Kite Runner Response #3

            In the last section of The Kite Runner everything happens.  Amir meets Sohrab, he adopts Sohrab, and most importantly, Amir is able to let go of his very troubled childhood.  The first thing that he is able to use to get over his cowardly ness is payback.  This comes when Assef fights him and basically destroys Amir’s face.  After fighting Assef, Amir is also left with a scar going up his upper lip.  This symbolizes the pain and suffering of Hassan, and how now it is brought where it belongs, upon Amir.  Amir knows that he was always the weak one, and as a result of this feels that he should be in Hassan’s shoes taking everything Hassan was forced to go through. 

            In this last part of the story, we get our first real look at the Taliban.  They came with Afghans under the impression that they would rebuild the country to be a safer, better place.  This is not what happened at all.  The Taliban massacred Hazaras, and destroyed the lives of many innocent Afghan children like Sohrab.  All the things the Taliban did were justified by them by saying it was all done in the name of god.  This is simply how it is justified; they really did it because they were power hungry, psycho, pedophiles that simply wanted to see others suffer.  I said in another post that the reason people want to harm others is they think that the ones they harm are responsible for their suffering or their countries problems.  People choose to blame these things on others because they don’t wish for the fault to be theirs. This is why the Taliban came to power.  They were strong because they had the support of many people who didn’t want to accept a partial responsibility for the state of Afghanistan.

            On a different note, Amir is finally able to move on with his life in the end.  He does everything he needs to make up for his sins, even if he does these in a way that doesn’t necessarily make things better.  Because of a simple mistake Amir made, Sohrab almost killed himself.  In the end Amir saved Sohrab life, which in a way makes up for the mistake, but Sohrab is still scared with the horrors of an Afghan child, and unlike Amir, can’t be happy.

What is "Q"

Week two Kite Runner Post

            In the Second third of The Kite Runner, Amir and his father Baba move to America because the Russians invaded Afghanistan and it became to dangerous to live there.  In America Amir is able to adjust quickly and happily, while it kills Baba.  Baba has lived in Afghanistan his whole life, and has a deep connection with its people and culture not to mention the wealth he had there.  For Baba leaving Afghanistan is the worst thing that could possibly happen, he leaves behind almost everything he loves and must live a completely different lifestyle halfway around the world.  This is also what caused Baba to become more attached to Amir in America.  Amir was all Baba had.  In America Baba made an effort to go to the flea market because of all the memories it brought back to him, it was a place to meet with people who were facing the same problems that he was.  The reason that Baba loved Amir's decision to marry Suraya is that she came from a wealthy Afghan family.  The fact that she was from Afghanistan caused Baba to feel like Amir marrying her would cause them to be more connected to their roots in Afghanistan. What caused Baba to die was that he didn’t want to use American treatment to cure him, if he were in Afghanistan, then he would have gotten the treatment right away.

            Amir, unlike Baba adjusted to America quickly and happily.  Amir only had bad memories in Afghanistan.  It was part of his life that he wanted to end, and escaping in the American lifestyle was a perfect way to do this.  He went to college, married, and got a successful job as a writer, and took on the American way of life with ease.  The main difference between him and Baba is their connections with Afghanistan.  Amir’s was negative, but Baba’s was positive.  All Baba wanted was to go back to Afghanistan where he belonged, and all Amir wanted to do was get as far away as possible from his roots and the haunting memories they brought him.

Stuff

One day Timmy the turtle was swimming in the ocean when he was eaten by a shark.  The shark said "I am going to eat you", Timmy said "no, please don't".  After that the shark ate Timmy.  

Freddy the Frog was hopping by the pond and say a tiger drinking the pond water.  Freddy said "Don't drink the water, I go pee pee in there."  Then the tiger died.

Carl the cow was grazing in his field when he was taken into a building.  In the building a farmer killed him and turned him into a hamburger.  The hamburger was then eaten by Carl's parents who later died because Carl tasted so bad.

Peggy the Polar Bear was sleeping on a block of drifting ice.  The ice began to melt and Peggy fell into  the watter and drowned.  While she was drowning, she said "Oh no I'm drowning,"  Then she died and was eaten by wolves.

