摘 要

《追风筝的人》是卡勒德·胡赛尼的第一部小说，它在国际上赢得了巨大的声誉。小说主人公阿米尔因对童年玩伴哈桑持有深深的偏见而多次伤害了哈桑， 并因此内心深受折磨，然而在移民到美国之后，阿米尔逐渐在心理上变得成熟与独立，并最终在得知哈桑和儿子在阿富汗陷入绝境时毫不犹豫回到故乡解救了哈桑的儿子，从而重获心灵的宁静。本文旨在分析阿米尔如何从一个怯弱、自私的男孩逐渐成长为一个勇敢、独立的男人的心路历程，进而展示阿米尔实现自我救赎的艰辛过程。

关键词：《追风筝的人》，歧视，改变，自我救赎

Contents

1. Introduction 1
2. Demonstration 2
   1. Amir’s discrimination against Hassan in childhood 2
      1. Amir’s superiority to Hassan 3
      2. Amir’s indifference to Hassan 4
   2. Amir’s transformation after immigration to America 5
      1. The awakening of Amir’s self-awareness 5
      2. The maturity of Amir’s psychology 6
   3. Amir’s self-redemption after returning to Afghanistan 7
      1. Forgiving Baba’s original sin 7
      2. Rescuing Sohrab 8
3. Conclusion 8

Works Cited 10

Bibliography 11

A Study of Amir’s Psychological Journey in The Kite Runner

Introduction

Khaled Hosseini was born in Afghanistan and graduated from University of California, San Diego. He is not only a writer, but also a doctor. As the first Afghan-American writer who displays the history of Afghanistan to the public in English, he always sets his novels rooted in Afghan culture. Khaled Hosseini is determined to brush off the faces of ordinary Afghan people and present the trauma behind the soul to the world. In 2003, Hosseini published his first novel The Kite Runner. Afterwards he continued to publish A Thousand Splendid Suns in 2007 and And the Mountains Echoed in 2013. His works, which were concentrated on underclass Afghans, delivered indomitable spirit, and won him tremendous reputation. He won United Nations Humanitarian Award and was invited to act as UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2006. He also won John Steinbeck Prize for Literature awards in 2014.

The novel tells the story of Amir, a 12-year-old Afghan rich master and his servant Hassan. Amir’s mother died when she was giving birth to him. Lacking maternal love since infancy, Amir was eager for paternal love and company. However, his father preferred Hassan even though he was a servant of lower status, which made Amir jealous and he tried to contend for his father’s favor. In Afghanistan, flying kites was a tradition, and both adults and children were keen on flying kites. In the kite competition, the one who cut the last kite line would be regarded as the hero and the last fallen kite of the competitors means honor. There was usually a traditional kite contest in Afghanistan every winter, which attracted thousands of people to enjoy it. In the novel, Amir was an outstanding kite warrior who was good at cutting others’ kite line by his own kite line and Hassan was a tough kite catcher who was very loyal and guileless. In order to get his father’s appreciation and love, Amir tried his best to win the first prize in the kite contest, and Hassan helped him catch the last dropping kite. However, on the way to finding the dropping kite, Hassan was stopped and raped

by Assef, who was hostile to Amir and Hassan. Amir witnessed Assef’s brutality and Hassan’s suffering, but he was so cowardice that he chose to run away instead of helping Hassan. Unable to face Hassan and full of guilty, Amir falsely accused Hassan of stealing, and succeeded in forcing Hassan and his father to leave home. In 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Amir and his father escaped to America. In the USA, Amir became a writer, got married and his father died. One day, Amir received a call from Rahim Khan, who was Baba’s old friend, telling him that Hassan and his son were in trouble. Hearing the news, Amir flew back to Afghanistan, and got to know that Hassan’s son--Sohrab-- was captured by Taliban. To make up for his childhood mistakes, Amir made great effort to save Sohrab and took him to America, where Amir took care of Sohrab, in which way he fulfilled his self-redemption.