...The author of ‘The Kite Runner' Hosseini employs a variety of symbols and motifs to create a deeper meaning throughout the book. Symbolism is the practice of representing a theme or idea by using symbols to create a deeper meaning, this is evident with cleft lip which is a symbol of Amir's and Hassan's social disparity, kites a symbol of happiness and guilt and the slingshot which a direct reference to David and Goliath. While irony is a motif because it is a recurring theme presented throughout the novel. The story revolves around two loyal friends Amir and Hassan, who are desperate to win the local kite flying competition. But both boys’ lives change for good that same afternoon when something devastating happens to Hassan. After the Russians invade, Amir and his father are forced to flee to America and amidst the turmoil Amir’s knows he will return to Afghanistan to redeem himself. Hosseini uses the cleft lip as a symbol to create a deeper meaning in the Kite Runner because it symbolizes Hassan’s status in society. This is evident because Amir and...
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...“There is a way to be good again.” (Hosseni 192) These words hold a powerful meaning to Amir, the main character of Khaled Hosseni’s novel The Kite Runner. This quote is essential to Amir whom struggles with the guilt of the self-centered choices he makes at the beginning of the novel. Hosseni incorporates the theme of betrayal throughout the book; this is done through the occurrence of Hassan’s rape and the discovery of Baba’s second child Hassan. In the book The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseni uses foreshadowing and irony to demonstration the sin of betrayal. In the book The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseni uses foreshadowing and irony in order to effectively communicate betrayal as a means of egocentric behavior which is a sin and leads to the unraveling...
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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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...‘The Kite Runner’, written by Khaled Hosseini, is a novel based on the life journey of a man named Amir. Although very dark, through the use of important themes the book is made strongly relatable to young people. Three of these include: degradation, the fragile relationship between a father and his son and the pursuit for redemption. The fragility of a father and his son’s relationship is shown through the strong characterisation of both males and the constant use of proleptic irony embedded throughout their relationship. The symbols of rape express the theme of degradation and class discrimination, whereas the pursuit for redemption is conveyed through the dramatic sequences of events that occur during the course of the novel. Hosseini heavily emphasises the Afghani class discrimination, with the ‘pure’ Pashtuns being the dominate race over the low class, minority group of Hazaras. This degradation makes it very difficult for anyone to marry into another class and the Hazaras are often victims of physical, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of Pashtuns. Hosseini uses the act of rape since it carries a great deal of significance as it demonstrates a symbolic violation of the powerless by those who have power. In each instance of rape we see that the rapist is always in a position of greater power both socially and physically. For instance, Assef, a well-known bully, is rich and has a politically powerful father, while, Amir’s friend and later, found to be half-brother...
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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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...well-to-do Pashtun boy, and Hassan, a Hazara and the son of Amir's father's servant, Ali, spend their days in a peaceful Kabul, kite fighting, roaming the streets and being boys. Amir’s father (who is generally referred to as Baba, "daddy", throughout the book) loves both the boys, but seems critical of Amir for not being manly enough. Amir also fears his father blames him for his mother’s death during childbirth. However, he has a kind father figure in the form of Rahim Khan, Baba’s friend, who understands Amir better, and is supportive of his interest in writing stories. Assef, a notoriously mean and violent older boy with sadistic tendencies, blames Amir for socializing with a Hazara, according to Assef an inferior race that should only live in Hazarajat. He prepares to attack Amir with his steel knuckles, but Hassan bravely stands up to him, threatening to shoot Assef in the eye with his slingshot. Assef and his henchmen back off, but Assef says he will take revenge. Hassan is a successful "kite runner" for Amir, knowing where the kite will land without even watching it. One triumphant day, Amir wins the local tournament, and finally Baba's praise. Hassan goes to run the last cut kite, a great trophy, for Amir saying "For you, a thousand times over." Unfortunately, Hassan runs into Assef and his two henchmen. Hassan refuses to give up Amir's kite, so Assef exacts his revenge, assaulting and raping him. Wondering why Hassan is taking so long, Amir searches for Hassan and hides...
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...“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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...ORPHANS A GLANCE AT SOHRAB’S (OF KITE RUNNER) REAL LIFE PEERS The Qur’aan asks us to set aright the affairs of the orphans and equates repulsing the orphan to denying the Day of Judgment, yet this very day thousands of Muslim orphans receive inadequate or no care. Nearly a quarter of the 100,000 national and international orphans in the developed country of Britain alone ceased to be cared for in 2003 (What Future for Muslim Orphans? An Overview). All the while, the number of children being shipped out of Middle Eastern counties rises dramatically each year, and thousands more remain in war torn countries. With all the resources in this world why must children be alone and hungry? In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the obstacles that Amir faces in adopting Sohrab are not unlike the real world. Many of the orphans’ home countries have disrupted governments and multiple crises that impede their abilities to keep track of orphans and maintain speedy bureaucracies. And even though it sometimes is the difference between eating or not, it is challenging for orphans to be pulled out of their home cultures and religious environments. On top of all that are mismatches in the ideals and politics from country to country, most important of which is the unique import Muslim nations put on how Shari’ah relates to adoption. Examining the situation of orphans in Afghanistan and nearby countries sheds light on a realistic element of The Kite Runner, which meritoriously reminds us...
