The kite runner 11 features of a narrative

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Reading & Creating Texts – Unit 1

By Khaled Hosseini

Except for most poetry, all texts set for Reading and responding are narratives. They tell stories which draw us into the circumstances, relationships, fortunes and misfortunes of people's lives or the lives' of fictional characters. By capturing our interest in these characters, a narrative engages us, not only in the events of the characters' lives, but in thinking about their meaning and significance. This in turn leads us to recognise and reflect on the themes, ideas and values embedded in the narrative.

Although there are important differences between these types of texts, understanding how an author has constructed the narrative is essential in all cases. Two key questions to ask about narrative texts are: • What features or techniques do authors use to involve us in the narrative?

• How do these features engage you as a reader or viewer and affect your responses?

Narrative: the unfolding of events The way events unfold in a narrative is a key to engaging and holding our attention: we want to know 'what happens next'. Not just that. How events unfold is critical because the events are very carefully arranged to shape our understanding of characters and bring to our attention key themes and ideas that the author is exploring.

As you follow the events unfolding in your selected texts, you will need to consider two important and interrelated elements. Firstly, the plot - that is, the order in which events are presented - and secondly, the narrative structure how the arrangement of events produces rising and falling tension.

Plot The plot is the sequence of events in the narrative, arranged so that they: • Generate interest, suspense and surprise • Allow us to develop a sense of cause and effect as events unfold.

Make sure you develop a thorough knowledge of the plot of any narrative text you study: what happens where, when and to whom. This will assist you to make specific references to the text in your essays.

Adding meaning Think about how and why the author organises the plot in a certain way.

• How do key events add to your understanding of characters and the causes and effects of their actions?

• How do unfolding events reveal the main ideas in the text?

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The order of events may be chronological (events presented from longest ago to most recent, as in 'real' time), or it may be changed, e.g. through flashbacks. If the author does not unfold events chronologically, what effect does the varying of time order have?

Shifts in time Very few narratives present all events in strict chronological order; most include some reflection on past events by the narrator or central characters. They can also contain explicit shifts between the narrative present and the past like flashbacks in film. Shifts in time are always significant: • They can describe formative events in a character's life, casting light on their background and psychological make-up.

• They increase the period of time covered by the narrative.

• They show how the past informs the present.

The following paragraph discusses one way in which shifts in time can show a complex relationship between past and present.

In Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, the narrative alternates between the 'present' (the late 1980s) and the past. Each of the novel's 15 sections begins with a chapter set in the present, followed by chapters set in the past; most of the 'past' chapters describe the childhood of the narrator, Elaine Risley. This intermingling of past and present - emphasised by the use of the present tense even in those chapters set in the past - reflects the importance of memory to our sense of identity, as well as the powerful ways in which past experiences affect our present and future lives.

1. Does my text start 'in the present' and then shift back to an earlier time? If so, what key questions does the opening section raise about what happened previously to a character or characters?

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2. Does my text move between two or more time periods in order to show a strong relationship between present and past?

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Reading & Creating Texts – Unit 1

3. Does my text indicate what will happen in the future (known as foreshadowing)? If so, how does this impact on my understanding of characters and situations in the narrative present?

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Narrative structure The structure of a narrative includes key points or scenes that create rising and falling tension. These include: • Exposition - the introduction of the main characters and main situation, setting the scene for some kind of conflict. (Note: conflict may be internal within a character, or external with other people and/or places, or a combination of both.)

• Crisis points - a character is presented with a problem or challenge which tests their values and beliefs.

• Turning points - a decisive change in the course of events; a character realises there is no returning to past circumstances. Turning points often coincide with crisis points; they can also be the outcome of a crisis point.

• Climax - the tension rises to a peak; the main conflict between characters and/or ideas comes to a head and must now be resolved one way or the other.

• Denouement - the 'unknotting' or unraveling of narrative threads, when questions are finally answered.

• Resolution - the tension relaxes as conflicts are resolved In general, narratives build towards the climax, after which the tension decreases. The rising and falling tension enhances our involvement with the characters' fluctuating fortunes - their challenges, aspirations, successes and failures. This is what keeps us enthralled with the story! The resolution generates a feeling of closure or completion, even when the ending is tragic or sad.

Authors also use narrative structure to shape our responses to ideas and values. As such, it is crucial in shaping our response to the text as a whole.

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Reading & Creating Texts – Unit 1

Write an example for each of the key points in narrative structure from ‘The Kite Runner’ below.

