...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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...‘The Kite Runner’, written by Khaled Hosseni, tells the story about part of the protagonist----Amir’s life from Afghanistan to America from his own perspective. It’s a story about destiny, friendship, redemption and forgiveness. And it’s also a story about father and son’s difficult relationship, Baba is the only person who is with Amir from the start to the end. However, Baba and Amir’s relationship eventually works out. The difficulties of Baba and Amir’s relationship starts from the time they live in Afghanistan. Because of Amir’s different characteristics from Baba, Baba doesn’t like Amir in many situations. He presents his dissatisfaction and dislike towards Amir to Rahim Khan and even says if he didn’t physically see his wife’s child birth process, ‘(he’d) never believe (Amir) is (his) son’. From Amir’s perspective, Baba find it difficult to accept him because he likes books but not sports. Moreover, in Amir’s mind, it is himself who ‘had killed (Baba’s) beloved wife, (Baba’s) beautiful princess. This sort of self-accusation intertwines in Amir’s mind for a long time. It has such a deep impression that Amir can’t stop thinking about this question, ‘didn’t all fathers in their secrets hearts harbor a desire to kill their sons?’ However, from readers’ perspective, Baba’s attitude towards Amir is comprehensible, as Baba has to divide his love between his two sons. It also interprets the reason why Amir is always trying to win Baba’s love from Hassan, and teases Hassan in...
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...from the alley. Something warm was running down my wrist. I blinked, saw I was still biting down on my fist, hard enough to draw blood from the knuckles. I realized something else. I was weeping. From just around the corner, I could hear Assef's quick, rhythmic grunts. I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past, and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end I ran” (7. 137-139) Amir leaves Hassan in the alleyway. This passage In the Kite Runner is very important, along with the passage in which Amir plants a wad of cash and his watch under Hassan's mattress. Khaled Hosseni, the author counts these two incidents as Amir's two major betrayals of Hassan. I have been in both Amir’s situation and Hassan’s situation, I have seen people betray me and I have betrayed other people as of a result, I have even seen my friends betray their friends in front of me. As a child I had a lot of friends. One particular friend was Alexis. I grew up with her in an apartment complex that was located on the bad side of town. We always had to stick up for each other. My friends had a lot of influence on me at this time in my life because my feelings as a child were similar to Hassan’s growing up. I often got mistreated by my friends but I never actually realized how much they had a depraved effect on my life. Sometimes I...
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...the eighteenth century by Pashtun tribes in reaction to the decline of the Persian and Indian empires. For a long period in history, Afghanistan has been ravaged by invasions, civil wars and terrorist activities. As the country continues to rebuild and recover, it is still struggling against poverty, poor infrastructure, large concentration of land mines and other unexploded ordnance, as well as a huge illegal poppy cultivation and opium trade. Afghanistan also remains subject to occasionally violent political jockeying. Khaled Hosseini, a native of Afghanistan left the country at the age of eleven and settled in the United States. Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner arrived at the perfect post-9/11 moment, hooking reader curious about the suddenly notorious Islamic nation of Afghanistan, and then reeling them in with a deeply affecting and sentimental melodrama of undying friendship, treachery, Taliban cruelty, and redemption. The present paper discusses Khaled Hosseini’s two novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns set against the background of civil war and the rule of Taliban in Afghanistan and looks at Afghan Diaspora in a newer perspective. The paper proposes primarily to explore the representation of Afghan history. It also attempts to explore the story of a nation, Afghanistan, who is the real protagonist, victimized from within and without. The term post colonialism has compelled people to historicise, to relate culture and literary history...
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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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...LIFE GOES ON BY: Fazila Asif Grade: 11 Teacher: Mr. Lane A touching tale of bravery and weakness, fathers and sons, friendships and betrayal, blood and tears. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini takes us on a heroic, epic tale from the final days of a cherished, peaceful absolutely stunning Afghanistan monarchy, to the horrific, disgusting, disturbing Taliban ruled Afghanistan of today. It exposes a better understanding of traditional ways and the isolation of religions throughout this once decent land. The kite runner is an utmost tragedy because a young boy by the name of Hassan is raped, seen, yet not helped; a father is accused of his son being a thief, innocent, yet driven out of his house due to his sons miserable past, a peaceful country destroyed and taken over, strong, yet scared to fight for what’s right. “Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.” The kite runner is a tragedy because an illiterate, naïve, young boy is raped right before his friend Amir’s eyes who also happens to be his master, because of his race and appearance. Amir is also the partial reason of his rape, Amir stood is grief, watched him get tormented yet didn’t raise a voice or even a hand, didn’t call for help just watched his friend suffer. "I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan...
