How Does Hosseini portray the events of Chapter Seven Successfully and Effectively?
Fist of all, the readers senses are already heightened because the winter of 1975 has finally arrived, we know something hugely significant is going to happen very soon. We also know how important today is to Amir, because kite flying is the one thing he has in common with his father, the only chance he has to make Baba proud. All this makes for a tense chapter.
Hosseini relieves us of the tension, briefly, when Amir wins the tournament, “And that right there was the single greatest moment of my life.” We are so pleased for him and so have no idea what is coming next, Hosseini makes us think that the worst is over. But then we hear the dreaded words “For you a thousand times over” we remember this from the beginning and realise that the worst is yet to come. These words are so full of foreboding, and are repeated throughout the novel at the most significant points. “Then the old warrior would walk to the young one, embrace him, acknowledge his worthiness. Vindication. Salvation. Redemption. And then? Well… Happily ever after, of course. What else?” This is a metaphor for Amir and Baba and how Amir thinks he is finally going to earn his fathers love, he thinks this is the end of his quest for redemption, his happily ever after. How wrong he was. Hosseini even manages to bring in more irony; it was Baba’s own actions, his own guilt at the mistakes he had made that caused Amir to act in such a way that would lead him to spend the rest of his life searching for redemption. Just like his father. The “what else?” shows how childish Amir still is, it is a classic ‘what could possibly go wrong?’ situation, and so the reader is waiting for it to happen.
“The thought of getting my hands on that kite…” here we see Amir’s raw determination, we realise he will do anything to get his kite, which is worrying given that we know something terrible is about to happen. “I crept up close to...