Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Reading Schedule
Pages 1-58 due March 5
Pages 59-142 due March 12
Pages 143-223 due March 19
Pages 224-310 due March 26
Pages 311-371 due April 9
Kite Runner Reading Journals
 Journal entries may be hand-written in blue or black ink or typed. I prefer that
they be typed because it will make them easier to read.
 Journals are due on the dates listed in the above reading schedule. I might
begin the class discussion by asking you to read a particular journal entry.
 You are required to have a minimum of 4 journal entries for each week’s reading
assignment. Each entry should be approximately ½ page in length. Therefore,
your weekly page total will be between 2-3 pages.
 Make sure to include the page number after the quoted text.
 See the next page for detailed instructions and an example.
Use this format for all your journal entries:
Text: Record the text from Kite Runner in this space. Do not use the ellipsis mark before or after the quote, and I would
prefer that you not use it in the middle of the quote either. If the quote is important enough to comment on, then quote it all.
Don’t forget to include the page number after the quote.
Critical, Analytical Response
Personal Response
In this space you are to analyze Hosseini’s use of language and narrative
In this space write your personal response.
techniques that you noted. Choose one of the following topics for you
Tell how the quote or events surrounding this
journal. Be sure to use all the different types throughout our study of KR.
quote make you feel. Use the pronoun “I” here.
Figurative Language: Examine the passage carefully for similes,
You may make connections to your life, to
metaphors, exaggeration, understatement, personification, allusion, irony,
other works of literature that you have read,
apostrophe, and symbols. Consider how each word or group of words
songs, etc.
suggests a pattern and/or points to an abstraction (e.g., time, space, love,
soul, death).
Syntax: Examine the syntax and the arrangement of words in the
sentences. Does the syntax call attention to itself? Are the sentences simple
or complex? Long or short? What is the rhythm of the sentences? Are there
interesting suspensions, inversions, parallels, oppositions, repetitions?
Consider the use of punctuation.
Tone : What is the tone of the passage? How does it elucidate the entire
passage? Is the tone ironic? Sentimental? Serious? Humorous? Ironic?
What is the speaker’s (as distinct from the narrator’s and author’s) attitude
towards his or her subject and hearers? How is this reflected in the tone?
What does the passage reveal about the speaker?
Imagery: What sort of imagery is invoked? How do the images relate to
those in the rest of the text? How do the images work in the particular
passage and throughout the text? What happens to the imagery over the
course of the passage? Does the passage noticeably lack imagery? If so,
why?
Diction: How does the diction contribute to the overall tone? Consider
connotations. Look up as many words as you can in a good dictionary,
even if you think that you know the meaning of the word. The dictionary will
illuminate new connotations and new denotations of a word. Look at all the
meanings of the key words. Do dictionary meanings establish any new
dynamic associations with other words?
Point of View: What is the point of view? What is gained and/or lost by this
choice? If First Person: Who is the narrator? What is the relationship
between the narrator and the speaker? Is there more than one speaker?
What are the key characteristics of the speaker of narrator?
Style. Look for patterns, polarities, and problems. Explain the effect of any
unusual organizational or rhetorical strategies in the work—multiple
narrators; pacing elements; unusual punctuation or use of italics; chapter
divisions; syntax, like repetition of words and phrases or rhetorical
questions. Consider a notable literary technique in the text. Is there irony,
satire, symbolism, allusions, etc.? What is the impact of the technique on
the overall work? Are there any predominant motifs?
Characterization. How is the personality of a specific character established
within a specific passage or stanza? Consider the use of dialogue, foils,
and/or actions. What insight does this passage now give into specific
characters as they develop through the work? Look for a pattern of
metaphoric language to give added insight into their motives and feelings
which are not verbalized. Discuss how some of the characters or situations
fit into the typical archetypal categories.
