Preview

Scene Constructions on The Kite Runner

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
439 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Scene Constructions on The Kite Runner
How to Define Scene Construction in Viewing Texts

Text: The Kite Runner

Example One

1. In the orphanage scene, medium shots are used as symbolic representations of child abuse. The boys’ facial expressions in some cases eyes looking down, imply that the boys are performing out of necessity rather than choice.

2. Dialogue between the owner of the orphanage and Amir confirm that Taliban men abuse both genders.

3. Boys are abused for sexual gratification purposes.

4. Girls are abused sexually and physically through execusion. This idea is developed through dialogue between Amir and the orphanage owner and later through the stoning scene where Taliban men celebrate the punishment, through execution of a young girl. Props such as the pink shroud, stones and costumes worn my Taliban men manipulate the audience to reject Islamic fundamentalism. 5. The characters actions and reactions in the stoning scene imply that stoning is the most abusive form of abuse and punishment.

• The above scenes are constructed through long shots, medium shots, close-ups, dialogue, costuming and symbolic representations.

• Young boys dancing for Taliban men are representative of the pervasive nature of Taliban ideology, perceived and/or presented by a western producer to entertain and inform a western audience.

Example Two

• Long shots of a soccer match highlight the repressive state of women in Taliban controlled societies.

• It is half time and the male characters are looking for bloodshed as a means of extra entertainment.

• Through a wide angled shot we see a utility with a character in the vehicle’s tray.

• Positioning of the character is symbolic as it suggests that Afghanistan has a different value system in terms of safety.

• As the film unfolds /develops we learn that the character is a young girl. This is also symbolic as the producer creates the possible connotation that the life of a girl is less important.


You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    “Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Even before the Taliban came to power, Afghanistan had high maternal and child mortality rates and a very low literacy rate for women. But women participated economically, socially and politically in the life of their societies. Women helped to draft the 1964 Constitution. In the 1970s, there were at least three women legislators in the Parliament. Up to the early 1990s, women were teachers, government workers and medical doctors. They worked as professors, lawyers, judges, journalists, writers and poets.”…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Afghanistan is a country full of war and depression, a place where no child should grow up in. Oppression and restriction are displayed when Mahtab explains what she is experiencing during her long trip on the painful truck. ‘She rubbed her freezing hands together and pressed them into her mouth, sucking the life back into them…all she could taste was diesel and dust.’ Also the personification is presented with Mahtab desires (‘Mahtab wanted to…yell as if her heart and lungs would burst. But her throat was a closed and choking trapdoor.’) Mahtabs pain and needs demonstrates how her childhood is presented in the novel and the challenges she will have to face. In one passage in the novel, Mahtab’s father was to leave his family and to give a major role to Mahtab, which is responsibility; to help her mother while father is…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Failure to conform to such laws results in consequences which habitually comprise corporal abuse. Regardless of these corollaries, Mariam and Laila still stand behind their beliefs. Since women were discriminated against in Afghanistan and not given many rights, Mariam and Laila face many restrictions and confines within their society. “You will not laugh in public. If you do, you will be beaten.” (Pg.278) Women are not permitted to articulate their emotions in public, showing the chastisement and absurd nature of the government. Although the government implements rigorous laws, Laila contravenes them despite consequences exhibiting strength and determination. “And so Laila’s life suddenly revolved around ways to see Aziza. If she was lucky she was given a tongue lashing, a single kick in the rear, or a shove in the back. Other times, she was met with assortments or wooden clubs, fresh tree branches, short whips, slaps, or open fists.” (Ch.42) Laila goes on journeys to see Aziza and gets beaten by means of the stringent laws implemented by the government. Nevertheless, she is indomitable to see her daughter by any means necessary. This shows how she epitomizes assiduousness and…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story, the Taliban are trying to take control of Afghanistan. They do not let anybody get in their way. The taliban go around “ slaughtering men like goats, slitting them open and leaving their blood to soak into the ground” (staples, 12). Clearly, many people live in fear of these blood thirsty human beings. Also, the taliban “ lock the people of entire villages in their homes” but not only that, they “burn them to the ground” (staples, 12). The taliban just cares to torture people, they do not care the cost, who gets hurt or anything else. The taliban affects how people live their everyday lives, such as going to school, making money or working, and even daily events such as when there was a bombing at the Bazaar. Also they have very strict rules that seem extreme to people who live in the west and have different freedoms. Some of the rules include how long your beard is and clothing. At one point in the book Asma has an incident with a member of the taliban when she had very little skin showing, “your in violation of dress code, the man said to Asma” (staples,96). These rules take away the rights of many innocent people in the book. Many other rules are in place like “playing music, laughing out loud, keeping a bird to hear its song in the morning, putting pictures of beautiful scenes on the wall, reading books, flying kites” (Staples, 12). These rules are much…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel The Kite Runner, the author, Khaled Hosseini, uses syntax to show the emotion that the main character is feeling. During portions of the novel, the author uses short sentences, often with incorrect grammar, to show that Amir is feeling anguished and upset. For instance, when he has just been called by Rahim Khan, he thinks “I thought about Hassan. Thought about Baba. Ali. Kabul.” (Hosseini 2). He has not talked to him for a very long time, and has been trying to forget all of this information, but now he is being forced to relive all of these memories about his childhood. By putting a period between each word, the paragraph is less smooth, making it slower to read. This makes the reader think more deeply about what Amir is thinking,…

