Quotes Flashcards
A‘I became I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.’
Page 1
-1st person perspective tells us Amir is an unreliable narrator.
-‘What’ – suggest inhumanity – he is a thing not a person (A02).
-Internal protest to his own actions (A04) – believe they make him inhumane.
-‘What I am’ – Bildungsroman.
-‘over cast’ ‘winter’ Pathetic fallacy (A01) – guilt has overcast his life – weather inconsistent to the ‘blameless blue’ sky he mentions in chap 7 – unreliable – memory distorted by guilt (A05).
-Foreshadows (A01) something bad – creates plot tension and anticipation.
‘A pair of Kites’ ‘soaring in the sky’ ‘They danced’.
Page 1
-Kites – symbol of freedom (A01/2).
-Kite fighting banned in Afghanistan under Taliban.
-‘A pair’ – the brother hood between Amir and Hassan.
-Sibilance ‘soaring’ ‘sky’ – emph freedom.
-‘they danced’ – personification – free movement – opposite of tightly controlled regime.
-Symbol of his connecting with Hassan – Full circle – novel ends with Kite flying.
-Freedom
‘There is a way to be good again’
p.2
-emphasises focus on the novel – the need for Amir to atone.
-Bildungsroman.
-Declarative – it is possible – it must be done.
‘almost perfectly round face’ ‘like a Chinese doll’ ‘slanting narrow eyes… depending on the light… gold, green, sapphire.’
p.3
-Poetic imagery – shows how Amir idealises Hassan.
-Sees him as a work of art – inhuman perfection - Unreliable narrator – biased by love and guilt.
-His ethnic features presented as beautiful – protest against the derogatory perception of Hazara’s.
-‘Chinese’ – Hazara’s Mongolian ancestry.
–ethnic differences.
‘And the cleft lip… where the Chinese doll maker’s instrument may have slipped’
About Ali ‘paralysis of his lower facial muscles… unable to smile’.
p.3
-Hosseini gives physical ailments to those marginalised to symbolise oppression.
-Shows the physical effects of poverty.
-Also constant physical reminder of the damage done by systemic oppression/racism.
-Objectifies Hassan – see him as too perfect to be human.
- perhaps symbolises the way Afghan society objectifies and dehumanises Hazaras, labelling them only by their ethnicity.
p.7
-Physical defects symbolize inequality.
-Inequality creates poverty – leads to physical defects – malnutrition and disease.
-oppression suppresses joy ‘unable to smile’.
-Effect of oppression.
‘Marble floors’ ‘Intricate mosaic tiles’ ‘gold-stitched tapestries’ ‘crystal chandelier’
Vs
‘in the shadows’ ‘modest little mud hut’ ‘little shack’
p.4-5
-Setting emphasise the social inequalities caused by racism.
-Amir’s house – semantic field of luxury
-Hassan’s – adjectives relating to poverty ‘little’.
-Place in the shadows/outskirts reflects the place of Hazara’s in society – marginalised.
-Abuse of power
-Ethnic differences
About Ali ‘frightened… children’ ‘chased him’ ‘mocked’ Hey, Babalu, who did you eat today’
p.8
-Ali is bullied and dehumanised by other due to his race – has done nothing to warrant this treatment – in fact the opposite.
-Indoctrination of racism in the young -effects of racism normalised in everyday life.
‘our first words’ ‘mine was Baba’ ‘His was Amir’
p.10
-Words describe the thing they are most loyal to.
-Foreshadow rape seen – Hassan gets raped out of loyalty to Amir, Amir stays silent out of will to impress Baba with Kite.
-subservience and hierarchy established with 1st words – indoctrinated racism
Amir about Hassan ‘The face of Afghanistan… a boy with a Chinese doll face lit by a harelipped smile’.
p.24
-Personifies Afghanistan – draws parallels between Hassan and Amir.
-Hassan rape is therefore also symbolic of the corruption of Afghanistan.
-Western abuse to Afghanistan just like Assef to Amir – prejudice against Afghans – view that they are all terrorists.
Personal and political
‘what use did a servant have for written word?’
‘Hassan was… seduced by the secret world forbidden to him’
‘scramble of codes, indecipherable, mysterious. Words were doorways add I held all the keys.’
p.27
-Knowledge is power, depriving Hazara’s of knowledges leaves them powerless in a sense – tool for control.
-rhetorical question – emphasises irony of the question.
-Sibilance – mystery – sense of cruelty of depriving him of literacy.
-metaphor for literacy and education that Hazara’s are shut out from.
-Tool for retention of power and keep the oppressed in a state of oppression.
p.28
-illiteracy forms a metaphorical cage/barrier.
-Amir abuses this power – lying to Hassan.
-Behaviour of those who have the levers of power in their hands.
-Abuse of power.
‘The generation of Afghan children whose ears would know nothing but the sounds of bombs and guns was not yet born’.
p.34
-Hyperbole – emphasises the relentless effects of war.
-Contrast between children and war is emotive.
-Shows how war is destructive to childhood – robs innocence.
-Methods to control/maintain power.
-Destruction of childhood.
Assef: ‘His people pollute our homeland’ ‘dirty the blood’
p.38
-Extreme racism shown through lexical field of dirt and disease.
