Literary Criticisms of 'The Kite Runner'
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- Created on: 30-01-18 11:15
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- Kite Runner Literary Criticism
- The novel is written in beautiful lyrical prose which has attracted it great praise
- "The smell of lamb kebab, the endless glasses of tea, storytelling beneath the pomegranate tree, the kite tournaments of the title - all are simply and powerfully evoked"- Sarah A Smith, The Guardian
- "Though Hassan cannot read or write, he loves to hear Amir read aloud and is perfectly capable of pointing out the gaping hole in Amir's first attempt at plotting a story." Melissa Katsoulis
- "The novel's frequent reference to the Afghan heroic tale, the Shahnammah, implicitly creates a comparison between Amir's relationship with his father and the larger-than-life interactions between the father-and-son warriors Rostam and Sohrab in the myth." Maria Elena Caballero-Robb
- One criticism that 'The Kite Runner' faces a lot is the fact it is contrived due to the number of coincidences.
- "Determined to thoroughly redeem his protagonist, he creates a series of parallels that allow Amir to undo some of his former wrongs, and a series of cringe-making coincidences that bring the story full circle" Sarah A Smith, The Guardian
- “Hosseini is avoiding some of the harshest truths. Amir?s transformation into an enviable writer in America seems too easily earned, since it comes with his marriage to an angelic wife, the daughter of an exiled Afghan general” - Anis Shivani
- "When Amir meets his old nemesis, now a powerful Taliban official, the book descends into some plot twists better suited to a folk tale than a modern novel." Edward Hower
- ""over-reliance on coincidence" Rebecca Stuhr
- Some critics see the Kite Runner as an allegory for the Afghan situation, including Hosseini himself. The personal and political in the novel are am important talking point.
- “national allegories are well suited to the challenging task of analyzing the textual fissures and fractures that arise out of the social and subjective fragmentation of the national formation” Julie McGonegal
- Hassan's **** "Has always had a symbolic and allegorical meaning to it"- Khaled Hosseini
- “a metaphoric quality to it, and the **** scene [of Hassan]. A lot of fellow Afghans feel like that’s what happened to their country, if you substitute Afghanistan for Hassan." Khaled Hosseini
- "The Kite Runner focuses more on interpersonal dramas than on political ones"Maria Elena Caballero-Robb
- "The Kite Runner is about the price of peace, both personal and political," Amelia Hill
- There are criticisms that Hosseini is writing from a position of privelege and power. The depiction of the USA and Afghanistan are very different.
- “guy in America […] whose voice […] is inauthentic and whose motives are suspect” - Janette Edwards
- "I guess it's my Western sensibility, now that I've lived here for so long, that I feel like these are the things we should talk about”- Khaled Hosseini
- "even though Baba maintains the national myth of the American dream and embodies the images of masculine power, his loss of power in the US is due to the ethnocultural boundary which encircles American identity as it is constructed in the novel."- Niagara Saraswat
- Khaled Hosseini’s privileged young narrator, who comes of age during the last peaceful days of the monarchy, just before his country’s revolution and its invasion by Russian forces.” Edwards Hower
- "The story would not exist without war." Amanda Christy Brown
- ‘When Hosseini strays from the simple narrative style he prefers, he strugglesto retain credibility and, on occasion, leaves Amir soundling like Kabul’s halfbaked answer to Holden Caulfield.’- James O'Brien
- "As far as the Afghan conflict is concerned, we get a selective, simplistic,even simple-minded picture.’" Ronny Noor
- The novel is written in beautiful lyrical prose which has attracted it great praise
- There are criticisms that Hosseini is writing from a position of privelege and power. The depiction of the USA and Afghanistan are very different.
- “guy in America […] whose voice […] is inauthentic and whose motives are suspect” - Janette Edwards
- "I guess it's my Western sensibility, now that I've lived here for so long, that I feel like these are the things we should talk about”- Khaled Hosseini
- "even though Baba maintains the national myth of the American dream and embodies the images of masculine power, his loss of power in the US is due to the ethnocultural boundary which encircles American identity as it is constructed in the novel."- Niagara Saraswat
- Khaled Hosseini’s privileged young narrator, who comes of age during the last peaceful days of the monarchy, just before his country’s revolution and its invasion by Russian forces.” Edwards Hower
- "The story would not exist without war." Amanda Christy Brown
- ‘When Hosseini strays from the simple narrative style he prefers, he strugglesto retain credibility and, on occasion, leaves Amir soundling like Kabul’s halfbaked answer to Holden Caulfield.’- James O'Brien
- "As far as the Afghan conflict is concerned, we get a selective, simplistic,even simple-minded picture.’" Ronny Noor
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