论文总字数：33269字

摘 要

美国小说家卡勒德·胡塞尼的小说《追风筝的人》自 2003 年问世以来，感动亿万读者。在小说中，风筝作为特定的意象贯穿整个小说的始终。作者通过对风筝的描述，反映了哈桑与阿米尔两个人所代表的阶层和地位的差异性以及阿富汗的社会状况。本论文共分为五章。第一章是论文的引言，首先介绍了胡赛尼的生平和追风筝的人的人物和主要内容，其次介绍了意象和象征的概念并举例说明，最后介绍了阿富汗的传统习俗,风筝比赛。第二章是文献回顾，介绍了国内外学者对追风筝的人的研究现状。第三章从四个方面出发，以风筝与不同人物之间的联系着手，来解读风筝意象的象征意义。第四章介绍了风筝在小说中的不同意义，揭示了地位和阶级的差异，暴力与美好的对立，背叛与自我救赎。第五章是论文的结论，本章总结了论文的研究内容及研究意义。通过对追风筝的人中风筝意象的分析与解读，我们可以看到，对于阿米尔而言，风筝象征着背叛与救赎；对于哈桑而言，风筝象征着忠诚与无助；对于父亲而言，风筝象征着传统观念的变迁；对于阿富汗而言，风筝象征着勇敢与痛苦。

关键词：风筝, 意象, 救赎, 偏见

1. Introduction

1.1 Khaled Hosseini and The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini is a famous contemporary novelist in the United States. He was born in Kabul, an ancient city in Afghanistan, in 1965. After the invasion of

Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, he fled to the United States following his father’s escape from war. He graduated from the Department of Medicine of the University of California, San Diego, and now lives in California, USA. His masterpieces include The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and The Mountains (And the Mountains Echoed). Hosseini “is determined to go to the dust of the face of ordinary people in Afghanistan, and shows the soul behind it to the world.” (Loyal, 2006: 208). In 2006, Hosseini won a humanitarian award from the United Nations for his international influence and his work. He was invited to serve as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and founded a foundation named after him to solve their survival difficulties and provide humanitarian assistance to Afghan refugees.

The novel The Kite Runners is centered on the daily lives of kites and two Afghan teenagers. It tells about a rich young man and his servant in the family about the kite. As the main clue of the novel, kites run through the entire text, with clear meanings and deep symbolic meanings. The kite can be a symbol of friendship between Amir and Hassan, and it can also be a racial discrimination in Afghanistan at that time. The study begins with the relationship between Kite and Amir, Kite and Hasan, and between Kite and Afghanistan. It analyzes the image and meaning of the kite and interprets the impact of the kite on Amir’s growth path, the process and method of redemption by a friend’s betrayal, and the impact of these salvation methods on contemporary young people. Maybe each of us will have lost ourselves. There may be a once “kite” falling into our hearts.

1.2 Imagery and Symbols

Imagery is the concrete generation of sensory images, emotions, and ideas. The imagery in literary works can effectively serve the image formation of characters and

the expression of thematic ideas. Imagery is an aesthetic category. It is an objective object that fuses the author’s subjective feelings. The kites often carry as an important image in literary works which have different metaphorical meanings. In Dickens’ David Copperfield, Mr. Dick loves the flying kite that implied his estrangement from the mundane world, but also implied his good character like the flying angle. The Chinese novel, Dream of Red Chamber, metaphorizes the fate of several major characters through different kites. For example, the kites of Xue Baochai metaphorized her life as a solitary and geese-married woman; her phoenix kite flying in the air and a kite flying in the air were twisted together. Peering away, this kite is a chilling metaphor for the tragic life of Jia Tanchun. In Lu Xun’s Kite, the kite is a symbol of the hometown of spring sun. It is a symbol of youth. It expresses an ardent memory of spring and youth, and the enthusiasm and search for beautiful thing.

Symbols have repetition and continuity. An “image” can be converted to a metaphor once, but if it is repeated as a presentation and reproduction, it becomes a symbol, even part of a symbolic (or mythical) system. In The Kite Runner, “kite” not only appears in the title, but also is a clue to the novel, and it appears repeatedly in the text. It should be said that it is a symbolic image.

