《追风筝的人》之阿米尔的身份构建(2)
intricate emotions were kept under calm waters until one serious incident. To get the
kite for Amir on the kite flying contest day, Hassan fought with Assef, the biggest
bully as well as the great racist in the area. Terribly, Hassan was sexually violated by
Assef in an old alley, but the worst was that Amir witnessed the whole thing in the
dark yet did nothing out of cowardice. Since then, Amir began to hide from Hassan
and finally made the father expel him and Ali by calumniating him with stealing a
watch. After that, the continuous war started in Afghanistan and Amir moved to
America with his father. He betrayed his best friend and fled from his hometown with
a strong sense of shame and guilt. Amir didn’t come back to Afghanistan until Rahim
Khan, an old friend of his father as well as a supporter of his writing dream, called
him to “find his way to be good again”. He told Amir the deeply buried secret and
hoped that he could go back to the chaotic Afghanistan to rescue Hassan’s son. Then,
Amir set on his road to self-redemption. After thousands of difficulties and dangers,
he took the boy to America and adopted him with his wife, which brought the story to
a full circle. The Kite Runner draws great attention since it is published. It climbs straight up to the
top of the bestsellers like New York Times, People, etc, and it is highly evaluated by
people of various fields. The famous American writer Isabel Allende has a high
opinion on this novel, saying “it is so powerful that for a long time everything I read
seemed bland” (Hower, 2003: 4-5). The Washington Post Book World views it is “an
intimate account of family and friendship, betrayal and salvation” (Hower, 2003: 4-5).
And Entertainment Weekly describes it as “a moving portrait of Afghanistan from its
pre-Russian-invasion glory through the terrible reign of the Taliban” (Hower, 2003:
4-5).
Hosseini once said: “As an Afghan writer, I try to do my best to represent a view that
is culturally accurate and historically legitimate, not so I can be a representative of the
Afghan cultural perspective, but so that the story is imbued with authenticity and will
ring true. Good stories must ring true and for me, it always goes back to story” (Azad,
2005:164-170). In the article, “To be good (again): The Kite Runner as allegory of
global ethics”, the author combines cosmopolitanism and humanitarianism and argues
from the perspective of ethics. He tries to reveal a shift from race and nation as
primary factors constructing political community and identity to the idea of the
“modern” for judging the “human”, regarding the novel as an allegory of global ethics
(Jefferess, 2009: 31-34). Mashael Al-Sudeary illustrates in his article titled “Power
Relations in The Kite Runner: A New Historiscist Reading” that the stories happening
in the novel have intimate connection with the political and realistic background
during that period. “He defends, what was once a society purely dependent on the
belief that physical strength and valor were the major determinants in forming power
structures has now changed to give supremacy to discourse as an essential source of
that power” (Luckhardt, 2010: 21-57).
Compared with the related literary study abroad, the researches about Hosseini and
The Kite Runner in China have significantly developed. Generally, scholars and
researchers mainly analyze the book from the perspective of theme, character, image and narrative strategy. For instance, in “An Analysis of Multiple Themes of The Kite
Runner”, the author comments that “the essence of this bestselling novel does not lie
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