The Kite Runner Group

Question:

jhardman5390
jhardman5390
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What is the symbolism behind the pomegranate tree in The Kite Runner?

What is the connection between the pomegrante tree that Amir and Hassan used to read under and the same pomegranate tree that Amir finds bare with nothing but he and Hassan's carvings when he returns to find his childhood home destroyed?

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Posted by jhardman5390 on Monday May 5, 2008 at 6:04 AM and tagged with pomegranate tree, symbolism, the kite runner.

Answers:


  1. dymatsuoka

    eNotes Editor

    The pomegranate tree is a symbol of friendship, childhood innocence, and shelter.  When it appears in the first part of the story, Amir and Hassan were fast friends who, despite elements of caste, shared happy times together and enjoyed each other's company.  The lush, blooming tree paralleled their lives which were full of promise, and its wide, spreading branches provided shelter, as did their comaraderie.

    When Amir sees the tree again when he returns to his childhood home in the latter part of the story, it is bare and has ceased to blossom, like the ruins of his friendship with Hassan.  All that remains of that idyllic time is a memory, as represented by the carvings they made on the tree as children.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/kite-runner/
    http://www.enotes.com/kite-runner/style

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    Posted by dymatsuoka on Monday May 5, 2008 at 9:44 PM

  2. ruewithadifference
    ruewithadifference Student
    Graduate School

    The most important thing about the pomegranate, too, is that it is spoken of in the Qu'ran as one of the fruits in the garden of paradise. In its earlier appearance it suggests such a state, and in its reappearance later, barren, it suggests a fall from paradise.

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    Posted by ruewithadifference on Tuesday January 27, 2009 at 9:56 AM