A Study of Symbolism in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

Abstract

The research work examines the symbols used in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner to explore the division among the two ethnic groups of people in Afghanistan namely Pasthun (Sunni) and Hazara (Shia) and the Russian interest over Afghanistan. The decade-long war resulted killing of thousands of people and the panic psychology in the citizen. Moreover, the research also depicts the dislocated identity of Asian immigrants in America. Since war trauma and the desire for freedom are the major themes of the novel, the story centres around explaining how the symbols used by the writer in the book have portrayed all these realities. Basically, the kite, the kite fighting and the kite flying are taken into the discussion for the study in the research. The problem of the study is that how the symbols used by the writer contribute for the establishment of his major ideas. For this symbolism has been used as a theoretical approach for discussion throughout the research.