The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a novel about a young boy an the story of his life. It goes through how one mistake can effect the rest of your life and the choices that one makes. Literary elements are the components of a literary piece including setting plot theme and resolution. Literary elements are important in literature because they make the writing more interesting. In The Kite Runner, many literary elements are present including character traits, conflicts, and theme.
Amir's successful and well known father Baba, can be best described as tough, yet giving. Baba is well known across Kabul and is very well off, yet he is known for wrestling a bear. While narrating Amir says, "Lore has it my father once wrestled a
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black bear in Baluchistan with his bare hands" (Hoseini 37).
What this says about Baba is incredible. People do not or cannot wrestle bears, yet Baba has just enough of a 'tough guy' persona that people really do believe that he did the impossible of wrestling a black bear. Baba is shown in this light so we almost fear him. He is told that he could not do something and so from the kindness of his heart he did it. Amir says "In the late 1960s, when I was five or six, Baba decided to build an orphanage" (Hosseini). By doing this Baba's soft side is shown. This is shown because Baba is at both ends of the spectrum. Baba is both giving and tough through his kindness of building an orphanage, and through possibly wrestling a bear.
Two important conflicts that occur in The Kite Runner are the fact that Soraya discovers that she physically cannot have kids and that Amir believes when he is being denied fatherhood. Amir and Soraya have been trying to
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have children, and when they are unsuccessful, they go to a doctor and find that she is physically unable to bear children without reason. "When the tests were over, he explained that he couldn’t explain why we couldn’t have kids" (Hossenei 327). By not being able to have kids, Soraya may begin to feel that she no longer provides anything to the relationship, and begin to divide a gap between her and Amir. The gap will only grow wider, and Amir will continue to blame himself as time goes on, if Amir and Soraya do not decide to adopt. The next conflict is that Amir feels that he is being denied fatherhood for the terrible things that he had done in the past. "that perhaps something, someone, somewhere, had decided to deny me fatherhood for the things I had done. Maybe this was my punishment, and perhaps justly so" (Hossenei 330). What this reveals about Amir is that, after all this time, he still thinks about what happened to Hassan and will always believe that it will haunt him. Now that Amir think that it is his fault that Soraya cannot have kids Amir will feel like he cannot bring enough to the marriage and then the gap will widen even faster and grow even deeper. Off of this one conflict both of the parties believe that they are not good enough or that they are at fault. In conclusion, the two important conflicts in The Kite Runner are the fact that Soraya discovers that she physically cannot have kids and that Amir believes that he is being denied fatherhood. In The Kite Runner, redemption is important because sin is so continuous.
For most of the book, Amir tries to deal with his guilt by mainly avoiding it. Doing this clearly does not do anything towards redeeming himself, and his guilt continues. That is why he cringes every time Hassan's name is said which is shown when Amir recounts, "I wondered where Hassan was. Then the inevitable. I vomited on a tangle of weeds" (Hoseini 186). Throughout the book, it teaches the reader that sin must be confronted in order to find redemption. This shows that Amir's sins are building upon themselves and he is unwilling to face them. Neither feelings of betrayal nor punishment are enough to redeem Amir. Rescuing Sohrab from Assef is not enough either. When Assef almost kills Amir, he feels "healed," as though now that Assef has hurt him, he is redeemed. He even tells Farid that in the room with Assef, he "got what he deserved." Only when Amir decides to take Sohrab to the United States and provide his nephew a chance does he feel at peace. Then finally at the very end of the book when Amir says, "Sohrab's blood on his hands", and Amir manages to forgive himself, he redeems himself at last. As we get closer towards the book's end, Amir is not the only character who needs redemption. When Amir finds out about Baba's betrayal of Ali and Hassan, he finds out that everything he thinks he knows about his father is a lie. Until Rahim Khan reveals Baba's secret, Amir thinks he is the
only sinner among his family and friends. Amir, understandably, himself feels betrayed. "How could you hide this from me? From him?" (Hosieni 347). Rahim Kahn talks about forgiveness when he tells Amir in his letter, "I know that in the end, God will forgive. He will forgive your father, me, and you too ... Forgive your father if you can. Forgive me if you wish. But most important, forgive yourself" (Hosieni 464). Amir believes this in regards to his own sin. When he tries to get Hassan to pelt him with pomegranates, he is expressing his feeling that in order to be forgiven for hurting Hassan, Hassan must hurt him. In The Kite Runner, Amir witnesses something terrible happen to his best friend and the rest of the novel is about how he deals with the guilt and his actions that come out of that. Through his life, Amir makes decisions that are almost all based on his guilt. In The Kite Runner, there are many literary elements including character traits, conflicts, and theme.
