Final answer:
Khaled Hosseini compares tanks to dead animals to evoke the destructive aftermath of war and to symbolize the desolation and lifelessness left in its wake.
Step-by-step explanation:
Khaled Hosseini uses the comparison of tanks to dead animals to highlight the destructive aftermath of war and its impact on the lands and people affected. This metaphor serves to underscore the lifelessness and desolation that military machinery can leave behind, much like the carcasses of large animals might litter a battlefield after a fierce struggle. By referencing the tanks in such a manner, Hosseini evokes a strong image of a landscape ravaged by conflict, with the tanks – now silent and immobile – serving as grim reminders of the violence and the loss of life. The tanks, like dead animals, are not only physical obstacles but also symbols of the unbearable experiences and memories that continue to haunt survivors.
The descriptions provided in the references reflect the visceral impact of war. From the savagery of warfare that leaves a landscape pock-marked with the remains of its instruments (as in the Korean war), to the introduction of biological warfare that annihilates populations (as seen in the Iran-Iraq War and during the siege tactics involving catapulting plague-ridden corpses), the metaphor of tanks as dead animals communicates a sense of life violently taken and a natural order profoundly disrupted.