REDEMPTION

The Kite Runner

By Khaled Hosseini

Study Guide
by Ms Dominique Heazlett for The Scots College English Department

Chapter1

1. The opening chapter is of an incident that actually occurs in the middle of the story (Ch 14
– 15, pg 175). The narrator and protagonist Amir has received a phone call from Rahim
Kahn, a friend and business partner of Amir’s late father, Baba. The call takes Amir back to
his past. How does the opening reflection by the now 38 year old Amir introduce his personal
story as a story of redemption? (8 lines. Include quotations)

Criteria for Success: address these questions to structure your response

 How does Amir suggest that he committed a wrongdoing in the past?
 How does he suggest that he has tried to avoid acknowledging it since?
 What is the significance of Rahim Khan’s phone call?
 After the call, what does Amir remember and reflect upon?

Also consider ideas about time suggested in the opening:

*the importance of personal history and memory in shaping personal identity
*the nature of the past
*the significance of the past : the relationship between past and present and the way the past
has its footprint in our lives. Ideas about the influence of:

- personal history
- family history
- cultural history

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The Story’s Settings

You might like to plot the shifts in setting in The Kite Runner on a world map.
Ch 1, the prologue to Amir’s personal story, is set in San Francisco, USA.
Chapters 2 – 10 present the backstory to that moment when Amir receives the phone call
from Rahim Khan. This section is about Amir’s childhood in Afghanistan before Baba flees
the country with him as refugees. They settle in America.
Chapters 10 – 14 The next section is about Amir and Baba’s new life in America up to the
phone call.
Ch 14 – End This section is about Amir’s atonement on his path to redemption. He returns to
Afghanistan and finally, back to San Francisco.

Cultural History, Family History, Personal History

Chapters 2 and 3 Amir’s Childhood Story

Amir begins his story. He describes his childhood in Kabul.

His father Baba is a successful and highly respected businessman. His business partner and
friend is Rahim Khan, who sends Amir the phone call years later (see Chapter 1).
Amir and Baba live in a large house in an affluent area in Kabul.
Baba has a servant, Ali. Ali’s son is Hassan.
Hassan is a loyal friend to Amir. Hassan’s mother ran away when he was young. Amir’s
mother died when he was born. As infants, Amir and Hassan shared the same nurse.

There are ethnic and religious differences that make Amir and Hassan’s relationship very
difficult.

Pushtans – are the privileged ethnicity in Afghanistan. They are the dominant ethnic group
(80%) and Pushtans are the ruling class.
Pushtans are Sunni Muslims. Baba and Amir are Pushtan.

The Hazara – are the minority ethnicity in Afghanistan. (20%) They are marginalised,
disempowered and regarded as lesser human beings.
The Hazara are Shia’h Muslims. Ali and Hassan are Hazara.

Historically, Hazara were persecuted by Pushtans.

Ethnic conflict was compounded by religious hostility.

Amir and Hassan’s childhood relationship

1. Describe Amir and Hassan’s relationship. Explain what bond them and what divides them.
Select the most important quotations from Ch 2 to illustrate your points. (10 lines)
 How Amir and Hassan’s relationship is born of a family history. Bonds of friendship
as close as brotherhood bond them. Historical ethnic and religious hostilities divide
them. Reference: notes here + page 24
 Narrative comments about their infancy: mothers, first words ...
 Comment on the experiences that they share as young boys
 Suggestions about their loyalties: Hassan’s compared to Amir’s

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 Amir’s relationship with his father, Baba

1. Describe Amir’s relationship with his father, Baba.

Take information from pg 18 and pages 21 – 22.

Narrative Feature: MOTIF

A Motif: an image that recurs through the narrative, taking on symbolic meaning. value by
recurring through the narrative.
Baba is introduced with the motif of ‘wrestling with the bear’. As you read the novel, look for
when this image recurs. Then explain what symbolic meaning it comes to have.

Chapter 4 ‘Amir and Hassan, the Sultans of Kabul’

1. Outline what Amir and Hassan like to do when they climb the hill to the pomegranate tree.
Criteria for Success Read pages 26 – 28 again
a) What do the boys carve in to the pomegranate tree?
b) What do they read?
c) How do their activities express their friendship?

The myth of Rostam and Sohrab from the Shahnamah

2. How is the myth of Rostam and Sohrab important for Amir? 6 + lines
How to answer the question for Success
2 a. What happens in the myth?
b. What type of story is it? Is it a redemption story or not?
c. How the Persian myth have a resonance for Amir and his own relationship with his father,
Baba ?

