Kites (and kite fighting)

It appears in the book 3 times, At the very start of the book, they are in chapter 7 and when the phone call happens, and at the very end. It is a battle and you are supposed to cut other strings while flying in the sky. It is very dangerous and vicious. Childhood in Afghanistan is not a normal childhood kites are to play with and have fun and innocence and youth-related to children but in afghan it is violent and they symbol is tainted by the dark edge and childhood is corrupt and stolen from being youthful. It’s through the whole book, at the start, triggers memories of a life that happened in his life. Kites trigger a past experience and now kites are associated with it. Develops the character and we learn that our past is always there, floating above like a kite, they remind him. Kites are very weak and Amir believes that something made up of sticks and paper is going to reappear in his relationship with his father. “Do you want me to run that kite for you?” his adam’s apple rose and fell as he swallowed. The wind lifted his hair. I thought I saw him nod. “For you a thousand times over,” I heard myself say.” “One was the blue kite resting against the wall, close to the cast iron stove; the other was Hassan’s brown corduroy pants” The symbol both represent childhood, innocence, and happiness but in fact in this book it represents violence and Hassans 

The Pomegranate Tree

– It belongs to Amir and Hassan it appeared as they were children when they read books together it also occurs after Hassan is raped and then they go up and Amir tries to make Hassan hit him with the pomegranate. Then at the end when he goes back.
– They carve their name into the tree sultans of Kabul, they carve it into the tree to make their relationship concrete. At the start, there are pomegranates on the tree when their relationship was good. When Amir tries to get Hassan to hit him with the pomegranate the world around begins to deteriorate and that the pomegranate tree begins to die Kabul is taken over by the Taliban and Amir and Hassan’s friendship begins to die. The carving was still there but the tree was dead when he decided to go back and see it after 20 years living in America
– “Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul”, “Hassan had said in his letter that the pomegranate tree hadn’t borne
fruit in years. Looking at the wilted, leafless tree, I doubted it ever would again.”, “What would you do if I hit you with this?” I said, tossing the fruit up and down. “I hurled the pomegranate at him. It struck him in the chest, exploded in a spray of the red pulp. Hassan’s cry was pregnant with surprise and pain.” “Get up! Hit me!” I said. Hassan did get up, but he just stood there, looking dazed as a man dragged into the ocean by a riptide when, just a moment ago, he was enjoying a nice stroll on the beach.” “But Hassan did nothing as I pelted him again and again. “You’re a coward!” I said. “Nothing but a goddamn coward!” “We sat under our pomegranate tree and I knew I’d made a mistake. I shouldn’t have come up the hill. The words I’d carved on the tree trunk with Ali’s kitchen knife, Amir and Hassan: The Sultans of Kabul… I couldn’t stand looking at them now.” He wanted Hassan to hit him because of the guilt of Chapter 7 he wanted Hassan to feel the same guilt that he did, he wanted them to be equal. Amir picked up a pomegranate and said what would you do if I hit you? Hassan’s colour from his face disappears. The pomegranate hit him in the chest and Hassan yelped. Amir tries to make Hassan hit him back, he wanted life to be normal again and he hit him so Hassan would hit him and the guilt would be gone he could sleep. He hit Hassan many times. No return for the friendship was broken beyond repair. Hassan would never hurt him, no matter how much Amir hurts him (loyalty takes the bullet than let Amir feel it) the blood-red colour of the pomegranate the love for Amir that Hassan has will never be reflected the same from Amir. They are religious and represent good things given by god. Pomegranates represent friendship and it never goes away. Hassan always loved Amir but it was never reflected the same way.