Amir’s childhood is quite unusual compared to most children in Afghan. Amir’s father, Baba, is a very rich and successful individual in his lifetime. This success allows Amir to live a wealthy lifestyle with access to western commodity as well as servants. In novel, Amir is risen mostly by his servants Hassan and Ali, as well
Actions made in a moment of pain, anger or simple immaturity can take anyone to make mistakes that can change their lives completely. Everyone has something in the past that is shameful, embarrassing and regrettable that is kept present daily. Whether this event happened during childhood, adolescence or early adulthood, this event could haunt and have shaped that person’s life into what he or she is today. In a similar way, the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is shaped by a tragic and eventful past that has shaped Amir’s, Baba’s, and Hassan’s lives. The four literary elements that will be used in this essay that Hosseini strategically uses in this book are: irony, simile, metaphor, and personification.
Baba is a very high standing man in Kabul, but seems to be extremely harsh to Amir when he was a child. He is a very large, tough man who was very well known in the town and as Amir stated in the novel, “Lore has it my father once wrestled a black bear in Baluchistan with his bare hands” (Hosseini 12). This small detail of Baba makes it known to the reader that Baba is a man of great courage and strength. Some may think that an honorable man is one with no flaws, but many disagree. Every human being makes mistakes, including Baba. When Amir grows up and goes back to visit Rahim Khan in Afghanistan, he finds out that his father lied to him his entire life about Hassan being his half-brother. He also finds out from Rahim Khan that all Baba had back then “was his honor, his name” (Hosseini 223). He did not tell Amir and Hassan that they were brothers because they had a different mother and that would have made their entire family be looked down upon in the town. He did it for their own good, and wanted for them both to grow up as honorable men, like himself. There is a difference in making mistakes and trying to do what’s best to fix them, rather than making the same mistakes over and over again, which is what Amir seemed to do in the novel. Amir was the exact opposite of his father, which made it very hard for them to have a
As a result, when Rahim Khan had told Amir that Hassan and him were brothers and that it was Baba that was Hassan real father. It had hurt him especially since Amir is a grown man now and just finding out, it had hurt him because now that he looks at it he pushed away his brother. “How could you hide this from me? From him?” I bellowed.
Much like Amir has a friend who is as loyal as Hassan, Baba actually has a friend who is just as loyal to him and his name is Rahim Khan. Rahim Khan is Baba’s best friend and has been with Baba for as long as he can remember and one can see that he values their friendship through his loyalty to Baba through his word. One example is when Rahim Khan finally tells Amir the truth about the relationship between Hassan and Baba where we see Rahim’s Khans true loyalty. Rahim states, “Please think, Ami Jan. It was a shameful situation people would talk. All that a man had back then, all that he was, was his honour, his name, if people talked… we couldn’t tell anyone, surely you can see that” (Hosseini 233). Rahim Khan shows his loyalty to Baba by not proclaiming Baba’s misfortunate actions to the public. Rahim knew that if people were to find out about what Baba had done, all that he has worked for would be of no use anymore. The Orphanage, Baba’s name and the respect he receives from the people of Afghanistan would be worthless. A second example to present Rahim Khan’s loyalty is when Baba “sells” the house to Rahim Khan before him and Amir leave for Pakistan and eventually to America. Here Amir narrates, “Baba had ‘sold’ the house to Rahim Khan shortly before he and I fled Kabul… So he’d given the house to Rahim Khan to keep watch over until that day”
Baba is first depicted as an unreachable man who was well respected in the community. Amir recalls his birthday party where he was “scanning over the invitation list a week before my birthday party and not recognizing at least three-quarters of the four hundred [. . .] Then I realized they weren’t really coming for me. It was my birthday, but I knew who the real star of the show was” (94). Amir did not know it at the time, but Baba had sins he was trying to absolve. Through his actions toward redemption, Baba touched the lives of many. Regardless of their social status, Baba would lend a he Amir recalls how Baba “always carried an extra handful of Afghani bills in his pocket just for them; I’d never seen him deny a peddler” (245). Baba would offer his wealth to every beggar he came across. Along with this, he also built an orphanage with his own money, planning, and time. Baba did everything in his power to redeem himself and eradicate himself of the guilt in his heart. Some say he was redeemed; others disagree. Rahim Khan tells Amir of Baba’s dilemma:
In conclusion irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing contribute to the omnipresent theme of redemption throughout The Kite Runner. Khaled Hosseini ties together seemingly unimportant details of the story to create irony, and juxtaposes segments of his book to show redemption.
middle of paper ... ... Readers realize Baba was not the honorable man he was initially depicted as; instead, he was a man who lacked the courage to atone for his sins. Ultimately, through his actions to save Sohrab, Amir became the man his father had always wanted him to be. Although Baba never lived up to the persona he created for himself, Amir did, and that is why his attempts to achieve atonement were more successful than his father ’s.
