Explain the way in which Hosseini portrays Soraya. Consider language choices and narrative viewpoint

When Soraya is first introduced, she is passing a cup of tea to her father however Hosseini describes her beauty for elegance very poetically, likening her to '[...] a princess from old Persia.' Hosseini uses similes such as 'eyebrows that touched in the middle like the arched wings of a flying bird' to describe her grace. Flight is also used as a metaphor for her looking away.

Hosseini describes every subsequent day following Amir's meeting with Soraya as 'yelda' (the longest night of the year) to convey Amir's longing for Soraya. He portrays her as 'the morning sun to my yelda'. He refers to her as his 'Swap Meet Princess' several times as they met in the flea markets where Amir was working.

Hosseini uses a combination of English and Afghan words which he doesn't necessarily explain, but in the syntax of the rest of the sentence, the reader can work out what he means, for example 'no decent and mohtaram Afghan girl[...]'.

From the time Soraya is introduced the reader Hosseini hints there has been something in her past which has dissuaded potential suitors, 'a whisper here, an insinuation there, and they fled like startled birds' (here again we see the imagery of birds, which is a common motif throughout the book.)

Soraya is described as a kind, demure and gentle person. She smiles and is friendly, despite the risk to her reputation. Hosseini describes her as often looking away or under her eyelashes and with quick, stolen glances. ('Looked shyly', 'her face reddened with a blush', 'her eyes downcast', '[...] a blush, red like henna, bloomed [...]')

The first touch between Soraya and Amir is when Baba is found to be dying and Soraya is consoling Amir. Hosseini uses short sentences to convey the significance of the event and the effect on Amir, for example, 'She put her hand on mine. Our first touch. I took it. Brought it to my face. My eyes. I let it go.'

Hosseini portrays Soraya as a contrasting character to Amir in the way that she handles her guilt. She's honest and wants no secrets to be between herself and Amir. She describes her guilt at her mother's stroke which is a result of her behaviour. This is the opposite of Amir: he cannot express his guilt, he did not feel it at the time of Hassan's rape and only felt revulsion for Hassan. It is Amir's guilt over his past which prevents him from judging Soraya over hers. ('How could I, of all people, chastise someone for their past?')

Soraya is also a selfless character. She suggests they move in with Baba so that she can nurse him. She was attentive to his needs and looked after him as her own father, even turning him regularly to prevent bed sores. She also knew what Amir was thinking without words. She knew how to console him after Baba died ('Soraya pulled me to her and the tears finally came.')

Only when discussing her father does Soraya become angry. He wants her to become a lawyer but she is determined to teach. She points out his double standards; '[...] it's a whole lot better than collecting welfare [...]' referring to his not working, as the jobs are beneath him, however he still takes state hand-outs. This demonstrates her toughness underneath, resilience and determination.

Soraya is deeply wounded by the discovery that she is infertile, but is ambivalent about the prospect of adoption. As with the confession of her past to Amir, following a discussion she announces, 'I don't want to talk about this anymore.' thus drawing a line under the discussion. In fact Hosseini's narrative implies Amir is more affected long term about the 'emptiness in Soraya's womb' rather than Soraya. 

Chapter 8

In this chapter, we get a sense of Amir feeling guilty for not helping Hassan as he was being attacked. Hassan retreats to his bed and when Ali asks Amir if anything has happened to Hassan, Amir suggests that he is just ill. 

Baba and Amir go on a trip to Jalalabad for the weekend. Amir gets car sick in the journey resulting in him causing his father embarrassment. After Amir returns, Hassan tries to patch up their relationship, but Amir rejects him. Amir's treatment of Hassan becomes more cruel and his 'mean streak' becomes more evident. 

Assef attends Amir's birthday party and gives him a biography of Adolf Hitler as a present. At the pary, Rahim Khan tells Amir a story about a girl he wanted to marry as an example of how Amir should not let Hassan being a Hazara be a barrier to their friendship. He gives Amir a notebook in which he can write his stories. 

After the rape, Amir tries to pretend that nothing ever happened. He denies know anything to people like Ali, and avoids seeing Hassan. He convinces Baba to take him away from the house without Hassan, literally distancing himself from his problems. Amir also asks his father to get rid of the servant, this being another example of Amir trying to gain actual distance from his problems. The car sickness and insomnia are other ways in which Amir feels he is seen as weak to Baba. Because Amir refuses to express himself, he is being tortured by his own thoughts. 

