The Kite Runner

Description

Can be helpful with Wider Reading
Simra Ejaz
Mind Map by Simra Ejaz, updated more than 1 year ago
Simra Ejaz
Created by Simra Ejaz about 10 years ago
512
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Resource summary

The Kite Runner
  1. AO2
    1. "A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up for anything."
      1. Reveals Amir's major character flaw: Cowardness. Baba shows how much value he places in standing up for what is right.
        1. (won't/can't) - contraction - double negatives
          1. As a boy, Amir fails to stand up for himself. As an adult he can only redeem himself by proving he has the courage to stand up for what is right.
            1. - Protects Hassan's son as a way of expressing his apology and love towards Hassan (his half-brother)
          2. "Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words. Mine was Baba. His was Amir. My name.
            1. Brings up an interesting question: Does the revelation of Amir and Hassan being half-brother really change anything? - Aren't the two already brother's in everything? or does 'blood' fundamentally change Amir's relationship with Hassan?
              1. (We) - pronoun - togetherness - acceptance. (Hassan & i) - boastful about his friendship/brotherhood.
                1. Innocence
                2. (Short Sentences) - feeling of realism - As though the protagonist is recalling vivid memory.
                  1. (Was) - past tense - struggles that have been experienced: Racism, Friendship, Betrayal...
                    1. (Same) - Repetition - The pair are almost identical. However the repetition of 'same' doesn't change the fact that Amir and Hassan are from two completely different social statuses. - the limit to their brotherly relationship, regardless of whether they are half-brothers or if they've been fed and raised in the same environment.
                      1. Hassan's loyalty towards Amir is made apparent from before they could speak.
                        1. Friendship
                        2. "He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time. I loved him in that moment, loved him more than I'd ever loved anyone, and I wanted to tell them all that I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake."
                          1. (I) - Repetition - personal pronoun - Reinforcement of guilty conscience pervading every aspect of his life -
                            1. (I betrayed/ snake/ monster) - Loss of control - inhumane
                              1. foreshadowing their future relationships
                                1. Admiration
                            2. Setting: "..Old abandoned cemetery"
                              1. Foreshadows death and loss
                                1. There 'there is a pomegranate tree' with ' blood-red pomegranates...'
                                  1. Representative of their friendship. Foreshadowing the fact that it may be tarnished in the future
                                    1. Symbolism
                                  2. Setting: "...musty smelling bazaars of the Shar-e-nau...walked amid the bustling crowds..."
                                    1. Vivid Imagery
                                      1. Makes us feel as though we are living their childhood
                                        1. Emphasises importance of their childhood
                                    2. Structure
                                      1. Ends with a cliffhanger
                                        1. "Then Afghanistan changed forever."
                                          1. Foreshadowing and cliffhanger - This structure creates suspense.
                                        2. Time is used to manipulate structure
                                        3. Hassan's and Amirs relationship
                                          1. "...i never thought of Hassan as a friend..."
                                            1. Ethnic differences 'in the i was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara... nothing was going to change that. Nothing.
                                              1. Foreshadowing that this will affect their relationship in the future
                                              2. Child Innocence
                                          2. AO1
                                            1. Race
                                              1. Friendship
                                                1. Betrayal
                                                  1. Warfare
                                                    1. Principles
                                                      1. Innocence
                                                        1. Men & Masculinity
                                                          1. Religion
                                                            1. Admiration
                                                            2. AO3
                                                              1. The Colour Purple
                                                                1. Hassan's Rape / Celie's Rape at the stat of the novels.
                                                                  1. Spoken in first person: Amir/Celie
                                                                    1. Structures of writing changes, indicating the transformation from child to adult.
                                                                      1. Use of onomatopoeia
                                                                              1. AO4
                                                                                1. Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 4, 1965, and was the oldest of five children. Just as he describes in The Kite Runner, Kabul was a cosmopolitan city at the time.
                                                                                  1. The Kite Runner deals with the country of Afghanistan from the 1970s to the year 2002. Like all places, Afghanistan has a long and complicated history, but it came to international attention only after the coup of 1973.
                                                                                    1. From 1933-1973, Afghanistan was a monarchy ruled by King Zahir Shah. On July 17, 1973, when the king was on vacation, Mohammad Daoud Khan seized power. Mohammad Daoud Khan was Zahir Shah's cousin and a former Prime Minister of Afghanistan.
                                                                                      1. Although the Military coup was nearly bloodless (non-violent), from Amir's story, we find that it was still a frightening time for the people of Kabul who could hear rioting and shootings in the streets.
                                                                                        1. After 6 years of ruling the country on April 27, 1978, Daoud Khan was violently slaughtered and taken over by the PDPA
                                                                                        2. PDPA - Communist party (Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan)
                                                                                          1. instituted many political and social reforms in Afghanistan, including abolishing religious and traditional customs. These reforms incensed groups of Afghans who believed in adherence to traditional and religious laws.
                                                                                            1. Lead the Soviet Army to occupy Afghanistan, lasting a decade.
                                                                                              1. Historical point in The Kite Runner: When Baba and Amir leave Afghanistan
                                                                                        3. Summary: The Kite Runner of Khaled Hosseini's is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970's, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-yeard-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a mmber of Afganistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, soemthing unspeakable happened between the two boys. When Amir wins the tournament, Hassan sets off to run the losing kite. amir looks for him and finds hassan trapped at the end of an alley, pinned with his pants down. Wali, Kamal hold him and Assef rapes him( a gang who discriminated against Hassan's class). Amir runs away, and when Hassan appears with the kite, Amir pretends he doesnt know what happened, leading the two to drift apart and experience seperate traumatic events.
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