form, structure and language in chapter 1 of the kite runner
DESCRIPTION
This explores how form, structure and language is used in The Kite RunnerTRANSCRIPT
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