When Amir tells his father that Hassan is unwell, Baba look worried. Amir says he 'couldn't help hating the way his brow furrowed with worry.' This demonstrates once again Amir's jealousy over Baba's feelings for Hassan. However later on, it's revealed that Baba is Hassan's father, therefore this expression of worry makes sense to us. 

Amir's use of the word hate can be seen to be associated with his father as well as Hassan as he despises his desire to please Baba. 

When Amir realises he was the monster in Hassan's dream, there is a self-pitying and melodramatic tone to it as he tells us 'he'd been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake... I was that monster.' 

We begin to see how Amir sees his illness and guilt as punishment for not having helped Hassan, just as he sees his relationship with his father as his punishment for 'killing' his mother.

Assef and his family being at Amir's birthday party causes the occasion to be overshadowed. The character of Hitler is once again raised when Assef gives Amir the book. By giving the book about Hitler to Amir, a symbolic link is made between Assef's bullying and Amir's refusal to help. The final scenario at the party is of Assef bullying Hassan and Amir being unable to bring himself to help, reinforcing this idea. 

At his birthday party, Amir nearly tells Rahim Khan about witnessing the attack on Hassan, but he stops himself. He wonders what Rahim Khan would think of him, concluding 'he'd hate me, and rightfully.' This shows Amir has a fear of other people's reactions and this is what prevents him from telling them what he saw. It also tells us that Amir thinks Rahim Khan's opinion of him is as important as Baba's opinion. However, as readers we can presume that Rahim Khan would not have the reaction Amir fears. This tells us that the hate Amir fears so much comes from within himself rather than from others. 

Amir's and Hassan's return to the pomegranate tree is significant as now Amir has brought his feelings of guilt and regret with him so it's no longer a place they can both go to get away from the world. As a parallel act of the eating dirt scene, Amir begins to throw pomegranates at Hassan, trying to provoke a response from him. Pomegranates used to be a symbol of their bond because they used to share the fruit under the tree, so this attack with the fruit symbolises the breaking of the bond between them. Hassan reacts by picking up a pomegranate and crushing it on his head, showing his acceptance and refusal to let Amir release his guilt by fighting back. It also reinforces the fact that Hassan is a gentle person throughout but is also still a servant and of a lower status than Amir.

Chapter 7

This chapter is key as it provides an event on which the rest of the story hangs. The rape of Hassan is an event which Amir foreshadows in the previous chapters and one he will refer back to in the rest of the novel. It is the central point around which the narrative revolves.
The beginning of the chapter Hassan talks to Amir about his dream. In it he and Amir are seen as heroes. This would seem to be a positive omen for the forthcoming kite-fighting tournament. It also shows the reader Hassan's love for Amir and his willingness to stick by his side. However, the image of the monster 'swimming at the bottom, waiting' could reflect how Amir feels about Hassan, and how he is afraid Hassan has a monster, somewhere below his friendly surface, and he wishes Amir would banish that side of his personality, just as he banishes the monster int he dream.
Amir then says, 'Upstairs, I could hear the water running in Baba's bathroom.' This image of water could reflect Hassan's dream. The 'running water' could also represent the fact that the future is in motion and cannot be stopped.
The words Amir uses to describe Kabul, such as 'blameless blue' and 'blinding white' could reflect how Hassan feels about the even which will occur, suggesting he is blameless for it, and white being a symbol of innocence and you cannot hide anything on white as everything shows up.
Amid adds in 'The immensely popular Ahmad Zahir had revolutionised Afghan music and outraged the purists by adding electric guitars, drums, and horns to the traditional tabla and harmonium' indicating a clash or conflict between western Afghanistan and purist Afghanistan. It emphasises the fact that Afghanistan is moving onto western ways.
Before the kite fight, Amir describes Hassan saying 'Sunlight washed over his face, and, in it, I saw how well the pink scar above his lip had healed.' The image of light reflects Hassan's angelic and innocent character, and the fact that his scar has healed indicates that he is about to be scarred again and he is defenceless.
When Hassan says, 'It's a beautiful day,' this contrasts with the events which are about to occur. There is also juxtaposition of the tournament, where Hassan's rape means that the act of winning is immeadiately contrasted with the act of losing. When Amir decides not to speak up either whilst the attack occurs or after, it tells the reader that he is choosing his father's praise over his friendship with Hassan, thus betraying him.
When Amir is about to win the tournament against the blue kite, he describes how 'the blue kite knew it was in trouble. It was trying desperately to maneuver out of the jam, but I didn't let go.' This could be a metaphor for Hassan and how he acts when he is being attacked. It also personifies the blue kite, as it says it 'knew it was in trouble' however an inanimate object wouldn't think for itself.
When Amir says 'We won! We won!' it shows him sharing the victory with Hassan which is quite unexpected for the reader as we know Amir as a selfish child who is jealous of Hassan.
When Hassan tells Amir 'I'm going to run that blue kite for you,' it's almost as if Hassan is meeting with his fate, as the blue kite is like a metaphor for Hassan.
After Hassan leaves, Amir states, 'The next time I saw him smile unbashedly like that was twenty-six years later, in a faded Polaroid photograph.' This is assuring us something bad is going to happen soon, and tells us the scale of the event, as it stopped Hassan smiling genuinly for the rest of his life. It also indicates that this could be the beginning of the end of Hassan and Amir's relationship.

