Conclusion for the Kite Runner

After reading the "Kite Runner", I have decided that it was one of the best, most enjoyable books I have ever read.

The book itself was definitely one of the most interesting books I've read.  I think this is mainly because of the content it pertained to which was the Middle East.  This is the first book that I have ever read about the Middle East.  That was one of the main reasons I chose the book and it did not let me down.  It was very interesting to read about how different but also similar the Middle Eastern society was to our society nowadays.  The people of the Middle East might be interested in different sports than we are, but it was obvious that sports were still a huge part of their society, just like ours.  The main difference in societies that I thought was interesting was the family life.  In our society it is really no big deal if a child is an adopted child; we view it as a child is a child.  However, with the Afghanistan family ways, adoption is not common at all.  This is shown on page 360 when the General is worried about the "community's perception" of their family now that their daughter and son in law have adopted a child.

One of the main themes throughout the novel was Amir's maturation.  I have mentioned this in previous blogs, but like many other books, the protagonist matures throughout the novel.  Amir goes from being a spoiled little brat who only cares about himself to a man who actually sincerely cares for other's lives.  This is shown when he never gives up at trying to get Sohrab to talk or even show some expression when they are living in San Francisco.  Like many other books that end happily, the main character grows into a better person, and that is exactly what Amir does in the "Kite Runner".

End of the Kite Runner

The ending was predictable and yet it wasn't.

Once Amir realized that he had to go find Sohrab and bring him to safety, I instantly thought that Amir would end up having to to adopt him.  I didn't know know if it would be because Amir would become attached to him or for some other reason, I just had a gut instinct that it would happen.  However, I did not predict that Amir would have to go through one more struggle of getting Sohrab to interact with him again.  I thought Sohrab's silence was a lot like Hassan's silence after his fight with Assef.  They were both sparked by Amir not being a great person to them.  The author main a lot of the similarities between Hassan and Sohrab noticeable which I thought was interesting.  I am thankful that the author did not end the book with Amir and Sohrab safely making it to the U.S. and returning to life easily because that would have been a very predictable way to end.  I am glad he added in that struggle of introducing Sohrab to the American culture.  I enjoy when author's catch reader's by surprise.

I thought at the end of the novel Amir had finally fully matured.  The last hurdle he needed to get over was making promises he couldn't keep.  On page 310, Amir says to Sohrab that he is very sorry on going back on his promise to not send him to an orphanage and that it "will never happen again".  Amir realizes that he made one of the biggest mistakes that he could have made towards Sohrab.  At this point in the novel Amir feels responsible for Hassan's death and he wants to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen with Sohrab.  He shows that he is being responsible and trying to care for him which shows he is maturing.  A final way that Amir shows he has matured is he realizes the turmoil his father was going through back in Afghanistan so he finally understands why he felt his father under-appreciated him, but he wants to be the best father he can to Sohrab, even if Sohrab doesn't want to be there.  I think that is the final symbol that Amir has fully matured.

The Kite Runner Pg. 200-260

This book is not only extremely interesting and intriguing, it is beginning to get very exciting and making me sit on the edge of my seat while I read it.

This book has started an extremely exciting adventure where Amir is going on a journey to rescue Hassan's son from Kabul, Afghanistan.  During this time in the book, the Taliban have taken control of Kabul so it is very dangerous and Rahim Khan asks Amir to retrieve Sohrab from Kabul and take him to safety in Pakistan.  The whole trip is just extremely adventurous and exciting and keeps you sitting on the edge of your seat.

In this section of the reading, a lot of aspects and details of the book start to come together and make sense.  All of these connections are honestly leaving me in awe of how cleverly Hosseini has written this book to make these connections possible.  The first connection occurs when Rahim Khan says that "Ali was sterile" on page 195.  This is his way of telling Amir that Baba was the true father of Hassan so Hassan and Amir were actually half brothers.  This explains why Baba showed so much affection towards Hassan and why he was so sad when he and Ali left to find other work.  The second connection that occurs in this section is when Amir goes back to Kabul and meets up with one of the head leaders of the Taliban to try to retrieve Sahrab and realizes that that leader is Assef.  By doing this Hosseini keeps Assef as one of the bad people in the story and it just amazed me at how he did that.

Finally, like many other books, this one is about the maturation of the protagonist.  When Amir initially does not want to go retrieve Sohrab it shows how immature he was.  However, then he realizes it would be the right thing to do, so he decides he will do it and that shows that he really has matured.  That part of the novel really shows how much Amir truly has matured in his lifetime.

"The Kite Runner" Page 100-200

The Kite Runner can be read and enjoyed by a vast audience of different types of readers.  It is definitely a book that shouldn't be read by kids that aren't in high school yet, but I think anybody older than that would appreciate this work.  

This novel should be considered an AP level book because it can be made into one.  You are able to read this book just for the plot and to be pulled in to a book, but you can also read this book and analyze it.  Once you start analyzing the book then it becomes AP worthy.  One aspect of the novel that can be analyzed is the style in which Hosseini writes. I stated this in the previous blog post but Hosseini writes in a modernist writing style, where the chapters are broken up into many different scenes so the reader does not lose interest.  This helps those readers that just read for the plot enjoy the book more, as it does the AP students that read the book, but once the AP students realize that the author has done this then they have begun to read this book at an AP level.