WORD

DEFINITION

EXPOSITION

the introduction of the main characters and situation; setting the scene for some kind of conflict

CRISIS POINT

a character is presented with a problem or challenge which tests their values and beliefs

YOUR EXAMPLE

a decisive change in the course of events; a character realises there is no TURNING POINT returning to past circumstances; can coincide with, or be the outcome of, a crisis point

CLIMAX

the point at which the tension rises to a peak; the main conflict between characters and/or ideas comes to a head and must be resolved

DENOUEMENT

the 'unknotting' or unraveling of narrative threads; when questions are finally answered

RESOLUTION

where the tension relaxes -conflicts are resolved, issues and relationships are sorted out

How is your text structured?

To see how your text is structured, answer the following questions. Note that the terms in bold are elements or features of structure that an author can use.

1. Do the main events unfold in chronological order?

________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Does the text begin in the middle of the action and include flashbacks or shifts in time?

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Reading & Creating Texts – Unit 1

3. Is it divided into two or three - or more - major parts?

________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Does it use an organising principle? (such as a recurring theme or image; a first-person narrator's point of view; stories or chapters grouped or sequenced according to a number or time period)

________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. Does it have a main plot and sub-plot/s?

________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Is the plot built around a journey or quest (emotional or physical)?

________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Is the plot circular, beginning and ending at the same point? You may have answered 'yes' to more than one of the above

________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ For any elements you answered 'yes' to, consider the effect of the author's choices about structure. For example, does the structure: • • • •

heighten the narrative tension or suspense? make the opening more exciting, grabbing the reader's attention? highlight connections between different characters or events? ensure that the reader considers several different points of view on the action?

Narrators and narrative viewpoint The narrator is the character or voice that tells the story. The narrative viewpoint is the perspective from which the story is told.

Who is telling the story? Is it a character in the narrative - someone who can reveal only what they individually see, think and understand? Or is the narrator an all-knowing voice outside the story - able to reveal the experiences, thoughts and feelings of all characters?

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It is important to think carefully about an author's choice of narrator and narrative perspective, because it affects how characters and events are presented and how we respond to them.

The two main narrative viewpoints are first-person (I) and third-person (he/she; they). The following table summarises the key features of these viewpoints.

First-person narrator (I)

Effects (I)

• a character or individual within the text; uses the first-person ‘I’, e.g. ‘I didn't feel up to daughters, I didn't know how they worked.'

• limits the reader's knowledge of other characters to what the narrator knows or thinks about them.

• limits the narrative to one person's perspective on conflicts and issues

• allows for a rich, detailed understanding of the narrator's personality, beliefs, fears and aspirations.

• places the reader in the position of an involved participant in the action

Third-person narrator (he, she, they)

Effects (he, she, they)

• a voice located outside the text; uses the third-person 'he', 'she', 'they', e.g. 'She watched Rose crossing the street from sunlight into shade, carrying the new leather handbag that she had bought in Clery's in Dublin in the sale.'

• may be 'omniscient' or all-knowing, so can allow the reader to know the thoughts and feelings of as many characters as the author wishes

• gives a more detached, objective account

• can give a detailed depiction of one or two characters or less detail for a range of characters

• can represent multiple perspectives on conflicts and issues

• puts the reader in the position of observer rather than participant

• gives an 'inside' account of events

Authors and the narrators of texts Always distinguish between the narrator and the author.

The author selects the narrative voice and perspective as part of creating the text so keep the following points in mind: • Be careful not to automatically equate the opinions and judgments of the narrator with those of the author.

• Authors deliberately choose the first-person or third-person narrator so that they can present their characters' experiences in a particular way.

• The text usually encourages us to be sympathetic to the narrator's viewpoint, even if the narrator is clearly biased or perhaps even seriously flawed.

Example of a first-person narrator The following paragraph discusses the use of a first-person narrator in ‘In the Country of Men’. Note that it focuses on how this viewpoint impacts on the reader, showing how the narrative draws the reader into the narrator's world.

The first-person narrator of In the Country of Men, nine-year-old Suleiman, conveys the novel's setting with a sensual immediacy: I am recalling now that last summer before I was sent away. It was 1979, and the sun was everywhere. Tripoli lay brilliant and still beneath it... true mercy only arrived at night, a breeze chilled by the vacant desert, moistened by the humming sea ... (p.l)

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Reading & Creating Texts – Unit 1

However, Suleiman does not understand everything about the world around him; the reader must fill in the gaps in his knowledge to understand that his mother's 'illness' is in fact drunkenness, and that his father is involved in politically subversive activities that place him in grave danger.

