Book Review : The Kite Runner .

The Kite Runner is a historical fiction book written by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner tells the story of the narrator or protagonist, Amir. Amir is a boy from a rich family, who grew up with his father, Baba’s servant,  Hassan. Hassan is the son of Amir’s father's Hazara servant, Ali. The story was framed based on Amir and Hassan’s childhood’s friendship. In the beginning of the book,  Amir tells the reader how peaceful Afghanistan was to what happened through the Soviet’s invasion. Also, the mass emigration of refugees to Pakistan and to the United States, including Amir, himself left to the United States. In addition, the rise of the Taliban regime cast long shadows over Amir’s story.

There were many  occurrence in the story that shows Hassan’s loyalty towards Amir. For instance, after the championship of kite fighting, Hassan runs after the kite for Amir. Amir was worried why Hassan still hasn’t come back yet, so he searches for Hassan. When Amir finds Hassan, he sees Hassan holding the kite that he wanted, not only that but he also sees Assef, a neighborhood bully. Assef wants the kite that Hassan was holding too.  In front of Amir’s eyes, Amir witnessed Hassan getting rape, Amir does nothing to help out Hassan but instead he watched , and he just ran away.

Amir explains the reasons why he ran,  

“... The real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb i had to slay to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (page 77)

This demonstrates that although Amir feels guilty for not doing anything to save Hassan, and just ran away, but truly this was what he has to do to earn Baba’s love. To bring back that kite that he cutted down in the kite fighting to show Baba, to make Baba proud, but to sacrifice Hassan. But mainly, this shows Hassan’s loyalty to his friend, Amir. This is because if Hassan gives the kite to Assef then Amir will not earn Baba’s love, at last, Hassan chose to not give the kite to Assef, and ended up getting raped.

There was also a part that was a few weeks after the rape that shows how loyal Hassan is to Amir. This happened when Amir accused Hassan that Hassan stole his watch and his money gotten from his birthday. After Hassan admitted that he did steal it, even though he did not, Amir finally realized that he has done something wrong to Hassan again,

Amir realized what Hassan did for him once again, “ Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me. If he’d said no, Baba would have believed him because we all knew Hassan never lied. If Baba believed him, then I’d be the accused.” (page 105)  
IN ADDITION, Amir also grasped,  “And that led to another understandings: Hassan knew. He knew I’d seen everything in that alley, that I’d stood there and done nothing. He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again...” (page 105)
The occasion when Amir accused Hassan for stealing, it portrays that Hassan will sacrifice anything for Amir, because he is loyal. Hassan would never do something that would hurt Amir, and he knows Amir doesn’t want him to be around him anymore. Because Amir does not want to share his Baba’s love with Hassan. With Hassan being around it disrepairs Amir and his Baba’s relationship, Hassan understands. So Hassan untruthfully claimed that he stole it, for the reason that is he wants Baba to favor Amir more that he is right now.

I would say the moral or the purpose of The Kite Runner is forgiveness, and learning to forgive yourself,  After the instance when Hassan was accused for stealing Amir’s valuables, Hassan decided to leave with his father, Ali to Hazarajat. Soon, after Hassan and his father left, Amir and his Baba left Afghanistan too, because of the war going on. Amir and Baba took flights to America. Years later Amir is still plagued by his guilt about Hassan, and one day he receives a call from an old friend from Afghanistan. Rahim Khan is the one that called him, he called Amir because he wants Amir to come over there to visit him, Rahim Khan is afraid that he would leave any minute soon. From Rahim Khan’s words, Amir finds out that Hassan and his wife were shot and were dead. Amir is given the chance to rescue Hassan's son Sohrab from an orphanage, whom he brings to America and adopts. To give a chance for himself to forgive what he has done to Sohrab’s father, Hassan.

During Amir’s conversation with Rahim Khan, “... ‘I want you to go to Kabul. I want you to bring Sohrab here,’ he said...’ It has never been about money with me, you know that. And why you? I think we both know why it has to be you, don’t we?’ I didn’t want to understand that comment, but I did. I understood it all too well.”     (Page 220-221)
This demonstrates that Rahim Khan knew what happened, he knew that Amir saw Hassan getting rape, and did not to anything to prevent it from happening. Rahim Khan also knows that Amir accused Hassan for stealing. Rahim Khan knew, that is why he is giving Amir a chance to be good again, to do something good for Hassan. Plus in the beginning of the book, Amir tells the reader,
“... Almost as an after-though. There is a way to be good again. I looked up at those twin kites. I thought about Hassan.” (Page 2)
This shows that Amir is given the chance to be good again, that means to save Hassan’s son, Sohrab.