For Discussion
Does Amir feel guilty, and the need to be redeemed believing he’s accountable for his
mother’s death at his birth?
Does Amir feels unworthy, on a deep level yearning for love from his father that is withheld?
Does a feeling of insufficiency account in some way for Amir’s sometimes heartless
treatment of Hassan? Illustrate some actions that show this.

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 The Kite Flying Competition
Winter 1975
Amir’s hope for redemption in his father’s eyes
And his Moral Failure

Chapter 6 The kite flying tournament in winter 1975

1. Why does Amir want to win the kite flying competition?

Criteria for success
Consider his relationship with his father, Baba.
Reread and include information from pages 52 and 53 and pages 61 – 62.
Include a quotation.

2. How does Hassan show his commitment to his friend Amir in the competition?
Read over page 63. Quote what Hassan says, that characterises him as devoted and loyal.

3. Amir imagines a new ending to the myth of Rostam and Sohrab. Page 64
a) What is the new ending that Amir imagines?
b) How does his new, imagined ending reflect the ‘redemption’ and ‘new beginning’ that
Amir hopes to have with his father, Baba? Include a quotation.

c) What two special talents does Hassan have?

Amir wins the competition and Hassan runs the blue kite for him!

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 A Terrible Wrong Doing in the Redemption Narrative

Chapter 7 Symbolism ‘The blue kite. My key to Baba’s heart’ page 67

Read over pages 67 to 69 and the middle of page 70 then pages 72 – 73.

Hassan runs the blue kite for Amir. The blue kite symbolises his father’s love and approval
that he desperately longs for. It is in Hassan’s hands.

Then, disaster. The bullies, Assef and his two hangers-on, corner Hassan in an alley. They
demand the kite and threaten to abuse Hassan if he refuses to hand it over. Hassan could give
them the kite and save himself. However, in the face of danger, he makes the decision to
holds on to the kite because Amir won it. He is that courageous and that loyal.

Amir has a moral decision to make too.

1 a) What choice must Amir make? Why is it a difficult moral decision for him?
Quote two important lines from Amir’s narrative that describe his situation.

b) Closely study how this critical moment is narrated. Write down that the narrative shifts
from real time to memories and a dream.
Read the dream image where Amir sees himself disappearing in to an empty, white, wintery
landscape until a gashed, bleeding hand reaches for him and rescues him.
Outline this dream vision. Interpret its symbolic meaning at this moment, as Hassan accepts
the brutal action against him to save the blue kite for Amir.

c) What decision does Amir make? To step in or sound the alarm and be a loyal friend to
Hassan, as Hassan is to him, or to stay silent and betray Hassan’s loyalty, to secure the blue
kite, the symbolic ‘key to Baba’s heart’?

The Sacrificial Lamb

Symbolic Religious Reference: The Sacrificial Lamb

c) Page 73. Amir writes, ‘Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to
win Baba.’ What does this Biblical allusion to the sacrificial lamb symbolise? What does it
tell us about the decision Amir made that day in the winter of 1975, the moment that he
describes in the opening line of his story as one that ‘made (him into) what I am today’?

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 A Terrible Wrong Doing in the Redemption Narrative

d) Amir experiences the moment he’s long waited for. His father proudly embraces him. For
a moment, he is happy. However, it comes at a high cost.
How does Amir feel about himself now? Present a supporting quotation.

The Pain of Guilt

While Amir’s victory does win him praise from his father, his happiness is short-lived. Part
of the reason is that Amir is tortured by feelings of unworthiness. He is deeply troubled. It is
a terrible pity. Amir made a decision to subject Hassan to horrific physical abuse. He
believed that ‘sacrificing’ Hassan in this way would redeem him in his father’s eyes and he
would win that love he so deeply wanted to have.

However, Amir does not anticipate all the consequences. He emotionally scarred once more
by deep feelings of failure - a failure of courage and character. But this time he has brought
his failings upon himself. He is tortured by the secret truth about himself. He is a coward who
betrayed his most loyal friend.

Read the bottom of page 80 to 82 and page 86

1. How does Amir’s guilt ruin his relationship with Hassan? In your answer, explain what
happens at the pomegranate tree, that used to be Amir and Hassan’s favourite place, as an
example of Amir’s guilt and cruelty. What is he trying to do here?

