Role of the narrator

In chapter 16, Rahim Khan becomes the first person narrator. He's going to tell Amir about how he found Hassan again, and in the next chapter, we understand that it's not Amir who's speaking to us anymore.

The first thing I notice is that Rahim clearly seems more adult. He explains and talks in a much more grown-up way. But this may be because we've been prepared for Rahim to talk to us. Rahim does not talk about childhood and childish things, like Amir has up to this part of the book. There are two other things I've noticed about the way Rahim talks. First, he doesn't sidestep. He sticks to the point, and doesn't interrupt himself with relevant stories. The other thing is that Rahim is religious. This is actually pretty clear if you're aware of it. When you read the chapter for the second time, you notice he says things like “Allah forgive me”, or “with the grace of God”. Amir doesn't narrate this way.

But is the narrator technique successful? It's nice to have someone else to narrate, for a change. It seems very logical to change narrator. The change comes very natural. The last thing we read before “the Rahim chapter” is “..Then Rahim Khan rested his head against the wall and spoke”. It's a very interesting technique. It's often used in crime fiction I've read. In crime fiction, it's used to create suspense and tension. We get a look into the murderer or the victim's life and thoughts, not only the protagonist. The narrator change is very successful.
Another thought strike us: where is Amir? We don't get any clear signs of him, but still we know he's there. Rahim sometimes “refers” to him, for instance describing a place and then asking Amir “do you remember?” One of the reasons the change of narrator seems natural, may be because we're kind of in Amir's position. The things Rahim know and uses chapter 16 to tell us about, are something Amir doesn't know either. Maybe that's why he is so quiet. We, the readers, and Amir, is for the first time at the same “level of understanding”, as Amir has had the narrator role the whole time up to now

Could the author used another technique? If he didn't want to switch narrator, and keep the same all the time, what could he have done? One possibility is to let Amir read a letter, although this kind of changes the narrator from Amir to the one who wrote the letter. Other than that, I cannot find a good way to do it. I think Khaled Hosseini did well, I liked the changing narrator.

Relationships, narrative techniques and theme: guilt.

I'm now going to write about some of the relationships described in the book, as well as a narrative techniques and guilt as a theme.

Amir and Baba have a bit strained relationship. Baba seems to think of his son as an embarrassment. Amir doesn't play soccer, he enjoys literature and poetry, and in general Amir isn't as manly as Baba was at his age. It seems like Amir isn't the son Baba wants. This could be because of Amir's mother. Amir thinks that Baba blames Amir for the death of his mother. Amir's mother died while giving birth to Amir. He has learned§ that stealing is a sin, and he is afraid that he stole Baba's wife from him. Baba also seem to like Hassan just as much as his own son.  

Amir seeks his father's redemption.§ He wants his father to like him, so he competes in the kite fighting tournament. If he could win the tournament, he knows his father would “like” him and accept him like he should. Amir wants to be loved; he wants a hug from his father and some encouraging words now and then. He wants his attention. The kite fighting tournament is his key to his father's door.

The book has some interesting narrative techniques. When Amir witnesses Hassan being raped, the narrator suddenly tells about two memories, a dream and a thought. These are told to emphasize the action. The first memory is when Baba tells Amir about him and Hassan being “brothers”, as they fed from the same breast. This memory is an indication of Amir feeling guilty. Amir sees the rape, but doesn't take action, even though he and Hassan are “brothers”. In the second memory, Amir and Hassan visit a fortune teller, who does not want to predict Hassan's future. We now understand that it was because Hassan was going to be raped, although Amir didn't know that at that time. In Amir's dream, he's lost in a storm. This is a symbol of Amir's guilt and thoughts after the rape. He cannot tell anyone, and even though he really wants to, nobody “listens”, exactly like in his dream. The thought that is told, is when Amir sees Hassan's look on his eyes. He remembers seeing a lamb before it was slaughtered, and the lamb kind of “accepted” it's fate, knowing that it's fate was decided by something higher than itself. When Amir reflects upon this, he realizes that Hassan had the same look in his eyes as the lamb.