Seen through the innocent eyes of a child, the brutal and often profoundly irrational nature of Gaddafi's regime becomes increasingly and terrifyingly clear.

Example of a third-person omniscient narrator The following paragraph discusses the use of a third-person narrator in A Christmas Carol and how this influences the reader's view of characters and events. In this novel, the narrator's comments and observations deliberately position the reader. In other texts, the third-person narrative viewpoint can be more detached and work in a more subtle fashion to shape the reader's responses.

The omniscient third-person narrator in ‘A Christmas Carol’ knows everything about the world of the text, presenting a detailed portrait of 19th-century London ('a glorious pageant' on Christmas Eve) and relating Scrooge's travels with the Spirits around the city and even across the sea. Yet this narrator also has qualities of a distinct individual, expressing viewpoints on characters (Scrooge is a 'squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!'), occasionally using the first-person ‘I’ and addressing the reader directly: If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blest in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can say, is, I should like to know him too.

This narrative voice allows Dickens to deliver a clear moral message in a way that is engaging, entertaining and frequently humorous.

Example of a third-person limited narrator In some cases the third-person narrator is not omniscient, but describes characters and events from the point of view of a central character (usually the protagonist). The following paragraphs discuss Toibin's use of a third-person limited narrative perspective in Brooklyn.

The opening of Brooklyn describes an ordinary evening in the life of Eilis Lacey. Although several people are described, including Eilis' sister Rose, her mother, and her friends Nancy and Annette, the narrative consistently presents them exactly as Eilis would see them. In fact, as Eilis does not reflect on her own appearance - an early sign of her lack of vanity - we gain little sense of what she looks like. On the other hand, her wry sense of humour and sharp observations of others are quickly evident.

For example, the description of Miss Kelly, when Eilis has a meeting with her early in Part One, is not as an objective, external observer might see her, but as Eilis sees her: Miss Kelly spoke, Eilis thought, as though she were describing a slight done to her, closing her mouth tightly between each phrase.

On the other hand, the narrative does not give a view of Eilis as Miss Kelly sees her; nor does it describe Miss Kelly's private thoughts and feelings, although the reader can easily infer them. In this way, the reader learns about the societies of 1950s Ireland and America through Eilis' experiences of them, and gains a keen appreciation of the challenges and constraints faced by independent and enterprising young women of Eilis' generation.

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Settings and contexts The settings of a narrative are the places and times in which the action is located.

Settings help to bring the world of a narrative to life in our imagination. Characters become all the more vivid and 'real' to us as we visualise the surroundings in which their experiences unfold.

Long narratives such as novels and films have more than one setting. Different characters can live in different places and/or times; main characters can move from one setting to another in response to changing life circumstances.

Writing about settings is not simply a matter of describing those locations. Show your understanding of how settings influence a reader and how they link to other elements of the text. Focusing on how settings contrast or change will help you to do this.

Ask yourself the following questions to understand the importance of settings in your text: • Do built environments embody features of society that an author may wish to emphasise?

• Are natural environments described as having positive or negative qualities? How is this related to interactions between people and the natural world?

• How do characters' responses to settings reflect their feelings? For example, do they feel comfortable and settled or, alternatively, are they restless, seeking change in their lives?

1. What are the main settings used in your text? Be as specific as possible; identify times as well as places.

________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. For each main setting, list several words describing qualities of that setting, e.g. lush, wild, tropical, natural.

Identify any strong similarities or contrasts between different settings, e.g. look for contrasts between indoor and outdoor settings, or between town and country settings.

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3. Does a main character experience particular feelings in a specific setting? What do these feelings reveal or suggest about this character?

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4. How do contrasting settings suggest contrasting values or attitudes held by people who inhabit those settings?

Think about contrasts such as city/country, interior/exterior, wealthy/poor, north/south, east/west.

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5. Identify one or two significant changes of setting in the course of the narrative. Is a new factor introduced? For example, is a main character placed in a new situation that develops or tests them? Do two characters meet to develop conflict? How are these changes linked to plot development?

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6. In what time period is the text set? Why do you think the writer has chosen to set the text in this particular time?

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Reading & Creating Texts – Unit 1

Contexts Context is a broader term than setting. It encompasses real events and circumstances outside the world of the text.

Three main contexts to consider are historical, social and cultural. These can often overlap.

• Historical contexts - the events and circumstances of the time, such as wars; key political figures; changes to laws, technology or society.

