Outside reading blog entry #2

Amir reflects on his relationship with Hassan the son of his father's "childhood playmate" (25) :

Never mind that we taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands, or to build a fully functional homemade camera out of a cardboard box. Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites. Never mind that to me, the face of Afghanistan is that of a boy with a thin-boned frame, a shaved head, and low-set ears, a boy with a Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile.
Never mind any of those things. Because history isn't easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara. I was Sunni and he was Shi'a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.(25)

In the first paragraph of this passage Hosseini uses a nostalgic tone. Hosseini gives an idea of Hassan and Admir's relationship which makes the reader feel a strong almost brotherly connection between the two boys. However each sentence begins with never mind. Hosseini uses repetition to reinforce the idea that the events are in the past and irrelevant. In the second paragraph Hosseini's use of short sentences creates a feeling of separateness. This breaks the feeling of a connection in the first paragraph, emphasizing the distance between the boys because of their different religions and ethnicities. The structure of the passage also makes for a strong impact. The way that Amir reflects on Hassan in the first paragraph shows us that Hassan had a strong influence on Amir which appeals to pathos. After, we are confronted with the idea that this friendship has been broken. This is more powerful to the reader than if the idea of the friendship being broken had been introduced before.

Oprah interview with Khaled Hosseini

OW: After reading this novel I was interested to know how much of the story came from your own life experiences.

KH: Of course some of my inspiration came from my own culture and life growing up in Afghanistan. As many know the story of The Kite Runner is in part based on a particular relationship I had with a Hazzara man as a child.

OW: So when you wrote this novel you really identified with the narrator?

KH: Well that might be in part true, however I chose to do a first person narrative because that technique was well suited to exploring the emotion of the character, Amir, I was creating. I try in my novels to emphasize whats happening emotionally. I don't want the reader to have a rational or analytic response to the conflicts that make up the center of the plot. I am much more interested in making a reader actually affected by the conflicts.

OW: Yeah I noticed that although this novel is powerful, as the reader I am not overwhelmed by the literary stuff.

KH: I prefer using clear and direct sentences when I can because I feel like they are the best way to get readers immersed into a scene as quickly as possible.