It is often said that history repeats itself, and the same could be said with literature. When discussing intertextuality, it can be argued that a text is not only written material such as novels, plays, magazines, but is a combination of everything. Literature is often written with emotion and memories that correlate to other texts. In fact, there is no world outside of intertextuality when you think about it. Life can be considered a text, or a story that is still being written. When reading a work of literature, certain types of word choice, phrases, and literary devices can cause your brain to form connections to other materials you have previously read. Sometimes the connections you make may not even be relevant, but they still make …show more content…
These possibilities are an interesting take for this portion of The Kite Runner, because Amir explains that although he is sorry, he is not sorry enough to run out into the rain and apologize. Perhaps because the rain never actually touches him, he cannot be cleansed. Instead, I believe that Khaled Hosseini uses rain as a plot device to suggest weeping, to suggest just how much Amir will miss his best friend. Or maybe it is used simply to imply the suffering Amir will endure from betraying Hassan. When you think about it, Amir was oblivious to what he had, he was too blind to realize that Hassan was a true friend who respected him. In the Kite Runner, the main character Amir was blind himself. He was not physically blind, but blind in a metaphorical sense. Amir was blind to the truth to the important things in his life and the place he called home. He was blind to the happiness he strove for. I personally think Hosseini created a character such as Amir to show us a person who lacked sight but regains it slowly as the story continues to develop, to show the reader that, “there is a way to be good again.” (2) Amir was oblivious to the fact the he was able to receive anything he wanted because of his father 's wealth and popularity. Amir was able to have things handed to him like nothing, while the members of the beloved country he called his home had to work hard in order to receive valued things. Hosseini begins the Kite Runner with a character that is blind to what is happening in the “real world.” He lives most of his life thinking that the country he grew up in was a place one would be proud to call home, but as he gets older and time passes, he learns more and more about the terrible things about his motherland that were hidden from him for many years. This is only one of the examples in the novel
Page 2 - “I sat on a park bench near a willow tree. I thought about something Rahim Khan said just before he hung up, almost as an afterthought. I looked up at those twin kites.”
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.
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, in 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 life. The four literary elements that will be used in this essay that Hosseini strategically uses in this book are: irony, simile, Metaphor, and personification.
The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, shows how lying and deceit is a counterproductive route when trying to live with a dreadful past, exhibited through the actions of Amir. Amir’s decision to withhold the truth and blatantly lie in several situations due to jealousy and his desire for Baba to be proud of him amounts to further pain and misery for himself and those he deceives. Because of Amir’s deceit towards Baba and Hassan, his guilt from his past manifests itself into deeply-rooted torment, not allowing him to live his life in peace. The guilt from Amir’s past is only alleviated when he redeems his sins by taking in Sohrab, contributing to the theme that the only way “to be good again” is through redemption, not shunning the past.
In Khaled Hosseini’s book, The Kite Runner, Amir is an example of growing up, making mistakes, and facing the consequences for those mistakes. Amir grows so much throughout the book. He is a fictional example of maturing and growing up in a realistic manner. Making mistakes is a part of this growth, even though his were extreme. The reader is introduced to Amir and is disgusted about how he treats Hassan and abandons him in a time of needing rescuing. 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 feeling of anger but sometimes sympathy, towards Amir. By the end, we are not as angry as Amir than the reader to begin with. Amir has grown into
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a story about a young boy named Amir that begins in 1975 in Kabul, Afghanistan. As a child, he mistreats his servant, Hassan, who is like a brother to him. After failing to intervene in Hassan 's rape, Amir lives with guilt until his late thirties when he is presented with a chance at redemption. Amir 's father’s old friend, Rahim Khan, called from Pakistan to summon Amir to him. Upon his arrival, Amir learns that Hassan is his illegitimate half-brother. Hassan had been killed and his son had become an orphan. Amir then goes to drastic lengths to find and retrieve Hassan 's son, Sohrab. During this time Amir faces the guilt of his past and finds peace with himself while saving Sohrab
Going through all these different motifs, it taught Amir many different lessons, good and bad. But in the end, Amir finally is able to let go of his guilt and make his awful choice to not help Hassan in his time of need, have somewhat of a better outcome. In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini’s repeated the use of rape, sickness, and sacrifice to represent many different things throughout the novel.
Khaled Hosseini 's novel, The Kite Runner uses lots of literary techniques. The authors use of craft reveals how Amir’s childish psychological state results in his betrayal of hassan and his irrational behavior afterwards. The main elements used are setting, conflict, and point of view.