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    the kite runner notes

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Amir’s complex relationship with his father is a significant factor in his life. Baba, Amir’s father, does not understand his son, he complains to his best friend and business partner Rahim Khan about his confusion with Amir. “He’s always buried in those books or shuffling around the house like he’s lost in some dream…I wasn’t like that” Baba cannot understand why Amir does not have the same interests as he does. When Amir over heard this conversation between Baba and Rahim, it was like “Baba sounded frustrated, almost angry”. Baba is disappointed that Amir is not a replica of him; he wants a son to take over the business and keep his name intact, which is why Baba does not try to make a bond with his own son. “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son”. Baba is very distant from Amir because he feels that there is no real connection between himself and Amir. Amir’s Childhood was very tough on him because he was brought up without a mother, and blames himself for her death, as she died giving birth to him. Amir also lacks a proper relationship with his father in his early years. Amir makes it clear that he longs to become like Baba and for him and Baba to have that special bond and connection that fathers and sons are meant to have. Baba is an honourable man at heart; he is just unable to understand his son’s interests and neglects him because of it. Amir’s relationship with Baba is very hard on him and makes him feel like he needs to prove something to Baba, which is one thing he has always tried to do his whole life.…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book Under the Persimmon Tree the author Suzanne Fisher Staples shows how cruel the Taliban can be. With the murdering, stealing, and ruining lives, Najmah’s life is ruined by the Taliban when they take her father and brother. “‘To repay us for having helped our enemy, you must come and fight with the Taliban.’” (Page 17). Because the Taliban has taken most of her family, Najmah’s…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Taliban regime took control of Kabul and implemented their interpretation of Islamic laws in the year 1996. The arrival of the Taliban marked a timeline completely different known to the women in Afghanistan. Paul Watson wrote an article in the L.A. Times about a doctor who experienced and witnessed the many medical mishaps due to the Taliban laws. Watson stated, “The Taliban were so obsessed with hiding women from men’s eyes that even a male surgeon could not see his dying patient’s exposed flesh” (Watson1). This statement describes how the women couldn’t be seen by the men, even if it was a doctor trying to save his female patient. In public the women had to wear a burka that covered their body from head to toe. Exposure of their bodies would lead to the women getting beaten, stoned, and raped by the Taliban. These actions were very much extreme for the women in Afghanistan to live by. They were not just supposed to wear a burka,…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    cinematography framing, extra long shot, long shot, medium long shot, medium shot, medium close up, close up, extreme close up…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Essay on My Forbidden Face

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Latifa. My Forbidden Face : Growing up under the Taliban - A Young Woman 's Story. New York: Hyperion P, 2003.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The opening paragraph of Khaled Hosseini’s novel "The Kite Runner" immediately expresses one of the central themes, guilt. Amir, the main character, is continuously antagonized by guilt. While on the surface, Amir seems to be a lighthearted child of a rich and popular father, he harbors the guiltiness of his sins deep within his heart. These guilts come back to haunt him throughout his whole life, resurfacing as vivid recollections in which he re-experiences his sins. While he tries to suppress his past and overlook these tragic moments, he feels remorse is persuaded him to take action. His father, who he fondly calls Baba, likewise harbors the guilt of his sins. To Amir, as well as to the rest of the world, Baba is seen as a strong and authoritative man, strong willed in both actions and heart. Yet under these fallacies lies a guilt that is so strong that all of his actions are based upon it. Both Amir and Baba are driven by these feelings of guilt, and every action they take and every decision they make is an attempt to reach redemption. Baba expresses his explanation behind that all sins are a variation of theft. “If you kill someone, you steal a man’s right to life and his family’s right to a father…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over the years, women’s rights have lessened in the Muslim society after the Taliban took over. For example, things like laughing, singing, writing, even having an education was all forbidden (Hosseini, 248). A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini, is a prime example of this, telling the lives of two women, Mariam and Laila and their tragic story of shame, pride and oppression. This story portrays inequality, poor education and child marriage in poorer countries. In A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini, women are portrayed as being abused in their arranged marriages and the passive status of women in the Afghan society to achieve the freedom of their life, as well as others women.…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Becoming a fully developed person does not just have to do with developing physically. One’s majority can only be approved of if there is mental, moral advancing as well. In the book “The Kite Runner”, Khaled Hosseini guides us through the maturing of the narrator, Amir through parallelism. A grownup Amir faces parallel situations to what he had experienced in childhood. These situations are ones that Amir regrets and wishes to forget, due to their destructive consequences. So when Amir encounters their mirroring situations, he counters them in a mature and developed way, with actions he was too young to carry out before. Literary features like irony, action and characterization join with parallelism…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The lifestyle of women is challenging in Afghanistan. Women die in pregnancy and childbirth, and they have no formal education. Afghan girls are engaged or married by age twelve. Some girls are bartered into marriage to repay debt or resolve a dispute. There are approximately three times more boys attending school than girls. If you are not a married woman, you remain irrelevant. Women are constantly being raped and sold into prostitution, and it is not considered a crime. Women are required to wear burqas (black head-to-toe-veils) because they are not allowed to be seen outside the family. In The Kite Runner, a woman was the target for getting stones thrown at her for disobeying the rules. Women have to deal with things like that everyday of their…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women were horribly oppressed under the control of the Taliban. Women were prohibited from working outside their homes, attending school, or appearing in public without a close male relative. They were forced to ride on “women only” busses, couldn’t wear brightly colored clothes, and the windows of their house had to be painted so that people outside could not see them. If they committed a crime the punishment was a public stoning and they were not entitled to petition a court directly. In this oppressive environment, RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) opened schools and hospitals for Afghan women and girls. Then in January of 2002, president Karzai signed the Declaration of Essential Rights of Afghan Women as mentioned before. This gave women equal rights to both education and political participation and the freedoms of movement, speech and dress (they no longer had to wear the burqa). Women were guaranteed a percentage of seats in both the upper and lower legislative houses. Even the first women-managed radio station in Kabul came on air. Sima Wali provided her insight and her opinion on why she feels women’s oppression has been liberated.…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays