Father-Son Relationships In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner is a touching tale of an Afghani boy's upbringing. Despite having a protagonist brought up in a culture unfamiliar to most North Americans, the book has found widespread readership. One of the many reasons for the book's popularity is the development and believability of the father-son relationships that we are introduced to right at the story's beginning. The characteristics in the relationships we witness are many; they include the sad …

…is informed of his father's lies that he discovers the truth - surely an undesirably ironic way to learn. In this way, studying the differences in the relationships between fathers and their sons is a good way to deepen the understanding of the book's main characters, especially in a book that is so driven by the relationships of its major personae. Hosseini makes effective use of these relationships to emphasize the themes of this story.