The setting of a story can have an enormous impact on plot setup, character development, and the values in the story that have been introduced by the author. The setting can even be a character itself, and is just as vital to the overall meaning of a piece as is the protagonist. The setting, whether it be a country, kingdom, or home, is itself a silent protagonist, invisible yet maintaining a strong presence throughout. In The Kite Runner, the settings of Afghanistan, America, and then Afghanistan under Taliban rule are the driving forces behind the development of the characters, and pave the way for the ultimate values and meanings of the work itself.
The theme of the first part of The Kite Runner is betrayal and guilt. Afghanistan was a place of respect and loyalty when Amir and Hassan were growing up. A place where a man's word had weight. A place of values and a place segregated by race. One could compare Amir and Hassan's relationship to that of a noble and a serf. A mutual trust existed between the two, despite their racial and class differences. As much as Amir struggled with the fact, the two were friends. Unfortunately, Amir was too much of a coward to break away from his rigid social caste, too afraid to defend his friend in his time of need. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world”(77). Amir allowed the worst parts of Afghanistan to warp his feelings toward Hassan. “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?”(77) Hosseini uses Afghanistan, with it's strong sense of positive and negative values, as the perfect setting to accentuate the impact of Amir's act of betrayal. Even Baba explained that “There is no act more wretched than stealing”(18). In a setting where relationships, good and bad, are lasting, and where trust is as powerful as blood, Amir's theft of Hassan's trust bears as much impact on Amir as the death of his mother. In a land where such sins do not go forgotten, Amir would not be allowed to grow and develop as a character, and would be forced to choke on his guilt throughout the rest of his life. Khaled Hosseini had to change the setting of the book in order provide Amir with the circumstances to overcome his past mistakes.
In America there are no Pashtuns or Hazaras. There are people, and the only trust found in America is in companies and property. This explains Baba's outrage in the Korean store: “‘Almost two years we’ve bought his damn fruits and put money in his pocket and the son of a dog wants to see my license!’”(127) America is a place that overlooks sins and betrayals because they are an expected part of everyday life. It is a place with “no ghosts, no memories, and no sins”(136). The setting of the second part of The Kite Runner is humbling for both Baba and Amir because of their loss of prominence as well. America takes everything from Baba and Amir, forcing them to survive basically on their own. This mutual reliance on each other, however, brings Baba and Amir closer together than ever before. Baba is able to forgive Amir, and Amir is able to forgive himself in a country that never stops moving. Hosseini uses America, a country with scare values and morals, to cleanse Amir and to baptize him into a new, clean conscience and existence. Amir overcomes his guilt by forgetting and moving on in a country where doing so is the norm. He marries, and is given the opportunity to settle down.The act of forgetting his betrayal may seem insensitive, but it’s what Amir needed to do in order to find the strength to confront his past back in Afghanistan later in the book. “There was so much goodness in my life. So much happiness. I wondered whether I deserved any of it”(183). Although Amir is still conscious of his guilt, he is not angry at himself anymore. Hosseini’s America is used to detach Amir from his evils, to let Amir recollect himself, and to prepare him for the final theme of The Kite Runner: Redemption.
The Afghanistan that Amir returns to is a place of violence and destruction. The Taliban dictate and slaughter at their own accord while everyone else is below them. Some of the values of the old Afghanistan still exist, as shown when Amir is offered food that Farid's family cannot afford to give up, but these values are as rare as honor in the Wild West. The setting of such a lawless country functions just as well as a classic western setting when telling a story of redemption. Much like the westerns Amir and Hassan loved when growing up, in the end, dead or alive, the good always redeem themselves and save the day. In the old Afghanistan, Amir mentions that the only thing an audience cared about in a movie was the ending, and that it was the only part of a story that truly mattered. The new Afghanistan, as terrible a place as it may be, provides Amir with the circumstances to fittingly redeem himself. In a place where morals and values are as dried up as the trees, Amir’s act of redemption, his rescue of Sohrab, shines ever more so brightly. Hosseini recognized that such an intense setting would do exactly the opposite of what the old Afghanistan did; accentuate the impact of Amir’s redemption. The fact that Afghanistan was so different and that it was still Amir’s home made it the perfect setting for the full circle story that Khaled Hosseini intended. The author used the evil of the final setting, even physical violence against Amir, to clean and to heal his protagonist. “My body was broken - just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later - but I felt healed. Healed at last.”(289).
An earlier piece of Alex’s, this essay’s cracks show in even the faintest light. The structure is very basic, and the introduction paragraph is particularly weak, perhaps because of the prompt. The ideas are clear, but the work feels too formal, too organized, and too planned. Despite this orderly organization, each idea hardly ever gets more than a single sentence to be fleshed out before another idea is presented. In addition to that, random generalizations, used to introduce ideas, are sporadic and jarring to an otherwise interesting, yet sparse, analysis.
The weakest aspect of this early essay is its lack of a conclusion. The final product is a collection of ideas that is left floating and unwrapped, without a conclusion to ground it to a clean halt. The essay drives off a cliff of ideas, and instead of having a soft landing or any landing at all, it is left hanging in midair.
