Literature Analysis #2

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

The Kite Runner by Khaked Hosseini is a story about good versus evil and how one bad decision can result in scaring a person for the rest of their life. Amir, the narrator who is a young Afghanistan boy who shares stories of how he has lived in guilt and only wanted love from his father, because he thought his father hated him and he did whatever he could do to change his mind. His mother died when he was born and he thought he was the cause of her death. Hassan, the Hazara servant’s son was Amir’s closet friend and Hassan would do anything for Amir but it wasn’t the same for Amir, he sometimes took of advantage of Hassan. After making a bad decision, Amir’s life is turned upside down and he is now looking for forgiveness from himself.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

The theme of this story is definitely finding salvation. I feel all Amir does in this story is try to find salvation through his father because of his dead mother and his past.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

The author’s tone of the book is desperate at times then sometimes sentimental and also judgmental. I believe it was sentimental because the author always went back to how Amir felt about what happened or at that moment. “Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” I also feel he is desperate because he would always want his father’s attention. “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan as the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer flooded to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” And I also felt like he was a little judgmental because he showed how others judged him or people judged others. “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.”

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.) 

1-Personification: Creates a picture in your head of a large man walking into the room and everyone stares “At parties, when all six-foot-five of him thundered into the room, attention shifted to him life sunflowers turning to the sun.”

2-Inversion: Hassan was so loyal to Amir, he would tell him this whenever Amir asked him for something “For you, a thousand times over!”

3-Metaphor: Rahim explained to Baba that he can’t change the way Amir is, this also shows how their father son relationship occurs throughout the book. “ Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.”

4-Interior Monologue: Amir contemplates what he could do in the next few moments of Hassan being raped. “ I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan- the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past- and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run, In the end, I ran.”

5- Internal Conflict: Amir struggles with his decision of not intervening with Assef raping Hassan in order to bring back the kite he had won in order to show Baba he was worth something.

6- Rhetorical Questions: Amir still feels hopeless without him “It’s done, then. I’m eighteen and alone. I have no one left in the world. Baba’s dead and now I have to bury him? Where do I go after that?”

7-Symobolisism: This blue kite means the world to Amir because with it, Baba is proud. “ Behind him, sitting on piles of scrap and rubble, was the blue kite. My key to Baba’s heart”

8-allusion: amir is priveldged ““Never mind any of those things. Because history isn’t easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing”

9-Foreshawdow: This shows that Amir is going to have something happen in an alley which something did! “I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”

10-Irony: Amir is a coward because he didn’t stand up for his friend when he was being raped. “You’re a coward!” I said. “Nothing but a goddam coward!”

CHARACTERIZATION

5. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

Indirect Characterization:

Direct Characterization:

6. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

Yes, the author’s syntax and diction changes when he focuses on the character. The book is really all Amir’s thoughts and him talking in first person.

7.  Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

The protagonist is round and dynamic! Amir grows and learns throughout the book.

8.  After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction. 

I don’t think I’ve met a character exactly like Amir but I definitely think everyone is always look back on their past trying to improve.