摘 要

卡勒德·胡塞尼是著名阿富汗裔美籍作家，《追风筝的人》是他的第一本小说，这使他在文坛名声远扬。小说主人公阿米尔是一个复杂的人物角色，故事围绕阿米尔和哈桑这两个阿富汗少年微妙的友谊展开，通过风筝这一意象，象征在主人公不同的成长时期人性逐渐成熟的过程，这部小说出版于2003年，广受好评，迅速畅销全球。

《追风筝的人》是一部有关成长主题的小说，以第一人称的口吻描绘了小说主人公阿米尔在童年时背叛友谊后的自我成长与救赎。成长小说萌芽于德国古典文学的背景之下，这类作品有一定的教育性，伴随着特定的时代特征，多数是充满希望，积极向上的结局，读者能从中审视自己，树立一个正确的价值观。

本文拟从阿米尔心灵的救赎和自我成长的历程入手，通过文献研究的方法探讨主人公如何告别过去，从一个自私懦弱的孩子成长为一个勇敢正义的自己。

本论文共分为四章:

第一部分是论文的导言,该章第一小节简要介绍了《追风筝的人》故事概况和文化背景,第二小节简要分析了该文研究的重要性。

第二部分是论文的理论基础,主要是国内外专家学者对著作的研究现状。

第三部分分析主人公形象，探讨主人公在不同成长阶段的性格特征。分析主人公性格成因和如何从自私懦弱成长为一个勇敢正义的人物形象。

第四部分是结论，这章概括了本论文的研究内容和意义，并指出了该论文的研究不足。

关键词：阿米尔 救赎 成长《追风筝的人》

1. Introduction
   1. Research background

Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country, and Muslims who believe in Islam are divided into Sunnis and Shiites. The Pashtun is the largest nationality in Afghanistan which accounts for about 52% of the total population of Afghanistan. “The ethnic composition of Afghanistan: 42% of the Pashtun, 27% of the Tajik, 9% of the zasha, 9% of the Uzbek, 4% of the zashkmarks, 3% of the Turkmenistan, 2% of the tribe, and the other 4%.” (Jefferess, 2009: 184) In Afghanistan, there is a dominant position for society, politics, economy and culture. More than 99% of the Afghans believe in Islam, of which 89% are Sunni and 10% are Shiites, People mainly believe in Sunni, the largest faction in Islam, and only less than 1% of the population believes in Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity. The Shiite themselves proclaimed as orthodox and oppose to the faith of the people of the Hazara. The third-placed population of ethnic group in Afghanistan is Hazara with Mongolian descent. But for a long time, discriminated by Pashtun and other ethnic groups has never been emphasized by the central government.

The novel describes a story with the cultural background of Afghanistan. In recent decades, the distant country which is tortured by war has always been the focus of global conflict. After the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, Al Qaida’s Afghanistan became the “center of terrorism” in the eyes of the Bush Administration. Afghanistan has become the pronoun of terror, violence, poverty and backwardness in many people’s eyes. As the war went in, people were eager to learn more about the country, and the books on Afghanistan began to best-selling. The Kite Runner was published in the United States in 2003, which had been the first novel in Afghanistan. Once published, the novel was immediately praised by the literary critics and ranked as the New York Times’s top seller list for 101 weeks.

The popular themes such as the relationship of family love, the friendship in childhood, the courage to ask for forgiveness, and the growth with redemption

depicted in The Kite Runner. No matter where and nurtured by different kinds ofculture, readers will be deeply moved by its content. Khaled Hossein was born in 1965 in Kabul city of Afghanistan and immigrated to the United States with his father later. The experience immigrated to the United States makes the novel more realistic. Every reader has been influenced by the author’s analysis of humanity in The Kite Runner.

• 1. Significance of the study

In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hossein reveals the trivialness of life and the humbleness of human nature with his flexible words. The past is like a kite floating in memory, waiting for the right opportunity to emerge unexpectedly. The readers will eventually understand that the original self is so vulnerable that everything in the original cannot be written off. Only when the inner courage gradually takes the place of cowardice, can the readers get real self-salvation.

The Kite Runner around the protagonist Amir’s betrayal and redemption, through the perspective of “I” to tell the personal growth experience, but the significance of the novel is not limited to this, which shows the history and social changes of Afghanistan for nearly thirty years, and through the relationship of characters to reflect the country Complex strata and ethnic relations. Amir’s personal experience is closely intertwined with the history of Afghanistan. The novel shows the historical pictures of three stages in Afghanistan. First, at the end of Zahir’s regime and the invasion of the Soviet Union (1975-1979), Amir received a call from Lasingham from Pakistan, and fell into a childhood recollection. The childhood life in the recollection describes the life of the Afghan people before and after the end of the Zahir regime and the Coude Han coup. “The children whose ears had no other voice except gunshots were not born yet.” (Fan, 2003: 60) The relative peace in Afghanistan during this period is quite different from the image of Afghanistan formed in the minds of 911 people. Second, the Soviet army invaded the country in 1979, and Amir fled to America with his father. Through the description of the escape process and the scene

of the lives of the Afghan people in the United States, the author describes to the readers the hard work of the exiled Afghans, which reproduces the suffering of theAfghans from another sides. Third, Afghanistan under the rule of Taliban, Amir decided to return to Kabul to save Hassan’s son after hearing that Hassan was killed by Taliban. Through Amir’s eyes, readers can see Afghanistan under the rule of Taliban.

