What are the main motifs in The Kite Runner and their relevance?

The most significant motif in The Kite Runner is rape. The cases of rape that are most significant to the plot are experienced by Hassan and Sohrab. Hassan is raped by Assef in childhood, which is the price he pays for Amir to win the kite. As an adult, Amir carries guilt over his failure to prevent Hassan's rape. Amir then travels to Pakistan where Sohrab, Hassan's orphaned son, is being held by the Taliban. Amir learns that Assef has been sexually abusing Sohrab, making him doubly guilty of preventing Assef's sexual attacks. Amir faces Assef in a physical fight, defending Sohrab, and by extension Hassan. This is the first part of his redemption, followed by Amir taking in Sohrab and raising him in America.

Rape is a crucial motif because of the trauma and emotional aftermath associated with sexual abuse. After Sohrab is rescued from the Taliban, believing he will be sent to an orphanage, he physically harms himself. While recovering in the hospital, Sohrab ceases to talk as a consequence of his trauma. Related to the connection between Hassan's rape and the kite motif, the ending of the novel features Amir flying a kite with Sohrab. Amir repeats Hassan's famous words to Sohrab, "for you, a thousand times over," giving the impression that the story has come full circle.

While irony is a figure of speech, note that it can also function as a motif. As Amir recalls his childhood, he acknowledges the irony contained within his life. Irony is intricately connected to the rape motif; Amir fails to prevent Hassan's rape, and later Sohrab is sexually abused by the same person. Contributing to this irony is the fact that Amir atones for his sins against Hassan by saving Sohrab from the same sexual abuse and abuser (Assef). Moreover, Hassan wins the kite so Amir can impress his father, before Amir discovers that Hassan is his half-brother.

Two of the most recurring motifs in The Kite Runner are those of scars and dreams. Many of the characters have scars--both physical and mental. Ali's whole family is scarred: Ali is crippled physically; emotionally, he lives with the knowledge that his wife has given birth--via Baba--to a son, Hassan, who has a cleft lip. Hassan also has emotional scars: His closest companion, Amir, betrays him, yet he bears him no malice. Hassan's mother, Sanaubar, returns after a long absence, and she, too, is terribly scarred and toothless; her life since leaving Ali has been one filled with horror. Hassan's son, Sohrab, eventually bears the emotional scars of being a sexual play toy of the Taliban. The scars serve as a visible reminder to the Afghani people's decades of war and ethnic violence.

Amir's dreams are used to remind him of his past. Many of them are nightmares, but some recall the good life he experienced as a boy. They also serve to reveal his desires and aspirations as well as to show the metaphorical difference between appearances and reality. In one memorable example, Amir dreams of Hassan's death at the hands of the Taliban. For Amir, it is merely a terrifying dream-state; for Hassan, it is truly a living nightmare followed by his, and then his wife's, death.

What symbolism is present in The Kite Runner?

One of the key symbols in this novel, as the title suggests, is the kite. This important symbol is used to represent both Amir's guilt and happiness. Initially, it is a very important way for him to connect with Baba, as Baba himself was a champion kite flyer, and Amir's success in the kite flying competitions allows him, albeit briefly, to bond with Baba and gain his approval. However, at the same time, the kite's symbolic significance alters when Amir sacrifices his friend, Hassan, to Assef's physical and sexual abuse in order to gain the kite for his father. The kite becomes a symbol that is fraught with massive guilt and the consequences of inaction. It is only at the end of the novel, when Amir is with Hassan's son, Sohrab, that the kite's symbolic significance is changed. Note that this is only because Amir has managed to redeem himself through his trip to Afghanistan, his confrontation with Assef and his rescue of Sohrab. At the end of the novel, kite flying becomes an important way that Amir is able to reach out to Sohrab and break through his isolation:

Next to me, Sohrab was breathing rapidly through his nose. The spool rolled in his palms, the tendons in his scarred wrists like rubab strings. Then I blinked and, for just a moment, the hands holding the spool were the chipped-nailed, calloused hands of a harelipped boy.

Just as the kite was a symbol of connection with Baba for Amir as a child, at the end of this novel, the kite returns to be a symbol of connection between Amir and Sohrab. Amir's memory of flying kites with Hassan both reinforces the redeemed signifiance of the symbol of the kite and also foreshadows a more hopeful ending, as it suggests that Sohrab will enjoy the same kind of relationship with Amir as his father once enjoyed.