Random quotes Flashcards
“At least the Taliban’s version of Sharia”- Farid (chapter 19)
- power of religion/corruption
- Religious laws
- Taliban is using this as an excuse to be violent
- religious extremism
PROTEST: HOSSEINI WANTS TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN TALIBAN AND TRUE MUSLIMS. HE IS AGAINST RELIGIOUS EXTEMUSM
“Every woman needs a husband. Even if he did silence the song in her” Chapter 13
- position of women/patriarchy/voicelessness
- better to be voiceless
- HOSSEINI IS HIGHLIGHTING THIS BUT NOT CHALLENGING IT
“I was fully aware of the Afghan double standard that favoured my gender”- Amir (chapter 12)
- position of women/gender
- Amir is aware but still proceeds to talk anyway
- HOSSEINI IS HIGHLIGHTING BUT NOT CHALLENGING
“Tempted countless men into sin” chapter 7
- position of women/patriarchy
- judged for her refusal to conform to social norms
- she wants to be free to pursue pleasure
- bottom of social hierarchy
- contrasts to Amie’s mother- impure/immoral vs pure/social elite.
“Baba was the widower who remarries but can’t let go of his dead wide” Chapter 11
- Personifies Afghanistan/emotive language
- Afghanistan is a victim
- Baba is in a state of mourning his country but also his reputation/legacy/respect/authority
PROTEST: THE OLDER GENERATION STRUGGLES MORE TO ADJUST TO A NEW LIFE. THEY SHOULDNT HAVE TO LEAVE THEIR HOME COUNTRY.
“Children aren’t colouring books. You don’t get to fill them in with your favourite colours”- Rahim Kahn chapter 3
- power/powerless
- Baba has always had what he wanted
- Lack of power as a father- he doesn’t understand his own son.
- Indicates the close relationship between Rahim and Baba as he is the only person who is able to talk straightforwardly to him.
“You will never again refer to him as ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence”
- Amir chapter 25
- personal power/challenges authority/ courage of individuals
- imperative
- Newfound strength/ confidence
- He is no longer a coward
- He is now what Baba wanted him to be
“When we came across a big word that he didn’t know… I’d tease him, expose his ignorance”- Amir chapter 4
- personal power/ power of written word/ suppression
- deliberately misleading and ridiculing Hassan- abuses his power
- Literacy and knowledge are associated with privilage
- Hassan is illiterate so stuck in servility
- Pashtuns want to retain power so refuse to educate Hazaras
“Words were secret doorways and I held all the keys” Amir chapter 4
- personal power
- metaphor
- controls hassan to be educated
- refuses to share is power/knowledge
- contrasts to Soraya teaching her servant.
“War doesn’t neglect decency. It demands it. Even more than in times of peace”- Baba chapter 10
- personal power
- resistant against those with power
- he possesses autonomy
- Depicts him as a hero/ saviour- who will be left to protect Afghanistan if people like Baba leave.
“His well earned reputation for savagery preceded him… not entirely sane…sociopath” chapter 5
- Physical power
- establishes his power violence
- abuses his power to degrade those without
- Methods of enforcement mirror those of the Taliban.
“I knew there was nothing else I’d ever want to be but a teacher” - Soraya chapter 12
- power of education/challenging authority/ personal power
- Uses position of power to help others who are oppressed
- once a victim of oppression and now an agent for change
- challenge to authority contrasts to Amir’s exploitation of Hassan’s illiteracy.
“I feel like a tourist in my own country… you’ve always been a tourist here. You just didn’t know it.” Amir/Farid chapter 18
- Amir now forced to confront that he lived a privileged life
- blind to poverty/suffering in Afghanistan
- Insulated from reality and alienated from his own people and country.
“If I deny him one child, he takes 10” - Zaman chapter 20
- corruption
- moral dilemma/paradox
- forced to choose between the lesser of the two evils
- corruption of society as it’s an impossible choice
- Zaman as a foil to Baba and Baba’s strict dogmatic values would have prevented them from taking children
PROTEST- WAR HURTS CHILDREN THE MOST AND NO ONE WINS IN A WAR
” I became what I am today at the age of 12, on a frigid overcast day” (1)
- Formative moment in Amir’s life, pathetic fallacy used to reflect oppressive emotions and situation
- Sets up narrative frame- narrative of series extended, retrospective flashbacks. foreshadowing of events creates dramatic tension
- first person narrative unreliable as events coloured by emotions.
