of one.
The one minor complaint I have about the experience is that I’m the kind
of reader who likes to jump back and forth quite a bit to make sense of
different parts of the story, and the I-pad version of this graphic novel makes
that very difficult. There is a search
function, but it is clunky and not easy to use.
So, my recommendation would be to read a hardcopy. The pictures are beautiful and really help to
give the reader a sense of the culture to which Amir belongs. We see intricate and tight streets, filled
with people and market items. Another
thing that didn’t come across well for me was the kite battling scenes. After reading the graphic novel I watched the
film adaptation, which is excellent overall, and it shows more clearly and
vividly how a kite is “cut.” For some
reason, static images don’t do this very well.
This novel deserves to be taught, because, like Persepolis, it offers a positive image
of a middle-eastern culture that is currently viewed negatively by much of the
public. I imagine that we’re in a time
similar to the end of WWII where many U.S. citizens held nasty, even racist,
views about Japanese people. We need to
do everything we can to dispel these stereotypes. The
Kite Runner, in my opinion, helps to undermine such negative views, because
it familiarizes Amir and his culture, and shows us that we’re not really that
different. This would be a great
opportunity for teenagers to explore and subvert the foreign/familiar, us/them,
and good/bad binaries. If I get a
chance, I will teach from this novel (or some variation of it) someday.
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