Another way this book can be analyzed and seen as an AP level book is by analyzing the characters.  Some of the characters in this novel are complex.  For example, in the beginning hundred pages of the book it can be analyzed that Baba and Rahim Khan are foils.  Baba is very macho and does not like Amir very much when he is a boy, while Rahim Khan is more sensitive and appreciates Amir's writing abilities, and even gets him a notebook to write in.  AP students would pick up on this because foils are something they have learned about, and by doing so this book gets lofted up to AP quality.  Also, the characterization of Amir can be analyzed in this novel by seeing how he grows up and matures.  As a boy he does not like Baba because he feels as if he has disappointed him.  However, as he becomes an adult he starts to appreciate Baba more and more, and this is especially seen as Baba is in his last days of life.  This shows that Amir matures as the book goes on and this is one of the aspects of the novel AP students would see and by doing this the author has made the book AP worthy.

In conclusion, this novel can be read as an AP book and as a non-AP book.  It just depends on how much analyzing you do. 

First 100 Pages of "The Kite Runner"

So it's official, I despise Amir.

Throughout this entire section of the book my hatred for the protagonist of the novel, Amir, has grown.  It first began when Amir states that he doesn't consider him and Hassan friends.  He only sees Hassan as a servant who's job is to always be there for him.  This is kind of like how Milkman viewed his mother while he was a child in Song of Solomon.  Then my hatred grew immensely after reading the part in the novel where Amir watches Hassan get raped by Assef and doesn't attempt to break it up or even go get help.  He just watches and then runs away.  Then lastly, Amir plants money and his watch that he received as gifts at his birthday party in Hassan's bed and frames him for stealing those items!  Amir does this to try to get Baba to fire Ali and Hassan, but Baba forgives Hassan.  However, Hassan must have explained to his father, Ali, what was going on with Amir, because Ali decides that he and Hassan need to leave.  Amir was so selfish that he made Ali have to give up his job to protect his son.

I've noticed that there is a pattern with all of these cowardly acts that Amir does to Hassan.  They all involve Amir being unsure of himself.  When Amir says that he doesn't view Hassan as his friend, he says that because he is higher up in the social structure than Hassan, so he is unsure about whether it would hurt his reputation to have a friend that is in a lower social class than himself.  When Amir watches Hassan get raped by Assef he does not get involved because he is unsure if Assef will spread around the news that Amir stood up for a Hazara, because that would hurt his reputation.  Finally, Amir frames Hassan with the money and the watch because after the raping incident, whenever Amir sees Hassan he feels really bad and becomes unsure with himself as a person.  These three cowardly acts Amir does to Hassan are examples of Amir being unsure of himself and because of that he is also selfish.

On a different note, there is one significant aspect of Hosseini's style of writing that needs to be addressed.  In each chapter of the book, Hosseini breaks up the scenes very often.  Each scene usually only lasts for two pages at most.  This follows the pattern of a more modernist way of writing.  If you look at older books, like Edgar Allen Poe books for example, you'll see that the chapter are much longer and they stay on the same scene for the most part.  However, with books that were written in the last fifty or sixty years you'll notice the chapters are broken up into more scenes, just like in The Kite Runner.  I think the reason Hosseini writes like this is to keep the readers interest by having many scenes.  This method is definitely working on me because I am very intrigued in the book and can't seem to put it down when I start reading.

"The Kite Runner" pages 1-25

The reason I chose the book, "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, was mainly because I had heard from multiple people that it was an outstanding read.  Throughout my high school career I have mainly only read books for school that take place either more than twenty years into the past or more than twenty years into the future; they never seem to take place in the current time period.  This book, however, does take place in the first decade of the twenty-first century, so that is another reason why I chose to read this book as my free-choice assignment.  It also covers a topic that I myself am not too educated on, and that is the social structure of countries in the Middle East, with Afghanistan in particular in this novel.  It is a topic that I believe all Americans should become educated on seeing as most Americans have the narrow mindset that everything in the Middle East is bad.

In the first twenty-five pages of this book, there already seem to be a few similarities and differences between the Afghanistan society and our American society.  One major difference are the social classes.  In this novel, the two main characters are Amir and Hassan.  Amir is the son to one of the most successful businessmen in Kabul.  He comes across as spoiled and doesn't really realize all the opportunities that he is offered by being wealthy.  Hassan is the son of Amir's father's servant, so he is in a much lower social class than Amir.  Hassan is a hard worker just like his father, Ali.  Amir and Hassan seem to hang out everyday after Amir comes home from school (Hassan is not allowed to go to school or know how to read or write).  However, Amir says, "I never thought of Hassan and me as friends" (22).  Even though Amir and Hassan spend time together every single day, and they live on the same property (Amir in his father's mansion and Hassan in the mud hut Ali is given by Amir's father), the social classes are so divided that Amir can't even view Hassan as a friend.  This is much more dramatic than what it is like in America.

Another reason for this great social divide in the novel is because of the religions.  In the novel, Amir is Sunni and Hassan is Shi'a and in Afghanistan Sunnis are regarded much higher than Shi'as are.  This is another difference from America because there are so many religions in America so we as a country are generally much more accepting.

A similarity between the Afghanistan society and the American society is that while in school, playing sports is definitely the most accepted activity to do.  In the novel Amir is very bad at soccer and really into poetry, which is portrayed as a bad thing.  This is shown on page 17 where it states, "real men don't write poetry" (17).  I feel like at least at Hopkinton High School, this is also portrayed as true.  If you are not into sports you are not looked at as fondly as those who are very good at sports.  This trend also continues out throughout the country, as it does in Afghanistan.  In the novel, Amir's father, Baba, is very disappointed that his son is interested in poetry and not soccer, and while I believe the U.S. as a culture is more accepting of male artists, sports are still viewed as the overall standard that boys should be a part of while in high school.