The Kite Runner Narrative Essay

Narrative is also used as a way of controlling the passage of time. Hosseini uses a stream of consciousness during the rape scene in order to slow down time. Here the protagonist tries his best to block the horrific scenes presented before him by evoking endless, yet irrelevant thoughts. By a replacement of the present with thoughts from the past, Hosseini effectively lengthens the scene, which helps the reader to better understand and even share the same pain and anguish felt by Amir.

Often, language style is a reflection of the phase of Amir’s life we are encountering. Amir’s voice develops as we join him throughout this journey. For example, before we encounter the rape scene, his voice has a childlike innocence to it, through the use of simple sentences and a simple writing style. Similarly the end of his innocence is accompanied by the loss of his childlike tone.

The elements that allow The Kite Runner to be such a great work of fiction, for me are evident from the first paragraph alone:

“I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. 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. Looking

The date immediately stands as a milestone in the narrator’s life, especially as we are aware he is looking back on this very moment twenty six years later. This allows us to establish its non-chronological order, and by flitting between the past and present, Hosseini builds tension and compels the reader to continue reading to find a way back to the present moment, which takes several chapters to