Chapter 6

Hassan and Amir are both kite-fighters and in the winter, when the schools close, all the children take part in a kite-fighting tournament. When Amir asks for a new kite, Baba buys him one and also buys Hassan the smae one, no matter how big or expensive which causes Amir to grown more jealous. When a kite's string gets cut, kite-runners run after it to catch it and claim it as a prize. Hassan is a gifted kite-runner.
Amir tests Hassan's loyalty when he asks if Hassan would eat dirt if he asked him to. Hassan then challenges Amir's integrity by replying, 'Would you ever ask me to do such a thing, Amir agha?'
The kite-fighting tournament of 1975 is to be held in Amir's district, which makes Amir want to win more because he wants to make his father proud of him. The night before the tournament Amir and Hassan play cards but Amir suspects Hassan is letting him win, showing Amir's lack of confidence in himself, but also Hassan's loyalty to Amir and respect for Amir's feelings.
Kite-fighting is one of the only sports that we know of that both Amir and Hassan enjoy allowing both of them to excel at it. It brings the two of them together more so than the other activities they do as they both have equal roles, Amir as the fighter and Hassan as the runner. It also helps Amir feel closer to Hassan than he sometimes feels. It is also an activity which his father approves of and therefore provides Amir with a way of securing his father's love. He describes kites as 'the one paper-thin slice of intersection' between his and his fathers interests and ways of living.
Kite flying is shown as a symbol of freedom and independence. The idea of one kite against many is portrayed as typical of Afghan attitudes towards life. As well as this, Amir admits that the galss on the string cuts his finger but he doesn't mind, whereas in other activities he avoids getting hurt, which tells us he is willing to risk getting hurt for the things he believes in.
Amir's description of wintertime in Kabul reinforces this feeling of freedom suggested by the kites. He uses poetic imagery to paint a picture of Kabul from his childhood, 'The sky is seamless and blue, the snow so white my eyes burn.' He also describes, 'the soft patting of snow against my window at night' and 'the way fresh snow crunched under my black rubber boots.' By using this language he is able to convey his love for his home city and the beauty it can achieve in a cold winter.
The conversation Amir and Hassan have about Hassan eating dirt is another indicator of the widening gap Amir feels between himself and Hassan. It shows us Amir feels uneasy about placing himself in a superior position to other people and doesn't quite know how to handle this level of power and its responsibilities. Hassan's response shows that he has a better understanding of the balance of power between them than Amir does. This is reinforced when Hassan allows Amir to win at cards.

Chapter 5

In this chapter, Amir and Hassan's conversation is interrupted by a loud roaring noise and the sound of gunfire. This is the coup as they overthrow the king of Afghanistan.
Amir and Hassan retreat to their tree as they try to distract themselves from the events. On the way, they run into the three bullies, Assef, Wali and Kamal, who question Amir about having a Hazara friend. Hassan then scares the bullies off with his slingshot, but Assef promises revenge.
As life returns to normal after the coup, Baba arranges for Hassan's birthday to have his cleft-lip fixed. Amir then foreshadows events by informing us that 'that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling.'
At the beginning of the chapter the loud noises are a sign that Amir's life is changing along with the rest of Kabul. It could be seen as the true start of Amir's story with chapters 1-4 introducing characters and setting the scene. In this chapter, Amir's older and more mature self fades into the background of the narration and it continues in a somewhat childlike tone of Amir's younger self.
This is also the chapter in which Afghanistan changes from the traditional country Amir has talked about to the modern war-torn country which we as readers are more familiar with. Amir comments as the gunfire and explosions sound outside their house. 'They were foreign sounds to us then [...] Huddled together in the dining room [...] none of us had any notion that a way of life had ended.' The sounds of the coup are the start of a process which leads to three decades of war.
The behavior of Assef and his gang begins to change Amir's relationship with Hassan. The bullies represent the first real outside threat to Amir's previously comfortable life. Assef introduces himself followed by calling Amir a 'fag'. This creates a feeling of sexula threat which always accompanies Assef's role in the novel and foreshadows events to come.
The fact that Amir allows Hassan to stand up for him reinforces the idea that Amir lacks self-confidence and the traditional 'macho' characteristics. It also widens the growing gap in Amir and Hassan's relationship with Amir's thought, 'He's not my friend! [...] He's my servant!' showing the reader how he would willingly sacrifice his friendship for his own good.
Assef's admiration of Adolf Hitler gives us extra information about how the ruling of Pashtun class might view the Hazara people as the Nazi's views the Jewish people. It also is an insight to the extreme character of this bully who Amir refers to as a 'sociopath'. He is representative of the violent and uncaring and self-destructive country which Afghanistan is becoming at this time. The connotations of this reference enable the author to get across a lot of contextual information in just a few words.
Baba displays his love for Hassan by repairing his cleft lip which causes a strong jealous response from Amir. It's symbolic of healing but is eclipsed by Amir stating that Hassan's smile will be one of his last. This statement foreshadows future events and gives the reader a clue to the fact that the story is about to take a dark turn.

