Literature Analysis #3

1. Exposition: Amir and his father Baba live in Kabul and are very wealthy and well-known. Amir’s mother died while giving birth to Amir, but they have a Hazara family that lives with them and is their servants. These servants are different then typical servants because Baba grew up with Ali, who is the father, his entire life and sees him as his brother. Ali has a son Hassan, who is also a servant, but treated extremely well due to the close relationship between his father and Baba. Amir and Baba follow strict tradition and it is not acceptable to be so close to Hazara, so they must be careful in public. Amir and Hassan become very good friends and hang out every day. Hassan’s mother ran away a week after giving birth and never once held her child; she gave the family a bad reputation because of this. Amir becomes very jealous of Hassan because Baba pays more attention to him and connects with him easier. Although Amir is jealous and often shows it, Hassan will do anything for Amir no matter what the circumstance is. 
Rising Action: Hassan, Amir, and Baba have been preparing for the annual Kite fight. Amir really wants to win, so that he can be accepted by Baba and become closer with him. Amir and Hassan start the fight and are cutting all the other kites. They cut all of the other kites and are the last one standing, now Hassan (the best kite runner around) will run for the last kite cut. Amir runs after Hassan after seeing his father’s reaction. When he comes across Hassan he is in the alley being held by one of the trouble makers Assef. Assef says that Hassan will give him the kite or he will pay for it and Hassan refuses to give him the kite. Amir is still watching when Assef takes Hassan’s pants off and rapes him; Amir never steps in to help Hassan.
Conflict: Amir must live his entire life dealing with this guilt that constantly weighs him down. He does anything he can to get rid of Hassan and Ali and one of his plans finally work, but instead of Baba telling them to leave, they choose to leave on their own. Baba and Amir move to the United States, due to the unsafe conditions in Kabul, living a very poor life. Amir goes to school and works with his dad, in which he meets Soroya. Baba gets cancer and is terminal, but before he passes he asks Soroya’s father if his son can marry his daughter. The men agree and Baba’s final months are spent seeing his son get married and being cared for by his son and his son’s new wife. Amir still lives with the guilt and never tells Baba nor Soroya. Rahim Khan, one of Baba’s long lost friends, calls one day asking Amir to go back to Kabul because he is dying. When Amir gets there he finds out that Hassan married and had a child, but that Hassan and his wife were killed and their child was an orphan somewhere in Kabul. Rahim tells Amir that he can find justice if he finds that boy and brings him back.
Conflict: Amir goes to the bad parts of Kabul to find Sohrab, Hassan’s son, and finds out that one of the Taliban has him. Amir does not give up and decides he will go and meet this guy. First, he has to go to the stadium and watch the soccer game and find the man. When he goes to the game, the man is the person who stones the couple that was in trouble and kills them. This frightens Amir, but he meets with the man anyways. When he meets with the man, he finds out that the man is Assef and he has been sexually abusing Sohrab now. Assef and Amir are to fight with no body guards in the room and Sohrab is to watch, who ever wins gets to keep Sohrab. Assef is brutally beating Amir to the point where Amir is almost dead, but Sohrab steps in and slingshots a ball into Assef’s eye. Amir and Sohrab escape at this point and Sohrab is saved as well as Amir from the brutal beating.
Falling Action: Amir is taking to the hospital and is in and out of consciousness for a few days. He starts to interact with Sohrab when he gains his consciousness back, but Sohrab is very timid. Amir is very hurt, but needs to get far away from where Assef is, so that he does not get found by the Taliban. Sohrab and Amir leave once Amir can walk again. They stay in a hotel for awhile and try to find the parents who were supposed to take Sohrab, but it turns out their was never any parents for Sohrab. Rahim Khan had only told Amir that and Rahim was gone now. Now Amir does not know what do, but is seriously considering bringing Sohrab home with him to America.
