How Does Hosseini Tell the Story in Part 22 of the Kite Runner

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How does Hosseini tell the story in Chapter 22 of the novel? In Chapter 22, all the strands that we have been following through the course of the novel come together in one violent climax. The waste ground confrontation between Assef, Amir and Hassan, which led to the rape of Hassan and Amir’s betrayal of his friend, reaches its moment of catharsis here. Here Amir finally begins “to be good again”; here, in his loyalty to Sohrab, he redeems himself and can once more face the memory of his childhood friend. If “The Kite Runner” is a bildungsroman, then Chapter 22 gives us the most brutal part of Amir’s education. There are elements here, too, of the thriller, as the villain is finally confronted and the protagonist is in mortal danger. Through voices which surprise us, through an outburst of violence and through the tightly structured use of echoes and parallels, Hosseini tells the story in Chapter 22 in a way that leaves the reader both shaken and relieved. Voices 1: retrospective narrator: * Honest about his own fear: encourages readers to fear for him too * Distraction technique (“I had to preoccupy myself with something”): allows him to observe table (needed for plot) and eat grape (leading to knowing authorial comment: warns reader of violence to come) * “you’re gutless” – internal monologue shows turmoil still within Amir 2: the Talib: * His account of the massacre: use of moral/religious language: “free of guilt and remorse” – “virtuous, good and decent” – underlines perverted moral code and contrasts with Amir * “Whatever happened to old Babalu?” – on to the Talib’s voice is layered Assef’s – shock to Amir (“My legs went cold. Numb”) parallels the shock to the reader – use of familiar insult from the past enables recognition 3. Sohrab: - “Bas” – “No more, Agha. Please” – Echoes of Hassan’s similar, courteous intervention to save
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