At the beginning of The Kite Runner, young Amir wins a kite fighting tournament. He feels like he has finally redeemed himself for his father. However, Amir’s happy day turns dark, when an hour later, he witnesses Hassan, his best friend, raped in an alley. He had “one final opportunity to decide who [he] was going to be. (77) Instead of standing up for his friend and...
The Kite Runner is a book about a young boy, Amir, who faces many struggles as he grows up in Kabul and later moves to America to flee from the Taliban. His best friend and brother , Hassan, was a big part of his life, but also a big part of guilt he held onto for many years. The book describes Amir’s attempt to make up for the past and resolve his sins so he can clear his conscious. Amir is worthy of forgiveness because although he was selfish, he was very brave and faced his past.
Amir also committed a sin that affected him negatively throughout his life. This sin occurred when Hassan, Amir’s best friend during his childhood, was getting raped by Assef. This situation occurred when the children were chasing kites. Hassan got the kite first, but Assef insisted that he wanted the kite. Assef also had a racial and religious prejudice against Hassan. Because Hassan did not give the kite, Assef decides to rape Hassan as a “punishment”. Instead of helping his friend out, Amir just walked away from the scene and let Hassan get violated in one of the most vulgar ways. After this incident, Hassan quietly walked back home and gave Amir the kite for which he was confronted by Assef for. The kite in this situation proves to be an important symbol. Whereas earlier in the novel the kite represented happiness and fun to Amir, in this situation it represented sin and guilt to Amir. The only reason that Hassan got raped was that he was trying to get a kite for Amir. Now the kite acts a reminder to Hassan of his wrong-doing and it will now begin to haunt him for a long time. Although when in America, Amir does not get reminded about Hassan, deep inside he still feels guilty. Amir immediately begins to feel the most guilt when he goes to Iran when Rahim Khan, Amir’s childhood friend, asks him to come. He feels that Rahim Khan has reminded him of his “past of unatoned sins”(Hosseini 2).
As he grows into a man and pushes his regrets to the side - though not ever completely out of his mind - he learns to live through and accept the pain he caused both himself and his best friend, Hassan. Towards the end of the novel, Amir goes to great lengths to earn the redemption he feels he needs in order to finally be at peace. The Kite Runner asks the audience what it truly means to be a good person - do we need to be born with goodness in our hearts, do we live the way that is comfortable and right according to ourselves, or do we have to constantly fail and prove that we are good?
“Sanaubar had taken one glance at the baby in Ali’s arms, seen the cleft lip, and barked a bitter laughter. “There” she had said. Now you have your own idiot child” (Hosseini 10). Since the moment he was born, the defining feature of Hassan’s appearance was the split in his upper lip, just left of the midline. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Hassan was repeatedly belittled for being the harelipped Hazara. A harelip is considered an imperfection, a mistake in how someone is suppose to look. Why would Khaled Hosseini, the author of the novel, want Hassan, the loyal selfless servant, to be known as a mistake? Hassan’s cleft lip is a juxtaposition with his virtuous personality and character. In order to reiterate the juxtaposition, Amir suffered a cut on his lip after battling Assef, “The impact had cut your upper lip in two, he had said, clean down the middle. Clean down the middle. Like a harelip” (Hosseini 297). After Amir defeated Assef, he achieved redemption and his character was good again, his physical appearance now suffered. Contrastingly, Assef
The story The Kite Runner is centered around learning “to be good again.” Both the movie and the book share the idea that the sins of the past must be paid for or atoned for in the present. In the book, Amir can be seen as a troubled young boy who is struggling with a tremendous amount of guilt. It is easy to blame Amir’s actions on his guilt and his father’s lack of love for him.
During The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini reinforces the theme of the loss of innocence and redemption. Many characters lose innocence or are the cause of another character losing theirs. Amir both loses his innocence and that of others. His innocence is stolen by his father. In the novel Amir overhears Baba saying, “‘If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son’” (Hosseini 24-25). This affects Amir for his entire life as he tries to compete with Hassan for his father's attention. He does not realize that in doing so, this crumbles his world as he knows it. It makes Amir resentful, calloused, and even cruel, all of which are characteristics of someone who has lost their innocence. In turn, Amir’s loss of innocence causes other to lose their innocence because of his lack of courage and disregard for others feelings.