Chapter 4

In this chapter, we learn that Ali was an orphan brought up by Baba's father. The two men grew up together like Amir and Hassan, but Amir never hears Baba refer to him as a friend.
As they grew up, Hassan acted as Amir's servent. Despite this, they spent most of their time together, with Amir reading stories to Hassan who was illiterate. Their favourite story was 'Rostam and Sohrab'. Amir reads a story he wrote to Hassan and Hassan encourages Amir to write more.
Baba refuses to read Amir's story, but Rahim Khan reads it and praises Amir for his talent. When Hassan points out a possible hole in the plot (about the onions), Amir gets angry at him.
As Amir tells the story of Ali being his fathers servant, he draws a comparison with his own relationship with Hassan. He provides an explanation of the difference between himself and his father and Ali and Hassan basing it on their different religons. The division between their religions, Amir and Baba being Sunni Muslims, and Hassan and Ali being Shi'a Muslims, makes it hard for them to be true friends.
The films that Amir and Hassan go to see at the cinema are mostly Western movies, which is the first mention of Western culture in young Amir's life and connects us with the older Amir telling us his story from the USA. The motif of Western movies also reflects on Amir's story, with the clear factors such as good guys and bad guys and justice winning out. The actors in the films such as John Wayne can be seen as similar to Baba in Amir's eyes as he looks up to them and sees them both as larger than life figures.
We are given descriptions of Kabul which describes many smells, colours and noises of the city. These not only create a vivid setting for Amir's story and allow the reader to picture it, they also provide a comparison for the reader when we hear about the changed Kabul later in the novel. These settings can be used to reflect mood, plot and character or act as a metaphor themselves within the text.
When Amir reads to Hassan, it could seem an act of compassion and reminicient of his mother being a teacher, however Amir never actually teaches Hassan to read, retaining his power over the servant. He uses this power to tease Hassan and cruely teaches him the wrong meanings to words, for example when Hassan asks what 'imbecile' means, Amir replies 'Imbecile. It means smart, intelligent.'
Amir reads to Hassan in a cemetry under a pomegranate tree. The cemetry represents a place of death, but also, because it's disuses, represents a place beyond both death and life. It can be seen as a hideout, or a place the rest of the world cannot reach them. The pomegranate tree could be symbolic of life and also the sweetness of the bond between Amir and Hassan as they share the fruit before Amir reads to Hassan. The tree and the cemetry are both symbols which return throughout the novel.
Stories are a central motif in the novel. Most of the novel is Amir telling us a story, rather than a third-party narrator. Within this story, we see Amir reading Hassan stories. First he just reads them out, then he begins to ammend them, and before long he is writing his own stories. This shows the reader that there is a bond between Amir and his dead mother due to the fact that she was a teacher of literature. It alos gives him a chance to express his thoughts which otherwise wouldn't have been expressed. In his first storyhe tells a tale that Rahim Khan descibes as 'ironic' but has also a sad and disturbing ending. This provides Hassan with an outlet for his own emotions and a mirror by which the reader can examine them. In response to Amir's story, Hassan finds a plot hole, showing Hassan's ability to see complex things clearly, highlighting Amir's muddled and emotional thinking. Amir's 'mean-streak' shows itself again as he asks himself, 'What does he know, that illiterate Hazara? He'll never be anything but a cook.'