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Summary Of NH Senzai's Shooting Kabul

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“Whenever someone is handed lots of power, they have a tendency to abuse it” (Senzai, 12), Habib explains, diving into a concept that we see recurring in our world. Habib is the father of Fadi, the main protagonist of NH Senzai’s novel Shooting Kabul, and he expresses a theme that we see throughout the novel. NH Senzai explores life under Taliban rule and shows how, even though the Taliban planned to create a better country, power ultimately corrupted them. She also incorporates a side plot, studying how easily power can corrupt people by examining how bullies attack others to feel powerful and how being the powerful one feels. Throughout the novel, NH Senzai emphasises – with the use of metaphors, parallelism, and antithesis – how wanting …show more content…

When Fadi’s friends had the opportunity to get revenge on two bullies who had hurt them all, he “joined in,” a feeling of elation intoxicating him. It felt good to be the powerful one - the one who called the shots” (Senzai, 231). The metaphor of “elation intoxicating him” allows the reader to see how intense the emotion he is feeling is - comparing it to an intoxicating substance. Contrarily, it also shows the reader how negative the elation is as intoxicating substances are generally unhealthy, implying how the elation from attacking people feels good but can end up destroying a person. The verb “intoxicate” gives connotations of dangerously animated, augmenting the sentiment that power is hazardous. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence is used to support how power can cause unequal dynamics, as when Fadi wanted to hurt Ike and Felix - the two bullies - his friend told him that he didn’t “want to make enemies of those guys”. He heard that Felix’s parents are big-time lawyers with a huge office in the city” (Senzai,

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