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THE KITE RUNNER Setting and Characterisation

Settings in The Kite Runner

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This explores the significance of various settings in The Kite Runner.

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Page 1: Settings in The Kite Runner

THE KITE RUNNERSetting and Characterisation

Page 2: Settings in The Kite Runner

SETTING

• How is setting important in narratives?

• What are the different settings in The Kite Runner?

• Could the Kite Runner be set in Bedworth?

Page 3: Settings in The Kite Runner

Universal Themes

ideas

Relationships

innocence

Courage

Love

War

Racism

Page 4: Settings in The Kite Runner

Influences of Setting

Literature

Race

Culture

Marriage

Political events

Page 5: Settings in The Kite Runner

Afghanistan

Kabul

Afghanistan

Pakistan

Islamabad

The mosque

The hospital

Peshawar

America

California

Golden Gate Bridge

The Market

Soraya’s house

Russia

Russian Soldier

Views of Russia

Kabul:The AlleyAmir’s houseHasan’s HouseGharja LakeThe orphanageThe stadiumThe StudyThe Pomegranite tree

Page 6: Settings in The Kite Runner

AFGHANISTAN

Page 7: Settings in The Kite Runner

AFGHANISTAN

All stories have settings. These may be real or fictional places, however, they all represent something.

Baba paid for the construction of the two storey orphanage (p12)…We found the new orphanage …it was a flat barracks-style building with splintered walls and windows boarded with planks of wood. (220)

I went past the rosebushes to Baba’s mansion…Hassan to the mud shack. I remember it was spare, clean, dimly lit by a pair of Kerosene lamps (p6)

We were upstairs in Baba’s study, the smoking room…Then he lowered himself into the leather sofa…I watched him fill his glass at the bar..

I sat against one of the house’s clay walls. The kinship I felt suddenly for the old land...it surprised me…I planted a fistful of money under the matress.

Assef’s office

“there was a coffee table….The base was X shaped, walnut sized brass

balls studded the ring where the metallic legs crossed”.

Basement/LorryThe fuel tank was pitch black. (105-106)..There were others in all about a dozen, including Baba and me sitting with our suitcases between our legs cramped with these strangers in the tarpaulin-covered cap of an old Russian truck (96-97).

Now the pitch was a mess. There were holes and craters everywhere, most notably a pair of deep holes in the ground…(234)

Page 8: Settings in The Kite Runner

AFGHANISTAN

The Alley:Becomes a personal Metaphor.

I smiled. “bas you donkey. No-one’s sending you away…Do you want to go climb our tree…There was an old abandoned cemetery atop the hill with rows of unmarked headstones…There was a pomegranate tree near the entrance...(p24)

Hazarajat: The same day my father put Homaira and her family on a lorry and sent them off to Hazarajat.

We snaked our way among the merchants and the beggars wandered through the narrow alleys (p23)

We sat at a picnic table on the banks of the lake. The water was deep blue and sunlight glittered on its looking glass-clear surface. (p12)

I sat against one of the housr’s clay walls. The kinship I felt suddenly for the old land...it surprised me…I planted a fistful of money under the matress.

There were hedges that, in the summer, the gardener shaped like animals…could hear..the music the laughter. It shouldn’t have felt this way. Baba and I were finally friends.

Afghanistan – “Returning to Kabul was like returning to an old, forgotten friend and seeing life hadn’t been good to him.

Page 9: Settings in The Kite Runner

PAKISTAN AND ISRAEL

All stories have settings. These may be real or fictional places, however, they all represent something.

“America was different. America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past.

Islamabad:The architecture was more elegant too, more modern and I saw parks where roses and jasmine bloomed in the shadows of trees.

We listened to the call to prayer watched the building’s hundreds of lights come on as daylight faded.

I see Him here in the eyes of the people in this corridor of desperation. This is the real house of God….

Page 10: Settings in The Kite Runner

AFGHANISTANAfghanistan‘What is Afghanistan’ to Amir? How does he reflect on Afghanistan when he first moves to America? What changes in his perception of Afghanistan when he visits it again towards the end of the novel?

Page 11: Settings in The Kite Runner

RUSSIAThe end, the official end, would come first in April 1978 with the communist coup d'état, and then in December 1979, when Russian tanks would roll into the very same streets where Hassan and I played, bringing the death of the Afghanistan I knew and marking the start of a still ongoing era of bloodletting. (5.5)

I overheard him telling Baba how he and his brother knew the Russian and Afghan soldiers who worked the checkpoints, how they had set up a "mutually profitable" arrangement. This was no dream. As if on cue, a MiG suddenly screamed past overhead. Karim tossed his cigarette and produced a handgun from his waist. Pointing it to the sky and making shooting gestures, he spat and cursed at the MiG.

The trek between Kabul and Jalalabad, a bone-jarring ride down a teetering pass snaking through the rocks, had become a relic now, a relic of two wars. Twenty years earlier, I had seen some of the first war with my own eyes. Grim reminders of it were strewn along the road: burned carcasses of old Soviet tanks, overturned military trucks gone to rust, a crushed Russian jeep that had plunged over the mountainside. The second war, I had watched on my TV screen. And now I was seeing it through Farid's eyes. (20.2)

Ask him where his shame is.

Page 12: Settings in The Kite Runner

AMERICA

I overheard him telling Baba how he and his brother knew the Russian and Afghan soldiers who worked the checkpoints, how they had set up a "mutually profitable" arrangement. This was no dream. As if on cue, a MiG suddenly screamed past overhead. Karim tossed his cigarette and produced a handgun from his waist. Pointing it to the sky and making shooting gestures, he spat and cursed at the MiG.

"In Afghanistan, owning anything American, especially if it wasn't seconhand, was a sign of wealth." (69)

San Francisco: the place I now called home.

"Baba dropped the stack of food stamps on her desk. "Thank you, but I don't want," Baba said. "I work always. In Afghanistan, I work, in America I work."" (1

For me, America was a place to bury my memories.For Baba, a place to mourn his.

The fruit was never sweet enough, the water never clean enough, and where were all the

trees and open fields?

Page 13: Settings in The Kite Runner

AMERICA AND IDENTITY

• America offers both a chance to form a new identity – teaching, writing etc. America as a place of freedom

• In contrast, General Taheri and Baba lose the identity they had in Afghanistan.

• They want to keep the traditional culture alive. The Afghan market, the General’s dislike of a ‘hazara boy’ in the house etc

Page 14: Settings in The Kite Runner

AMERICA

America“For me America was a place to bury my memories, for Baba a place to mourn his”

In what way do Amir and Baba view America differently?How does moving to America alter their relationship?

Page 15: Settings in The Kite Runner

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN

• Formally in Afghanistan/India.• Became part of India with the British rule.• Eventually this part of India became Pakistan.

• The front line for refugees/terrorist training.• Shifting borders/identity

Page 16: Settings in The Kite Runner

CLOSE ANALYSIS

• Choose an extract from the novel and analyse the use of setting/place

• Possible extracts

• P4, 5, 24, 104, 109, 182, 190, 213, 228

• If you have chosen an extract in an earlier chapter of Afghanistan, compare it to later chapters.

• Who describes the setting? Is it symbolic? Linked to a particular character? Description? Imagery? Mood?

Page 17: Settings in The Kite Runner
Page 18: Settings in The Kite Runner