The themes in The Kite Runner such as crime, friendship, forgiveness, loss and redemption can be linked to the readers’ personal experience. In real life, everyone will experience the growth process from ignorance to maturity. The key to the popularity of the Kite Runner was that the readers can see themselves from the image of Amir.

1. Literature Review

2.1 The research in foreign countries

In foreign countries, The Kite Runner has been studied in many ways. Khaled Hosseini is a famous contemporary novelist who was born in Afghanistan. In 2003, The Kite Runner which is his first novel published and achieved a great success. Since its publication in more than seventy countries of this novel, the novel has been translated into fifty-five languages and attracted wide attention from readers and critics. The novel has kept the New York Times’ best-seller list for five years and the Amazon’s best-seller list for 131 weeks. At the same time, it is also a recommended book for the French Book Club and the American Freedom Association. In 2007, the novel was made into a movie of the same name. A Thousand Splendid Suns which is the author’s second novel was published in the same year. Khaled Hosseini has been one of the top best-selling authors of the world in 2008. So far, many scholars have studied and analyzed novels from aspects of religious disputes, racial discrimination, the image of kite, the analysis of Hassan’s characters and redemption.

2.2 The domestic research

Many scholars have made a literary interpretation of The Kite Runner, including theme analysis, such as in a pluralistic interpretation of the theme of The Kite Runner, the author summarized three topics: First, the family theme of Amir’s affection for his father’s love and compensation for Hassan. Second is the subject of Amir’s confession and redemption. Third is the theme of the turbulent social criticism of the war in Afghanistan. Some scholars have also studied the image in the novel, which says that the process of chasing kite is the process of pursuing of ideal, the process of atonement, and the process of sublimation of the spiritual realm. The author interprets “Kite” as an important image of the novel. In Amir’s childhood, “Kite” metaphors “bravery”, Taliban banned kite is a symbol that Afghanistan is experiencing a time of horror and barbarism. Sohrab and Amir fly kite together in the ending of novel contains the hope for a better future of the motherland. The “Kite” also served as an important bridge between Amir and his father. The “Kite” also implied a dangerous signal to his father that the winner is king. At the same time, “Kite” is the miniature of Amir’s childhood tragedies. It also bears the good quality and fragility of virtue from Hassan. From the perspective of the symbolic meaning of the symbolism in the novel, the Symbolic Meaning of The Kite Runner explores the hell of Afghanistan, which is full of poverty, backwardness, war and racism from three symbolic levels of Afghanistan, Hassan and kite. Hassan is a scapegoat of racism who is brave, honest and tolerant. It is a real object of hope, dignity, salvation and destiny.

Another systematic and complete book, The Growth in the Redemption—from the Perspective of the Growth Novel The Kite Runner also starts with the experience of Amir’s personal psychological redemption and growth, and has a more detailed and complete exposition of the growth novels, characters, human morality, betrayal and redemption. The reasons for some scholars to explore Amir’s moral backboard mostly come down to the influence of his desire for father’s love, his envy of Hassan, the absence of anima, the shadow of the archetype structure, the cowardice of character or the fear in the heart, and so on. Combining the plot of the story with the process of Amir’s growth with the love and war, betrayal and redemption, it discusses Amir’s spiritual salvation and growth experience, and how to abandon his selfish and cowardly side and return to the noble and good moral character of his inner justice.

Wu Huijuan (2011) put forward that “chasing” is a samsara between crime and betrayal in the novel. It reflects the ascription of the mind and the return of human nature. In The Redemption of the Original Crime of Human Nature in The Kite Runner, it also refers to the representative literary theory of “human nature”. The thesis not only linked the cause of Amir’s redemption to the “original crime of human nature”, but also connected to “the modern society”. Many scholars have discussed the novel from the betrayal and redemption of the protagonist Amir. Li Jing (2009) analyzes more detailed and practical combination of Carl Jung theory to analyze Amir’s moral degeneration in his childhood to maturity, self-realization and pursuit of personality in his middle age.

1. An Analysis of Amir’s Growth and Redemption

Amir’s childhood——selfishness and cowardice

Amir was born in an affluent family in Afghanistan. His father was a rich man who had honorable identity in the region, and was also brave, strong and righteous. In Amir’s mind, his dad was a tall and heroic character, who can create an ideal world for himself. But his father was also indifferent and unapproachable. Amir was a sensitive child, who had always felt that it was his birth that led to the death of his mother which made Amir produces an extremely complex mood. He longed for the recognition and attention of his father, but his father was very strict with him because he wanted Amir to be a strong and brave person. He was afraid of his father even with a little bit hatred. Meanwhile, he was jealous of his father’s appreciation and love for Hassan. Lack of communication between father and Amir led his inner mind be full of inferiority and weakness.