-Irony – it is religious fundamentalism and racism that corrupts Afghanistan.
-Racism
-tools of those in power (verbal).
‘All I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption.’
-Bottom p. 61
-Repeated syntax ‘all I’.
-Rule of 3 – abstract nouns.
-Absolute conviction and devotion to pleasing Baba, feels it with every sense – sad effect of unconditional love.
-Irony – what happens next makes him need salvation.
–Conditional parental love.
‘Your Hazara’ ‘tight little eyes’ ‘what is a boy like you doing… looking for a Hazara’.
p.64/5
-systematic racism – ingrained in language.
-possessive pronoun ‘your’ – commodifies Hassan – possession – level of inequality.
-rep of Hazara – strip identity down to ethnicity.
-‘tight little eyes’ – derogatory description of ethnic features.
-language of Racism and inequality.
Amir ‘Peeked’, ‘Crept’
Vs
Hassan ‘defiant stance’ ‘fists curled’
Then
‘Hassan hurled the rock.’ (at Assef)
Vs
Amir ‘I bit down on my fist. Shut my eyes’
p.67
-Cowardice of Amir juxtaposed against bravery of Hassan.
-Hassan’s body language – image of rebellion.
-Amir – illicit/secretive behaviour – suggest he doesn’t think he’s meant to watch.
p.69
-Hassan – David and goliath – tries to fight – brave and courageous, loyal.
-Amir – night down of fist – opposite of fighting/bravery.
-Shuts eyes/ignores – silence in complicity.
-Courage/rebellion
-Silence in complicity
Hassan “Amir Agha and I are friends.”
p.68
-contradicts himself even in the way he addresses Amir in the sentence – respectful tone of address – suggest inequality.
-tragedy that racism distorts their friendship into master and servant.
-Emphasises betrayal of Amir.
-Betrayal
-Inequality
‘Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay… to win Baba.’
‘He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?’
p.73
-Commodification and objectification of the Hazara’s – caused by racism – valued less.
-Ingrained racism – rhetorical question – protest – points out irony to readers – he is not just a Hazara – he’s his best friend.
-Ingrained racism
-dehumanisation
‘Dimming light’ ‘I met him by a leafless birch tree’
‘Grateful for the early evening shadows that fell on Hassan’s face and concealed mine’.
p.73
-Natural world reflects death/winter – the end of their friendship/childhood.
-Moral darkness and corruption of Amir.
-however – all the things – darkness, winter – have an end – there a cycle – suggest Amir can atone – coming of age.
Then
-early evening – premature end of childhood.
-Fell on Hassan’s face – trauma and pain.
-concealed mine – secrecy of his betrayal – he’s hiding from the truth.
-Political – suggest coming war.
-Death of friendship/childhood.
-atonement.
‘tiny drops that fell from between his legs and stained the snow black’
p.74
-Corruption of innocence/purity
-Amir’s moral corruption
-stained suggests permanence – trauma
Pomegranate scene ‘Hassan smeared in red like he had been shot by a firing Squad’
p.86
-foreshadows Hassan’s death – massacred by Taliban.
-Physical symbol of the blood on Amir’s hands for not preventing the rape – physical symbol of emotional damage.
-Pomegranate juice spilled – brother bond breaking.
-betrayal
-guilt
-violence
About Russian tanks ‘Their turrets swivelling like accusing fingers’
About before the war ‘no tanks… no rubble, no curfews.’
p.105
-personification of the censorship, suspicion, and accusation at times of war.
-anaphora ‘no’ juxtaposes pre-war with the state of living during the war – listing – constant suffering under war – sounds almost dystopian.
About Russian Soldier: ‘face like a bulldog’
p.107
-Animal imagery – dehumanises oppressors to protest against their vile ways – creates a lack of sympathy/connection to them.
Karim: ‘It’s his price for letting us pass’
p.106
-Women commodified ‘price’.
-Abuse of power – using it to sexually abuse her – she is wearing a ‘black shawl’ – symbolic of what dooms her.
‘Baba stood up.’
Baba: ‘Ask him where his shame is’
Soldier: ‘There is no shame in war.’
Baba: ‘Tell him he is wrong’
p.107
-stands up – play on words – both physically but also metaphorically – stands up to oppressors – does the right thing – courageous – juxtaposed with Amir’s cowardice in earlier rape scene – Baba does it for a stranger.
-no shame in war – suggest the dehumanising effects of war and the loss of morality that comes with it.
-Baba – imperative command – he is wrong – direct act of courage and protest.
-Baba wins the stand-off – Hosseini shows the power and effect of courage and speaking out.
-Courage
-Rebellion
-Speaking out
Rahim Khan: ‘pointed to a scar’ ‘cutting a crooked path’ ‘gnarled’
p.185
-physical symbol of internal suffering.
-Rahim represent the old Afghanistan – dying – decrepit language used to describe his state.
-scar therefore symbolises the irreversible damage of the Taliban.
-Portrayal of those in power
Rahim Khan describes how people had to ‘move down the block from hole to hole’.
p.184
-rat like imagery
-Shows the inhumane conditions of life under war.
-Effects of war
-reduced condition of life.
