The Kite Runner Chapter 1

   The narrator who lives in San Francisco in December 2001 is remembering the winter of 1945, 26 years ago. We can see that the main character and narrator are the same person in the first few sentences. The keywords for Chapter one are ''Past,'' ''Sin'' and ''Kite'' which I believe are also the keywords of the whole book.

   Firstly, the narrator is remembering his ''Past'' here and there in this chapter. He says he has been peeking into his memories at his hometown for the last twenty-six years. Memories of the precise moment like crouching behind a crumbling mud wall or peeking into the alley near the frozen creek appeared nice and precious childhood memories for me. However, after a short reflection, the narrator says you can never bury your past and it always claws its way out, which means his memories are negative. I thought this sentence connects with the second keyword,'' Sin.''

  Secondly, we can see the memory of ''Sin'' is afflicting the narrator although long time has passed. He is also remembering a call from his friend, Rahim Kham in last summer. Instead of saying the call from my friend, he described it as a call from unatoned sin. I inferred that Rhan Khan has a deep connection with the narrator's past and knows about his sin. The dialogue, ''There is a way to be good again'' made my assumption more decisive. I wondered what sin he made, it must be something really heavy because it makes him feel guilty even after twenty-six years.

  Lastly, the word ''Kite'' is in the book's title and may relate with both narrator's ''Past'' and ''Sin.'' After he hung up the call from Rahim Khan, he saw a pair of kites flying high in the sky which made him pulled back to the past once again. And I believe this is the most important reflection of all three. He experienced a flashback of Hassan saying, ''For you, a thousand times over.'' The appearance of a character called Hassan was really sudden, the narrator introduced him as ''Hassan the harelipped kite runner.'' We can see Hassan is a key character as he is ''The Kite Runner'' which became the title of the book. In addition, ''For you, a thousand times over (君のためなら千回でも)'' that Hassan said is the title of the Japanese version. In my opinion, Hassan was the narrator's pal as I thought ''Pair'' of kites is symbolizing their past relationship.

   Conclusively, the main messages have already communicated in the first chapter through three keywords ''Past'', ''Sin'', and ''Kite.''

I believe the author dares not to mention what sin is and the main character's profile. I'm looking forward to finding out in the following chapters.