After the rape, Amir feels guilt. He has troubles telling anyone about it. The first and only time he manages to say it out loud, is when everyone else is asleep. He becomes an insomniac (someone who has trouble sleeping or falling asleep). He desperately wants to tell someone, but what can he say? That he watched the whole thing, but didn't do anything to prevent it? Not only has he troubles sleeping at night, he cannot look Hassan in the eyes. There's a barrier in his mind. He and Hassan don't talk very much, and they don't play and have fun like they used to. On top of all this, Amir won the kite fighting tournament and his father's redemption. But it doesn't matter to him. He does not at all enjoy his father's attention, as he feels so guilty.

That was it for now! I have a lot of reading to do, but that's actually not something I'm going to complain about. I like the book. Although I have to say, I feel like I'm analyzing a bit too much.. Haha. Until next time!

The first paragraph, - about Amir

As said earlier, the first chapter in “The Kite Runner” contains foreshadowing. The “I”-person tells about how he “crouched behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek”. Later in the book, around chapter 8, we know what he was looking at, and who was there.
He shows regret. “That was a long time ago, but it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the pat claws its way out.” He claims that forgetting about the past is wrong, it's impossible. It's always there for you to remember, especially for Amir. He obviously still feels bad about it.

He's “been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years”, “looking back now” he realizes it. Twenty-six years have passed, and he hasn't forgotten, and he does not feel any better. He still remembers the exact moment it happened. It's like he has a grudge bearing over him.

Amir has changed. He was someone from the day he was born to the day when he peeked into the alley, but became someone else. As he said, “I became what I am today at the age of twelve”. The incident is of course when Hassan is raped by Assef, witnessed by the silent Amir. He could have prevented it, at least tried, but he kept quiet, and pretended he never saw what happened. That day changed him, and it changed him to who he is now.

I want to know who he is now. All I have is the first chapter. All I know is he's in Los Angeles, and that he's not forgotten about the past I've read about. But from the twelve year old Amir, and to the man he is now, I don't know. I don't know what happened.

I'll be “reporting” again the next time I continue to read the book. See yah!

The Kite Runner, first three chapters

We're having a book project at school, and the whole class is reading The Kite Runner, and also blogging about it. Here's my first blog post about the novel, first and foremost the three first chapters.

  The Kite Runner is Khaled Hosseini's first novel. The first part of the book mainly takes place in the north of Kabul. Amir is twelve years old and his days usually consist of playing with Hassan and reading literature. Hassan is Ali's son, and Ali is Amir's family's servant. The relationship between Pashtuns (Amir and his father “Baba”) and Hazaras (Hassan and Ali) is a bit strained. The Hazaras are mostly looked down at by people. Amir and his father is an exception, - they're friends with their servants. Baba and Ali are childhood friends, and Baba treats Ali well, even though he's Ali's "boss".

Starts with foreshadowing. The very first chapter in the book takes place in Los Angeles, and is in fact the present. The plot isn't chronologically, as we start in the present, then go back to the past that made way for the present. As the main character says; “I thought of the life I had lived until the winter of 1975 came along and changed everything. And made me what I am today”. This is called foreshadowing, or in Norwegian, “frampek”. It's a writing technique often used in short-stories to draw attention, as it foretells what is going to happen, but not how it's going to happen. This makes us as readers interested and curious about the future, and therefore we read ahead. There are significant differences between the two cities, Kabul and Los Angeles. The first chapter creates two parallel “worlds”, the one today – L.A.,and the previous one – Kabul. The history starts..

Amir's life isn't very complicated. He enjoys every season of the year, and he and Hassan do a lot of fun. They're very good friends, although Amir tends to boss a bit. Hassan is kind of suppressed by him, and if the boys do something stupid that was Amir's idea, Hassan always takes the blame. This makes Amir feel guilty. Hassan is always there for Amir, but Amir doesn't want to play with Hassan when he has someone else to play with. He is a bit embarrassed of him.