• Social contexts - the nature of the society, including gender roles, social conventions and social divisions.

• Cultural contexts - the cultural features of a social group or historical often related to race and ethnicity.

A context map: historical, social and cultural contexts Anna Funder’s ‘Stasiland’ tells the story of individuals caught up in the former East Germany's culture of spying and informing. The context map below indicates some of the historical, social and cultural issues that the text draws upon.

The historical context of an author's time It can be important to consider the author's context, even when the text is set in a different time, as the following example shows.

Steven Amsterdam's Things We Didn't See Coming is set in the first three decades of the 21st century - that is, the near future at the time the book was published (2009). This text presents a bleak (or dystopian) view of the future, portraying a world in which survival has become extremely difficult as a result of environmental and social changes. Such a view is less an attempt to predict accurately what will happen than a projection into the future of widespread concerns about climate change and the use of the world's finite natural resources.

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Language and imagery An author crafts language carefully and in ways that can powerfully affect our response to a text. This doesn't mean that we are expected to find significance in every word. However, when you re-read and do further close study on your text, carefully consider how: • certain features of language help to create the tone and style of the writing • word choices produce an image with special meaning for a setting, character or k • particular words and images have a symbolic meaning.

These are significant because they allow the author to build complexity and layers of meaning into a text. Aim to address some of these techniques in your text responses, as this will help you to demonstrate a more sophisticated understanding of the text.

Style and tone Style is the way in which language is used. The style of the writing may be formal or informal, reflective or fastpaced, poetic and ornate, or direct and down-to-earth.

Tone is the mood or 'sound' of the writing, and conveys an attitude to the subject matter.

The tone can be serious or comic, sarcastic or sincere, angry or affectionate (among many other possibilities).

Style and tone are closely related to other aspects of narrative, such as context, characterisation and narrative viewpoint. For example: • In a first-person narrative, the style and tone of the narrative will reflect the personality, background and social context of the narrator.

• In a third-person narrative, the tone of the narrative voice is usually more formal than the language used by the characters. This encourages us to see the narrator's viewpoint as reliable and truthful.

• The tone and style of the characters' speech reflects their social context (class) and educational background.

Their use of language thus allows the author to represent aspects of the society and culture to which characters belong.

• The use of non-English words conveys the cultural context of characters and highlights cultural differences.

The following paragraph shows how characteristics of tone and style can be quickly identified through one or two adjectives (e.g. 'plain', 'literal'). Note that it also explains how style and tone contribute to the characterisation of the narrator and the impact of the text on the reader.

Margaret Atwood's use of a plain, literal style in Cat's Eye evokes Elaine's childhood world and outlook. Objects and experiences are described in a simple, matter-of-fact style, using concrete images and an understated tone that captures both a child's perspective and the adult's careful reflection on the past. When Elaine says, 'I'm in the kitchen, greasing muffin tins for my mother', she expresses both the simplicity of the child's experience and her sense as an adult of curiously examining her younger self, wondering at the emotional distance between mother and daughter. At times, the emotional intensity is suddenly increased through a more poetic expression, such as 'Misery washes over me like a slow wind'. Here, the simile conveys the depth of Elaine's unhappiness, as well as her sense that events, and even emotions, happen to her in a way she has little control over.

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Imagery An image is a 'mental picture'. It is usually visual, but it can appeal to other senses.

Imagery draws you, the reader, into the sensory world of the text, influencing your responses to situations and events. It can also be used to suggest several associated meanings; hence, it can be crucial to your interpretation of characters, to the ideas and values presented in the text and to your overall response to a text.

Recurring images Look for images that recur in your text, as they will have a special significance for the meaning of the text as a whole.

In particular, a repeated image indicates that the author is doing more than simply describing a setting or character; they might be suggesting important ideas and themes embedded in the narrative. Practise carefully, 'unpacking' the meanings of a recurring image as this adds complexity and originality to your analysis.

Images of nature Narrative texts focus on human characters and situations - the social world. However, most authors also make us aware of elements of nature, such as gardens, mountains, oceans and the weather.

The natural environment is often an important 'backdrop' for human actions and states of mind, e.g. changes in the weather can reflect or anticipate a changing situation in the characters' lives. Natural imagery can: • Convey a location's unique or special qualities • Suggest what is fundamentally important or beautiful in life • Suggest a sense of natural order that contrasts with the social world, perhaps exposing flaws in social conventions, attitudes or behaviour.

