The Kite Runner

Rhetorical Triangle

Writer, Audience, and Context

Novelist Khaled Hosseini came to the United States as a 15-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who knew only a few words of English. Today, he is a doctor, a United Nations goodwill ambassador, and author of two internationally acclaimed books, “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns.” He left Afghanistan in 1976, Kabul was a "growing, thriving, cosmopolitan city." By the end of his father’s four-year post at the Afghan Embassy in Paris, his country had been invaded by the Soviet Union. Hosseini and his family sought asylum in the United States and ended up in California, where he became a doctor and eventually wrote “The Kite Runner,” which was an overnight literary sensation. 

 I believe this book is geared toward a more mature audience as well as one interested in learning about the cultural differences between the United States and Afghanistan. They would need to be prepared for reading about very traumatizing and emotional experiences. The Kite Runner does not target one audience or age group as it talks about all aspects of life. It talks about race, sex, and emotions. The Kite Runner is really for anyone who wants to explore other cultures. 

The Kite Runner tells a story that shows forgiveness and the internal conflict with right or wrong. It is placed in a nation that is wrongly viewed and the book shows how one group can cause a whole nation to be judge wrongly. The novel touches on the forgiveness of an action that was very wrong.

Other Rhetorical Strategies

Hosseini strategically implemented specific uses of flashbacks, imagery, and rhetorical questions in order to show Amir's the times of hardship when Amir was a young boy and what he took to America with him.

Flashback - “Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” This is a quote from Amir, the main character in the novel, and it indicates the reader of a scene that will occur in later on in the novel and will become a significant effect on the rest of his life. When he states “deserted alley”, that shows that he is alone in his guilt. He has been holding this guilt in for the last “twenty-six years”, and he is the only person that can confess and become healed from all of his wounds he generated in the past. 

Imagery - “I am a baby in that photograph and Baba is holding me, looking tired and grim. I’m in his arms, but it’s Rahim Khan’s pinky my fingers are curled around.” This detailed description by the main character, Amir, makes the reader notice that even as a baby, he and his father, Baba, haven’t had the best relationship with one another since he was born.

Rhetorical Questions - “But coming close wasn’t the same as winning, was it?” Amir is talking about how his father thinks he will possibly win the next kite tournament that’s coming up. This makes Amir think that winning first place might be the missing piece to obtaining his father’s heart. Then he goes on saying that he’s been close to winning before, but that was never good enough to make his father proud of him and appreciate him as his son. This makes him question himself, if he’s gained his father’s approval at all or not. 

Evaluation

The Kite Runner was a emotional story of betrayal and redemption and it had me  moved. It tells the story of Amir and Hassan, the closest of friends, and also experts in the art of kite flying. The two young boys live in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and this year they are going to try harder than ever to win the local kite-fighting tournament, a popular Afghan pastime, and this is Amir's one hope of winning his father's love. But just like the kites battling in the sky, war comes to Afghanistan, and the country becomes an extremely dangerous place. In war, people are often forced to make great sacrifices, and young Amir commits an act of betrayal, towards his best friend Hassan no less, which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Amir and his father are forced to flee Afghanistan for America, and The Kite Runner becomes the story of Amir's quest for redemption, righting the wrongs he committed all those years ago as a boy in Kabul. http://www.bookcaps.com/the-kite-runner-historical-context.html#.WvyGStPwau4