The Kite Runner is a story that
revolves around a father-son relationship in the absence of the mother.
Whereas, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a story of mother-daughter relationship in
the presence of a father, but, that father who is not willing to accept them as
their family in the society. Basically, the father’s presence is negligent.
The Kite Runner is written in the
first person form, i.e.from the protagonist’s perspective, from Amir’s point of
view. On the other hand, A Thousand Splendid Suns is narrated in the third
person form, as if some spectator who has wittnessed these events is writing
about them. This gives us as insight into Hosseini’s writings as well, as he
reveals that the former novel has instances based upon his childhood, and
therefore, it seems more personalised.
The Kite Runner and A Thousand
Splendid Suns, both the novels, beautifully portray emotions, their arousal,
dealings and their disappearance. The former novel shows Amir hiding from his
past, his jealousy towards Hassan for his courage, repentance to Hassan for
which Amir thinks, nothing could be enough, but Sourabh, could be one of the
ways. While the latter, shows characters that are dependent mostly on the
antagonist, who hope for a better future but aren’t sure if they would receive
it. It shows their longing and their pain, whether, it be Mariam or Laila who
hope, hope and hope.
In both the novels, the
protagonists’ have just a few people
to rely upon, Amir trusts only Rahim
kaka in The Kite Runner. He believes that only Rahim Khan can understand him,
which is proven by Rahim Khan at many instances in the novel. At the same point
of time, we see, Mariam fixing up her hopes to Jalil first, then Rasheed and
eventually giving up, but, then, Laila enters and Mariam has given up hope,
but, found a friend, something she hadn’t asked for consciously but yearned for
unconsciously.
In the first or the debut novel,
“The Kite Runner”, the concept of bastard or an illegal heir is present. This
character is portrayed by Hassan, who is the son of Ali’s wife and baba’s.
Similarly, in the second novel, “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, Mariam is
considered as the wedlock. She is the illegitimate child of Jalil and Nana.
Both the stories in both the
novels revolve around general life, they deal with monotony present in everyday
lives, and, more importantly, they show reality, how expectations spoil
relationships, how jealousy brings barriers, how pretentiousness exists in the
society, how wars break away families, how hope is diminished and reborn, how
women are treated as objects and not humans, how new relations are formed and
how adversity teaches us to adapt, to change. Also, the events are influenced
by the politics and policies which gives both the novels, a reality touch.
One more
similarity that is observed in both the novels,
is the concept of an orphanage. In The Kite Runner, Sourabh was staying
in an orphanage from where Amir picks him up and Sourabh doesn’t want to return
there. Similarly, in A Thousand Splendid Suns, Laila’s first daughter, Aziza
had to also spend some of her days at
the orphanage, which slightly gives us a glimpse of the dark reality that is
present in there.
Both
the novels have also ended up showing a lot of loss, both physically as well as
mentally. A lot of characters have died towards the end, quite unexpectedly. In
the first novel, Ali dies, Baba dies(death of the only parent), and soon
enough, the illegitimate child, Hassan also dies. In the second novel as well,
Nana dies(death of the only parent), Rasheed dies, and Mariam, the bastard also
dies.