Symbols Symbols are images that stand for a larger idea or concept. Some symbols are widely recognised: the crown symbolises royalty; scales symbolise justice; a rose symbolises love.

In a narrative, a recurring image may become symbolic because of ideas that the text encourages us to associate with that image. Symbols point to the broader implications of circumstances and events, so recognising and analysing symbols can help you to understand a text's major themes.

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1. Identify two or three recurring images and where they appear in the narrative.

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a. What are they associated with - a character? settings?

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b. Do they have a positive or negative association? Why?

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c.

Are any of these images symbolic? If so, what do they symbolise?

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Narrative Point of View Amir is the narrator of The Kite Runner. He narrates the events of the novel retrospectively, as an adult looking back on the past. Since Amir is both a character in the novel and the narrator, he can tell the story only from his own point of view, and he therefore does not have access to 'the truth' as he cannot possibly know what other characters are thinking and feeling. Similarly, Amir cannot know what has happened before his lifetime, unless another character relates that information to him, nor can he know what will happen in the future (in the way that an omniscient narrator can).

One chapter - chapter sixteen - is narrated by Rahim Khan, Amir's trusted friend and mentor, who recounts the events that occurred in Afghanistan while Baba and Amir were living in America. By using this new narrator, Hosseini allows Amir to gain further insight into Baba's character. This insight comes from knowledge that only Rahim Khan has. Hosseini builds up dramatic tension by maintaining Amir's limited point of view to guide the reader's interpretation of events. The subsequent introduction of Rahim Khan's voice allows us to understand some of the ambiguities that Amir felt were present in his relationship with his father. Narrative: the unfolding of events

Genre The Kite Runner is a complex novel - at once a 'coming of age' story, an immigrant saga and, perhaps especially, a story of moral challenge. It is also a powerful study of the bloody troubles in Afghanistan - thus a type of historical or political novel.

While Hosseini has plainly used his own experiences as source material, it is important to understand that it is not an autobiography. The characters are imagined, though the setting is real. His narrator, Amir, is a fully developed individual and not in any way to be confused with the author. Both Amir's good qualities and his bad are exposed, and much of the power of the novel comes from this portrait. It is because Amir is so believable, and the author so skilled in storytelling, that we are drawn easily into his world. As with all engrossing stories, we forget the fiction and immerse ourselves in this ‘reality’, which, in so many ways, connects, with our own experiences, leading us to reflect on our lives and our values. However, the world created by Hosseini is entirely disconnected from the experiences of many western readers and, as such, provides fascinating and often disturbing insights into a different culture.

The novel is a first person narrative, in which the narrator is a player. It is the voice of Amir, which constructs the characters (including himself) and the events of the story. Thus we are subtly positioned by his way of seeing, thinking and feeling. His preoccupations - as with his seemingly cold father - and his attitudes (as in his championing of Sohrab in the face of Farid's racist jibe), come across strongly. We have the sense, at times, of being trapped within the mental world of this individual. Although it might be at times claustrophobic, as when he behaves so badly, and feels so guilty, it is also a clever strategy, for it foregrounds the moral issues being considered. We have no escape from Amir, or from his ethical dilemma. Hosseini keeps our attention on that throughout. Our attitudes towards the narrator are necessarily complex. We can sympathise with him, even while we condemn his disloyalty and cowardice, as he himself does. Through his reflective and self-reflective narrative, readers are invited to endorse Hosseini's celebration of friendship and to affirm a need for trust, loyalty and moral responsibility; we are also positioned to condemn to racism, violence and the relentless pursuit of power.

As is characteristic of traditional western narrative fiction, the characters embody themes. The story of Amir and Hassan, bound by brotherhood but separated by class and ethnicity is, on a larger scale, a story about universal brotherhood, and suggests that the social, political and religious boundaries that divide people can be transcended.

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Given the deep and enduring ethnic divisions between the Sunni and the Shi'a in Afghanistan, the book is also a quasi-political treatise.

Since the publication of The Kite Runner, Hosseini has received many e-mails from Afghans in exile in the US, who thank him for writing the book. He explains that 'they feel a slice of their story has been told by one of their own.' Yet there are those who have called the book divisive and objected to some of the issues raised in the book, namely 'racism, discrimination and ethnic inequality.' Hosseini argues, however, that 'if [his] book generates any sort of dialogue among Afghans, then ... it will have done a service to the community.'