Resolution: Amir works extremely hard to legally adopt Sohrab, but it is very difficult given the circumstances. Amir promises Sohrab that he will never put him in an orphanage again, but the adoption agency says the easiest way to adopt Sohrab is to put him in an orphanage temporarily and the process will be easier. When Sohrab hears this he becomes very angry and cuts himself in the bathtub while Amir is sleeping. He bleeds so much that he almost kills himself. He is rushed to the hospital and survives but is in critical condition. Meanwhile, Soroya has worked with a Sharif that they know and have made plans for Sohrab to get a temporary visa so he can come to America and the process will be much easier. After Sohrab gets out of the hospital, he goes back to America and lives with Amir, but in complete silence. He only gives a smile in the last scene of the book.
The author is able to fulfill the purpose of the story because he bases this entire story off tradition and not willing to break it. This family seems to have a chain of bad deeds that were done and never owned up too or resolved, but finally Amir is able to resolve his problem and make peace with himself by saving Hassan's son. This shows this purpose of breaking tradition to do what is right and the best for yourself. 
2. The theme of this book is redemption because the entire story Amir is dealing with this guilt that affects everything he does throughout his life. In the end Amir can finally get redemption because he returns the favor and saves Hassan’s sons life. He knows that this doesn’t make what he did to Hassan right, but this takes it off his shoulders because he told Soroya and has finally returned the support to Hassan. He was going to get Hassan’s son even if it meant him being killed. He would have done anything to get Sohrab into his hands, just as Hassan would do anything to save Amir or make him look good.
3. The tone of this story was tender, unflinching and confessional. The book has a confessional tone because throughout the story Amir is going through confessing about his sins and how he did Hassan wrong. Rahim Khan confesses the sins of Baba and everything seems to be confessed whereas in the last generation everything was kept a secret and held in. There is an unflinching tone to this book too because there is many brutal and disturbing scenes that seem like nothing to the characters. As a reader reads the story, they are horrified by what is happening, but the characters treat it as if it is normal, which seems even more disturbing. The tender tone is seen between the relationships. Although there is rough patches in each of the relationships, we see this tenderness between Baba and Amir before he dies. Another tenderness between Ali and Baba as Ali is leaving.
"Don't worry about that for now. I'm fine. Really. Soroya, I have a story to tell you, a story I should have told you a long time ago, but first I need to tell you one thing." Page 325 This excerpt shows confession.
"Assef knelt behind Hassan, put his hands on Hassan's hips and lifted his bare buttocks. He kept on hand on Hassan's back and undid his own belt buckle with his free hand. He unzipped his jeans. Dropped his underwear. He positioned himself behind Hassan." Page 75 This excerpt shows unflinching in which Amir never stepped in.
"Just before midnight, Baba asked us to help him into bed. Soroya and I placed his arms on our shoulders and wrapped ours around his back. When we lowered him, he had Soroya turn off the bedside lamp. He asked us to lean in, gave us each a kiss." Page 173 This excerpt shows tenderness.
4. a) "After all, didn't all fathers in their secret hearts harbor a desire to kill their sons?" Page 29 This quote shows a rhetorical question, which shows the relationship between Baba and Amir for most of their lives, until the very end.
b) "At parties, when all six-foot-five of him thundered into the room, attention shifted to him like sunflowers turning to the sun." Page 13 This is an example of a simile and shows how respected and well-known Baba was in Kabul as well as in America.
c) "Looking back on it now, I think the foundation for what happened in the winter of 1975- and all that followed- was already laid in those first words." Page 11 This is an example of foreshadowing and shows what event will truly change the story.
d) "'And where is he headed?' Baba said. 'A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything.'" Page 22 This is an example of oversimplification and shows how Baba feels about Amir and his disappointment towards the person he has become even though it is not bad.
e) "Never mind that we taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands, or to build a fully functional homemade camera out of a cardboard box. Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites. Never mind that to me, the face of Afghanistan is that of a boy with a thin-boned frame, a shaved head, and low-set ears, a boy with a Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile." Page 25 This is an example of anaphora and shows how significant and important Hassan was to Amir's childhood.
f) "I wished I too had some kind of scar that would beget Baba's sympathy. It wasn't fair. Hassan hadn't done anything to earn Baba's affections; he'd just been born with that stupid harelip." Page 46 This is an example of Ad hominen and shows the jealousy that Amir has towards Hassan and ultimately leads to his bad decision in the winter of 1975.