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Chapter 9
Amir can’t deal with his guilt. He selfishly devises a plan to get rid of Hassan.
a) What does he do?
Unexpectedly, Baba forgives Hassan. However, Ali steps in to protect his son from Amir’s
callous cruelty and insists that they leave. Amir realises the pain he has caused the family. He
says, ‘I was sorry, but I didn’t cry and I didn’t chase the car.’
b) How does this show Amir’s attempt to distance himself from his wrongdoing.

Chapters 10 and 11
Migration to America. California, 1980s
Baba flees the Taliban and leaves Afghanistan with Amir as political refugees. They cross the
Khyber Pass in to Pakistan and fly to America. They start a new life as Afghan immigrants in
San Francisco, California.

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 Guilt and the Perpetrator’s attempt to Distance himself from the Offence

In his narrative Amir refers a lot to how America helped him to distance himself from his
past and his wrongdoing. Finish these quotations on these pages.

Ch 11 Page 120
For me, America was a place to .................................................. .
It was a place for Baba to mourn his.

Ch 11 Page 126
America was a ......................................, unmindful of ................................
I could wad into this................, let my ....................... drown to the bottom, let the .................
carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts, no ...................... and no ......................... .

Motif: The River. What symbolic meaning is carried by the motif of the river?

The next chapters describe Baba and Amir’s new life. They work at the Afghan flea markets
on the weekend. Amir meets Soraya. She is from another refugee family. She is the daughter
of General Tahir.
Amir graduates from university and Baba is proud of him. However, Amir still feels
something stick in his throat when Baba wishes Hassan was there to share the day with them.
The past still haunts Amir.
Amir marries Soraya and soon after, Baba dies.
Amir does think of Hassan fondly though when his first book is published. Page 168
Amir and Soraya are unable to have children. Amir wonders whether this is a punishment for
his betrayal of Hassan. p 173. This also expresses the guilt buried within.

RECOGNITION of THE WRONG

and
ATONEMENT
in the Redemption Narrative

Chapter 14 June 2001

Chapter 14 picks up where the novel begins, when Amir has just received the phone call
from Rahim Kahn – a call to return and atone for his sins.

1. Read the top of p177. What does Amir realise that Rahim Khan knew?

Amir learns from Rahim Khan that despite everything, Hassan always remained loyal to
Amir and loved him. Hassan always asked questions about him.

Rahim Khan tells Amir about Hassan since Ali and he left that day, and under the oppressive
rule of the Taliban.
Hassan married a lovely Hazara lady, Farzana. Tragically, they had a stillborn child.

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Hassan’s mother, Sanaubar, who had deserted he and Ali when Hassan was only an infant,
returned ‘home’ to ‘her family’. Hassan warmly accepted his mother when she returned.
When Hassan and his wife had a baby boy, Sanaubar loved him and looked after him.
Sanaubar’s story is another redemption story in The Kite Runner.

1 What did Hassan name his son? Why? (read page 195)
2 What did Hassan teach his son to do, as skilfully as he did when he was a boy?
In 1998 the Taliban massacred the Hazaras. Hassan and Farzana were killed. (page 202)

Rahim Khan gives Amir some letters that Hassan had written to him.

Hassan recounts his fond, childhood memories in his letters. They express, again, his
faithfulness and love.

3 The Opportunity for Amir to Atonement for his sins of the past. Read page 203.
a) What does Rahim Khan ask Amir to do?
b) How does Rahim Khan’s request challenge Amir to respond to ‘his past of unatoned sins?
c) Read page 204. Amir doesn’t want to go back to Kabul. Why?
d) When Rahim Khan says, ‘We both know why it has to be you,’ what does he mean?
e) Read pagse 205 – 206 What secret from the past does Rahim Khan then reveal to Amir?
How does Amir feel when he learns Baba’s secret for the past?
f) Read page 209. Outline Amir’s thoughts about his situation. Quote important lines from the
bottom of the page.
g) Read page 210. What does Amir decide to do?

Acknowledgement and Atonement

Chapter 21 ‘I don’t want to forget anymore.’ p 242

Amir travels back in to Afghanistan. When he arrives at Kabul, he visits his abandoned
family home and climbs the hill to the pomegranate tree where he and Hassan spent time
together as children.
1. What does Amir look for and find carved in to the tree?

