LITERARY ANALYSIS #2

The Kite Runner

1. Exposition: when Hosseini first introduces the main characters and provides details about the setting and relationships between the characters. This emphasizes the tension between Amir and Hassan. 

Rising Action: begins with the telephone call from Rahim Khan asking Amir to return to Afghanistan to rescue Sohrab and continues throughout his journey to the orphanage 

Climax: when he finally defeats Assef with the help of Sohrab and his slingshot

Falling Action: when Amir has to find a way to get Sohrab into the United States and has to obtain a humanitarian visa. Sohrab struggles with living in America until Amir flies a kite with him and he finally begins to smile. 

The plot supports the authors purpose because it walks through how Amir was able to forgive himself for his past by facing it and replacing it with better deeds. 

2. The theme of The Kite Runner is self forgiveness. Throughout the entire novel the author focuses on the one bad deed that Amir commuted. From the beginning when he sets up the friendship to the middle when he portrays the fall out, to the end of the novel when Amir is finally able to make up for his mistake, the author focuses on how what Amir hid as a child effected his whole life. Thus, the entire novel is based on Amir working to forgive himself. 

3. The author's tone throughout The Kite Runner was very remorseful and full of self pity. As soon as the reader finds out about what happened in Amir's childhood, the entire tone of the novel shifts from light and heartfelt, to all of the self pity that Amir had. Throughout the entire novel, Amir is trying to reconcile what he caused as a child and that sets the tone for the entire novel. 

4. Allusion: Amir states after placing watch under Hassan's bed "I loved him in the moment, loved him more than Id loved anyone and I wanted to tell them that I was the snake in the grass." Biblical allusion because Amir deceives his father. (Chapter 9, page 105)

Motif: "The Pomegranate Tree." It is seen in both the beginning and the end of the novel and is symbolic of the relationship once shared between Amir and Hassan "Amir and Hassan, Sultans of Kabul...Those words made it formal: the tree was ours."

Foreshadowing: used when Hassan tells Amir about the dream he had "it was warm and sunny, the lake was clear like a mirror but no one was swimming... 'I'll show you all'" (Beginning of Chapter 7)

Repetition: Using the word 'never mind repetitively "Never mind that we taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands..." (Page 24)

Syntax: "Sometimes, my entire childhood seems like one long lazy summer with Hassan... yank it back every time it took flight." (Page 25-26)

Direct Characterization: "I can still see his tiny... Or perhaps he had grown tired and careless." (Pg 3)

CHARACTERIZATION

1. Direct Characterization:  "I can still see his tiny... Or perhaps he had grown tired and careless." (Pg 3) and  "...even in birth, Hassan was true to his nature: He was incapable of hurting anyone." (Pg 10)

Indirect Characterization: Displayed when Rahim informs Amir that Hassan is Amir's step brother. It shows how complex of a man Amir is. 

2. The authors syntax and diction only changes slightly when he focuses on a character. It doesn't change depending on each individual character, but more so that the syntax and diction change depending on what the character is doing. For example. The authors syntax changes during the scene of Hassan getting raped in the beginning of the novel. 

3. The protagonist is a static round character. We see the protagonist grow from a boy to man, and although we are able to see this growth and know a lot about his character, the reader doesn't actually see much change within the character at all throughout the novel. 

4. After reading the book I definitely walked away feeling like I not only personally knew a single character, but that I actually felt like I had connected to all of the characters. As well as feeling that I knew the characters by the end of the book, I also realized that I was opened to an entirely new culture that I hadn't been familiar with prior to reading The Kite Runner.