Dr. Beach
Honors English 10
6 January 2014
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Author
• Khaled Hosseini
• Born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan
• His mother was a teacher at a high school in Kabul, while his father was a diplomat for the Afghan Foreign Ministry
• The family was relocated to Paris in 1976
• Due to a communist coup and Soviet invasion, his family was given political asylum to the United States and lived in San Jose, California.
• In 1988 Hosseini earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Santa Clara University
• After earning his bachelor in biology, Hosseini enrolled at the University of California’s med school where he earned a medical degree.
• While practicing medicine, he began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner, in March 2001.
Speaker
• Protagonist Amir
• First person point of view
• “I”
• Born and raised in Afghanistan, however moves to America with his father in the middle of the novel
• Grew up with a wealthy and privileged lifestyle
• Lacks a connection with his father, Baba, and believes that he disappoints his father
• Throughout the novel, Amir must deal with the guilt that he had put on himself because of jealousy and one childhood decision.
Larger Occasion
• 1919-1929 King Amanullah introduces reforms for modernizing Afghanistan. Many religious groups revolted against government.
• 1933 King Nadir Shah assassinated and his son Zahir takes the throne
• 1963 Daoud, the Prime Minister, resigns
• 1973 Daoud proclaims Afghanistan as a republic and he proclaimed the president
• 1978 Daoud executed by people in the Peoples Democratic Party
• 1979 Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, partly to back the group who killed Daoud
• 1980 United States and other countries start sending arms to the resistance...
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...the power of Baba by exaggerating what it takes to stop such a man.
• “My face was burning”(281). Hosseini claims that Amir’s face burned as he spoke with Assef to exaggerate the nerves Amir felt. He claims that Amir’s face, red and sweaty, as burning to enable the reader to know the fear Amir felt.
Indirect Characterization
• “I was glad for the darkness”(119). Hosseini explains how at times when Baba fights that the darkness comforts Amir. The darkness comforts Amir because he cannot see Baba’s scary face while he fights. Therefore, Hosseini displays that Amir does not like watching Baba hurt people, or watching Baba get hurt.
• “The most tired laughter I’d ever heard”(201). As Amir chats with Rahim, Hosseini indirectly characterizes Rahim as sick and dying. By explaining how Amir never heard such tired laugh, Hosseini reveals the seriousness of Rahim’s illness.
Because of Amir’s extreme desire to receive the attention and affection from Baba, he begins to subconsciously sacrifice his relationship with Hassan in order to fulfill his interests. However, as Amir continuously matures and begins to recognize his initial ignorant, detrimental actions towards Hassan, he no longer “worships” his father like he did in the past. This causes him to ensure a sense of independence because of his ability to quickly adapt to a completely new, unfamiliar environment and remain adamant on pursuing their own aspirations. When individuals highly idolize and worship the successes that their loved ones have achieved, their in-suppressible desire to emulate the achievements of others causes them to inevitably experience difficult circumstances that challenge their morality and principles. In The Kite Runner, Amir has always displayed overflowing affections for Baba due to his prideful feelings of being the son of a wealthy, prominent father.
On November 10, 1848, his parents migrated to America. When they arrived they settled in New York where they married. His Parents were loving, caring and wise.(www.marxists.org)
Literary value can be defined as a plot that follows the guideline that Joseph Campbell set before his theory of “monomyth,” inferring from the two videos and Foster’s ideas. Understanding this concept allows us to confirm that the book, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, contains an ample amount of literary value. Amir’s journey to Afghanistan serves as the prototype that Campbell constructed when producing his hypothesis. The two videos and Foster’s book lays out the conditions of a book containing literary value through Campbell’s ideas.
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 4, 1965. He is currently alive at the age of 55 years old. Khaled published his first book, The Kite Runner with River head Book on May 29, 2003. In total Khaled, has published three books, The Kite Runner published in 2003, A Thousand Splendid Suns published in 2007 and his most recent And the Mountains Echoed which was published in 2013.
Amir’s development from being “a boy who won’t stand up for himself,” to a man that stands up for the morally responsible thing to do (22, Hosseini). When Amir was a child, he tried to escape from his sins in the past by hiding them with lies. However, this only made it worse for Amir, causing him to be an insomniac for much of his life and putting himself through constant torment. Only when Amir became a man, like Baba wanted him to be, was Amir able to face the truth of what he done and put himself on the path of redemption. Even when Amir was suffering a violent beating from Assef, Amir was able to laugh because he knew he was doing what he should have for Hassan years ago. Amir’s development from a child, who lies in order to cower from their own mistakes, into a man, someone who is not only able to admit his sins, but atone for them, is essential to communicating the theme of redemption being the only way to settle with your
His mistakes disgust us, especially after Hassan has been by his side the entire book. As the reader gets deeper into the book, they start to develop feelings of anger but sometimes sympathy, towards Amir. By the end, we are not as angry as Amir, the reader to begin with. Amir has grown into a better person and has tried to fix his past mistakes.