The Kite Runner portrays a rich and full image of the kites in the slowly recollecting memory through the plain and detailed strokes. Around this image, a naive game of childhood and an appalling tragedy emerged. The strong contrast between people’s hearts and minds, the fear and terror of human beings are universally entangled in the kite line that flies side by side with the ideals. The soul has undergone a deep purge in suffering and struggle, freedom and beauty. A vivid image has brought deep emotions. Throughout the narrative text, kites are a rich carrier bearing multiple metaphors. Kite kiting and kite hunting are the characteristics of national bravery. They are also exercises for individual brave spirits. The ruthless kite line is a sharp knife that tests human nature. Cutting the human skin is more to dispel people's conscience, cut off the fragile friendship, and draw down the life. Hard to make

up for scars; the process of chasing a kite is the process of chasing the ideal process, the process of atonement, and the process of spiritual sublimation.

1.3 A brave national game

The kite competition is an ancient winter custom in Afghanistan’s traditional culture. Readers can strongly feel the preference of the nation for kites during the reading process. In winter, Afghanistan has a very cold climate, strong winds, and kites and kites are certainly games for the brave. Settled into the bedroom of Solarb, sheet embroidered kite in a blue sky.

In the minds of Kabul people, a kite-kite match is a grim war. The skies of a kite match are the battlefield where soldiers fight blood. The kite is the weapon that fighters defeat the enemy. The process of making a kite is to create a link for weapons, and the hands are fine. For example, a cut across the kite line of the wire was the war wound of the gladiator. The kite-watching spectators were passionate. The chorus of “Kill it! Kill it!” cheered louder and louder, as if the Romans shouted “Kill! Kill!” to the gladiators. Those who chased the kite ran in the streets. Lanes, from time to time, “outbreak of conflict.” For them, “The biggest reward is to pick up the last dropped kite in the winter game. It is the supreme honor. People will hang it under the mantelpiece for guests to admire.” (Hosseini, 2007: 123) To the main characters, the kite bears the endless admiration and longing of a father and two sons for the quality of bravery.

Like the epic fiction, the time span of nearly 30 years reflects the contemporary history of turbulence in Afghanistan. In 1978, the civil war, the invasion of the former Soviet Union, and the Taliban’s armed control, a tragic and devastated people was sad and weak. The enthusiasm of the national tradition of fighting kites in the novel is also a metaphor for the brave and courageous character of this desolate ethnic group. It is full of confidence. “Similar to what the British learned at the beginning of this century and what the Russians learned in the late 1980s: Afghans are independent nations. Afghans respect the customs but hate the rules, and the kites do the same. The rules are simple: let go of yours Kite, cut off the opponent's line, good luck.” (Ibid, 130)

The enthusiasm of youngsters for kite competitions is a spirit of lively innocence. It is full of life, hope, and joy. This is a tenacious spirit. It resists the cold of the outside world, the sickness of the body, and the poverty of life. It is tenacious to survive and drifts around, placing hope for society and life. At the same time, the dark power in the kite competition has already shown its dark hands. The unfair competition and brutal acts of the gangsters such as Assef have hinted at the escalating and irreversible social chaos caused by the pursuit of the traditional national spirit. When the story is described in the Taliban rule of prohibiting the practice of kite-flying, the author conveys such a message to the reader: As a kite cannot fly freely in the air, a nation’s “courageous” spirit is slaughtered, and the brave qualities are lost. A simple and terrible logic has emerged. People who have lost their national spiritual symbol have been stifled by the innocence they displayed in the game. The brave experience has turned into a cruel and brutal war. The blood of a nation’s bones has spread wildly and bravely. The spirit no longer exists. What is shown is terrible and brutal force, the violence that may occur anywhere on the street, the merciless humiliation of customs, and the horrible indifference to life.

