Regarding the end of the narrative, there are several similarities between the book and the movie. Amir, Soraya, and Sohrab are all in Golden Gate Park celebrating the Afghan New Year by playing the kite-fighting game. This is a very emotional moment, because Sohrab, who has become mute after his abuse, smiles at Amir. This suggests that a better future is possible after a difficult past.

One big difference between the book and the movie regarding this final scene is the fact that Soraya's mother, Khala Jamila, is present and enjoying the festivities. She is not present in the movie.

The message of the book and movie is the same: the possibility of redemption. Throughout the book and movie there are many different characters trying to redeem themselves for past mistakes. Amir and Rahim Khan are examples of two characters who are able to achieve redemption.

The message (or theme) of redemption also applies to Hassan's mother, Sanaubar. In the book, she is able to redeem herself by helping Hassan and Farzana raise their son, Sohrab. In the movie, Sanaubar is not mentioned at all.

Regarding the character Sohrab, one similarity between the book and the movie is his excellent ability to use a slingshot. This is a big plot device, because it helps Amir save him from Assef and the Taliban.

One big difference between the book and the movie regarding Sohrab is that his suicide attempt is a central scene in the book, whereas in the movie this event occurs offscreen.

What are the similarities and differences in the ending, message, and Sohrab between the book and movie The Kite Runner?

Please note: The post contains two requests. The eNotes Homework Help policy allows for one question per post. This answer addresses the second request.

Khaled Hosseini’s personal heritage and experiences strongly influenced his decision to write The Kite Runner, which was his first novel, and the views of both Afghanistan and the United States that he presents in the novel. As noted on his personal website, both his parents were born and raised in Afghanistan and were highly educated. He was born in Kabul and lived there until he was eleven years old. One significant impact was that, after the family had lived in Paris for four years, they were unable to return to Afghanistan because of the 1990 Soviet invasion. Instead of returning, they were granted political asylum and settled in the United States—in California, as did Amir and his father. Hosseini actually graduated from medical school; he had been a medical doctor for two decades when the book was published. While writing the novel, he could not travel to his home country, so his perspective was strongly influenced by the impressions formed in his childhood as well as his relatives’ and fellow Afghans’ views.

In interviews he has given, such as with Goodreads in 2013 (quoted here), Hosseini has stated that his writing about Afghanistan in the 1990s under the Taliban and afterward

is made of a composite of vignettes and stories that I've heard from Afghanistan during that era, either from Afghans in exile who came from there[.]

With his first return visit in 2003, living most of his life in the United States has strongly influenced his ability to feel at home in Afghanistan.

And walking on the streets down there, I look like those people and I know their language, I can speak with them, but there's no question that I'm an outsider. I feel it and they smell it on me immediately, because I don't have the whiff of all those experiences that they've had.