preview

Examples Of Physical Descriptions In The Kite Runner

Decent Essays

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 the top of his lip. This shows how Hassan is connected to the story because later in the story, after Hassan dies, Amir finds out Hassan was actually his half-brother and travels to Kabul to get Hassan's son, Sohrab. On his way, he gets …show more content…

In the story, Amir describes it as "a brown, sickle-shaped birthmark on the smooth skin just about her left jawline" (Hosseini 140). Hosseini gave her this feature because when Amir sees her he will be drawn to her because just like Hassan, his childhood friend, she was born with an imperfection. Also, a sickle is on the Soviet Union's Flag, representing the country's peasants. The Soviet Union is the country that attacked Afghanistan when the government fell. When Soraya and her family moved to America, they moved from high class to the lowest class, accepting peasant lifestyle. This shows that Hosseini gave Soraya the birthmark to represent the lifestyle her parents had chosen in

Get Access