How does Hosseini tell the story in chapter one?
In chapter one we are introduced to the narrator in first person however we are not told who. We are immediately aware something bad has happened in the winter of 1975 as Hosseini uses the weather to have an impact on the event in the first sentence and continues to describe what went on in the next few sentences. This stands out to the reader and comes across as the main event in the book, the thing the reader wants to find out. Hosseini seems to be using a double frame yet we don’t know what has happened but we know we are going to find out later on.
Time is significant as it is used in the chapter heading and in the first sentence, as a reader we think Hosseini uses time to show his feelings and to tell the story through them. Hosseini quickly introduces us to a place: the ‘alley’, and uses a lot of strong verbs such as ‘crouching’ and ‘crumbling’ which also mirrors how he feels about what happened. The first paragraph of the chapter is to set the story which is in contrast to the second one where there is a flashback to ‘one day last summer’ another link to time. In the first paragraph Hosseini tells us about the past in Pakistan whereas in the second paragraph he mentions San Francisco so we know the story is going to change places. The story is in chronological order, even though it is told the date of the chapter is 2001, the story being told is in order and the story is kept in the past.
The characters introduced in the first chapter come across as the most important, we are firstly introduced to Rahim Khan, we do not know who he is yet he seems significant because he is mentioned first and early on. We are also introduced to Hassan in the chapter, he is described as the ‘hairlipped’ which makes us think that the narrator thinks he is more superior than him. In the last paragraph there is a mention of Baba, Ali and Kabul, again we do not know who they are yet but they are significant because they are in the first chapter. We know as these characters are mentioned in the first chapter we are going to find more about them throughout the story.
The main voice within this chapter is the narrator’s voice. However we hear other voices such as Rahim Khans voice that isn’t just classed as a voice but as ‘my past unatoned sins’, this tells us that Rahim Khan is a voice from the past, a living conscience of the memory the narrator described briefly in the first few sentences. Another voice that is mentioned is Hassan’s, he is the voice of guilt, the other side of the conscience.
The Kite Runner comes across as a fictional biography as we get the impression it’s a biography but we are never told that it is one. As a reader we feel like Hosseini is telling us strong elements of his past. Hosseini explores his feelings about his childhood through introspection, we read the internal monologue of a man plagued with guilt yet we feels as if he is somehow exaggerating and giving himself a hard time. We know the story is going to take us back to Afghanistan as of the flashback of the childhood and is going to be in a reflective tone and as very early memories are mentioned we don’t know whether they are all one hundred per cent true as they are now told through an adult. Hosseini mentions kites in the first chapter a few times and kites are popular in the Afghan culture this seems to connect everything together and we know this is going to be a big part of the story.