In what has become a somewhat puzzling literary tradition across the nation, high school language arts classes everywhere including Grand Haven, read and discuss the book The Kite Runner. After hearing local parents complain about the content of this book, as well as having a friend's son tell me about the darkness of the story, I decided to read it for myself.
In my opinion, The Kite Runner achieves two things. The first achievement is the engrossing depiction of a family's experiences living in 1970s Afghan, the political instability of the country, the invasion of the Soviet Union, and the protagonist's eventual escape from Afghanistan to a better life in the United States. There are a lot of interesting tidbits in this story regarding daily life in Afghanistan prior to its destruction under Soviet rule, and many Afghan refugees that escaped to the US hold on to their traditions. Later in the story, our protagonist returns to Afghanistan, vividly describing the fear, bleakness and violence that has become the norm under Taliban rule. Afghanistan has become a wasteland in which warlords rule indiscriminately, and the author pulls no punches in describing this. It makes me thankful for the great country we live in.
The second achievement isn't so great. For those who are familiar with the trend of trauma-informed practice in public education and its relation to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), the choice of this book in public schools makes sense. The Kite Runner is pretty much a start-to-end sledgehammer of trauma and depression upon the reader. Here's a list of some of the dark, twisted, and traumatic events and ideas in this story:
Right off the bat, we learn that our protagonist, a boy named Amir, feels inadequate as a son. His relationship with his father (nicknamed Baba) is awkward and he attributes this to his own birth, which resulted in his mother's death due to complications. This tragedy is on Amir's mind constantly throughout the book.
Amir comes from wealth and his father is respected in the community. Like many families in such standing, he has servants – Ali and his young son Hassan. Living in a shack behind the main house, these Hazara servants dutifully provide all the cooking, cleaning, and home maintenance for Amir and his father. The ethnic Hazara people are on the lowest rung of the Afghanistan caste system. At times Amir treats Hassan as a friend, but at other times he treats him like crap just because he can.
Hassan, who he likes most of the time, is a problem for Amir. Amir is constantly perturbed by the fact that his father, Baba, is kind to Hassan. Amir fixates on this and comes across as jealous, selfish, and generally unlikable. He's also annoyed by Hassan's inherent intelligence. As a poor Hazara boy, Hassan is illiterate and shouldn't be smart according to Amir's world view.
Most book reviews of The Kite Runner on Amazon and elsewhere refer to an “incident” or “betrayal” that haunts the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Well, that incident is a graphic rape of Hassan by an older boy named Assef. The bully Assef forces his two lackey friends to hold down Hassan as he violates him. The “betrayal” in this story is that Amir stands farther down the alley witnessing the rape. He doesn't help Hassan in any way: he doesn't intervene and he doesn't run to get help. Afterwards, they walk home together as blood runs down Hassan's pant legs. Amir is a disgusting coward of epic proportions, and Amir's shame is another undercurrent that ripples throughout the book. At this point in the story, Amir doesn't believe that Hassan witnessed his cowardice. Later in the story we find out that isn't the case.
After the rape, Hassan is obviously traumatized and depressed. Amir responds to this by completely blaming the victim. Amir simply wants Hassan out of his life. His despicable behavior reaches its climax when he frames Hassan for stealing property, resulting in Ali and Hassan moving away.
The Soviets invade and Amir and Baba flee in the back of a truck to Pakistan. The escape is tense, but we see the kind of man Baba is when he puts his life on the line to prevent a Soviet border guard from raping a young woman. The contrast in character between Amir and his father is made more evident.
Amir acclimates to living in the United States and eventually marries. Leading up to the wedding and during the early stages of the marriage, Baba is dying of cancer. He used to be a bear of a man, and how he's reduced to skin and bones.
Amir settles into married life. He and his wife can't have children. The doctors can't figure out why.
Amir is summoned to Pakistan by his father's old friend Rahim Kahn who says he can “be good again”. Rahim knows of the rape and the lies. In Pakistan, Rahim tells Amir that Hassan and his wife were executed by the Taliban six months prior. Hassan has a son named Sohrab that is now in an orphanage. Rahim also tells Amir that Baba is the biological father of Hassan and it is his duty to rescue his nephew Sohrab from the orphanage. Upon this stunning news, Amir throws a tantrum like a 3-year-old.
For the first time in his life, Amir acts like a man and goes to Afghanistan to find Sohrab. The director of the orphanage says Sohrab is gone, but Amir will be able to find him by contacting the Taliban man wearing black sunglasses at the soccer stadium. At the soccer stadium, the man in black sunglasses performs half-time entertainment by stoning to death a man and a woman. Amir is able to set up a meeting with this man, and it turns out that he is the evil rapist Assef. Assef and his goons have been using little Sohrab as a sex slave. During a violent fight between Amir and Assef, Sohrab intervenes using a sling shot and Amir and Sohrab escape to Pakistan.
In Pakistan, Amir is having difficulty getting the proper paperwork to bring Sohrab to the United States. When Sohrab finds out that he may have to spend time in a Pakistani orphanage, he nearly dies after trying to commit suicide by slitting his wrists. At the hospital, Sohrab tells Amir that he wishes he hadn't been saved.
Amir brings Sohrab to the United States. At the end of the story, Sohrab has been in the States for seven months and refuses to speak to anyone.
As you can see, there are lots of ugly topics of discussion from this story. I struggle to find any true redeeming values in this story and I can't believe that teachers and the educational establishment in general actually think this book is appropriate for teenage students. If I were you, I'd opt your child out of this book.