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The Kite Runner Analysis

Decent Essays

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, begins in the present day following the main character, Amir. After this brief one-and-a-half-page introduction, Hosseini jumps right into the main flashback structure of the novel. The reader lives in Kabul, Afghanistan, the capital, through Amir’s memories. This first section is fast-paced. The narration doesn’t jump back and forth between past and present, and no time is lost to create a frame story structure. Flashbacks are utilized more effectively by Hosseini. Flashbacks from Amir of the past occasionally happen in moments were the situation seems hopeless or futile. For example, when Amir and Baba, Amir’s father, must ride in the lightless tank of a fuel truck from Jalalabad, Afghanistan to Peshawar, Pakistan Amir remembers him and Hassan outside in the bright, fresh air standing in an open grass field. Hosseini uses them to convey how times were happier in the past. They project the antithesis of the current situation. Amir recounts his past from a self-deprecating point of view, reflecting on what happened regarding the friends, family, and foes in his life, and how his life seemingly deteriorated. Further into the first third of the book, the reader learns that Rahim Khan, the man who calls Amir from Pakistan in the introduction, was a friend of Baba. This initial detail poses multiple questions. Why didn’t Rahim Khan just contact Baba? What does Rahim Khan want from Amir? Why are Afghans congregating in Pakistan? Why did

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