![]() In both confrontations, Hosseini draws our attention to the slingshot (or lack of it), the dehumanisation and commodification of the victim, and Amir’s choice. Of course, understanding that he must oppose the regime is fundamental to Amir’s actions at the end of novel, and Hosseini deliberately parallels the rescue of Sohrab with the alleyway scene in order to highlight the transformation in Amir’s character. It is clear that Hosseini is challenging the unjust exploitation and abuse of the Hazara people within Afghan culture. For the reader, however, the sacrificial diction emphasises Hassan’s vulnerability and innocence, whilst the word “price” indicates that he is commodified. Yet, even as Hosseini shows that Amir is confronting the truth about his own moral failings, the sense of obligation in the repeated modal verb “had to” and use of religious imagery indicates that he is still attempting to justify his actions. The suggestion is that Amir has internalised society’s racism and class system, and that he is presented as perceiving himself – a Pashtun – as superior to Hassan – a Hazara. By describing Hassan in animalistic terms – just as elsewhere in the novel the Hazara people are described with prejudiced terms such as “dog” and “donkey” – Hosseini links Amir’s thinking with that of the racist Assef. ![]() Instead, Hosseini reveals that whilst fear might be one motivation for the protagonist’s actions, the truth was that Amir made a choice to sacrifice his friend for his own benefit. From a reader’s perspective, Amir’s youth and Hosseini’s emphasis on Assef’s brutality go some way to explaining his actions – but although the rhyming sentences may be reminiscent of childish songs, Amir is not portrayed as reflecting on his age. ![]() In this section of the novel, Amir reflects on the events in the alleyway and the reasons why he did not attempt to protect Hassan. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.” … Assef was right, nothing was free in this world. Farid’s statement that Amir has always “been a tourist in own country” is true until the denouement, Amir’s relatively privileged upbringing has not prompted him to use his power for good, but has rather led to bullying behaviour towards Hassan – behaviour which Amir is presented as frequently justifying or minimising. Whilst it could be argued that use of the pronoun “you” in the quotation is designed to engage the reader in the novel’s moral journey, it could equally be posited that Hosseini is revealing Amir’s inability to accept responsibility for his actions. This quotation also introduces an element of Amir’s character which he needs to confront in the return to Afghanistan: his continual dissociation from his actions and his role in supporting the exploitation of the Hazara people. It may be a drop in the ocean, but by saving Sohrab, Amir does manage to improve the life of one of the victims of the Taliban. Yet, Hosseini shows us that even if it is not possible for the individual to completely heal the wounds of the past, standing up for justice and equality is still necessary. Compounding this, the use of the present tense, personification, and violent diction reveal that the past has become an antagonist within the novel, maintaining control over Amir. In this quotation, the repetition of the “past” and its shift from object to subject implies that the gravity and wide-ranging impact of such betrayals means that history takes on a life of its own, entrapping individuals within a cycle of events that seem to become unchangeable. If for the elite Pashtun Amir, the “past” means a failure to protect his marginalised friend from sexual violence, within the context of the novel this symbolises the failure of those with power to protect the weaker members of society. Of course, whilst the novel’s first-person narrative perspective indicates that this journey towards absolution is an intensely personal one, Hosseini parallels Amir’s story with that of the country of Afghanistan itself. Hosseini introduces the novel with this pithy statement, and the interlinked themes of memory, guilt, and the need for peace drive the narrative from the moment of betrayal hinted at on the opening page, to Amir’s eventual experience of redemption. “You can’t bury the past – because the past claws its way out.” Here are my top 3 quotations from The Kite Runner. These quotations are often ideal to include in exam essays, as they tend to be both rich and malleable (that is, they can be analysed in depth and used to respond to a range of questions). When writing about literature, I often find that I return to the same quotations repeatedly, perhaps because they resonate across the fabric of the text and articulate the key concepts the writer is communicating.
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