Kite Runner Figurative Language Glossary

Baba was always telling us about the mischief he and Ali used to cause, and Ali would shake his head and say, “But, Agha sahib, tell them who was the architect of the mischief and who the poor laborer?” (25).

Paradox

There was a pomegranate tree near the entrance to the cemetery. […] After school, Hassan and I climbed its branches and snatched its bloodred pomegranates (27-28).

Symbolism

Seconds plodded by, each separated from the next by an eternity (31).

Hyperbole

Air grew heavy, damp, almost solid. I was breathing bricks (31).

Personification

His stainless-steel brass knuckles sparkled in the sun (41).

Symbolism

[A]s the trees froze and the ice sheathed the roads, the chill between Baba and me thawed a little. And the reason for that was the kites (49).

Personification

I never slept the night before the tournament. […] I felt like a soldier trying to sleep in the trenches the night before a major battle (50).

Simile

Baba’s casual little comment had planted a seed in my head: the resolution that I would win that winter’s tournament (56).

Metaphor

Maybe Baba would even read one of my stories. I’d write him a hundred if I thought he’d read one (56).

Hyperbole

“But no one was swimming because they said a monster had come to the lake. It was swimming at the bottom, waiting” (59).

Symbolism

“ How could I be such an open book to him when, half the time, I had no idea what was milling around in his head? […] Hassan couldn’t read a first-grade textbook but he’d read me plenty (61).

Metaphor

At least two dozen kites already hung in the sky, like paper sharks roaming for prey (63).

Simile

The tension in the air was as taut as the glass string I was tugging with my bloody hands (65).

Simile

I opened my eyes, saw the blue kite spinning wildly like a tire come loose from a speeding car (67).

Simile

“For you a thousand times over!” (67).

Hyperbole

The other two guys shifted nervously on their feet, looking from Assef to Hassan, like they’d cornered some kind of wild animal that only Assef could tame (71).

Simile

[T]here were two things amid the garbage that I couldn’t stop looking at: One was the blue kite resting against the wall, close to the cast-iron stove; the other was Hassan’s brown corduroy pants thrown on a heap of eroded bricks (75).

Symbolism

I caught a glimpse of his face. […] It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb (76).

Symbolism

“Where were you? I looked for you,” I said. Speaking those words was like chewing on a rock (78).

Simile

He used to wait for me to sit at the breakfast table before he started ironing — that way, we could talk. […] Now only the folded clothes greeted me (80).

Personification

I understood the nature of my new curse: I was going to get away with it (86).

Paradox

But even when he wasn’t around, he was. […] Everywhere I turned, I saw signs of his loyalty (89).

Personification

Hassan was smeared in red like he’d been shot by a firing squad (93).

Simile

I wanted to tell them all that I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake (105).

Metaphor

Thunderheads rolled in, painted the sky iron gray (108).

Personification