g) "Strangely, I was glad that someone knew me for who I really was; I was tired of pretending." Page 106 This is an example of irony because Amir was this horrible person for what he did and someone had finally discovered him and he liked it, which is weird because you wouldn't want someone to know the bad things that you have done.
h) "Summer meant long school days sweating in tightly packed, poorly ventilated classrooms learning to recite ayats from the Koran, struggling with those tongue-twisting, exotic Arabic words. It meant catching flies in your palm while the mullah droned on and a hot breeze brought with it the smell of shit from the outhouse across the schoolyard, churning dust around the lone rickety basketball hoop." Page 108 This is an example of imagery and shows the setting of the story.
i) "As words from the Koran reverberated through the room, I thought of the old story of Baba wrestling a black bear in Baluchistan. Baba had wrestled bears his whole life. Losing his young wife. Raising a son by himself. Leaving his beloved homeland, his watan. Poverty. Indignity. In the end, a bear had come that he couldn't best. But even then, he had lost on his own terms." Page 174 This is an example of a metaphor and shows Baba's struggles that he has gone through all throughout his life, but also his strength that he has held through them all.
j) "But he would not. He said it was a matter of ihtiram, a matter of respect." Page 208 This is an example of motif. There is a motif in this story, which is tradition. Tradition is carried throughout the entire story no matter where they are who they are.
Characterization:
1. An example of indirect characterization is "He motioned to me to hold his hat for him and I was glad to, because then everyone would see that he was my father, my Baba. He turned back to the microphone and said he hoped the building was sturdier than his hat, and everyone laughed again. When Baba ended his speech, people stood up and cheered. They clapped for a long time. Afterward, people shook his had." Page 15 This shows that Baba had a good sense of humor and was also well liked by everyone around him, respectable man. Another example of indirect characterization is "But despite Baba's successes, people were always doubting him. They told Baba that running a business wasn't in his blood and he should study law like his father. So Baba proved them all wrong by not only running his own business but becoming one of the richest merchants in Kabul." Page 15 Baba was hard working and didn't let anything bring him down. He would do anything to be successful no matter how many times he got knocked down.
An example of direct characterization is "My smile broadened. That was another thing about Hassan. He always knew when to say the right thing- the news on the radio was getting pretty boring." Page 37 Hassan was very supportive and would always comfort Amir no matter what the circumstances were. Another example of direct characterization is "He turned his eyes to me. 'We Afghans are prone to a considerable degree of exaggeration, bachem, and I have heard many men foolishly labeled great. But your father has the distinction of belonging to the minority who truly deserves the label.'" Page 140 This shows how people truly respected Baba and that he was an honorable man to anyone with Afghan decent.
The author uses both direct and indirect characterization to ensure that the reader has a clear view of each character, whether it is the perceived or accurate view.
2. When the author is talking about Hassan, he uses admirable diction, like "Hassan does no wrong." Hassan is more admired throughout the book because he stayed honest to everyone including himself. When the author was talking about Amir there was a use disappointed or ashamed diction. This is seen when Baba said "You bring me shame. And Hassan...Hassan's not going anywhere, do you understand?" This helps develop the overall role of both characters throughout the book.
3. The protagonist is Amir and he is a dynamic character because he goes through a lot of inner change throughout the story. In the beginning he is filled with hatred and jealousy, which leads to his guilt that he holds with him his entire life. He also holds this cowardice within him. Throughout the book Amir loses his guilt through redemption and becomes a brave soul that would do anything to help Hassan's son. Amir is a round character because it takes the entire book to explain the person he was and is to the person he becomes through tragedy and guilt. Amir is developed throughout the story and is a very complicated character who experiences a lot of emotions throughout the story.
4. The author does a really good job at explaining each character in depth because I walk away from this book and feel like I have met every character and know their true character. The author does not present these characters like real characters, but rather as human beings that I can compare and connect myself too. "I gave him a friendly shove. Smiled. 'You're a prince, Hassan. You're a prince and I love you.'" Page 30 In this excerpt I feel as if I am also one of the friends and experiencing a really touching moment. This is something real human beings do with their friends, not characters in a story.