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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Now Why Did He Do That?: The Author, Not the Character
As you probably noticed, there are many similarities between Kite Runner and Things Fall Apart. Both authors are telling stories that involve fathers and sons, are set in countries/culture seemingly different than our own, and confront cultural conflicts within a culture and between cultures. Of course, in order to tell these stories in an engaging and interesting way, the authors have made some similar "storytelling" choices. What are some of the techniques both authors use to help you as readers better understand what's going on in the story? (Don't be afraid to consider some of the choices we discussed in class with Things Fall Apart.)
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Some of the techniques that the author is using for things fall apart and Kite Runner is they both have told stories and tales to explain the lessons that invovle the people in the story. Like in Things Fall Apart, Mother Kite and her daughter and in Kite Runner, Rastrum and sahrab. They tell stories to make the readers clearly understand the theme and the meaning on writing this book or that section of the book.
ReplyDeleteIn "Things Fall Apart" the author uses myths, proverbs, and some of the native language to help the readers understand what's going on in the story. In the story "Kite Runner" the author uses words from their native language also and uses very figurative language. These things help readers better understand the writing because it gives us a real picture of what happens in that culture and how things are so different and what things are similar in other countries like, the way of living, the way they treat social class, race, religion, and family relationships. For example the way the people treat Hassan and Ali and the way the natives reacted to their townspeople joining the new religion.
ReplyDeleteIn both of the novels "Things Fall Apart" and "Kite Runner," the authors use stories to foreshadow future events. For example, in "Kite Runner," Amir tells about Baba giving Hassan a plastic surgeon to get his cleft lip fixed. After the operation is over Hassan smiles but Amir makes a comment about how in that winter Hassan will stop smiling. The winter Amir hints about, is the winter when Hassan is sodomized by Assef and his two buddies. In "Things Fall Apart," the Ibo tribe told stories of locusts coming in and destroying their crops, this foreshadowed on the Europeans coming into Umuofia and destroying the customs and traditions they grew up on for generations to pass.
ReplyDeleteSome of the techniques both authors use to help readers understand what is going on is forshadowing. The authors also use folktales and myths. Another technique that both authors use in there stories is dialect. The dialect allows readers to understand the type of language they authors use. These techniques better the reader to understand what is going on in the stories.
ReplyDeleteSome techniques both authors use to help the reader better understand what is going on is some cultural expressions, dialect, proverbs. An example of a cultural expression is naan which means bread. Another example of a cultural expression is saratan meaning cancer. Both authors explain the way both these cultures live their lives differently than ours.
ReplyDeleteIn both novels they relate in many ways. One way is through small stories and tales having to deal with the main character. The stories help the audience understand the character better because they can see what the character has ben through, and how they personally deal with certain situations. Also, friends play a big deal in the books to because the friend can show the weaknesses and strengths that the character has. Lastly, culture plays a big role and shows how the characters live their everyday life and gives the reader a visual of how their life may be. Culture is a big part in alot of problems the character encounters through out the book, understanding the culture helps understand the characters atmosphere better.
ReplyDeleteIn both books the authors use different forms foreshadowing. In "Things Fall Apart" Chinua Achebe used different stories and metaphors used by the tribesmen to foreshadow the upcoming danger with the white settlers. In "Kite Runner" an example of foreshadowing was in chapter 7 when Hassan tells Amir about the dream he had that night.
ReplyDeleteWell both book is really boring and i hate them just for the record. But the techniques that both author have in common is that they both start from a background story between the father and son. Then the cultures are similar because they show the different ways of the living. How they express the way of there world is and how the people are very into they culture. The relationships with son and father is that the son wants to make the father proud but not be just like them. That all the character wanna prove something in the book to someone.
ReplyDeleteTo help the readers understand the stories the authors in both books use similar techniques. One of the techniques is the telling of old folk tales. Another technique that they both use is dialect which is writing down the character’s original language in the book. A third technique that the authors used is developing and explaining the relationship between father and son. Those are the techniques that both authors use.
ReplyDeleteSome of the techniques both authors use to help us as readers better understand what's going on in the story are cultural words and expressions (dialect), proverbs, and folk tales. For instance, in Things Fall Apart, the Achebe uses the word obanje, which is a child who dies and then returns to the mothers’ womb again. In Kite Runner, the author uses naan, which means flatbread. An example of proverbs in Things Fall Apart is “if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.” The author also uses folktales to show lessons learned throughout the book. For instance there was a story about turtles and birds and the lesson learned was greed.
ReplyDeleteIn both of these novels, “Things Fall Apart” and “Kite Runner,” the authors use techniques to help the readers better understand what is going on in the story. Both the authors use foreshadowing and dialect in their novels. An example from “Kite Runner” would be at the end of a chapter Amir says “that was the last summer Hassan smiled,” in the next few chapters the readers are soon informed as of why. In “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo is told by many villagers that he will be punished for some decisions he has made, throughout the book he is punished in many ways such as being exiled. Dialect, a language considered as one of a group that have a common ancestor, is also used by both authors. Other techniques used by the other of “Things Fall Apart” are folktales, myths and proverbs.
ReplyDelete