In conclusion, the book starts off with Amir telling the reader his present life. Then it flashes back into the times when he was a child, it flashes back into his childhood. And as the story builds up, he tells the readers what he had done that made him who he is in the ending of the story. The book starts out with him flying kites with his childhood best friend, Hassan. Where Hassan said “For you, a thousand times over,” and where Hassan chases the kite for Amir. Then, the story ends with Amir being in America, and flying a kite with Hassan’s son, Sohrab,  which Amir said to Sohrab, “ For you, a thousand times over.” And where he ran after the kite for Sohrab, just how Hassan did for Amir.

Last Book Response To The Kite Runner .

After I finished the book, I did not like the ending. And also I dislike the last section of this book. I also found out that Amir reflected back a lot on his life with Hassan; the old times. There are two reasons why I don’t like the last section of this book, and the ending of the book.

One reason why I didn’t like the last section of the book was because during the middle or near the end of the book it talked about Assef. I did not like how it talked about Assef, because it brought back many sad memories. And during when Amir was meeting with Assef, they had a fight. A fight to determine who is going to win; if Amir wins he can take Sohrab, if he does not win then that means Assef hurt him so badly that he could of died or injured badly. But luckily, Amir won, it was because of Sohrab. During the most intense moment of the fight, when Amir got really injured and bloody, Sohrab pleased Assef to stop. Assef did not listen so Sohrab used a slingshot and shot into Assef’s eye. This was similar to what happened years back, when Amir and Hassan were at the hills, Assef was going to punch Amir, but Hassan took out his sling shot and positioned it on Assef’s eye. And last Amir escaped Assef’s punch, it was all because of Hassan. And now it was because of Hassan’s son, Sohrab that able him to leave the door, without being dead.

Another reason why I didn’t like the last section was because it was sad. It was sad how  Sohrab did not talk much through out his time with Amir. But finally when their relationships got better, Sohrab started to talk more to Amir. Then, all the sudden Amir confessed to Sohrab that he might need to stay at some places; the orphanage, while trying to get him to come to America. Later, they stopped talking, because Sohrab got upset, and really did not want to go to live in an orphanage. After that, a week or a few weeks after, Amir received a call from Soraya. She told him that Sohrab will be able to come to the U.S. But when Amir was going to tell him the good news,  he found in the tub, and knew that Sohrab  used a blade and cut his wrists, causing him to lose a lot of blood, and to almost die. Sohrab did such thing was because he really did not want to go to the orphanage. Luckily he is still alive, and made it to America.

The ending was boring, though it reflected back on how Hassan was toward Amir, now when Amir and Sohrab are in America, he did the same thing Hassan did to Amir; run after the kite for him. And in the ending, Amir said to Sohrab that he would run it for him.

Response To : Vic's Post .

Okay so this is going to be a response post to Vic’s blog post of his response to Fermin’s post.
And in Vic's response post he talked or responded to Fermin’s post about how this dude died, and how he feels about it. Later in Vic’s blog post, he talked about life and death, how people enter the world and leave.

And here is something that he said in his response post to Fermin’s post :   

“  I would  use to feel that the people who died, did something wrong and had to pay for it... Some very fortunate people die young. However, everyone dies. They can't stay forever, or that would make them feel bored. Dieing is just a way of life just as life being unfair is a contribution to feeling alive. It is a terrifying moment when someone dies. Reminiscing about the past can only bring you down more and more, so that person will always be in one's heart. Letting go and forgetting can only contribute to the more important thing, the future. “

I do agree with what Vic said in his post, I also used to think that people died because they have done something wrong. And now karma is getting them back, but now I think that there are many reasons toward dying. Reasons include accidents, coincidence, suicide and many other reasons. Also I agree with Vic that every one dies eventually after that they have entered the world. And I think the meaning of life is to experience and die.

Death is a part of life; Its part of life that you have to live or deal with, when others around you died and you learn to deal with the emotions of losing the loved ones. In addition it is also the end of life; death is a part when bringing your life to an end. Though it is the end of life, it could be the beginning of something new, maybe like “life after death,” or maybe “reincarnation,” or something else. I believe that our souls continue to live after the physical unit have died.

Response To : The Excitements Of Black Friday .

