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Examples Of Physical Description In The Kite Runner

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In literature, physical descriptions are used to explain or represent stereotypes, personality traits the character has or different themes in the book. In the Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Hosseini describes all the characters physical descriptions in ways to symbolize how they connect with the story and the real-life history behind the setting of the story.
The first example of this that I am going to mention is Hassan's minor Cleft Lip. In the beginning of the story, when Amir is describing Hassan he says, "And the cleft lip, just left of midline, where the Chinese doll maker's instrument may have slipped, or perhaps he had simply grown tired and careless" (Hosseini 3). It started out as just one of his identifying features that he was born with, but unlike most people who are born with a cleft lip, his family could not afford the cost of the medical procedure to fix it. It wasn't until chapter 5 where Baba pays for Hassan to get his cleft lip fixed, leaving a scar on …show more content…

It comes up in both the beginning, when he's introduced, and at the end when that's the only way Amir recognized him. In the book Amir describes Assef, saying, "Born to a German mother and Afghan father, the blond, blue-eyed Assef towered over the other kids" (Hosseini 38). This explains that Assef was designed to stand out because, unlike all the other kids who have dark brown hair and brown eyes, Assef has the complete opposite, blond hair, and blue eyes. Later at the end of the story, Amir runs into Assef again. If it wasn't for his eye color Amir would not have recognized him, "Then he took off his sunglasses and locked his bloodshot blue eyes on mine...His name escaped my lips: 'Assef" (Hosseini 281). This confirms that Hosseini knew that in Afghanistan, it's very rare to see someone with Assefs features. So, he gave them to Assef to show how he is different from the rest of the characters because he is the

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