Kite Fighting

Kite fighting and flying is a huge part the the Afghan culture. It can be considered to be the national past time of Afghanistan and can be paralleled to the sport of baseball in America. It is an activity that anyone can do and the fact that people participate and take pride in all aspects of the activity from the making of the kite to the fighting of the kites gives the Afghan people a real sense of pride, and gives them something that they can escape into other than the horrible events going on in their country. Khaled Hosseini may have chosen to include this as a major part of the novel because it is something that is distinctly Afghani and it is an important part of Afghan culture. Also, kite fighting is considered to be a father-son activity and Hosseini can easily use it to portray the rifts between Amir and Baba in the novel.