This is going to be a response blog post to Jessica's post about her excitements for Black Friday.
And here is something that she said on her post :

" This is the time of the year people would go buy presents for each other for Christmas... Black Friday is the day that provide excitements for everyone. Although a numerous of people would stay up all night just to receive things that are on sale, it is worth it. This year I am excited about Black Friday, I am definitely going to GO :D  "

I agree with Jessica, Black Friday is definitely a day to get all the presents for your family or friends for Christmas presents. It is a great deal to get the presents on Black Friday, because Black Friday equals to SALE ! The increased number of shoppers in stores or malls creates the busiest shopping day of the year !

Whether shoppers or consumers are searching in malls or online, Black Friday specials are the ultimate goal. And, on Black Friday malls or stores open up as early as midnight. And plus, who ever gets to the store first will buy the most and the sizes they fit in, because if you do not get there early enough, they will run out of quantities and sizes, colors, and etc. This also applies to shopping online too, if you do not buy the stuff you desire to get, then other people will get it before you. As a result, the item or items that you wish for might run out of stock. Or the color, the size, and etc that you wished it would be would run out of stocks too.

So, either shopping in a mall or store, or online you should hurry up and buy the stuff you want to buy before every one else get it before you. And when going Black Friday shopping, you should bring your friends or family too, because there are limited quantity that you can purchase. And as of this year, I am going to go Black Friday too ! To buy stuff I need, and Christmas presents for families and friends.

Second Section Of The Kite Runner .

In this section of the book, The Kite Runner everything changes. From chapter 11-19 it talked about Amir and Baba’s lives in America, it also talked about how their lives were different compared to the times when they were still in their home country.  Later in the book, Amir tells the reader that he met Soraya, soon later she became his wife. After that Baba died from cancer, and he also talked about how his life had changed for a bit. After all those things happened, he received a call from Rahim Khan,. Rahim Khan asked Amir to pay him a visit before Rahim Khan dies, and so very quickly Amir rode the plane to give Rahim Khan a visit. When Amir finally arrived, Rahim Khan told Amir how life for Hassan had turn out. After hearing what Rahim Khan had said about Hassan, Amir felt sorry and sad for Hassan. This is because Hassan and Hassan’s wife got killed by Taliban, and now Hassan’s son, Sohrab is in an orphanage.

Another reason why Hassan and Hassan’s wife got killed was because they were protecting Amir and Baba’s house taken away from the Taliban, so as a result they were killed.  So suddenly Amir realized after all those years, Hassan is still loyal and respectful. Hassan’s respectfulness was evidenced on page 208 when Rahim Khan was talking to Amir, “When we got to Kabul, I discovered that Hassan had not intention of moving into the house...’No one is going to live in them’ I said. But he would not. He said it was the matter of ihitram, a matter of respect.”  This demonstrates that Hassan is respectful, though no one is going to live in those rooms, Hassan still did not want to live in them and be disrespectful to Amir and his Baba.

Amir also found out that Hassan is his half brother. All those years Hassan was mistaken for Ali’s son.  Ali wanted a son so badly, so Baba gifted him Hassan. Amir suddenly realizes why Baba was acting the way he did towards Hassan, it was all because Hassan is Baba’s son.

On page 221, when Rahim Khan asked Hassan to find Sohrab, it shows how selfish Amir is but it also portrays his caring side. He is considered selfish because he doesn’t want to risk his life to find Sohrab. But in the same time, he is also caring, he doesn’t want to die too soon because he has a wife, and a family in America. He doesn’t want to leave them behind. Amir hesistated about going, and at last he decided he would go find Sohrab.

The 5th Of November

Free Topic. To begin , today's date is November 5th, 2010. In this blog post I will talk about 5th of November.
 

" Guy Fawkes was subsequently tried as a traitor with his co-conspirators for plotting against the government.  Lancelot Andrewes delivered the first of many Gunpowder Plot Sermons. This practice, together with the nursery rhyme, ensured that this crime would never be forgotten! The 'guys' are made by children by filling old clothes with crumpled newspapers to look like a man. "

Here is the rhyme for the 5th of November : 

"Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot...

 All from this website <----

Okay so today in class we talked about the 5th of November, since today is 11-05-10. And the(UK) people that celebrates the 5th of November they use old clothes and fill them with newspapers, to create a guy ( or man ).  Then they would display their "guy" and ask the people that pass by for a penny for the "guy". They celebrate the 5th of November because they want to warn people not to repeat the crime that Guy Fawkes had done.

Though on their 5th of November they celebrate stuffing old clothes with papers to look like a man, but today, the 5th of November, we are talking about Oscar Grant's death, and Johannes Mehserle. How Johannes Mehserle killed Oscar Grant on Jan. 1, 2010. And Johannes Mehserle only needs to be sentenced for two years in jail for the death of Oscar Grant. 