Themes: Relate all of these details to possible themes that are both
explicitly and implicitly evoked by the passage. Attempt to relate these
themes to others appearing outside the immediate passage. These other
themes may be from the larger story from which the passage is excerpted;
or from other tales; or from knowledge about the narrator; or from the work
as a whole. Setting is often a pivotal factor in the development of theme.
Example from Toni Morrison’s Beloved:
Text: Paul D smiled then, remembering the bedding dress. Sethe was thirteen when she came to Sweet
Home and already iron-eyed. She was a timely present for Mrs. Garner who had lost Baby Suggs to her
husband’s high principles. The five Sweet Home men looked at the new girl and decided to let her be.
They were young and so sick with the absence of women they had taken to calves. Yet they let the ironeyed girl be, so she could choose in spite of the fact that each one would have beaten the others to mush
to have her. It took her a year to choose—a long, tough year of thrashing on pallets eaten up with dreams
of her. A year of yearning, when rape seemed the solitary gift of life. The restraint they had exercised
possible only because they were Sweet Home men—the ones Mr. Garner bragged about while other
farmers shook their heads in warning at the phrase.
“Y’all got boys,” he told them. “Young boys, old boys, picky boys, stroppin boys. Now at Sweet Home,
my niggers is men every one of em. Bought em thataway, raised em thataway. Men every one.” (page
10)
Critical, Analytical Response
Personal Response:
This passage uses flashback as Paul D and Sethe I find this passage very intriguing. I know this is a
reminisce about life back on Sweet Home. Paul D slave narrative—and to write about these men as
recalls in his mind and the narrator tells us his
slaves is to be expected. But the way Morrison
thoughts when Sethe came to live at Sweet Home. suggests that they were more than the stereotypical
This use of third person omniscient point of view is slave is interesting how she does that. I am not sure
important for the reader to understand what
what is going on—Mr. Garner seems to take pride in
happens—not only from Paul D’s perspective but
his slaves. I know some white slaveholders valued
from Sethe’s as well. If we only knew Sethe’s
their slaves, but Mr. Garner seems quite different. I
thoughts, we would not understand the impact she am surprised that Morrison, an African-American
had when she came to live at Sweet Home. The
writer, would make Mr. Garner a decent human being
juxtaposition of these two ideas—the way the
who likes his slaves. If this book is going to be an
slaves at Sweet Home act and their desires—is an indictment of slavery and slaveholders, then I am a
interesting manipulation of language by Morrison.
bit confused here. I really picked up on the word
It would be easy to see these slaves as “non“restraint” in this paragraph. Joseph Conrad admired
human” since she says that they have sex with the the “restraint” of the Africans in Heart of Darkness so
calves in the absence of women, but the inclusion much. Morrison appears to admire this quality in
of the detail that they practiced “restraint” with
these characters as well. I think “restraint” is such an
Sethe shows that they were men—real men. If
important word for the 21st century where excess
they had “raped” her, which would be expected of seems to be the norm—not restraint. I love the way
slaves who used calves for sexual pleasure, then
Morrison teases us with details and facts about what
Morrison would validate the myth that slaves were happened at Sweet Home. I know the name Sweet
not real men. But to practice “restraint” for one
Home must be ironic—I mean it was a place of
year—indicates that these Sweet Home men were enslavement for Baby Suggs and her children, but it
exactly what Mr. Garner bragged about to other
seems so nice and pleasant—almost “sweet,” yet the
slave owners—his slaves were real men. The
slaves were not free—so how “sweet”? I think
way Morrison juxtaposes the words “men” and
Morrison teases us to want to know more than the
“niggers” is also interesting in what she is doing
typical salve narrative here—we want to know the
and the life she creates at Sweet Home.
precise details about this place. What made it good,
yet what made it a terrible place also. I am intrigued
by Baby Suggs’ husband’s “high principles”—can a
slave have “high principles”—and yet I know as soon
as I say that—of course he can! I feel at the mercy
of Morrison’s manipulation of language—and for
some reason I like it.