Read page 258 and page 261. Amir finds Sohrab in the custody of none other than Assef
who has changed his allegiance to the Mujahaddin. He has become a brutal religious fanatic.

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 ATONEMENT
Amir’s Moment of Reckoning

It is 26 years after the winter of 1975 and that day when Amir made the decision to sacrifice
his loyal friend Hassan for a blue kite and, he thought, his father’s love.
Back in Afghanistan, responding to the call by Rahim Khan to find ‘a way to be good again’,
Amir as a grown man now, faces Assef again. This time it is not Hassan who he has the
opportunity to endanger or save, it is Hassan’s son, Sohrab.

At this moment, Amir confronts his past:- his ‘past of unatoned sins.’

He makes a different decision from the one he made as a 12 year old boy. This time, Amir
faces his fear of being killed by Assef and not returning home to Soraya in America. He risks
his life to rescue Sohrab.

Atonement
Fear, Courage, Sacrifice and Suffering

Afghanistan 2001 - Amir confronts Assef

Read pages 262 – 268.

1. In your own words, describe Amir’s confrontation with Assef.
Incorporate quotations that express how Amir suffers.
Incorporate quotations that express how Amir feels.
2. What does Sohrab do to help? How is he like his father, Hassan?
3. Explain how Amir atones for his moral wrongdoing when he was a boy.

4. Writing Task: A Paragraph on Amir’s Atonement, confronting Assef Ch 22, page 265

Question: How is Amir’s confrontation with Assef important as an act of atonement for
his sins of the past?

Criteria for Success

1. POINT State your idea in response to the questions. Outline your reason.
2. EVIDENCE Select evidence from the passage in the novel to support your idea. Quote
lines that show what you are talking about.
3. TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS Identify features of the writing in your quotations and explain
how your quotations support your point.
4. TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS Present 2 – 3 more examples (quotations) from the passage and
explain how they support your point. Try to discuss the effect of narrative features.
5. LINK / CONCLUDE Reconnect with your big idea, the main point in your topic sentence,
if you need to.

Narrative Techniques to Look For :

* Amir’s first person narrative voice
* Visceral description of physical assault
* Imagery of Violence

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* Repetition to amplify the pain inflicted by Assef.
* Imagery of Pain
* Juxtaposition of physical ..................... and emotional ...........................
* Description of fear, terror
* Contrast between the present and the past. Contrast between this confrontation and the
winter of 1975 when Amir was 12 and he chose to look down the alley in silence and let
Hassan pay the price and suffer the pain for him.

BEGIN YOUR PARAGRAPH WITH ONE OF THESE IDEAS / TOPIC SENTENCES

A significant moment for Amir is when he faces Assef again, 26 years later, to atone for his
sins. He is emotionally renewed through the punishment he receives as he sacrifices himself
for Hassan’s son, Sohrab.

Or

Amir atones for his sins when he confronts Assef. This is a significant moment of as Amir
humbles himself, redirecting his course by making a decision based on his moral conscience
rather than selfish desires.

Atonement and Forgiveness

Chapter 23
Amir convalesces in hospital, having suffered serious injuries.
Rahim Khan has left Amir a letter.
Two important messages in Rahim Khan gives Amir are:

‘A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer

and

‘True redemption is … when guilt leads to good.’

1. Write these messages in your book.

Beneath each one, explain how it is part of the process of redemption and how it is
experienced by Amir.

Read the letter that Rahim Khan leaves Amir and fill in the table below to address this
questions.

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 Idea about Redemption Message in the Letter Supportive Quotation

Moral Failing,
Moral Conscience and
Suffering

Atonement
For Redemption

Forgiveness
For Redemption

2. Now, use the notes from your table to write an 8 line paragraph on the messages that
Rahim Khan delivers to Amir about these important experiences in the process of
redemption. Provide a quotation from Rahim Khan’s letter to support each idea.

Begin with a topic sentence sequence about Redemption and move to the novel, like this:

Moral failing causes terrible ................ and ............................ A good person with
a ................., however, will try to make something .................... come from their misdeed.
This may enable forgiveness and .......................... In The Kite Runner, Rahim Khan explains
this to Amir in a letter he leaves for him, after Amir has ...................................... to
rescue .................. Rahim Khan reveals that he knew that Amir ......................... Hassan, but
says he knew also how Amir ...................... He writes, ‘................................... He
acknowledges too ........................ sin, the ...................... he felt, but also the ................ that
he did to atone for it. He writes, ‘............................... You continue to finish the paragraph.

