...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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...understand that?” while Baba describes sin, this reveals a larger issue in the novel like when Baba and Amir ran into the Russian soldier in chapter 10. The kites in the story are a symbol for Amir’s happiness. It is also a symbol for Amir’s quilt. Flying kites is what he enjoys most as a child and it is the only way he connects with Baba, who was once at champion kite fighter. The kite has a different significance when Amir allows Hassan to be raped by Assef because Amir wanted to bring the blue kite back to Baba to gain his respect. The kite is a symbol of his betrayal to Hassan as well....
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...meaningful to them. This can be expressed through a range of representations such as novels - Kite Runner, a poem – Polynesian old man and a film – The help. These certain depictions have enriched my understandings of how alienation can emerge from disconnections made through cultural and family matters Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini expresses several different concepts; one significantly represented though is cultural alienation. In this text it highlights the contrast between two races that are present in Afghanistan, the Hazaras a lower class race that society looks down upon and treats as servants and the Pashtuns a higher class race that society has approved of. This is exposed by quotes reflecting the way the Pashtuns refer to the Hazaras, “You! The Hazara, look at me when I talk to you, you mice eating flat nosed donkey.” Throughout the novel these two races are continually compared and contrasted against one another, showing us they can become disconnected by stereotypes formed in certain societies. Throughout the novel the composer really exaggerates the disconnection by using certain techniques such as motifs and symbolism. The Hazaras lived in mud huts that were partially destroyed, broken down, with no living space. Whilst the Pashtuns lived in stable buildings with working facilities and were significantly larger, so by this it could be conveyed that these environments were motifs, reflecting how the races that occupy them are perceived in society. Ironically this...
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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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...Betrayal is something found in all places. Men and women betray each other everyday, but somehow we have the power to forgive. In the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, betrayal plays its way through the pages as a motif that haunts many of the characters. The novel progresses through the life of a boy named Amir and all the struggles he endures. He betrays others, he gets betrayed, and he learns to forgive. Amir allows his guilt to consume him and with that he becomes a man full of remorse and regrets. Forgiveness of not only others, but himself helps him overcome these hardships and allows readers to learn that yes, there is a way to be good again. Growing up wealthy in Afghanistan, Amir had a servant named named Hassan. Being the same age,...
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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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...In “The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini adds that the guilt is enduring and can only get rid of by redemption. To emphasize his message, Khaled Hosseini relies on the concepts of quest, violence, and politics, which are also the motifs of the novel and interrelated to each other and the theme of redemption. Khaled Hosseini introduce the concept of the quest by having the main character going on the quest to redeem himself, which is the true goal of his quest. In the novel, Amir learns of Sohrab from Baba’s letter, the quester, and travels back to his hometown, place to go, to save him, which is the stated reason, with the taliban being obstacles, but the true reason of accepting the quest is hopes of redemption to rid of the guilt. Khaled Hosseini...
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...Nothing Gold Can Stay Guilt. Cancerous almost, spreading through your body, manipulating your thoughts, working as a deterrent against any type of long term vivacity. As seen in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner one of the main themes is seeking redemption. Hosseini uses the motif of selflessness to show that in order to seek redemption and earn it, you must have the self-motivation deeper than other people pushing you (illustrated by Rahim Khan motivating Amir with his phone call). For most of the book, Amir has little self-confidence to achieve redeeming himself. It was an incredibly afflictive situation for Amir or any person to go through. Selflessness does not have a determined end or beginning; it happens when you’ve given your best...
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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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...Actively and willingly striving towards decisions to benefit the majority, rather than strictly ones own self interests, is a troublesome feat. Undeniably, Khaled Hoseini’s The Kite Runner captures this moral struggle within various living circumstances and familial origins. Nonetheless, while an abundance of characters’ experiences are captured, only a minute handful truly grasp the conceptual understanding of self-sacrifice. Specifically, Soraya, Rahim Kahn, and Baba comprehend the authentic tribulation of emotion, physical effort, and endless support that must accompany a holistic offer of aid. Through their charitable hearts and compassionate friendship, these individuals all achieve a state of true bliss because first-hand experiences...
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...ADRA AC&H AC&H H&S ADRA HA HA H&S OI REC NAT NAT OI VOC VOC SGO&H REC SGO&H pathfinder honor book 2014 revision general conference youth ministries department -1- ADRA AC&H H&S NAT HA OI SGO&H REC VOC pathfinder honor book 2014 revision general conference youth ministries department -3- General Conference Youth Ministries Department Director: Gilbert Cangy General Conference Associate Youth Director/Pathfinder World Director: Jonatan Tejel General Conference Honors Committee: Jonatan Tejel, Chairman Vanessa Correa, Secretary Gennady Kasap: ESD Youth Director Busi Khumalo: SID Youth Director Mark O’Ffill: NAD representative John Sommerfeld: SPD representative Paul Tompkins: TED Youth Director Jobbie Yabut: SSD Youth Director Udolcy Zukowski: SAD Pathfinder Director Copyright © 2014 by the Youth Ministries Department of the Seventh-day Adventist® Church All rights reserved. Published 2014 First edition published 1998. Second edition 2011. Third edition 2014 Rights for publishing this book outside the U.S.A. or in non-English languages are administered by the Youth Ministries Department of the Seventh-day Adventist® Church. For additional information, please visit our website, www.gcyouthministries. org, email youthinfo@gc.adventist.org, or write to Youth Ministries Department, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists® Church, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904, U.S.A. Cover and inside design by Jonatan Tejel Printed in the United...
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...Barack Obama Dreams from My Father “For we are strangers before them, and sojourners, as were all our fathers. 1 CHRONICLES 29:15 PREFACE TO THE 2004 EDITION A LMOST A DECADE HAS passed since this book was first published. As I mention in the original introduction, the opportunity to write the book came while I was in law school, the result of my election as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. In the wake of some modest publicity, I received an advance from a publisher and went to work with the belief that the story of my family, and my efforts to understand that story, might speak in some way to the fissures of race that have characterized the American experience, as well as the fluid state of identitythe leaps through time, the collision of cultures-that mark our modern life. Like most first-time authors, I was filled with hope and despair upon the book’s publication-hope that the book might succeed beyond my youthful dreams, despair that I had failed to say anything worth saying. The reality fell somewhere in between. The reviews were mildly favorable. People actually showed up at the readings my publisher arranged. The sales were underwhelming. And, after a few months, I went on with the business of my life, certain that my career as an author would be short-lived, but glad to have survived the process with my dignity more or less intact. I had little time for reflection over the next ten years. I ran a voter registration project in...
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