...“Redemption” The Kite Runner Kati Hernandez 3/3/15 AP English 12 Period 1 Three Questions 1. Why do you think Baba refuses to refer to Ali as his friend? Is it the divide between servant and master? 2. Does a character like Assef even choose between good and evil? Could Assef be innocent in ways Amir is not? 3. Why doesn't Amir admire Rahim Khan as much as he admires his father? What does this tell us about admiration? Literary Criticism New historicism criticism insists that to understand a literary piece, readers need to understand the author's biography and social background. Every human action is actually the effect of a network of material practices. Every act of unmasking, critique and opposition uses the tools it condemns and risks falling prey to the practice it exposes. No discourse, imaginative, scientific, or archival, gives access to unchanging truths, nor expresses inalterable human nature. A critical method and a language adequate to describe culture under capitalism participate in the economy they describe. What makes a legend, is it someone who is a hero or someone who is infallible from making mistakes? In the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the character described as a legend is Baba. Seen as the most perfect figure to be looked at for its bravery, generosity and caring for others. His actions describe him better than words can, as he always defends others in time of need and stays loyal to his home and country...
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...After reading both “Oedipus Rex” and “The Kite Runner” the authors of each employ the device of irony to develop the major themes in both text. Irony is the expression of using one’s meaning by language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for emphatic effect.Throughout each story the irony was used to reveal truth, mood, and lessons. Displayed in the book “The Kite Runner”, many ironic scenes were present. This leads to the reveal of the mood of the story. In the book it states “ You steal a wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father.”(pg18) In this quote Baba tries to give knowledge to his son Amir but the shaded fact about it is that he steals his servants wife and has a son with her. The son that has become from...
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...The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, explores the personal struggles and relationships of Amir, a wealthy young Pashtun boy in Afghanistan in the 1970’s. The story narrates the hardship of living in a socially divided, culture based environment with various sides of humanity. As the novel progresses, the relationship between Amir and his father, Baba, goes through multiple pivotal phases. These phases are the direct cause of the switch between the two main settings of Kabul, Afghanistan and Fremont, California. The change in setting helps portray the rollercoaster of Amir and Baba’s relationship over many years. It illustrates the story of Amir’s longing to be noticed and loved by Baba, Baba’s dissatisfaction with Amir, and their inability to relate to one another....
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...The Kite Runner focuses on the relationship between two Afghan boys Amir and Hassan. Amir is a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim, while Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a. Despite their ethnic and religious differences, Amir and Hassan grow to be friends, although Amir is troubled by Hassan, and his relationship with his companion, one year his junior, is complex. Amir and Hassan seem to have a "best friend" type relationship. The two boys, Hassan and Amir, are main characters in the book titled, The Kite Runner. The two boys have a relationship that is significantly different compared to most. There are many different facets that distinguish the relationship the boys possess. The boys do write their names in a pomegranate tree as the "sultans of Kabul" (Kite Runner 27) but, their friendship is not strong and it is one sided. Hassan has love for Amir. He loves him like a brother. Hassan is exceedingly loyal to Amir. The relationship between the two boys is emotionally wearing and rather gloomy for the most part. The main reason for their complicated relationship is the fact that Amir is Pashtun, and Hassan is Hazara. The Afghan society places Hassan lower than Amir. Hassan is Amir's servant. The placement of Hassan in the Afghan society disenables Amir from becoming Hassan's true friend. Amir sees Hassan as lower than human. Amir ruins the chance for friendship between himself and Hassan because he is jealous of Hassan, he thinks of Hassan as a lower human, and because Amir possesses such...
