
Thinking of selecting The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) as one of your comparative texts for Leaving Cert English? This free two-page PDF guide tells you everything you need to decide.
The Kite Runner offers arguably the strongest guilt-and-redemption arc on the list, carried by the course’s cleanest guilty first-person voice: a confession that convicts itself on page one. It is a genuine page-turner whose plot pulls even reluctant readers through, and its world comes with the fault lines labelled: caste, honour and forty years of Afghan history, with exile carrying the old values intact to California. The material is heavy in places, and the guide is precise about where.
Inside the guide: an at-a-glance table covering form, setting, narration, length, prescribed-list status and the novel’s strongest modes; a clear synopsis; the themes the novel carries; and an honest “before you teach” note on what needs care in the classroom and where the real teaching risk lies.
The guide then sets out how the novel pairs in every comparison mode at BOTH levels, partner-agnostic so it holds whatever you set it against:
- Higher Level: Cultural Context, Literary Genre, Theme or Issue, and General Vision and Viewpoint.
- Ordinary Level: Hero, Heroine and Villain; Relationships; Social Setting; and Theme.
The companion Student Textbook and Teacher Guide (full exam-ready analysis and complete teaching support) are available separately from The Prescribed Shelf, or together in the Complete Bundle.
Something went wrong, please try again later.
This resource hasn't been reviewed yet
To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have downloaded this resource can review it
Report this resourceto let us know if it violates our terms and conditions.
Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.