Kite Runner – Chapter 9
ENGLISH LITERATURE COMMENTARY THE KITE RUNNER The paragraph shows the moment of epiphany as it is the moment where Amir realizes that Hassan know that Amir had hide behind the alley when the incident happened. Amir discovers Hassan’s love for him is endless and accepts his flaws despite after everything that has happened shows in the phrase “led to another understanding: Hassan knew”. Hassan proves that his love for Amir is so great that he forgives Amir and willing to cover up for Amir once again.
Hassan knows that Amir has betrayed him and yet he still takes the blame. “My heart sank” shows that Amir is shock that Hassan is willing to sacrifice again and take the blow. However it will be “Hassan’s final sacrifice” as it will be the ultimate sacrifice of Hassan and break the pain they both are undergoing. The situation isn’t the same anymore after the incident happened as their friendship is broken already and with Hassan’s final sacrifice it puts down the curtain down to what happened in the alley.
The connotation of the ‘snake’ shows that it is Amir who is responsible for everything and the sneaky evil. The simile also interjects the fact Amir is not loyal. “The monster in the lake” refers the dream that Hassan had before the kite competition but in this reference Amir is telling that monster do exist and he compares himself to a monster in which he is cruel and a wicked person who is liable for the whole event. “I wasn’t worthy of this sacrifice. I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief.
And I would have told, except that a part of me was glad” shows that Amir realizes all his drawbacks and that he wasn’t worthy of Hassan’s sacrifice but at the same time he is glad that everything will be over. He is glad that maybe he would be able to move on and continue to his normal life again without having to think about his mischief because so far everything reminds him of the incident. “I wanted that, to move on, to forget to start with a clean state.
I wanted to be able to breathe again” conveys a message that after the incident he is not able to breathe properly because he always recall the bad memories and how he feels so desolate. He believes the only way to start a new clean state is for one of them to leave and with the presence of Hassan it is harder for Amir to erase the guilt and memory from his mind and he wants the memory to stop haunting him like a ghost. He wants to be able to breathe again and with the fact that Hassan is leaving he thinks that the pain would at least be over, his guilt will lessen, he wont be haunted anymore.