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...Muhammad (SAWS), who set a perfect example of showing love and affection toward every other creation in this world. The Kite Runner is a complicated maze from beginning to end, therefore showing multiple examples of various types of love. This ideology has a starting point to it for everyone and in The Kite Runner this began from the interaction between Amir and Baba. This is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. 1 1 The first phase of love would be the on the basis of the parent to child relationship and this is the purest example of love where one must be the observable attention for another. Characters in The Kite Runner revolve around this belief of paternal love and they all have expectations of their surroundings. Amir is the sole character who experiences this phase of love at its peak. He has a very mystifying relationship with Baba where he feels the love is not complete. Amir believes that his father rarely shows affection toward him and that Hassan is being replaced for Amir at times. Amir experienced this with Baba when "Go on, now," he'd say. "This is grown-ups' time. Why don't you go read one of those books of yours?" He'd close the door, leave me to wonder why it was always grown-ups' time with him. I'd sit by the door, knees drawn to my chest. Sometimes I sat there for an hour, sometimes two, listening to their laughter, their chatter”(2.6). It's clear to us how affection develops in The Kite...
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...Research Paper on “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini Introduction: The international best-selling novel, The Kite Runner was first published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, written by the Afghan-born American novelist and physician, Khaled Hosseini. He was born into a Shia family in Kabul, and later on in his life when the family moved to Paris because of his father’s occupation, Hosseini’s family was unable to return to Kabul due to the bloody Saur Revolution; hence they had to seek political asylum in the United States. Being as young as he was, roughly 11 years of age, the actions of his home country must have left an impression on him. It is such a great read because among many other themes such as betrayal, redemption, bullying, inhumanities of revolution, discrimination, loyalty, hypocrisy, horrors of rapes etc. the main focus of this story is of a man who is haunted by his past demons. We see in some of the opening lines of the novel, “I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975… That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.” These opening lines gets the ball rolling on what is to come and to be expected from the story, of possibly an aged man who is looking back at the past and justifying how it has made him the way that he is to date. The setting vividly takes place in the disorderly country of Kabul, Afghanistan...
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...English A The Kite Runner Ending the Cycle of Violence The movie I chose was The Kite Runner along with the theme “There is a way to be good again.” I will be focusing on the character of Amir and how he uses forgiveness to move on from his past and to end the violence. He shows this through many ways throughout the movie with different people. Amir had a tough childhood in many ways but also was very privileged. He had challenges being friends with Hassan. They were from two different social classes and Amir got teased and ridiculed because of it. When things got tough Amir froze Hassan out. For example when Hassan was physically assaulted. Finally Amir and his dad left altogether when there home got taken over by soldiers after the fall of the Monarchy in Afghanistan. Amir was so guilt tripped for leaving his friend, in the movie he takes us on his journey of how he finds forgiveness and gives forgiveness to move on from his violent past. Amir does not try to contact Hassan when he left, trying to push it behind him but the guilt is too much and he is curious to what happened to his friend. He becomes a successful writer and takes a trip back to his home and finds out Hassan was killed when things got dangerous. Amir sets off to right his wrongs and starts with Hassan’s son. He tracks him down in an orphanage and makes a plan to rescue him from the dangers of Kabul. Seeking to do the right thing and right his wrongs from the past. He tries to forgive himself through...
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...IntroductionMany times since his death in 1883, Karl Marx’s ideas have been dismissed as irrelevant. But, many times since, interest in his ideas has resurfaced as each new generation which challenges the unequal, unjust and exploitative nature of the capitalist system looks for ideas and a method to change the world we live in.Marx’s ideas – a body of work collectively described as Marxism – was added to by his closest collaborator Frederick Engels after Marx’s death and subsequently added to and enriched by the writings and living experience of Lenin and Trotsky who led the 1917 October Russian Revolution.For any person looking to change the world in a socialist direction the ideas of Marxism are a vital, even indispensable, tool and weapon to assist the working class in its struggle to change society.Most people who describe themselves as socialists will have at one stage or another looked at Marxist ideas and, unfortunately, some have chosen to ignore the rich experience and understanding that Marxist ideas add to an understanding of the capitalist world and how to change it.However, Marx’s ideas are once again becoming fashionable; even amongst people Marx would have regarded as his political opponents. Having been voted the thinker of the Millennium in a BBC poll in 2000, Marx has now been taken up by university professors and City analysts alike as offering one of the most modern ways to understand globalised capitalism.But, for socialists who wish to permanently remove...
