The Kite Runner, Posts A and B

The Kite Runner

2/20-

Post A-

Vocab-
1) scoffed (15)- to mock or treat with derision.
2) Sherjangi (19)- a game that students played, “battle of the poems”

Figurative Languages-
1) “ ‘Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.’” (21) This is a good example of figurative language because this character is equating the way his friend wants to raise his son, versus how he should.
2) “…Hassan and I climbed its branches and snatched its bloodred pomegranates.” (28) This small quote is an example of figurative language because Khaled Hosseini uses blood to describe the color of a very delicious fruit that the characters he’s created are eating.
3) “If he felt the sting of my tease, then his smiling face didn’t show it.” (28) This here is a great piece of figurative language because the author has personified the feeling of a mean action by the main character.

Quote-
“ I watched him fill his glass at the bar and wondered how much time would pass before we talked again the way we just had. Because the truth of it was, I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess…” (19) I found this quote to be particularly important because the narrator of the story is under ten years old, and its unbelievable for such a young boy to be having such thoughts, to make himself think that his father doesn’t love him because his mother died during birth makes me sad. It’s a terrible thing for someone of any age to think, and the fact that such a small, young child is having these thoughts breaks my heart.

Theme-
As I’ve gotten farther into The Kite Runner I’ve been noticing some new possibilities for themes, its still early yet for there to be one specific theme to have emerged, but I believe that one possible theme could be sadness. The author has so masterfully worked in terror in his novel. Starting out with the foundations of a seemingly happy childhood, only to have it destroyed in one night.

Post B-

Dear Khaled Hosseini,

Forgive me, I’ve made a big mistake, I thought that this was a memoir of what life was for you in Afghanistan, but I was wrong this book is a piece of fiction. I was wondering for a very long time as to why the main character had a different name then you guys. With that out of the way, I wanted to mention a quote from your book: “ ‘When you kill a man, you steal a life,’ Baba said. ‘You steal a wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?’” (18) I really like this because it sums up very simple Islamic values, and shows even me (one with half of a family from Iran) that there are different ways of practicing Islam, separate from that of extreme Muslims that we see and hear about every day in the news.

Sincerely,
Kian Hashemi-Rad