In a very happy ending, “Soljay has already upstairs the study to be Sorab’s bedroom. The bed sheet embroiders a kite flying in the indigo blue sky.” (Ibid. 80) Maybe suffering and chaos are coming to an end and they have represented cowardly, Hamir, who compromised nationalism, finally embarked on a path to become a good man again. The Afghan people return to the real national courage.

The spirit of courage should be just around the corner, and confidence in the future of the motherland is also pinned on it.

2. Literature Review

In foreign countries, scholars study the novel The Kite Runner from many aspects. Algoo-Baksh (2005) started with Afghanistan, Hassan, and kites, reflecting the living conditions of the Afghan people at the time. Kojeve (1990) pointed out that the “Kite Runner” discusses the growth process of the young master Amir from immature to mature, from the initial betrayal of friends to the final salvation through the rescue of Hassan’s son, and his courage to admit mistakes and dare to embark on the path of salvation deserves our study. Noor (2004) proposed that the main reason for the state of turmoil and turmoil was that the Soviet army’s war aggression and the Taliban’s barbaric rule were in Afghanistan. Despite this, the Afghan people survived through their tenacious willpower and strong will, and inherited and carried forward their traditional culture and customs.

In China, the famous translator, Li Jihong translated and published the novel The Kite Runner in 2004. In addition, some scholars have evaluated and studied the novel from different perspectives. For example, Chen Meiling (2010) used the “Kite” in his works as a research object to explore the symbolic significance of the kite as an image and its role in the development of the plot in the work. Wang Jianrong (2009) interprets “Kite” as an important image in the novel, stating that “the process of chasing a kite is the process of pursuing self, the process of atonement, and the process of sublimation of spiritual realm”, (Wang, 2009:76) and takes “Kite” as an important novel Image interpretation. Li Jing (2009) analyzes the internal image of the works from the perspective of “growth novels” and “the theme of salvation”, combining the story plots of the novel with the development process of Amir, accompanied by love and injury, betrayal and salvation, Amir’s experience of spiritual salvation and growth, and how to abandon his selfish and weak side and retrieve the noble character of inner justice and goodness. Huang Ying (2011) believes that the novel mainly includes three themes: First, Amir’s longing for fatherly love and the affection of his father for Hasan and compensation; Second, the theme of Amir’s inner remorse and redemption; the third is the fictional mapping of Afghanistan’s turbulent social criticism themes.

3. The Interpretation of the Image of Kite in The Kite Runner

“Imagery” belongs to a concept in Chinese traditional aesthetics, which refers to an artistic image that is created through the unique emotional activities of the objective theme. In simple terms, imagery is the “image” of “meaning”. It is an objective image used to sustenance of subjective emotions. In literature, imagery simply refers to the combination of subjective “objective” and objective “image”, that is, “object image” that is integrated into the author’s thoughts and feelings. It is a concrete image with certain special meaning and literary meaning. The symbolic meaning of the image of the kite can be analyzed from four aspects.

3.1 Amir and kite — betrayal and redemption

The heroes of the novel, Amir and Hasan, grew up together. They are masters and servants as well as friends. Who could have thought that could change?

It was a once-a-day kite competition that changed everything.

In the winter of 1975, residents of Kabul welcomed the annual kite competition, which was of great importance to Amir, because he wants to be the biggest winner in this competition. Indeed, the outcome of the kite match was exactly what he intended and he did become the last king. Hassan, as his friend, will inevitably help him recover the symbol of honor — the blue kite that was finally cut off by Amir. However, in the path to go after the kite, Hassan actually suffered physical and psychological pain. In fact, everything that happened to Hassan was witnessed by Amir. However, he was timid and afraid. He did not have the courage to stop it. All he thought was the kite that could only bring honor to him. After he enjoyed the honor brought by the kite competition, his inner heart could not be calm for a long time because he knew very well that the honor he enjoyed was based on the dignity and personality that Hassan had trampled. It was from that moment that he found himself betraying Hassan. This is precisely the starting point of his betrayal of Hassan. He knows that his indifference will cause Hasan to feel sad, but he, who is extremely self-respecting, has never