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...Vuyv uhbhfbvbbbhbsfhb How are women in Afghan culture shown in the Kite Runner? Women's role in Afghan culture is best shown through the characters of Soraya and Jamila. There are many examples in the Kite Runner where these women are controlled in their decisions because that is what they are meant to do in the Afghan culture: * Soraya has no choice in whether she wants to marry Amir, it is General Taheri who must agree that Amir is suitable. * Amir finds out that Jamila is an amazing singer, but the General refuses to let her sing in public. She wanted to sing at the wedding, only one song, however she was not allowed to. * When Soraya and Amir speak at the flea market they only do so when the General is not there as he would not allow it. When he does find out that they have been meeting he tells gently that it is not allowed for him and Soraya to do that, even in her mother's presence. * When Baba is ill in the hospital and Soraya goes to comfort Amir he tells her she should go back because her father may go after him if he finds out she's with him. * Soraya wants to be a teacher and is very passionate about it, but her father wants her to be a lawyer. These examples show that Soraya and Jamila are controlled by General Taheri because he seems to have power over them. There are also a few examples of women experienceing double standards in the book: * "Their sons go out to night clubs looking for meat and getting their girlfriends pregnant, they...
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...e Runner begins with our thus-far nameless protagonist explaining that the past cannot be forgotten. A single moment in time defined him and has been affecting him for the last twenty-six years. This moment was in 1975 when he was twelve years old and hid near a crumbling alleyway in his hometown of Kabul, Afghanistan. When the protagonist's friend, Rahim Khan, calls him out of the blue, he knows that his past sins are coming back to haunt him even in the new life he has built in San Francisco. He remembers Hassan, whom he calls "the harelipped kite runner," saying "For you, a thousand times over." Rahim's words also echo in his head, "There is a way to be good again." These two phrases will become focal points for the rest of the novel and our protagonist's story. Chapter Two The protagonist remembers sitting in trees with Hassan when they were boys and annoying the neighbors. Any mischief they perpetrated was the protagonist's idea, but even when Hassan's father, Ali, scolded Hassan, he never told on the protagonist. Hassan's father was a servant to the protagonist's father, Baba and lived in a small servant's house on his property. Baba's house was widely considered the most beautiful one in Kabul. There Baba held large dinner parties and entertained friends, including Rahim Khan, in his smoking room. Though the protagonist was often surrounded by adults, he never knew his mother because she died in childbirth. Hassan never knew his mother, either, because she eloped with...
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...Elements of a good ending; A Complicated Kindness and Kite Runner While writing a novel the writer must emphasize on the basic elements of ending the storyline. Efficient ending of a story answers the reader’s expectation of the story’s question. A good ending seals the reader’s impression of all they have read in the story. Therefore a good ending is necessary in writers doing literature writing as they motivate a reader to enjoy reading. There are four main elements which guide a writer in creating a good story ending in a novel. Comparisons between two novels; a complicated Kindness and Kite runner ending will help establish a good example of each of the four elements discussed below. First a good ending should seek to address the main problem or the antagonist. The protagonist does not necessarily have to win every time in a story but the main issue and problem be addressed in a way with the major win or defeat on the protagonist part. A complicated Kindness Miriam Toew’s keeps on addressing Nomi who is the antagonist in the story towards the end of the novel Nomi is seen as an courageous girl gathering means to help re unite her family together. She does so by seeking to trace her mother and a sister who left their community. She oppressively resists the rebellious rules and cultures in her society. Another significant element is the tying of loose ends and provision of a closure .this element applies on enhancing the reader to get anticipated on the next series of the novel...
