form, structure and language in chapter 1 of the kite runner

Form Structure

Language

Narrative

Structure

Point of View

FORMBildungsroman NovelAKA ‘coming of age’ novel.

Bildungsroman tell limited, uneventful stories in which weak but flexible heroes reach their maturity.

EVIDENCEWillow Tree-symbolises new beginnings and redemption.

Willow Tree-symbolises new beginnings and redemption.

First Person Intradiegetic narrator

Willow Tree-symbolises new beginnings and redemption. Willow Tree-symbolises new beginnings and redemption.

Willow Tree-symbolises new beginnings and redemption.

Rahim Khan: There is a way to be good again.

Metaphor: The past claws it’s way out.Everyday meaningful events: Then I saw a pair of kites

Retrospective: I became what I am today at the age of 12.

STRUCTURE: USE OF SYMBOLS

Kites- “I looked up at those twin

kites”Language:“For you a thousand

times over”

Harelip- “Hassan

the harelipped

Kite Runner”.

Does Amir still see

Hassan as inferior?

Redemption/Death: Willow

Tree.

Weather.

Foreshadowing and analepsis

LANGUAGE1. Anthropomorphism: Because the past claws it’s

way out.2. Metaphor: I have been peeking into that deserted

alley for the past 26 years.3. Use of simple sentences: “Because the past claws

it’s way out… One day last summer my friend Rahim Khan called from Pakistan…It was my past of unatoned sins.

4. Minor Sentences: “Ali. Kabul.”5. Simile: “Like a pair of eyes looking down on San

Francisco the place I now called home.”6. Repetition of “thought”.7. Connotations of frigid.8. Semantic Field of the park-associations with the

park (setting).

Narrative Structure

Loosely Circular

Retrospective

Begins with a crisis

Hints at climax and catharsis

Use of setting

Episodic?

• I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley…

• Hasan• His

Conscience• Soraya• His father

• There is a way to be good again

• Unreliable?• Pathetic

Fallacy.• Adult

First Person

Rahim Khan

Bildungsroman Novel

Who is Amir

addressing

IS AMIR MANIPULATING THE READER?It is this honesty from Amir right from

the start that allows real emotional connection with the reader which keeps them interested-narrative voice/characterisation.

When he talks about remembering ‘the precise moment’ the foreshadowing makes the reader want to continue to find out the event that is the catalyst for the novel-narrative voice.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONSSettings: The Kite Runner is about

Afghanistan but is opens in San Francisco.Shifts in Time-links to chapter 2. Amir

begins narrating his childhood. Is Chapter 1 the exposition?Characterisation of Rahim Khan: He is the

catalyst to make Amir proactive. Suggests he is wise.

Characterisation of Amir: Rich, educated and reflective.

Hasan-precious and vulnerable. Amir as villain/anti-hero