apologized to Hassan. On the contrary, he has forced Hassan to go. Later, when he learned from the mouth of Rasin Khan that his old age had passed, that Hassan was actually his own brother, the deeper feeling of indifference to Hassan was deeper. He wanted to make himself suffer from pain and misfortune. Freed up, you also want to be redeemed. It was this idea that allowed him to embark on the road of “becoming a good person again”. On this road, he was subjected to many hardships and setbacks that he could not solve. In order to free himself from the reproaches of conscience, he bravely took the step of redemption — returning to Kabul to save his nephew. On this path of being a good man, he found himself once lost his soul. Similarly, when he saw the smile hanging on Sorab’s face, Amir’s heart was understood.

3.2 Hassan and kite — loyalty and helplessness

The Hasan in question is a Shia Hazara, and his identity at that time was a very low status symbol in Kabul. Therefore, he has received many unfair treatment and racial discrimination since he was a child. However, these unfortunate encounters he has encountered have not changed many of his noble qualities. Hassan’s identity is a very low Hazara. He simply does not have the right to education, but this does not affect his desire for knowledge. He hoped that his young master, Amir, would pass on the knowledge he had learned in school very much. But Amir does not think this is a meaningful and satisfying Hassan’s desire. Therefore, he also appeared in the story of his own fabrication to fool and perfunctory Hassan. The simple and innocent Hassan never found his young master’s deceit against him, but he was attentively listening to Amir's story. Whenever he went to a wonderful place, he usually claps his praise because he believes his young master will not deceive him, so he is also very loyal to his master. The winner of the 1975 Kite Contest was Amir. At the end of the game, Hassan did his best and even helped his master to recover the blue kite at the cost of his own life. The reason for all this is because he said the phrase “for you, thousands of times” to his young master. This is the perfect embodiment of the

loyal quality of his body. He would rather use his dignity and personality to safeguard the honor of the young master.

Hassan’s life has many hardships and sufferings. In fact, he wanted to have the same right to education as Amir and get the same fair treatment as others very much. However, these ideas of his can only be buried in his heart, and he has no ability or power to change his fate. Hassan’s fate is like that of a broken kite. He is helpless and he cannot control his own life.

In Hassan, the reader can also realize that the kite conceals the fragility of virtue.

It can be said that Hassan is a replica of Quasimodo. Although he is ugly in appearance and humble in appearance, he is loyal, brave, self-sacrificing, and has the determination and ability to love one heart and one heart; Quasimodo is relying on it, which has been active in the whole city, has temporarily gained spiritual liberation, and Hassan temporarily realized the dignity of the world by relying on the kite contest that boiled the entire city. Living in the hardships of reality, all the good qualities of human beings always come to the same goal — it must be like a kite-like system, turbulent and turbulent, and finally crashing and crashing. The image of the kites metaphorizes the good qualities of Hassan and enshrines the author's longing for a good and true human nature and a peaceful and happy life. Hassan, the son who was concealed by his father exactly inherited the brave qualities of his father. Hassan is agile and everyone knows that he is the master of the city’s kite hunting. Only this hare-loved, prestigious Hazavi talented person is the person who has the perfect quality of all characters and can persist in implementation. He is a model of Eastern heroes, loyal, forbearing, and full of sacrifices.

3.3 “Father” and kite — changes in traditional ideas

The image of “father” in the novel is rather tall. He is brave and upright. The old fighter also had a brilliant record of cutting 14 kites a day. The weakness of Amir has

always disappointed his father. With the victory of the kite, the son seems to let his father see a glimmer of dawn: his son still has blood like the father’s noble and courageous person. “Every time the forest is bleak, the ice and snow are closed, the chill between Dad and me will be a little better. It's because of the kite. Dad and I live under the same roof, but we live in their own areas. The kite is between us. Thin as the intersection of paper.”(Ibid. 90)