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...Both Khaled Hosseini's novel ‘The Kite Runner’ and the short stories "Are You Different?" by Mia Francis and "Chinese Lessons" by Ivy Tseng in the anthology "Growing Up Asian In Australia" by various authors discuss the notion of being displaced. In the texts, the role of being an outsider extends from being excluded in one's own family to a large-scale elimination of the ethnic minorities. In both ‘The Kite Runner’ and ‘Growing Up Asian in Australia’, it is inferred that the idea of being the outsider causes individuals to experience pain, because the way that they perceive themselves and by the people around them as different leads them to feel voiceless, discriminated, and conflicted in a place where they should feel like they belong....
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...February 19, 2009 Period 6 Fiction Analysis of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Setting: A. Time period – 1970s to early 2000s B. Place – Kabul, Afghanistan and San Francisco, California C. Time Sequence – The story Is told in order. Around 30 years passes. However, the story is told as one giant flashback. D. Standards of Behavior – Hazaras are considered lower than Pashtuns; one should be loyal to friends and family; one is expected to bring honor to one’s family; men are above women; one should put guests’ needs before one’s own Characters: Amir – The story’s narrator and protagonist. He is an Afghan man who had a privileged childhood in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul. The defining event in his life is his betrayal of his closest friend, Hassan. Amir lives in San Francisco from the age of eighteen. He returns to Afghanistan at the age of thirty-eight and finds out from Rahim Khan that Hassan is his half-brother. Unfortunately, Hassan and his wife are shot by the Taliban a couple months back. They leave behind their only son, Sohrab. Amir, in an attempt to be good again after his betrayal of Hassan, ends up adopting Hassan’s orphaned son. Hassan – Amir’s most loyal and devoted servant, who is born with a cleft lip. He and Amir were nursed by the same woman and, thus, share a bond unlike any other. Hassan is illiterate but smart and stands up for others. He is also the best kite runner in Kabul. He dies at the hands of the Taliban, defending...
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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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...that Hassan had died and that he had a son Sohrab who is an orphan and that Amir has a chance to redeem himself though Sohrab, but it is not though saving Sohrab that will entirely redeem himself. Amir takes the final leap towards his reconciliation with the facing of Assef in Kabul, from whom Hassan had always shielded him from. As Assef is beating him, Amir is laughing as it gave him a sense of relief and freedom. Amir finally relieves his past cowardice and feels healed as he saves a life, in doing this he finally repays Hassan for his life of sacrifice. Through these events Hosseini reveals his views and values of irony as Sohrab pulls out a slingshot and shoots Assef in the eye portraying Hassan as a little boy, and the adoption of Sohrab by Amir and Soraya as they are unable to have a baby themselves. In conclusion Khaled Hosseini’s novel ‘The kite Runner’ is a complete story of redemption as Amir completes his journey by saving Sohrab, standing up to Assef and admitting everything including the truth about Sohrab. Amir preforms a good deed and an admission of guilt as he makes up for Hassan’s sacrifice through sacrifices of his own and for the “first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at...
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...One person can affect the life of others. Who do you think is a legend? Is it someone who is a hero or exhibit super powers? Or is it someone who is infallible from making mistakes? Well, the character that was described earlier in the novel as a legend was Baba. He was seen as the most perfect figure to be looked at for its bravery, generosity and caring for others. His actions best describe him than words, as he always defended others in time of need and stayed loyal to his home and country when he migrated to America and he seemed as well to be the best father that anyone could have. But no one is perfect isn’t it? Not even legends? Therefore, I think that Baba in the end has made a lot of mistakes which contributed to many complications in the novel and so he turned out to be just like you and me, a human being. Baba was a physically imposing man, with a thick beard and unruly brown hair. He was strong and “capable of uprooting a willow tree” (Hosseini 12) and his black glare would “drop the devil to his knees begging for mercy” (Hosseini 12). One of the wealthiest men in Kabul, Baba loved throwing parties and hosting friends in his study the ‘smoking room.’ During his days in Kabul, he was a philanthropist, building an orphanage which he designed...
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...The Kite Runner: Reader’s Notes Cindy Kang Theme | Literary Device | Character Development | Chapter | Quote | Insight | | Imagery/flashback | | 1 | “I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. 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. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years… One day last summer, my friend Rahim Khan called from Pakistan. He asked me to come see him. Standing in the kitchen with the receiver to my ear, I knew it wasn’t juts Rahim Khan on the line. It was my past of unatoned sins.” (p. 1) | The introduction paragraph gives the reader an insight of the narrator’s haunting past. The narrator uses descriptive words (crumbing mud wall) and is evidently a gifted story teller. The structure of his writing easily grasps the attention of the audience. The tone of the story seems to be frightening and melancholy due to the author’s diction, syntax, and level of formality. The first page mostly consists of flashbacks more so by recalling them rather than reliving them. If flashbacks continue to recur, the past may symbolize an important theme throughout the story. | | Personification | | 1 | “Because the past claws its way out.”...
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...THE KITE RUNNER by KHALED HOSSEINI Published 2003 Afghan Mellat Online Library www.afghan-‐mellat.org.uk _December 2001_ I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. 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. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-‐six years. One day last summer, my friend Rahim Khan called from Pakistan. He asked me to come see him. Standing in the kitchen with the receiver to my ear, I knew it wasn't just Rahim Khan on...
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