Structure The novel's narrative structure is conventional in that it follows a chronological time scheme, though with considerable jumps between relevant periods. The story itself begins with a leisurely exposition (Amir's childhood with Hassan and Baba), leading to the first major dramatic climax (Hassan's rape). At that point, the narrative appears to drift sideways - becoming momentarily a type of immigrant story. It is only many chapters (and years) later that the consequences of that earlier event reemerge, with Amir's trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Then the pace picks up rapidly, so much so that for a while The Kite Runner almost reads like a thriller, so breathless and dramatic are the events. At this point, the moral issues sidelined earlier are seen again in their full intensity, and the actions of the protagonist work to resolve them satisfactorily. The novel ends where it began (2001), in the present - the time of Amir's final redemption.

It is worth noting that Hosseini enjoys connecting people and events. This is a novel with a very consciously crafted structure. The way Baba treats both Amir and Hassan as 'sons', which at first seems good natured, is much much later revealed to be what it actually is - the love of a father for a legitimate and an illegitimate son. The rape of Hassan echoes later both the rape of Kamal and the (implied) rape of Sohrab. The disappearance of Sanaubar seems a throwaway plot detail although when she reappears in the narrative, it is a vital reconnecting, and an echo of Hassan's forgiveness of Amir. Assef likewise disappears, only to reappear in a more despicable form at a climactic moment. The unfinished business of the day (Hassan threatened to make him 'one eyed Assef) is unwittingly finished by his son - a connection which might perhaps strain credibility but certainly delivers a very satisfying symbolism. The fathering of Amir and Hassan by Baba (and Ali) is replicated in the fathering of Sohrab by Amir.

So much in the novel is made up of patterns like this. Like an Afghan carpet, the story's colours and shapes are reproduced many times. Symbols and motifs recur frequently. There are the kite scenes - evoking happiness and a sense of liberation. There are the scenes of blood - particularly the rape scene, the execution scene, the beating of Amir by Assef and the attempted suicide of Sohrab - all strongly evoking the cruelties and evil of life. There is the 'hare lip' - first in Hassan and then in Amir - both redolent of the theme of suffering. There is the eye of Assef- the first time threatened - the second time removed. What this means in the novels subtext is left unexplained, though it might have something to do with Assef's one-eyed and jaundiced view of life. One can even make out an argument that Assef is the doppelganger of Assef -his evil twin (the commentary picks this up for your consideration). There is the pomegranate tree, where they carved their names in friendship, and where later Amir betrayed his friend. Finally there is the smile. In Hassan, it is the symbol of his goodness and joy. In the battered Polaroid photo, both Hassan and Sohrab are smiling. In the final scene of the novel, Sohrab is smiling once again. All these patterns bind the narrative, and give it meaning. It is part of what makes the story so satisfying.

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Style Hosseini's use of language is often highly descriptive, filled with colourful details of everyday life in Afghanistan and America. The reflective tone of the narrative constantly reminds us that this is a retrospective, and that childhood events are reconstructed through the self-critical eyes of an adult who has come to realise that, no matter how deeply you bury it, 'the past claws its way out.'

The prominent voice is Amir's, and rather shrewdly, Hosseini has chosen a highly articulate man as his narrator. Amir becomes a professional writer. Thus his moments of descriptive excitement, and of intense moral doubt, become plausible (as they would not in a less linguistically gifted individual). We can readily accept the eloquence of his style, for it is what we would expect.

Occasionally, we hear other voices - most notably in the letter from Hassan, and in the chapter 'voiced' by Rahim Khan. These provide an interesting and perhaps welcome contrast to the voice of Amir. Dialogue is used extensively, and indeed we have the differing voices of all the characters. Hosseini's skill as a writer brings all of his characters vividly to life through their dialogue.

Hosseini uses description as he needs to. There is vivid sensory imagery to capture the appearance and the atmosphere of his childhood home, the flea market, and the devastated city of Kabul. His use of metaphor is sparse but effective. Most notable is the pair of kites, symbolising the friendship of Amir and Hassan, and a need to transcend social and ethnic boundaries to forge bonds of brotherhood. Yet at other times, he pulls back, quite properly. He could have described both the rape and the execution in nauseating detail, but he does not. The reason is that in such cases imagining is often far more powerful (and more discreet) than a graphic description. One of the most important sentences in the text is just two words long, and contains only one noun: 'A smile.' Like all serious writers, he uses words as he needs to, varying their intensity from moments of high passion to others of gentle reflection. Hosseini's carefully crafted writing allows us to enjoy the text on a literary, as well as a narrative level.

VCE ENGLISH UNIT 1&2

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