Scars

– Hassan has a cleft lip and Baba for Hassan’s birthday got it fixed so he had a scar on his lip. Amir fights Assef and in the end, he gets scar in a similar place on his lip
– Hassan was born with a cleft lip and his mother ran away with the gypsies because Hassan was deformed. However, Hassan wasn’t Ali, and His mother’s child Hassan’s mother had an affair with Baba, and Ali knew but always looked after Hassan as if he was his own. Baba felt guilty because he robbed Hassan of a mother and he tried to treat the child as his but not at the same time. Amir got him from when he fights Assef later on when he goes back to talk to Rahim Khan and help Sohrab. He gets the cut from getting the beating that he would have gotten if he had stepped in to stop Assef from Hassan being raped all those years ago. The scares are not only physical they are mental as well. Often the mental ones are hard to fix because no one can see them and we often try to bury them as much as possible because they are the ones that we are the most sacred to express in fear of being judged or seen as a good person. A physical reminder of the memory that gave it he and that healing has taken place and a reminder that the body has healed itself. There has been trauma and physical marks that remind you. The scar remains on the tree as a connection o the friendship and the scar on his lip links him with Hassan and if Amir ever looks in the mirror he will remember Hassan which is a punishment because he never stood up for his friend/brother, and it shows he came back from something and that he was healed from the fight that he had with Assef.
– “I wished I too had some kind of scar that would beget Baba’s sympathy. It wasn’t fair. Hassan hadn’t done anything to earn Baba’s affections; he’d just be born with that stupid harelip.” “The worst laceration was on your upper lip, Armand said. The impact had cut your upper lip in two, clean down the middle. But not to worry, the plastics guys sewed it back together and they think you will have an excellent result, though there will be a scar.”
– Discuss what the symbol is and means outside of the text. Comment on Scars often cover people’s bodies from being burnt by accident or cutting yourself on paper or on a tree, or having too much fun and falling over. It is the epitome of a normal childhood to gain scars on kids that get them to think that they are a badge of honor and courage. In the book, scars are from violence and fear. The emotional scars when a normal child is fear of monsters and animals. Not the fear of their parents, bullies, and adults. The scars stay with you forever despite you need to fix them they definitely change you and make you who you are and change you for the better or for the worst.

The Slingshot

– It appears at the start of the book when Assef and his bullies try to attack Hassan and Amir but Hassan steps in and threatens to shoot him in the eye. 26 years later it also appears, when Amir is fighting Assef and Sohrab tells him to stop and ends up shooting him in the eye.
– A normal slingshot is a toy in all reality however it can be used in violence by shooting it at someone, these kids learnt to use it as a weapon. It is a weapon that is used to defeat evil and enforce the good. Both characters use the slingshot to protect Amir Hassan Nevers shots the slingshot and Sohrab shoots it. It shows loyalty because when Ali catches them firing walnuts against the dog and Hassan takes the blame and the slingshot represents the loyalty that Hassan has for Amir. Defending Amir against Assef. It’s a full circle movement because they are purely good and it’s used by the good characters to defeat the evil character. It damages Assefs eye and the fact that they are both working against the same evil. The bond between Hassan and his son is shown by both of them using it at once. Slingshot can be a toy but in Amir’s childhood, it becomes an evil and a weapon not a toy anymore. It becomes Hassan’s strength and defence. There is foreshadowing that comes when Hassan says to Assef that he would take out his eye because in the end Hassan’s son actually its Assef in the eye while trying to defend Amir. The slingshot is the symbol of Hassan and Sohrabs loyalty defence and good inside them.
– “The slingshot made a thwiiiit sound when Sohrab released the cup. Then Assef was screaming. He put his hand where his left eye had been just a moment ago.” “Perhaps you didn’t notice that I’m the one holding the slingshot. If you make a move, they’ll have to change your nickname from Assef ‘the Ear Eater’ to ‘One-Eyed Assef’, because I have this rock pointed at your left eye.”
– This toy can be dangerous no one knows really if it is in the right hands but it can be used as a weapon at the same time its a symbol of defence that if they wanted they could take your eye out or hurt you badly. Slingshots are insignificant and can be used to fight against evil and can indeed hurt people and can destroy lives.