ABSTRACT:Khaled Hosseini filled his novel The Kite Runner with symbols of various kinds to help present to the reader the personalities of its main characters, among which the kite is the most representative and significant for this novel. After doing some researches on the content of the novel, this paper analyzed the kite’s symbolism from three aspects: the kite’s symbolism for the Afghan people, the kite’s symbolism for Hassan and the kite’s symbolism for Amir. The analysis of the kite’s symbolism may be helpful for readers to have a better understanding of the novel.

Key words: The Kite Runner  Symbolism  Kite

摘要:在小说《追风筝的人》中，作者卡勒德·胡赛尼运用了大量的象征主义手法来帮助作者向读者呈现小说主要人物的性格品行，其中风筝是最具代表性的一个。通过对原著内容进行研究，本文从三部分对风筝的象征意义进行了分析：风筝对阿富汗人民的象征意义，风筝对哈桑的象征意义以及风筝对阿米尔的象征意义。希望通过对风筝的象征意义的分析，能够帮助读者更好地理解这部小说。

关键词：《追风筝的人》  象征主义  风筝

　　　Symbolism is a traditional artistic form; and The Kite Runner is full of symbolism. Among all the images Khaled Hosseini creates, the kite is the most representative and significant for this novel. In this paper, the author has collected and classified most of the analysis of the kite’s symbolism revealed in The Kite Runner although they are not comprehensive. So, the author puts forward some new viewpoints of his own, which may make some contribution to the study of the kite’s symbolism in The Kite Runner.

　　　In addition, we all may make some mistakes in our lifetime. What is important is how we look at the mistakes we have made. Face it? Avoid it? That is a question we all should think about.