2.3 The Metaphor About Image in Culture
Behind the image is a rich cultural entity. Approaching the image is a touch of human history and culture, and echo to human aesthetic psychology. In The Kite Runner, the kite’s image as a basic clue and a cultural spirit constitutes the novel in a cultural atmosphere as the overall morphology. The kite symbolizes different metaphorical meanings. It is a rich carrier bearing multiple metaphors. It runs through the whole story, mobilizing the conflict elements, strengthening the conflict effect, and playing a very good narrative role. The kite which consistently and repeatedly plays an important role as the novel image enriches the connotation of humanity and spiritual dimensions.
III. The Symbolic Meanings of the Kite
3.1 The Kite Symbolizing Kinship, Friendship, and Love
Khaled Hosseini thought that his novel was a story about love, and the character was searching for love and the relationship connecting families and people who are saved by love and the connection among people. In the beginning, Amir was an adult suffering from afflict in the depth of his heart. He didn’t ransom for his guilt which was not buried, because the past would sometimes come out to afflict his mind and spirit. In unceasing memory and dilemma with entanglement of his minds, the sincere love sowed Amir from the degenerative love from his father and his father’s friend Rahim Khan, love from his brother Hassan, love from his wife Soraya and his nephew Sohrab. Love endowed their power to support Amir. Because of love, Amir set foot on the salvation.
The kite symbolizes the deep respect and salvation of love. In the view of Amir, father was so great. He was brave and fair-minded. He also kept the glorious record cutting off 14 kites one day, In Amir’s immature mind, he realized that blue kite was the key to his father’s heart. Because of the estrangement between father and Amir, he became a little better. He and his father lived together, but they had their own space. The kite was just their delicate connection. Then we can see that the kite bores Amir’s expectation to his father’s love, and the attention to his father’s brave personality.
Father hoped Amir grow up healthily and bravely. In order to satisfy Amir’s hope for fighting for kites, father picked up the kite for Amir, and even held a ceremonious birthday party. In this novel, father’s friend Rahim Khan can also be called Amir’s father. When Amir felt frustrated, Rahim Khan always encouraged and comforted him. It’s he who led Amir set foot into salvation. The kite symbolized love of father. It seemed to be a light lightening the road that Amir moved on. 浅析《追风筝的人》中风筝的象征意义(3):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_7675.html