6 September 2012
The setting of a story can have an enormous impact on plot setup, character development, and the values in the story that have been introduced by the author. The setting can even be a character itself, and is just as vital to the overall meaning of a piece as is the protagonist. The setting, whether it be a country, kingdom, or home, is itself a silent protagonist, invisible yet maintaining a strong presence throughout. In The Kite Runner, the settings of Afghanistan, America, and then Afghanistan under Taliban rule are the driving forces behind the development of the characters, and pave the way for the ultimate values and meanings of the work itself.
The theme of the first part of The Kite Runner is betrayal and guilt. Afghanistan was a place of respect and loyalty when Amir and Hassan were growing up. A place where a man's word had weight. A place of values and a place segregated by race. One could compare Amir and Hassan's relationship to that of a noble and a serf. A mutual trust existed between the two, despite their racial and class differences. As much as Amir struggled with the fact, the two were friends. Unfortunately, Amir was too much of a coward to break away from his rigid social caste, too afraid to defend his friend in his time of need. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world”(77). Amir allowed the worst parts of Afghanistan to warp his feelings toward Hassan. “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?”(77) Hosseini uses Afghanistan, with it's strong sense of positive and negative values, as the perfect setting to accentuate the impact of Amir's act of betrayal. Even Baba explained that “There is no act more wretched than stealing”(18). In a setting where relationships, good and bad, are lasting, and where trust is as powerful as blood, Amir's theft of Hassan's trust bears as much impact on Amir as the death of his mother. In a land where such sins do not go forgotten, Amir would not be allowed to grow and develop as a character, and would be forced to choke on his guilt throughout the rest of his life. Khaled Hosseini had to change the setting of the book in order provide Amir with the circumstances to overcome his past mistakes.
In America there are no Pashtuns or Hazaras. There are people, and the only trust found in America is in companies and property. This explains Baba's outrage in the Korean store: “‘Almost two years we’ve bought his damn fruits and put money in his pocket and the son of a dog wants to see my license!’”(127) America is a place that overlooks sins and betrayals because they are an expected part of everyday life. It is a place with “no ghosts, no memories, and no sins”(136). The setting of the second part of The Kite Runner is humbling for both Baba and Amir because of their loss of prominence as well. America takes everything from Baba and Amir, forcing them to survive basically on their own. This mutual reliance on each other, however, brings Baba and Amir closer together than ever before. Baba is able to forgive Amir, and Amir is able to forgive himself in a country that never stops moving. Hosseini uses America, a country with scare values and morals, to cleanse Amir and to baptize him into a new, clean conscience and existence. Amir overcomes his guilt by forgetting and moving on in a country where doing so is the norm. He marries, and is given the opportunity to settle down.The act of forgetting his betrayal may seem insensitive, but it’s what Amir needed to do in order to find the strength to confront his past back in Afghanistan later in the book. “There was so much goodness in my life. So much happiness. I wondered whether I deserved any of it”(183). Although Amir is still conscious of his guilt, he is not angry at himself anymore. Hosseini’s America is used to detach Amir from his evils, to let Amir recollect himself, and to prepare him for the final theme of The Kite Runner: Redemption.
The Afghanistan that Amir returns to is a place of violence and destruction. The Taliban dictate and slaughter at their own accord while everyone else is below them. Some of the values of the old Afghanistan still exist, as shown when Amir is offered food that Farid's family cannot afford to give up, but these values are as rare as honor in the Wild West. The setting of such a lawless country functions just as well as a classic western setting when telling a story of redemption. Much like the westerns Amir and Hassan loved when growing up, in the end, dead or alive, the good always redeem themselves and save the day. In the old Afghanistan, Amir mentions that the only thing an audience cared about in a movie was the ending, and that it was the only part of a story that truly mattered. The new Afghanistan, as terrible a place as it may be, provides Amir with the circumstances to fittingly redeem himself. In a place where morals and values are as dried up as the trees, Amir’s act of redemption, his rescue of Sohrab, shines ever more so brightly. Hosseini recognized that such an intense setting would do exactly the opposite of what the old Afghanistan did; accentuate the impact of Amir’s redemption. The fact that Afghanistan was so different and that it was still Amir’s home made it the perfect setting for the full circle story that Khaled Hosseini intended. The author used the evil of the final setting, even physical violence against Amir, to clean and to heal his protagonist. “My body was broken - just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later - but I felt healed. Healed at last.”(289).
An earlier piece of Alex’s, this essay’s cracks show in even the faintest light. The structure is very basic, and the introduction paragraph is particularly weak, perhaps because of the prompt. The ideas are clear, but the work feels too formal, too organized, and too planned. Despite this orderly organization, each idea hardly ever gets more than a single sentence to be fleshed out before another idea is presented. In addition to that, random generalizations, used to introduce ideas, are sporadic and jarring to an otherwise interesting, yet sparse, analysis.
The weakest aspect of this early essay is its lack of a conclusion. The final product is a collection of ideas that is left floating and unwrapped, without a conclusion to ground it to a clean halt. The essay drives off a cliff of ideas, and instead of having a soft landing or any landing at all, it is left hanging in midair.