It is precisely because Amir's tender heart is sensitively aware that the blue kite is “the key to open my father's heart”, which leads him to sacrifice his conscience in exchange for his father's discovery of his so-called “brave” quality. Satisfied with the heroic spirit of his son’s kite fight, his father also held a grand birthday banquet for Amir and invited about 400 guests to attend. It can be seen that this kite carries the intense concern of the fathers for the “brave” quality of the next generation and also reflects the advocacy of the traditional values ​​of Afghanistan for bravery. It should be noted that the father’s blind appreciation of the kite warrior hints at a dangerous signal. The traditional national spirit he believes in is inducing courageous qualities into a disturbing corner where the crowd is no different from the herd. The barbarous rules of the game, where the weak will stand as an easy prey to the strong, and the winner is the king, are lost, and a beautiful national spirit has wandered beyond the bounds of reason.

3.4 Afghanistan and kites — bravery and pain

Afghanistan has many ancient traditional cultures and traditions. For citizens of Kabul, they are enthusiastically sought after by a winter custom for fighting kites. This is a highly honorable competition. The kite-kite competition is not simply a kite-flying. It means that you need to use your kite and cut off the kite lines controlled by others to beat each other’s kites. When you defeat the other kites in the sky, you become the largest. In 1979, the Soviet army illegally invaded Afghanistan. Soviet soldiers wanted to use guns and ammunition to disrupt and control the strong will of the Afghan people and their national spirit. However, the Afghan people desperately resisted and

rather died. At that time, the situation in Afghanistan was very confusing. The buildings of the past had become broken walls, and the spacious and clean streets of the past had become deserted and ruined. Despite this, the Afghan people never gave up their strong will, let alone be completely defeated and defeated by the Soviet army. In the winter, the kites floated over Afghanistan. This shows that the war cannot influence and change the traditional culture and traditions that remain in the hearts of the Afghan people. From this the readers can discover that the greatest spirit embodied in a suffering nation is brave.

After undergoing ruthless foreign aggression, Afghanistan was again ruled by the brutal Taliban, which severely hindered people’s survival and development, and their pursuit of freedom. All this has brought heavy pain to the Afghan people. At that time, Afghanistan was like a kite controlled by a fierce scorpion. It was played in the clutches of inhumanity and it was possible to fall at any time. When the string of a kite was cut off, it was a manifestation of war. Despite this, the enthusiasm shown by the Afghan people for the winter kite competition has made the blue sky full of vitality. This shows that brave people will not be defeated by the pain caused by violence.

4. The Significance of Kite in The Kite Runner

Through the interpretation of the image of the kite in The Kite Runner, the researchers found that for different objects, the kites in the novel have different meanings.

4.1 Differences between class and status

The metaphorical meaning of kites is reflected in the differences in the stratum and status of the two heroes in the novel, and this difference between them determines and limits the relationship between them. In the case of the kite-flying competition, with Amir standing high, he only needs to control the flight direction of the kite. With Hasan as a humble man, he can only act as a helper to take charge of the line for the kite. And this identity as a helper, for Hassan, is just as usual as he is a servant.

Take the kite competition, Hassan can still only help his young master as a servant. Although he is also immersed in the process of flying a kite and can also get excitement and joy from it, at the end of the game, he The cruel reality has to be faced and accepted, that is, the person who has been declared successful is always his small master Amir, and he can only be an unsung hero behind the scenes. In fact, with Hasan’s bravery and strength, he could have become a real hero, but he simply did not have this opportunity. The most important reason for this is his low class and status. Although those kites with honor were recovered by Hassan, the ownership of these kites belonged to Amir from beginning to end. Therefore, his joy and happiness are always pinned on others, just like his life as a servant, assisting his father Ali, serving and serving the rich life that the Amirs shared and enjoyed.

4.2 Violence versus beauty

In the novel, the readers can easily find that the game of kite fighting has a dual nature. On the one hand, the kite competition is actually a symbol of violence.