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...The Kite Runner Practice Questions Explore the ways in which Hosseini portrays Ali: During the novel Ali is portrayed as a victim, First off, Baba has an affair with Ali's wife and fathers Hassan. Then, Amir forces Ali and Hassan to leave Baba's house. Finally, in the random violence now so common in war, Ali steps on a land mine and dies. However, like Hassan and Sohrab, Ali is a kind and good person. He has a beautiful voice and Amir and Hassan love to hear him sing. He remains faithful to Baba even though Baba dishonored Ali by sleeping with Sanaubar. Ali is also devout – his humble, constant faith perhaps influences Amir's own religious awakening later in the novel. Ali makes much fewer appearances in the novel compared to the other characters but his speeches are very important. Some of the main ones are: [...] Ali had congenital paralysis of his lower face muscles, a condition that rendered him unable to smile and left him perpetually grim-faced. (2.20) But polio had left Ali with a twisted, atrophied right leg that was sallow skin over bone with little in between except a paper-thin layer of muscle. [...]. I watched him [Ali] swing his scraggy leg in a sweeping arc, watched his whole body tilt impossibly to the right every time he planted that foot. It seemed a minor miracle he didn't tip over with each step. [...]. Ali's face frightened some of the younger children in the neighborhood. [...]. Some had taken to calling him Babalu, or Boogeyman. (2.22) From these it...
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...Victoria Bernhardt Period 7 Mrs. Buchanan English 2 Honors 1-25-2013 A Change In The Future The theme or message is the central idea or ideas explored by the literary works. In other words, it’s the message the author wants you to realize from the story. There are multiple themes in A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner, both written by Khaled Hosseini. Putting together these stories, I thought finding hope, and fighting for what you believe in as the themes. Hope is the feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope in A Thousand Splendid Suns is happening to very few people, considering the Taliban, the war, and the bombing of family and friends. You never know what is going to happen next or if there will ever be a tomorrow. For Laila, she has had a very rough life and even worse, having her parents blown up right in front of her. Not being loved your entire life by your own mother is something everyone wants to avoid, but Laila was one of the unfortunate. She only had attention from her dad and then she became alone from the bombing. She married at a youth life to a man who was three times her age who was very abusive to Laila and his other wife, Mariam. This life she had never wanted, but it happened, and she didn’t know what to do. When she was a teenager before marrying Rasheed, she met a boy named Tariq. She fell in love with him from day one even after he moved away with his family. She thought she would never see him again until...
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...selfishness. Now people are gone and I am alone staring at the mess I created. As I do this, I notice my new white shirt is blemished with red blotches. Apparently the impact of the smash was so hard, the punch somehow managed to reach me. I take it off, disgusted-- it is the evidence of my crime, a token that will trigger bad memories to flow in my head. But instead of tossing it, I decide to use it to clean up the damage. After glass and punch are off the floor, I then decide I might as well clean the entire gym-- all with that stained shirt. Cleaning will not bring back the night, but it will ease the pain I caused. At least now the Associated Student Body will not have to clean the gym themselves. If there is one lesson I learned from Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, it would be just that: “There is a way to be good again,” (2). Though it is Rahim Khan who verbalizes it, polar characters Baba and Amir are the ones who demonstrate that no matter how severe a sin is committed, redemption is possible and the pursuit of reaching inner satisfaction and peace can live on. In the novel, there is a tale that Baba once wrestled a black bear in Baluchistan with his bare hands. Whether it is valid or not, it acts as a metaphor for what Baba can and would do. No matter how dangerous and hard of a task is, he will take the initiative and take on whatever is needed to be done. Such an example is when he stands up to a Russian soldier who wants a half hour with a lady as an exchange to...
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...The Power Within From the present day to thousands of years in the past, there has been controversy with women in society. They are stereotyped, judged and looked down upon in many places and times in the world. Whether it be their clothing, manner, beliefs or actions they have been scrutinized and analyzed far more than their male companions. Yet women have still stood tall and strong in the face of opposition. Nothing is more evident than in the novels Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Though each book is written in a different era and continent from each other, both authors have taken a profound look into the lives of women who, in submission of the society they live in, persevere and carry on their lives no matter what. Though Hardy’s Victorian countryside and Hosseini’s war ridden Afghanistan have very different plot lines, both novels develop the theme of inner strength of women through the protagonist’s characteristics, the conflicts in the plot and setting. In 1891 Hardy wrote Tess of the d’Urbervilles. The novel received a public outcry and was criticized for its taboo topics and insight into a ruined woman’s private life. The passionate and intense Tess Durbeyfield, whom the novel is centralized around, faces more tragedy and injustice in her adolescent years than any women could bear and perseveres through out. Tess’s character, as well as the women around her, shows the true inner strength women possess...