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...The Similarities and Differences of Relationships in Kite Runner “The best relationship is having someone who accepts your past, supports your present, and loves you and encourages your future” -Unknown. The novel Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini showed a large amount of love, support, and challenges between the protagonist Amir and two other particular characters in the book, Hassan and Soraya. Amir is the son of a wealthy and well-known man in Kabul. He develops a close relationship with one of his servants, Hassan. Years later, Amir has the chance to help Hassan, but the actions he chose caused them to go separate paths. Soon after, Amir meets a woman named Soraya who will become his wife. They soon experience a big challenge in their marriage. Amir develops many different and unique relationships with the other characters. His relationships with Hassan and Soraya, however, show strong examples of love, support, and challenges they endure. As a boy, Amir treated Hassan with less love and support through challenges they experienced than what Hassan gave Amir. Hassan looked up to Amir and supported him with his writing. Hassan also showed continuous love toward Amir even when Amir was bitter to him. Hassan would do anything to please Amir, even if it meant putting himself in danger. “Hassan never wanted to, but if I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me. Hassan never denied me anything” (Hosseini 4). On the other hand, Amir didn’t think of Hassan as fondly. Hassan...
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...The book that I’m comparing Atonement to is The Kite Runner, because the premise of both books are very similar: a protagonist makes an unforgivable decision and spends the rest of the plot trying to make it right. The Kite Runner is set in Afghanistan and follows Amir, a well-to-do child and his friend, a servant’s son named Hassan. A series of incidents test the nature of their friendship, and Amir ends up betraying Hassan, framing him for a crime he didn't commit. While he and his father escape to the United States when the Soviets overrun their nation and he tries to put his past behind him as he grows up, he is suddenly brought back to his country where he finds out that Hassan was actually his half-brother and that his loyalty to the...
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...Kite Runner vs. Poetry Key quotes: “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything” – Baba says this to Rahim Khan as a comment on the behaviour of Amir. Through this he identifies Amir’s greatest flaw: cowardice. It is this trait that leaves him desperately craving Baba’s love, and ultimately leads to be letting Assef rape Hassan. It also foreshadows Amir’s return to Kabul in search of Sohrab; the test of Amir’s character also tests whether Baba’s statement is true. “Huddled together in the dining room and waiting for the sun to rise, none of us had any notion that a way of life had ended” – This sentence appears towards the start of chapter five and indicates the fall of the monarchy and the descent of Kabul (and indeed Afghanistan) into political instability. The peaceful world Amir knows, made possible by Baba’s wealth, turns into one full of violence and uncertainty. It ultimately leads to Baba and Amir fleeing the country. “There is a way to be good again” – Rahim Khan says this to Amir over the phone when trying to encourage him to come to Pakistan and in the dialogue this appears like an afterthought. It reveals that Rahim Khan knows the truth about what Amir did to Hassan. It also ties into the theme of redemption, allowing the reader to believe that by returning to the Middle East, Amir will be given the opportunity to break the cycle of guilt he is trapped in. “My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but...
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...In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the main character, Amir, is in a constant struggle between morality and immorality. The relationship between Amir and Hassan shows dominance on Amir’s part, which is obvious when Amir constantly puts blame on Hassan, when he left his friend to be abused by other men, and when he delivers the harshest blow by attempting to frame both Hassan and his father for stealing in order to get rid of Hassan. This obvious mistreatment towards his friend indicates both his lack of ethics and his selfishness, therefore causing ill feelings towards him. Whereas characters with similar personalities as Amir would become instantly disliked by all, his intense desire to win his father’s affection and approval evoke a sense of both sympathy and understanding. Furthermore, later in the novel, Amir’s apparent guilt and attempts at atonement make up, to a certain extent, for all of the wrongs he did in the past. The novel opens with the introduction of the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Right from the very beginning, Amir’s establishes the class distinction between them by stating that both Hassan and his father are the servants of Baba, Amir’s father; thus, Hassan is automatically ranked “below” Amir. Further showing his believed superiority, Amir refers to Hassan as a “Hazara,” though he doesn’t mean in a derogatory way until later in the novel. However, Amir does not really use that against him, as he seems his as more of a brother or friend...
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