Emmanuel the elephant was walking through Africa when he got thirsty, then died of dehydration.  Later that evening Emmanuel was eaten by crocodiles.

Sam the squirrel met Christian the Chameleon one day.  They became friends right away, but their friendship came to an abrupt end when Sam strangled Cristian with Cristian's own tong.  Cristian said "Ow your strangling me,"  Sam said "I know."  Then Cristian died.

Kenny the Kangaroo was hoping through Australia when he tripped on a rock and broke his leg.  Not being able to move Kenny yelled "I'm injured help me, but please don't eat me!"  After he yelled this a bunch of spiders came and ate him.

Brady the Bird was flying through the sky and saw a plane coming at him.  He tried to change direction but he wasn't fast enough so he was sucked into the planes engine.  As he was going into the engine he said "o no I am going to die."  Then he died.

The End

Response to Jesse's Post

I am doing a response to Jesse’s post on Kite Runner.

In Jesse’s post, he explains that the reason Amir acted so negatively towards Hassan after he was raped was that Amir felt very bad for not doing anything while it was going on, and felt like he himself didn’t deserve Hassan.  This is shown in Jesse’s writing when he writes

            “Hassan had always stuck up for Amir and helped him whenever he needed it most, and during             Hassan's greatest moment of need, Amir ran and pretended that he never saw what happened.             Even when Amir saves him from any more harm from Assef, he still is haunted by his decision to             run instead of trying to protect Hassan. He knows that he could never do anything to be able to             forgive himself for what he did, even if Hassen did.”

Although this is a very well evidenced explanation, I have a different opinion on the tension between the two ex friends.  The reason Amir didn’t interact with Hassan after he was raped was that he was Jealous of Hassan.  Throughout the whole story Baba makes an effort to make sure that whenever he and Amir can have a moment alone Hassan is there or has been invited.  This leads Amir to believe that Baba loves the child of their servant as much, or possibly even more then his own child.  Also when Amir and Hassan were approached by Assef on the hill, Hassan had the courage to stand up to Assef and cause him to stop bullying Amir.  Amirs lack of this kind of courage is shown when he witnesses Hassan getting raped.  Although no one knows that Amir is watching the brutal act, he still chooses not to get help because he is a coward.    After, that is when Amir can’t talk to Hassan because he is angry at him for being stronger.  This situation gets even worse when Hassan is able to heal from the incident even faster then Amir.  They were no longer able to be friends because they were simply different.  They had different personalities, different strengths, different weaknesses, and very importantly, different religions.

Kite Runner

After reading the first third of kite runner, I now have an idea of what the story is about.  Khaled Hosseini wrote the story to give readers an idea of peoples view on equality.  Equality is a huge part of novel as it is a huge part of the world.  There are three different charactors in The Kite Runner that dispkay different views on it.  Baba believes that no matter who you are or where you come from you are the same as everyone else.  Amir believes that you can associate with or be friends with anyone, but how people view you is more important than the special bonds you form with others.  Finally Assef, the evil child who worships Hitler has an oppinion that all of humanity must be divided into groups that reflect your personal beliefs and race.

            Baba lived a very similar life to Amir, in the fact that both of them had a friendship with someone who society doesn’t accept.  The only differencem is that Baba didn’t see what the world thought of his friendship and Amir did.  Baba didn’t have any reason to think that his friendship was wrong so he kept the belef that everyone can get along and is equal throught his whole life.  Amir on the other hand was judged by his peers on his bond with Hassan.  Because of this he only played with Hassan when he was by himself, and evenlooked down on him on certain occasions.  Amir’s self conciouness was the thing that ended up ruining his friendship with Hassan.

            Assef is the complete opposite of Baba.  He hates thoughs who are different from him.  This is reflected by his praise of the Adolf Hitler.  Assef tries whenever possible to put others down.  Assef can be compared to Hitler, exept on a much smaller scale.  They both blame all the problems on others.  For example Assef blames the problems in Afganistan on Hazaras, especially Hassan.  Hitler responds to this by murdering six million Jews.  While