When Amir takes Baba to the doctors, the doctor suggests chemotherapy for Baba to prolong the cancer but Baba did not want any medication. Amir tells the reader, “He had the same resolved look on his face as the day he’d dropped the stack of food stamps on Mrs. Dobbins’s desk” (156). Baba did not want help even if his life was on the line. Baba also starts to take pride in Amir when he tells General Taheri, “Amir is going to ne a great writer,” Baba said. I did a double take at this” (139). Amir is starting to realize that his father who was untouchable and was a legend in Kabul was truly human. When Amir tells Baba that he wants to marry Soraya, Baba calls General Taheri to set up a meeting between the two men. As Amir dropped off Baba at the Taheri’s for the meeting, he says, “Baba was hobbling up the Taheri’s driveway for one last fatherly duty” (163). In this instance, Amir sees Baba as a true father. Amir feels Baba’s acceptance when Baba tells Amir on lafz, “It’s the happiest day of my life Amir” (166). Baba is telling Amir that through everything in his life from him marrying Sophia, to Amir winning the kite tournament, all the way to Amir graduating high school, Baba has never been prouder. After Baba’s death, Amir says, “As words from the Koran reverberated through the room, I thought of the old story of Baba wrestling a black bear in Baluchistan. Baba had
Betrayal, redemption, and forgiveness are all major themes in The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini. The novel also focuses around the theme of a broken relationship between father and son as well as facing difficult situations from ones past. Amir and Hassan are best friends with two completely different personalities. Each character in the novel faces their own hardships and eventually learns to overcome those difficulties. Beginning with betrayal then the characters have to make their way to gaining redemption and forgiveness from others, as well as their self, is carried on throughout the novel. It is a continuous story of the relationships between Amir and his father Baba and facing their challenges from the past every day of their present.
Amir’s father, Baba, has strong beliefs surrounding strength and masculinity. Throughout the novel, there is a strong sense that Baba is assisting Amir to come of age and become a man. Baba’s outlook on masculinity reveals his resentment for vulnerability. During a Buzkashi tournament (Afghanistan’s national sport known for its danger and brutality involves horse-mounted players that attempt to place a goat or calf carcass in a goal), Amir is distraught after witnessing the graphic and horrific death of a rider:
The themes of the loss of innocence and redemption is used throughout the novel The Kite Runner to make a point that one can lose innocence but never redeem it. Once innocence is lost it takes a part of oneself that can never be brought back from oblivion. One can try an entire life to redeem oneself but the part that is loss is permanently gone although the ache of it can be dampened with the passing of time and acts of attempted redemption. Khaled Hosseini uses characters, situations, and many different archetypes to make this point.
Amir never stands up for himself in his youth. He always uses others to execute his dirty deeds for him. Consequently, Baba doesn’t recognize Amir as a
Baba is the most important person to Amir because he is Amir’s role model and world. How Baba express his feelings of being a parent is shown through his interactions and speeches with Amir. In Baba’s eyes, he finds it hard to believe that Amir is his son because “if I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him … never believe he’s my son” (23). Amir cannot defend himself and is often in the position of receiving assistance from Hassan. Growing up, Baba never had to rely on someone else when he got pushed around from the neighborhood kids. He always showed them up, but with Amir, he can’t even defend himself without Hassan’s help. Baba’s disappoint towards Amir not being able to defend himself furthers their already distant relationship. While creating his name, Baba had married a highly educated woman who was regarded as one of Kabul’s most respected, beautiful and virtuous lady. For Baba, it was fine to be married to a poet, “but fathering a son who preferred burying his face in poetry books to hunting … well, that wasn’t how [he] had envisioned it,” (19-20). Baba doesn’t approve of Amir reading...
Amir develops strength in his dreams after witnessing Hassan’s rape. Amir’s dreams convey a sense of reality. Amir has a dream about Baba wrestling the bear, which Amir is Baba. Baba was known for his strength in Afghanistan for defeating the bear. Amir had represented any obstacles Baba had encountered in his life, because in the dream, Amir represented Baba and Assef is the bear. “They fall to the ground with a loud thud” (Hosseini 303). The importance of this quote develops Amir’s accomplishments by saving Hassan’s son Sohrab from being in captivity from Assef. Amir has defeated Assef as Baba has defeated the bear. “Dreams tell us the truth about ourselves, and they could not be more misleading” (Phillips). Amir’s dreams come to terms with