The Kite Runner Quotes: Literature & Writing

?
  • Created by: mhannah
  • Created on: 08-05-18 18:55
View mindmap
  • The Kite Runner Quotes: Literature & Writing
  • "That was how I escaped my father's aloofness, in my dead mother's books."
    • Chapter 3. Literature and writing play a more important role in The Kite Runner than you might think. The fact that Amir does choose to become a writer is very important. It's tied to his complicated relationship with Baba. As this passage points out, writing and reading become an escape from Baba's coldness.
      • However, as we gather later in the novel, Amir writes about Baba in his own works of fiction. So, later in the novel, writing doesn't allow Amir to simply escape his father's distance but instead helps him enter it and understand it.
  • "But despite his illiteracy, or maybe because of it, Hassan was drawn to the mystery of words, seduced by a secret world forbidden to him."
    • Chapter 4.Even though Hassan sees the beauty of literature (like Amir), Amir actually stops reading Hassan riddles when the activity no longer confirms Amir's superior status. Here, literatureis power
      • Importance of language and literature to control and oppress a population; 'Fahrenheit 451'
  • "I was reading to him, and suddenly I strayed from the written story. I pretended I was reading from the book, flipping pages regularly, but I had abandoned the text altogether, taken over the story, and made up my own."
    • Chapter 4. Literature and language is power and a means of control; something that Amir abuses on occasion to lord his status over Hassan without him knowing. This novel could be read as a confessional novel.
  • "On his way out, Rahim Khan hunkered before me and handed me my story and another folded piece of paper."
    • Chapter 4. Rahim Khan encourages Amir's writing ability more than Baba ever does; he cannot ever replace Baba but he does behave as a 2nd dad and even a literary mentor
  • "I'd gone back to thumbing through Hãfez and Khayyám, gnawing my nails down to the cuticles, writing stories. I kept the stories in a stack under my bed, keeping them just in case, though I doubted Baba would ever again ask me to read them to him."
    • Chapter 8. Writing becomes a very complex activity here. Amir stacks his short stories under the bed, hoping Baba will someday want to hear them. Amir also compares writing to a nervous habit like biting his nails. For Amir, writing is an anxiety-related activity
  • "The only gift I didn't toss on that mound was Rahim Khan's leather-bound notebook. That was the only one that didn't feel like blood money."
    • Chapter 9. Amir feels like all his father's gifts are "blood money" because, as he says, "Baba would have never thrown me a party like that if I hadn't won the tournament" (9.1). And to win the tournament – or at least to get a hold of the blue kite – Amir betrays Hassan. So, in a way, Baba's gifts result from Amir's regrettable act, his abandonment of Hassan.
      • That's why Rahim Khan's gift is so special: Rahim Khan's love isn't dependent on Amir's victory in the kite tournament.
  • "[Amir:] "Creative writing."He considered this. Sipped his tea. "Stories, you mean. You'll make up stories." I looked down at my feet."
    • Chapter 11. Amir is discouraged by Baba's response here. Majoring in Creative Writing – as Baba points out – won't land Amir a job and will likely force Amir to take a job he would qualify for now. What is writing according to Baba? Fabrication. Writing sounds so silly when Baba says it that way.
  • "Amir is going to be a great writer," Baba said. I did a double take at this..."Ah, a storyteller," the general said. "Well, people need stories to divert them at difficult times like this."
    • Chapter 11. Baba leans on Amir's future as a writer as a point of honour and pride in the face of the ridiculing General Taheri. Arguable that Amir does write for 'diversion' as his skills are borne out of a place of a need for escaping from reality.
  • "I can't believe you can write like this," Soraya said.Baba dragged his head off the pillow. "I put her up to it. I hope you don't mind."I gave the notebook back to Soraya and left the room. Baba hated it when I cried. "
    • Chapter 11.Baba finally hears Amir's stories after all these years. It's enough to move Amir to tears .
  • "My last novel, A Season for Ashes, had been about a university professor who joins a clan of gypsies after he finds his wife in bed with one of his students..."Maybe you should write about Afghanistan again," Wahid said. "Tell the rest of the world what the Taliban are doing to our country."
    • Chapter 19. Arguable that Amir runs away from writing about his homeland. His book 'A Season for Ashes' could be a serious book – both funny and heartbreaking at the same time – but the book seems to have nothing to do with Amir's life. It's "fiction" in the worst sense.

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar English Literature resources:

See all English Literature resources »See all The Kite Runner resources »