1. Writing a Research Essay on Kite Runner

2. Key Concepts Novel examines the relationship between the personal and political- the impact each has on the other. Echoes power shifts in Afghanistan Political events propel the story's action. Amir’s actions mirror ethnic inequalities

3. Uses symbols and imagery to emphasize the way that Amir’s adult choices are belated remedies of past failures Capacities of individuals to combat broad injustice in political systems Even personal conflicts are intertwined with world events Interplay between present and past

4. Use of foreshadowing sometimes signals the reader that an imminent even will have lasting consequences. Concept of a theocratic regime that starves and crushes the freedoms of its people and a reluctant but ultimately courageous citizen willing to risk his life for what he believes in

5. In the last two chapters, the narrator speaks warmly of the ousting of the Taliban and the emergence of Hamid Karzai as the new leader of Afghanistan, and describes the hope with which the imminent Loya jirga, the exiled king’s return to Afghanistan is anticipated by Afghans This optimistic attitude parallels the novel’s final flicker of hope regarding Sorhab. Afghanistan, the novel seems to argue, so recently brutalized and repressed may yet survive

6. James O'Brien …its consideration of cultural, religious and deeply personal upheavals remains cool and considered throughout. This continues to be one of the book’s few flaws. When Hosseini strays from the simple narrative style he prefers, he struggles to retain credibility and, on occasion, leaves Amir sounding like Kabul’s half-baked answer to Holden Caulfield “That was the thing with Hassan. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him”

7. Ronny Noor The lucidly written and often touching novel gives a vivid picture of not only the Russian atrocities but also those of the Northern Alliance and the Taliban. It is rightly a “soaring debut” as the Boston Globe claims, but only if we consider it a novel of sin and redemption…As far as the Afghan conflict is concerned, we get a selective, simplistic and even simple-minded picture.

8. Hosseini tells us, for example, that “Arabs, Chechens, Pakistanis” were behind the Taliban. He does not mention the CIA or Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security advisor to President Carter.

9. Themes Identity and Self-discovery Family, Fathers and Fatherhood Journey and Quest Heritage and Ancestry Assimilation and Acculturation The use and abuse of Power

10. Style Flashback and Foreshadowing Diction Interior Monologue Imagery and Symbolism

11. Other comments An incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East A complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium Hosseini’s depiction of pre-revolutionary Afghanistan is rich in warmth and humor but also tense with the friction of different ethnic groups

12. A few noted with misgiving that the novel occasionally strays from the conventions of realism in contemporary fiction. …the book descends into some plot twists better suited to a folk tale than a modern novel. Over-reliance on coincidence When Hosseini strays from the simple narrative style he prefers, he struggles to retain credibility