Amir is secretly jealous of Hassan. Maybe that's why he's mean to him. Amir's father, Baba, seems to like Hassan as much as Amir, maybe even a bit more. This makes Amir upset. He thinks that Baba is, without telling it, blaming him for “stealing his wife”. Baba's wife and Amir's mother died of hemorrhage during the birth of Amir. To kill, or as Baba says it, “stealing a life”, is a sin. Baba's also seems more ashamed of Amir, as he doesn't play soccer or is as manly as Hassan and himself at their age. Amir is more into literature and poetry, and spends all his allowance on books he hides away from his dad. Amir wants his father's redemption, more than anything else.

Religion, race and class. The first part of the book says something about the situation in Kabul and Afghanistan. For instance, when Amir reads one of the history books his mother left behind, he discovers that the people he belongs to, the Pashtuns, once killed the Hazarans, drove them away from their country, burned their homes and sold their women. When he takes this up with his teacher, the teacher simply says “that's one thing Shi'a people do well, passing themselves as martyrs”. Amir had never learned about this. He has never learned about Pashtuns being Sunni Muslims and Hazarans being Shi'a Muslims, which may be the main reason of the differences in treatment. The children in the neighborhood of Amir call Hassan for “mice-eating, flatnosed, load-carrying donkeys”, referring to how the Hazaras look a bit different from Pasthuns. Not only is Ali and Hassan servants, they're also Hazarans. Imagine their position in the community..

Well-written and trustworthy. The book is written with a first person narrator. This makes the book more trustworthy, as the relationship between the narrator and me becomes more personal. I believe there is a person behind the plot that has a story he wants to tell. And it's so well-written as well. I've always had a little trouble getting through books, especially if they're not crime fiction or if they're in English (exception: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon). I don't have this problem with this book. It's so exciting, and it's almost as if I can feel the warmth and the cold that's written with words. English homework has rarely been better..

The importance of blogging

Blogging is a recent phenomenon. Everyone can blog, - teenage girls can talk about fashion and their retired grandmothers can tell about their knitting. It's brilliant, really. But how important is blogging? And is it just a trend? I don't think so. Blogging's been around for a while, and it doesn't exactly seem to become less popular. The channel blogging is very powerful, and you must never underestimate it.

We live in an age of information and communication. Previously, we only used newspapers and TV to get the news. Now, we can get the news with personal opinions and biases. We can read what “most people” think about Obama getting the Nobel Peace Price or Boyzone member Stephen Gately's death. But that's not always positive.

Blogging has an incredible effect. Blogging reaches a larger audience than serious newspapers. Teenage girls are rarely into politics, but if their favorite fashion blogger say something about for instance fur, the “damage” is already done. If the blogs are personal, they also seem more reliable for many people. Blogging can be used to make money, yes, but it can also be used for good purposes. The internet doesn't make rules, so blogging is a way of expressing yourself freely, without any editing by some government or newspaper.

I want to tell you an example. Ida Wulff is a Norwegian blogger, possibly the most read and popular, especially amongst young girls. She often receives products from different companies, and then she tests them or wear them, saying “I got this from..”. She also gets sponsored by different happenings, and then uses her blog to tell about them. This is advertising. She has admitted that she manage solely on the money she earns by blogging. But there is something more with it. Once she wrote a post where she posted a picture of something that seemed like fur. Many readers angrily commented that “fur is wrong” and “I didn't think you were like that”. Then, as a respond, she wrote a post saying “it was not real fur” and that “yes, fur is wrong”. Think about how many who read this, and how many who admire her. When she then says things like that, it's easy to agree. And she has influenced many people.

One must never underestimate the power of blogging.

Wow, that like Gandalf or Dumbledore.  

That's it, until next time!