Because the rules of kite flying are very simple, take your kite line and cut the other kite’s kite line to make it fall. And when you are immersed in a kite competition, when trying to cut the lines of other kites, the glass shavings on your own kite line may leave a different shade in your hands when you do not understand it. When the cut kite falls with the wind, other people are madly chasing down the falling kite just as they saw the food. In their eyes, the kite falling on the wind is a symbol of honor. Therefore, this “violence” embodied in the kite competition actually refers to the riots and turmoil brought about by the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. This riot is the starting point of the novel and runs through the entire story. On the other hand, this act of flying a kite is a symbol of the friendship between the two young protagonists in the novel. Although there is a class difference between Hassan and his master Amir, this class difference is caused by the difference in the identity and status of both of them. However, when they participated in the kite competition, the hearts of the two of them were combined because of their love of kites. In his childhood, the weak Amir thought that Hasan had taken away his father’s original love, but when he was able to win the kite competition, he and Hassan worked together to fly the kite. The relationship is no longer a simple friend, master-servant relationship, more like a brother. In the kite competition, the person who controls the direction of the kite and the person who pursued the cut kite are mutual help and inseparable relations. Therefore, the kites in the kite competition actually referred to the sincere and beautiful friendship between Amir and Hasan. They let them forget the difference in class, status, and identity for the time being. They shared the victory because of the competition. And bring excitement and beauty.

4.3 Betrayal and self-salvation

Just from the title of the novel, the image kite in the novel is in a very important position and role in the novel. From the content of the novel, the pursuit of kite is the starting point of Amy, the young hero of the novel, betraying his friend. It is also the end of his soul’s relief and self-salvation. After witnessing the brutal violence of Hassan,

it was difficult for Amir to bring his kite-flying victory to him, apart from his own disloyalty with friends. Therefore, whenever he saw the kite flying in the sky, his scene would appear in his darkened alley. In this respect, the kite is a true expression of Amir's inner feelings of guilt and guilt. Although the author has described the kite in detail through different events, the overall situation is inseparable with the meaning of the kite. For example, the kite symbolizes Amir’s self-salvation. Therefore, despite Amir's efforts to save his nephew, Sorab met with many setbacks that he could not solve and overcome, but in the end it was still an act of flying a kite with his nephew, and his soul was redeemed. Just as the translator Li Jihong (2006), “The kite is symbolic. It can be family, friendship, love, and it can also be integrity, kindness, and honesty. For Amir, kites are an essential part of the metaphor for others. Only by catching up can he become a sound person and become his Amir of his own expectations.” (Li, 2006: 60)

5. Conclusion

This study starts with the relationship between Kite and Amir, between kites and Hassan, between kites and fathers, and between kites and Afghanistan. It interprets the image of kites and explores the different implications of kites for different objects. For Amir, the kite symbolizes his road to salvation and growth. That is, through the kite running incident, he recovered himself on conscience, condemnation, and lost his way. This also made his soul understandable. For Hassan, the kite embodies more of his loyalty to his master, his helplessness towards his own tragic destiny, and his vulnerability as a servant. For fathers, it is father’s strong concern for the brave qualities of the next generation and the change of traditional ideas. For Afghanistan, the kite shows the social situation in Afghanistan at that time, namely, aggression and armed rule by other countries. Eventually, it led to the demise of the nation in Afghanistan and the country’s right to mourn. In short, in the novel The Kite Runner, the kite as the soul of the full text is an image with a special meaning, which plays a crucial role in exposing the life conditions in Afghanistan and the personality of the characters.

Works Cited

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Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books, 2007.

Kojeve, A. Introduction to the Reading of Hege. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1990.

Miles, Loyal. The Kite Runner. Indiana Review, Volume 30, 2004, 207-209.

Noor, Ronny. Afghanistan: The Kite Runner. World Literature Today, Volume 25, 2004, 148.

Stuhr, Rebecca. Reading Khaled Hosseini. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, 2009.

卡勒德·胡赛尼著, 李继宏译. 追风筝的人. 上海: 上海人民出版社, 2006.

Chen, Meiling. [陈美陵], 浅析《追风筝的人》中风筝的象征意义. 文学教育, 2010, (11): 73-75.

Huang, Ying. [黄莹], 《追风筝的人》中的意象呼应及其文化隐喻. 南京邮电大学学报(社会科学版), 2011, (4): 70-74.

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