Politics and Society (Afghanistan) Flashcards
(51 cards)
CHAPTER 1
‘looking down on San Fransisco, a city I now call home’
-JUXTAPOSITION OF SETTING between America and Afghanistan
CHAPTER 2
‘the sultans of Kabul’
-Readers are told how Amir and Hassan’s nicknames as they played together as children in Afghanistan
-yet to be accustomed to violence and political uncertainty (foreshadowing)
CHAPTER 2
‘the servants home, a modest little mud hut’
-Introduced to Baba’s mansion is stark JUXTAPOSITION with the where Hassan and Ali live
-reinforces the PASHTUN-HAZARA BINARY, and how the creates a societal difference and hierarchy
CHAPTER 2
‘an entire chapter dedicated to Hassan’s people!’
-Amir finding his father’s book about Hazara’s history reinforces CENSORSHIP of the Afghan govt, preventing Pashtun children from learning this
CHAPTER 4
‘History isn’t easy to overcome, neither is religion’
‘I was Pashtun and he was Hazara..nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing’
-ideas of INTRINSIC DIVISION, despite Amir spending ‘most of the first 12 years of [his] life playing with Hassan’ there will never be equality, religion is dividing force
CHAPTER 4
‘pomegranate tree near the entrance of the cemetery’
-a place of significance in Amir and Hassan’s friendship, serving as a place of escape
SYMBOL of nature intertwined with harmony of the children before Afghanistan’s descent into chaos - DEATH OF INNOCENCE, JUXTAPOSITION OF LIFE AND DEATH
-isolated place for Amir to subversively humiliate Hassan forming the master-servant dynamic underpinning the inequality in their friendship
-pomegranate tree having red fruit - SYMBOLISING violence, blood and rage
-POWER OF THE WRITTEN WORD with ‘sultans of Kabul’ etched into the park
CHAPTER 5
‘bloodless coup’
-the king of Afghanistan is overthrown, suggesting the country is moving into a period of instability
CHAPTER 5
‘Ali wrapped his arms around us’
-Ali’s role as a PROTECTOR
-emphasises the sanctity of INNOCENCE and how the turbulent and violent political setting poses threat to this
-Hassan worries that the news of the coup will mean Ali is sent away - POLITICAL → PERSONAL
CHAPTER 5
‘They were foreign sounds then… none of us had any notion that a way of life had ended’
- ALLUSION to the political upheaval to come
CHAPTER 7
‘monster in a lake’
-Hassan’s dream symbolises the hostility of Afghanistan at the time and how if you are different you will live in fear
CHAPTER 7
‘Lucky Hazara’
-POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD, views Hassan as inhumane as a Hazara, and uses this to justify his SAVAGERY
CHAPTER 7
OMAR: ‘your Hazara’
-Omar’s comment reinforces how ethnic differences and PREJUDICE have permeated Afghan society
-Here, Hassan is reduced to merely the name of his ethnicity, not a human being
CHAPTER 8
‘smeared in red like he had been shot by a firing squad’
-SIMILE foreshadows the Taliban’s execution of Hassan and his wife - the pomegranate juice is now a METAPHOR for blood and violence, not a harmonious childhood friendship
CHAPTER 8
“It was Homaira and me against the world. And I tell you this, Amir jan. The world always wins. That’s just the way of things”
-POLITICAL → PERSONAL
-reinforces how societal issues in the MACROCOSM can affect the personal realm
-Amir being exposed to reality which conflicts with childhood innocence and naivety
CHAPTER 8
‘strong, tall, well-dressed, well-mannered boy’
-Assef being ‘blonde’ with ‘blue eyes’ as he is half-german → Assef is also an ‘other’
-Consequences of being different with Assef externalising this insecurity weaponising it in being violent and persecuting others
-claiming to be ‘pure’ marks the difference between Assef and Hassan → Hassan is content with who he is, Assef does anything to hide his identity
-united in JEALOUSY, Assef is quietly jealous of Amir, in the same way Amir is envious of Hassan
CHAPTER 8
‘His eyes betrayed him…revealed a glimpse of the madness hiding behind them’
-Assef villainy and sadistic nature JUXTAPOSING his ‘strong, well mannered’ appearance, reinforces his status as one-dimensional VILLAIN
-gifting Amir ‘Hitler’s Mein Kampf’ shows how Assef serves as representation of FACIST IDEOLOGY → SYMBOL of Assef’s cruelty
-Assef characterised as a MACHIAVELLIAN with monstrous beliefs and the ability to conceal his cruelness
CHAPTER 9
Ali gifting Amir the ‘Shahnameh’
-an epic poem which acts as a religious, historical and cultural tapestry in which different layers of ancient & medieval culture are interwoven
-contains morals and heroic virtues
-translates the ‘the book of kings’
-contains the stories he shared with Hassan → painfully reminding Amir of the equality he once shared with Hassan as the ‘sultans of Kabul’ - Amir didn’t act heroically and save Hassan when he should have
CHAPTER 9
‘I wanted to tell Ali that it was not the book, but I who was unworthy’
-despite their lack of wealth, Ali and Hassan gifting Amir a brand new hand drawn version of the Shahnameh shows kindness and thoughtfulness that Amir cannot stomach
CHAPTER 9
‘the opportunity never presented itself for me to give this to you last night’
-reminds Amir of Ali and Hassan’s lower status as Hazara servants, it would be looked down on them to approach and give a gift to a Pashtun in front of others
CHAPTER 10
‘what was I doing on this road in the middle of the night?’
‘should be in bed, under my blanket’
-shows the transition from childhood to adulthood → chapter 10 takes places 5 years after chapter 9,
-novel shifts to GEOPOLITICS exploring how the personal and political are intrinsically linked
CHAPTER 10
‘I thought of the way we had left the house where I’d lived my entire life, as if we were going out for a bite’
-Baba and Amir are leaving Afghanistan as POLITICAL REFUGEES, unable to take most of their possessions
-sense of IRONY as despite their higher status and wealth, they leave with little like Hassan and Ali did in the previous chapter
CHAPTER 10
‘when he stood, he eclipsed the moonlight’
-Baba courageously stands up to try and prevent the INJUSTICE of a soviet soldier wanting to rape one of the female refugees - themes of EXPLOITATION
-Baba’s HEROISM conflicted with Amirs COWARDICE - ‘Baba, sit down’
CHAPTER 10
‘panic’
-ABSTRACT NOUN reinforces the emotional and psychological toll of escaping Afghanistan
CHAPTER 10
KAMAL’S FATHER: ‘My boy wont breathe!’
-Kamal suffocating to death signifies the death of Amir’s life in the middle east → also a reminder of POWER is precarious, and the VULNERABILITY of children
-his father subsequently committing suicide is an ACT OF LOVE from a father to a son
-MOTIF of father and sons is prevalent throughout → Assef and Amir both experience distance from their fathers