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...The search for redemption “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.” Amir thought in the beginning of the novel “The kite runner”. In the novel we meet two boys from two different ethnic groups living in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir copes with his decisions 26 years after betraying his best friend, Hassan to get the attention and acceptance from his beloved father. The novel is written by Khaled Hosseini in 2003 and is a redemption story. In order for Amir to cope with his guilt, he needed to find redemption of his betrayal of Hassan. Amir develops through the story and is a dynamic person. The protagonist of the novel is Amir. He is the son of Baba, a wealthy man living in Kabul in Afghanistan. Amir and his father Baba are Pashtun, the larger ethnic group in Afghanistan. He thinks that his father blames him for killing his mother during childbirth, and he tries to get his father’s acceptance and attention. Amir as a young boy is very jealous of Hassan, and the attention Baba gives to him. The only time he really gets Baba’s attention and love is when he and Hassan wins the kite tournament i 1975. Amir describes himself as a coward, a description that is made clearly when Hassan gets raped by Assef, when Amir is watching without doing anything. “From just around the...
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...The Monster Within Every now and then people who are trusted the most in one's lifetime end up being the same people who become disloyal and betray those whom they love. This event leads to two paths, one in which a person tries anything to redeem themselves and another where selfishness takes over. Likewise, Macbeth by William Shakespeare and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini use the main characters from their works to demonstrate that sometimes without a second thought, betrayal takes place. They also show how some characters use betrayal to their advantage while others redeem themselves, as well, how even those who stay loyal end up having to pay the same price. At the end however, how people react to the guilt that they encounter in the past is what makes them who they are in the future. Macbeth and The Kite Runner both show how the main characters betray those who respect as well as trust them. Macbeth's eyes are blinded by the power of the throne and he will do anything just to obtain it. Since no one expects Macbeth to betray anyone close to him, he takes this as an advantage and says to himself “a false face must hide what a false heart doth know.”(I, vii, 94-95) With this in mind, it is evident that Macbeth betrays Duncan, Banquo and the whole of Scotland. He uses his innocence and trust that he gained from others to hide what his true intentions are and ends up betraying many people just for the good of himself. Similarly, in The Kite Runner the main character...
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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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...ln chapter 10 Hosseini uses numerous techniques to illustrate the story including foreshadowing, historical context, imagery and juxtaposition. Primarily, the chapter is written in retrospective narrative like majority of the novel, although in this chapter the writer uses present tense and imperatives associated with second person in order to get the reader to sympathise by involving them directly. By describing the atmosphere of the truck and “a young woman across from us”. Hosseini adds a sense of immediacy to the opening chapter due to the instant jump to the date “March 1981”, five years after Hassan’s rape. The five year gap abruptly changes the structure of the novel, but also indicates that nothing has changed nor has anything significant happened in the story until now when Amir and Baba decide to flee because of the Soviet Union invasion in Afghanistan. Whilst on their way to Pakistan, Amir describes his “car sickness as yet another of my array of weakness, l saw it on his embraced face”. This conveys that Amir still feels desperate to constantly please his father, hence why he puts himself down because in order to gain Baba’s respect and love. In addition, the car sickness is yet another key weakness of Amir and it symbolises his inability to please/ satisfy his father, (hence why Baba feels “embarrassed” by Amir) but also the car sickness is way for Amir to deal with his guilt to rescue Hassan in the alley. This contrast the difference between Baba and Amir, because...
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...Guilt and the search for redemption are two very important themes in “The Kite Runner”, as the reader watches Amir, the main character, deal with his guilt over the betrayal of a friend and the lengths he would go to gain forgiveness. Amir has always felt guilty over the loss of his mother. She died giving birth to him and he sees himself as his mother’s killer, the one who took Baba’s “princess” away form him. Amir believes that this is the reason why his relationship with his father is so strained and spends most of his childhood attempting to win his father’s love and forgiveness. His constant need of Baba’s approval is what drives Amir to want to win the kite fighting competition, to show Baba that he could also be a winner and make him proud. Amir is convinced that if he brings Baba the blue kite he will finally forgive him for his mother’s death and truly accept him. In his search for redemption Amir commits a terrible crime when he watches his friend Hassan get raped but does nothing about it. Instead of standing up to his friend and try to stop Assef from raping Hassan he hides and after pretends he never saw anything. He tries to justify his actions by saying that if he had intervened he would have gotten hurt, but he knows that the real reason why he did not defend Hassan is that he would have lost the kite and with it Baba’s love, so he sacrifices his friend for the approval of his father. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real...
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