 " Johannes Mehserle sentencing stuns Oscar Grant supporters, sparks riots in Oakland " -from this website <----

Every one is protesting about how Johannes Mehserle should deserve more than two years in jail, and protestants think that the gun enhancement law should been applied. Since, Mehserle used his gun, and killed Oscar Grant. If it was not for that Mehserle was a police, he would not have sent to jail for two years. If he was not a police the gun enhancement law could of been applied. 
On 5th of November, people in UK celebrate the 5th of November ---> Guy Fawkes Day, while there are helicopters    for security for the protesting for Oscar Grant / Johannes Mehserle. 

Response Post To Sam's Post .

This is a response post to Sam’s blog post. In his blog post he talked about how Amir and Hassan   Here is something that Sam said:

" Amir... 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.  ...Hassan had the courage to stand up to Assef and cause him to stop bullying Amir.  Amir’s lack ... of courage is shown when he witnesses Hassan getting raped. .. 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. "

I agree with Sam. I agree that Amir often envies Hassan, how Hassan deserves the same amount of care from Amir’s Baba. While, Amir is Baba’s son and Hassan is just a servant. Amir doe not think that Hassan should deserve the same amount of love from his Baba. Amir gets jealous easily, and all he wants is  to keep his Baba all by himself only. Amir gets jealous because of Hassan all the time, times when Hassan runs faster than him. Times when his Baba asked Hassan to come along with them to some places. Times when Baba gave an effort on thinking what presents to give for Hassan for his birthday.

In addition, in Sam’s blog post he talked about how Amir is someone that is a coward when standing up to someone. While Hassan is someone that is loyal to his friend. In the book, The Kite Runner, tells the reader that Amir rather ran away when Hassan was getting rape by Assef instead of stepping up to help or save Hassan. Amir is afraid to help Hassan, because he is afraid that he might get hurt by Assef and his friends. At the same time, Hassan is loyal to Amir. When Hassan and Amir were at the hills,  and Assef were about to hurt to Amir. But Hassan stood up for Amir, and pointed a slingshot at Assef. This shows Hassan is a good friend, and a loyal one. 

Amir & Hassan .

The Kite Runner is about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty.  Hassan and Amir grew up together, lived in the same house, were fed from the same breast, and shared many other similarities. Yet, there are differences between them, and those differences created who they are. Amir and Hassan grew up in two different worlds: Amir is the son of a wealthy man, while Hassan is the servant of Amir’s father, and he is a Hazara. Which at that time, a Hazara wasn’t worth to played with,  nor talked to.

There were numerous of time when it portrays Amir’s personalities, being selfish, and envies Hassan.  On page 53 stated Amir is jealous of how fast Hassan could run. Amir narrated, “ I was a year older than him, but Hassan ran faster than I did, and I was falling behind.” This shows that Amir is jealous that Hassan can run faster than him, but he is the one that is older. He thinks he should be the one running faster than him, not Hassan being faster than him. Later on in the story, after Hassan got raped, Amir asked to go to Jalalabad. His father agreed, and told him to ask Hassan to join along. But Amir told his father Hassan wasn’t feeling well. During Amir and his father’s conversation,  “‘That’s all it is, then a cold?’ I couldn’t help hating the way his brow furrowed with worry.” This shows that Amir envies Hassan, because Hassan received worries from Amir’s dad. Amir thinks that it should be only for him, and not to be shared with Hassan.

Hassan, he is someone that his loyal to his friend. And his friend would be Amir. In the book, when him and Amir were on their way to the tree, they saw Assef, and his friends. The moment when Assef was about to hurt Amir, Amir saw “I turned and came face to face with Hassan’s slingshot. Hassan had pulled the wide elastic band all the way back... Pointed directly at Assef’s face.”(43) This demonstrates that Hassan will do anything for Amir, Hassan will hurt Assef if he needs to. And Hassan knows the consequences if he does hurt Assef, and knows Assef will get him back. Hassan is risking himself for Amir. Also on page 105, when Amir accused Hassan that he stole his watch and money. Amir realized that he done something wrong to Hassan again, “ Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me. If he’d said no, Baba would have believed him...Hassan never lied. If Baba believed him, then I’d be the accused.” This explains that Hassan will sacrifice anything for Amir, because he is loyal. He would never do something that would hurt him, and he knows Amir doesn’t want him to be around anymore. Because this ruins Amir and his father’s relationship, Hassan knows. So he lied that he stole it, because he wants Amir to be happy with his father.