The world-renowned novel, The Kite Runner, was written by Afghanistan-born American novelist Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini was born into a Shia Muslim family in Kabul. Later in life, he decided to move to Paris. Hosseini was unable to return to Kabul due to the Taliban take over, this caused the Hosseini family to seek political asylum in America. The actions that Hosseini witnessed in his beloved home country influenced his novel with the themes of guilt and redemption.
Amir wakes up after fighting Assef in the hospital thinking about Sohrab, “for some reason I can’t think of I want to thank the child” (Hosseini 293). Sohrab is the first thing Amir thinks of when he wakes up in a groggy state in hospital. Sohrab was willing to attempt to save Amir’s life, a man he barely knew, even though it meant risking his own life. In this way, he was able to not only physically save Amir but also mentally because he allows Amir to complete his mission and redeem himself. While struggling against Assef, Amir thinks, “...for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace...I hadn’t been happy and I hadn’t felt better, not at all. But I did now. My body was broken...but I felt healed. Healed at last.” (Hosseini 289). Sohrab feels guilty for what he did to Assef, although it saved himself and Amir. Amir tells him, “There are bad people in this world, some people stay bad. Sometimes you have to stand up for them. What you did to that man is what I should have done to him all those years ago. You gave him what he deserved. He deserved more” (Hosseini 319). While talking to Sohrab, Amir acknowledges that he was wrong and that he could have avoided all his guilt, if he had only stepped in against Assef. But he had not, so part of Amir making up for his sins was to stand up to Assef, and win a fight against him. However, in the end, Sohrab is the one
While Baba attempts to live his life according to the Afghan saying, “Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end.crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis [nomads]” (Hosseini 356), Amir strays from this traditional perspective. Baba chose to continue his life unmindful of his past, while Amir, eventually decides to confront him. Although both Baba and Amir have acted immorally, the choices they make find redemption affect the success of their individual attempts. In the novel, Amir’s quest for atonement is more effective than Baba’s because he acts virtuously, while his father, acts selfishly. Ultimately, Amir is the more successful of the two because, in opposition to Baba, he seeks holistic atonement and is willing to make sacrifices to achieve redemption.
In the novel The Kite Runner, author Khaled Hosseini writes about Amir a young Afghan child who is a coward and who later as an adult seeks redemption from past mistakes. These characteristic effects Amir’s live throughout the novel from childhood to present. However, these are just words on a paper without some proof and the novel happily supports this either through the events or the behavior of other characters. Now let’s start with Amir’s past childhood.
Kite Runner depicts the story of Amir, a boy living in Afghanistan, and his journey throughout life. He experiences periods of happiness, sorrow, and confusion as he matures. Amir is shocked by atrocities and blessed by beneficial relationships both in his homeland and the United States. Reviewers have chosen sides and waged a war of words against one another over the notoriety of the book. Many critics of Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, argue that the novel would not have reached a lofty level of success if the U.S. had not had recent dealings with the Middle East, yet other critics accurately relate the novel’s success to its internal aspects.
Amir later refers to Hassan as "the face of Afghanistan," and that it was "a face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile" (Hosseini, 2003, p. 31). The importance of this is
Over the course of the novel, Baba implies that he is not proud of Amir and the only reason he knows Amir is his son, is because he witnessed Amir 's birth. He states to Rahim Khan that he thinks Amir needs to stand up for himself more often. Countless times during the novel, Amir feels like he has to fight for his affection, that he has to earn Baba’s love. In order to prove himself worthy of affection and to redeem himself for not being a son Baba could be proud of, Amir yearns to win the kite runner competition. He reminisces on a memory, when all “I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption” (65). In the aftermath of Hassan’s rape, Amir got rid of Hassan so he would not have to face the cause of his guilt on a daily basis. Amir buries the secret of the rape deep within him, where he hopes that it will not come back to haunt him, which is not the case. “We had both sinned and betrayed. But Baba had found a way to create good out of his remorse. What had I done, other than take my guilt out on the very same people I had betrayed, and then try to forget it all? What had I done, other than become an insomniac? What had I ever done to right things?” (303). As mentioned earlier, Amir is not one who stands up for himself. In order for Amir to redeem himself for betraying Hassan, and not standing up for him earlier,
Amir overhears this and is very troubled that Baba doesn’t approve of him. To Amir, this is a realization that he is a coward and his father notices it. Later in the book, Amir sees Hassan being raped and he is contemplating jumping in and being courageous because he says, “I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be” (Hosseini, 77). Amir realizes that he has to decide “who I am”....
Through the themes on the novels, articles and books we can discover many problems and try to solve it. The author of The Kite Runner illustrates many important themes. He explains how the parents effect on their children. How our culture, beliefs, and religion effect on our personalities and on our way of treat the people around us. Also, he tells us about the importance of our friends and our families because they stay by our side in the hard time. Also, trough his writing he teaches us the importance of love and forgive the people, who we