Narration of Chpt 7
Write about the ways Hosseini tells the story in Chapter 7.
The narrative in this chapter opens with Hassan’s dream, in which we see a positive and negative omen. In the dream, Amir and Hassan are celebrated as heroes which is a positive forecast for the upcoming competition; however, the monster “swimming at the bottom (of the lake), waiting” foreshadows the monstrous event that is about to happen. The dream juxtaposes the nightmare Amir will watch and Hassan will experience later on in the chapter, there are many examples of juxtaposition in this chapter. The beauty of the day is tarnished with the ugly incident, winning the competition is contrasted with losing his friend, the sun shining on the snow-white day clashes with the darkness of the alley, which means the author here is also using pathetic fallacy to further increase the contrast; all the juxtaposition makes the event more dark and disturbing.
When Hassan is sharing his dream with Amir, Amir is abrupt towards him and interrupts his story, he “almost apologised, then didn’t. Hassan understood”, this is an indicator of the society and culture they lived in, where Pashtun superiority was the accepted norm and Hazaras were considered to be an inferior race. Hassan knows his place as the servant. Later on in the chapter Hassan becomes the “sacrificial lamb”, Amir says “I ran because I was a coward” but then tries to convince himself Hassan is the price he has to pay for Baba’s love. Amir’s dismissal of the situation is unusual as he is typically more open minded about Hassan’s race, but in this situation he thinks to himself “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?”, this shows how deep racism runs in the culture. However it is worth noting Amir’s thoughts are intertwined with his now adult perspective as he is telling the story in retrospect after he has lived with the constant guilt of this event; this is an example of postmodernism as the narrative is fragmented and there is meaning created in the
The narrative in this chapter opens with Hassan’s dream, in which we see a positive and negative omen. In the dream, Amir and Hassan are celebrated as heroes which is a positive forecast for the upcoming competition; however, the monster “swimming at the bottom (of the lake), waiting” foreshadows the monstrous event that is about to happen. The dream juxtaposes the nightmare Amir will watch and Hassan will experience later on in the chapter, there are many examples of juxtaposition in this chapter. The beauty of the day is tarnished with the ugly incident, winning the competition is contrasted with losing his friend, the sun shining on the snow-white day clashes with the darkness of the alley, which means the author here is also using pathetic fallacy to further increase the contrast; all the juxtaposition makes the event more dark and disturbing.
When Hassan is sharing his dream with Amir, Amir is abrupt towards him and interrupts his story, he “almost apologised, then didn’t. Hassan understood”, this is an indicator of the society and culture they lived in, where Pashtun superiority was the accepted norm and Hazaras were considered to be an inferior race. Hassan knows his place as the servant. Later on in the chapter Hassan becomes the “sacrificial lamb”, Amir says “I ran because I was a coward” but then tries to convince himself Hassan is the price he has to pay for Baba’s love. Amir’s dismissal of the situation is unusual as he is typically more open minded about Hassan’s race, but in this situation he thinks to himself “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?”, this shows how deep racism runs in the culture. However it is worth noting Amir’s thoughts are intertwined with his now adult perspective as he is telling the story in retrospect after he has lived with the constant guilt of this event; this is an example of postmodernism as the narrative is fragmented and there is meaning created in the