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 Recognition of the Truth and Atonement
Chapter Twenty Four

Read page 292 where Amir explains to Sohrab what a good friend Hassan was to him and
why Amir wanted to help Sohrab now in a way he’d failed to help his father, Hassan.

Read page 298 where Amir is, for the first time, totally honest about his failings of the past
and tells it all to his wife Soraya.

Read the discussion Amir has with Sohrab pp 292 – 293. It is another father-son discussion,
Amir in the role of father, speaks to Sohrab about Hassan, his real father. What important
things does Amir say honouring Hassan and the childhood friendship they shared, openly and
honestly?

Note that he feels there is a new ‘kinship’ he and Sohrab share. In the past, Hassan’s
suffering and self-sacrifice for Amir separated them. Now, Amir’s suffering and self-sacrifice
for Hassan, by saving Sohrab, bring Amir and Sohrab together. Explain why.

Amir then acknowledges the truth about his past failing and all that’s happened since, to his
wife Soraya and they agree to bring Sohrab home.

Amir prays for Forgiveness

Chapter Twenty Five

Amir’s father Baba, was scornful of religion when he condemned the Muslim Mullah as
hypocrites. Amir however, becomes deeply religious in his desperation to save Sohrab. He
prays for Allah’s mercy, for God’s forgiveness. On a deep emotional level Amir needs
forgiveness so that he can be relieved from the unrelenting guilt, his hands ‘stained with
Hassan’s blood.’ He finds faith. Read about this on pages 316 and 317.

1. Amir reads Sohrab the story of ‘Rostam and Sohrab’to Sohrab while he is in hospital
following recovering from a suicide attempt, having lost trust in Amir who promised to keep
him safe and bring him home. Page 323. What does the story mean to Amir now, these years
later?
Look at the ideas about time expressed here. Amir can’t take time back for Sohrab, but the past is ever present.
It remains with them both, in memory and through the circumstances of their lives.

Amir’s challenge is to win Sohrab’s trust. He instructs General Sahib to address Sohrab
respectfully by his name, not as ‘Hazara boy’.
Amir also forgives Baba, his father (p335).

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 Forgiveness
Read Chapter 25 page 329

The narrative does not tell the reader that Amir forgives himself. It shows that this has
happened, and Amir’s realization that the pain is gone. Outline how the narrative shows that
Amir has forgiven himself, and that his suffering can finally end.

Read the bottom of page 335 to the end

The novel has a cyclical structure. The final episode takes the reader back to the opening
episode. The very form of the story represents how all Amir’s past is encapsulated in the
present. As Amir flies a kite with Sohrab and tells him of his childhood, flying kites with
Hassan, but now rather than being haunted by the past and troubled by guilt of his betrayal,
Amir wishes that this moment would last forever. He wishes that ‘time would stand still.

2. In the park in summer now, Amir flies a kite with Sohrab and runs it for him. Explain how
the novel’s final scene shows how Amir has changed. Provide an illustrative quotation. Note
the difference in Amir’s sense of self, his intentions and the ‘goodness’ he has found within
by making amends. Explain how he ends the ‘cycle of secrets, lies and betryal’ and finds
redemption.

3. If ‘you can’t escape the past’ encapsulates how past sins can’t be forgotten in the opening
of Amir’s narrative, what line would you write into the closing scene to end Amir’s story of
redemption?

THE KITE RUNNER AS A STORY OF REDEMPTION

Ideas about the Process of Redemption

In The Kite Runner

* Moral Failing

* Conscience / Guilt / Suffering - distancing the self from the truth of the past

* Recognition of the truth about one’s Moral Failing in the past

* Atonement - self- sacrifice, suffering to redress the wrong and make amends

* Forgiveness - Repentance, a request to be forgiven. Forgiveness of self.

* Redemption – Transformation. Change. Making good from bad. Righting the

wrong.
Relief from suffering.
Humanity and understanding. Peace. Hope for happiness.
New beginning.

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1. Learn these aspects of the process of redemption. They are ideas about redemption.
Together they chart the complexities of redemption.
Write the headings in your workbook.
Underneath each stage / aspect of the redemption process, make an elaborative comment.
Say something about it in 2 sentences. Write what it is. Write what you would say to explain
it to someone who doesn't know what it means.

2. Draw up the table below in your workbook. Fill it in from your study of The Kite Runner.

The Redemption Metanarrative

in The Kite Runner

A Moral Suffering Acknowledgmen Atonement Forgiveness Redemption

Failing t Transformation
willingness to
confront the past

How this In The In The Kite In The Kite In The Kite In The Kite
convention Kite Runner Runner Runner Runner
is Runner
represented
In The Kite
Runner
Include
important
incidents,
narrative
features,
language
techniques
and
supportive
quotations as
evidence.

STEPS to take
1. Say something ABOUT the aspect of the redemption experience.

What you say about the aspect of redemption specified in the question will be your thesis.
So make insightful points that inform the reader ABOUT that aspect of redemption.

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Example: On Atonement
- Atonement is a response to a moral failing committed in the past.
- It is the action taken to redress the offence.
- It requires the individual to go beyond self-interest for a greater cause, a greater good.
-Atonement demands confronting the truth. The truth can not be evaded or avoided.
- It requires moral courage – to acknowledge wrongdoing
- It is a response to moral conscience. It the willingness to respond to a call to become a
better person: for ‘good’ to come from ‘guilt’
- Atonement may involve physical suffering, but it offers emotional relief.
- Atonement paves the way for forgiveness, peace and personal transformation: Redemption.

PLANNING YOUR ESSAY

1. IDEAS FOR YOUR ARGUMENT

These comments are IDEAS that you can present about the particular experience in the
process of REDEMPTION. IDEAS should address the question.
They are POINTS for your argument - your THESIS.
Outline 3 or 4 clear points/ ideas of your THESIS in your INTRODUCTION.
These IDEAS will drive your argument through your essay. They will be the TOPIC
SENTENCES of your paragraphs.

2. IDEAS SUPPORTED BY EVIDENCE FROM THE KITE RUNNER

BUILD YOUR ARGUMENT THROUGH THE BODY PARAGRAPHS

2. You then BUILD on each idea by presenting SUPPORTIVE EVIDENCE & ANALYSIS
Next, select the evidence from Amir’s personal story in The Kite Runner. Your examples will
illustrate how an aspect of the universal redemption experience features in Amir’s story, and
how it is represented through his narrative. (CRAFTED – NARRATIVE FEATURES)
Incorporate specific quotations and an analysis of specific narrative features and techniques
into your notes here.

EVIDENCE = episodes, incidents, characters, quotations

NARRATIVE FEATURES = select from elements of narrative crafting from the red box
below.

NARRATIVE FEATUERS AND LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES

NARRATIVE VOICE AND PERSPECTIVE

first person narrative voice
Amir’s story, his reflective perspective

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NARRATIVE FOCALISATION
A narrative description, a narrative comment, a narrative reflection or contemplation
TONE
The writer’s attitude to the subject.
Eg: confessional, hopeful, reflective, contemplative, candid (open and honest)

NARRATIVE FORM - the opening chapter is a reflective prologue to the main narrative

PLOT - What happens in the story. An incident An episode

Plot Structural Features

FLASHBACK
A time shift. A break in the narrative in real time to shift back to the past.
The past event is narrated as if it is being relived in real time.

BACKSTORY – information about the past that is told within the main narrative.

LETTERS
A shift in Narrative Voice in these letters.
to Amir from Hassan and from Rahim Khan.

BREAKS IN THE MAIN NARRATIVE

by descriptions of religious rituals, symbolic dreams and memories.

SUBPLOTS
Minor narratives within the main narrative
Eg: Baba’s life story ‘wrestling the bear’ as a variation of the archetypal redemption story:
His is a struggle towards redemption that is not as fully realised as Amir’s. Why not?
Eg: Sanaubar’s story within the main narrative as another personal redemption story.

Characterisation Features

CHARACTERISATION - through:
Character description,
Characters’ thoughts
Characters’ actions
Characters’ words (dialogue)

A FOIL
A minor character who functions to reflect a quality or deficiency in the protagonist’s
character.
eg Assef – referred to in the narrative as ‘Amir’s twin’. However, the narrative highlights a
key difference between Amir and Assef. Assef does not have a conscience, unlike Amir.

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While both act cruelly, only Amir suffers for it and only Amir can choose the path to
redemption.
DIALOGUE
important conversations between characters.
Dialogue develops characterisation and relationships in the story.

INTERTEXTUALITY
Bringing reference to other texts in to the narrative. The associations between the action in
the narrative and the action in the well-known referenced text develop important ideas.
Biblical Allusion
Classical Allusion
Historical Allusion
Literary Allusion

Egs: Biblical Allusion in The Kite Runner ................

Eg: Literary Allusion: The Myth of Rostam and Sohrab – that traces the change in Amir’s
attitude and his relationships.

Eg: Mythical Allusion: In Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ 750BCE - Odysseus and the Cyclops

SUBVERSION
Taking an incident or character or theme from another text, or a cultural belief or value, and
altering how it is represented. This reshapes meaning.

Eg. Subversion of the Rostam and Sohrab myth - the narrative’s reshaping of the tragic myth
of Rostam and Sohrab in the narrative of Amir’s life story.
In Amir’s redemption story, there are echoes of the mythical tragedy reshaped in to a
different ‘father – son ‘ story, a story of hope and new beginnings.

SYMBOLISM
An image that takes on deeper, symbolic meaning.
– eg the ........................... tree, the ...................... kite,
Symbolic dreams eg ...............................

MOTIF
An image or idea that recurs through the narrative so that it comes to represent or symbolise
something important
Eg; ‘For you a thousand times over’ that Hassan calls to Amir as he runs his kite, then
a generation later, Amir calls to Sohrab, is a motif for ..........................................

The motif of wrestling the bear........

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Two Motifs for time .........

LANGUAGE FEATURES

IMAGERY / Sensory Imagery

Descriptive language that appeals to the senses
eg: visual imagery
auditory imagery
tactile imagery
gustatory imagery
olfactory imagery
Visceral imagery – elicits a strong emotional response Graphic visual
imagery

Imagery can also be more precisely identified by stating what it is ‘of’..

Indicate what the imagery actually describes
Eg: Imagery of sorrow.....
Imagery of pain............
Colour imagery ........
Death imagery ........

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE is another form of ‘IMAGERY’

Simile
Metaphor
Personification

3. CONCLUSION

Restate your line of argument in response to the question to conclude your essay. It should be
about 3 – 4 sentences. It is shorter than the introduction and should not repeat the
introduction.

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 Group Task

In pairs, or groups of 3, select an important aspect of a Redemption Story.

Prepare a 5- 7 minute presentation to the class on what this aspect of

Redemption is, and how it is represented through the narrative in The Kite
Runner.

Base your discussion on clear ideas that you present about this aspect of
redemption. Support your ideas with well-selected textual evidence. Textual
evidence means relevant passages in the novel, and specific quotations in these
passages. You also need to identify the narrative techniques that convey the idea
about redemption, in the novel’s narrative design.

3. Write a Practice Essay on Redemption in The Kite Runner

To complete your study, read over all your notes and your page of quotes. Then read the
Practice Exam Paper posted on Schoolbox for you. Choose one of the essay questions and
write the essay. You should aim to write about 900 words. You will have 45 minutes to write
in the exam.
Notes on the final Scene of the novel and of Amir’s story of Redemption

On a summer’s day when Amir takes Sohrab to fly kites at the park beside the lake and
Sohrab looks up at the kites flying in the sky, Amir sees for the first time, his eyes ‘Awake.
Alive.”  The imagery suggests the potential for transformation - a new beginning. Sohrab,
like Amir, had been living in the past, carrying its pain with him.  Now, though, Sohrab
smiles. Amir says to Sohrab, “For you, a thousand times over” Amir repeats Hassan’s words,
remembering him not with pain anymore but with gratitude for having a second change, and
heart-felt joy. His commitment to Sohrab as a loving father to a son and showing how he has
grown into a man who wants to heal a broken cihild – a man who as is loyal and loving as
Hassan. Through his path to redemption, Amir shows his honesty, courage and integrity.

Amir’s personal story of redemption in the novel ends with an image of Amir running a kite
for Sohrab. His narrative repeats, “I ran” . The present repeats the past but it is different now.
By adopting as his Sohrab as his own Amir returns the love Hassan showed him, and breaks
the ‘cycle of lies and betrayals’ that had characterised his life. There is an echo of the myth of
Rostam and Sohrab. Amir didn’t ever attain the redemptive ending he longed for with Baba
when he dreamed of rewriting the story’s tragic ending in his own life, with a loving reunion
of father and son. He does, though, achieve his redemptive ending 26 years later, when, as a
man, he becomes a loving father to Sohrab.

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