Well, an obvious one is the rape of Hassan. He let's him keep the kite so it will 'always remind you of what i'm about to do'. Assef is not only raping Hassan, but wants to punish him with it for the rest of his life.
Another example is when Assef stones the people to death. He takes relish in it, insighting the crowd by 'turning slowly in a full circle'. It is clear he is a sociopath as he describes the mass murder as, 'the show'.
There is a contrast between what Assef's actually doing, and what he thinks and feels 'inside'. You would expect religious people to be honourable, as would Assef, as he calls massacring Hazara's as 'cleansing' and makes it seem holy by saying 'we only stopped to eat and pray'. However his actions show the opposite of his feelings, killing people is not what religious people should do, they should not sin, and should be honourable and not rape young boys. It is clear Assef's mind is not right as he doesn't understand that almost everything he does is a contradiction to what he says.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Sunday, 21 November 2010
totally just copied..
totally just copied fiona's themes as when I checked out her post.. it was much better than mine and listed the themes perfectly, and I came to the decision that having them on my blog would be good reivision.
- Story telling - not only is the book one story, but there are lots of sub-stories throughout. Amir learns alot in this book through other people, just like the reader
- Redemption - Amir tries to redeem himself for watching Hassan getting raped when he was 10 years old by finding and rescuing Sohrab
- Pride - Baba has great pride in himself, and lacks pride for his son. Hassan also gets shot because he stood up to the Taliban, because he was right and telling the truth about the house
- Friendship - The break of friendship between Amir and Hassan, and the friendship between Rahim and Baba
- Love - Amir reaching out for love from Baba, and the love between Hassan and Amir as children, who turn out to be brothers
- Guilt/shame - The shame of Amir throughout the book
- Violence - The different types of violence throughout the book; emotional, sexual, verbal and physical all happened between Amir and Hassan, which drove them apart
- Hope Fi doesn't have copyrights.
Friday 19th
I enjoyed today because the supply teacher is niceeeee and we got to re-cap basically everything. By that I mean the characters and the main themes, but still. I liked it because I had been concentrating so much on certain chapters or parts of the book, that I hadn't stopped to think about it as a whole for a long time. It was nice looking over all the character's characteristics (lol) and discussing whether we liked them or not and why, (miss thinks Assef is a 'creature' and doesn't really like Amir, if I remember correctly.) Looking forward to more lesson's with miss, although of course Mr.F will be sadly missed for these 2 weeks.
Thursday, 18 November 2010
17/11
Assef's character
'I saw a splotch of dried blood on his left sleeve. I found it morbidly fascinating that he hadn't changed clothes after the executions'. Here Hosseini is deliberately trying to make Assef seem unpleasant and odd and draws on echoes of how he was before, when he was younger. 'Wearing dark John Lennon glasses', makes Assef seem like a Western character and therefore out of place in Afghanistan, he should not be there. It shows Assef's hypocricy at him being against Western values. 'Saw marks on his forearm', shows Assef is a herion addict which is moral hypocricy as, according to himself he is 'purifying people'. 'You enjoyed the show today?' shows that Assef takes pleasure in executing people. 'He was almost panting' shows Assef was frantically excited by the thought of death and killing. 'Only rested for food and prayer' shows Assef thinks his brutal massacring is somehow 'holy'. Amir says Assef acts as if it was some 'great party', showing Assef's distortion of reality. Assef sees Hassan as 'my boy' which displays his 'ownership' of Hassan and the fact that he sees him as his. The fact that Assef's 'hands slid down the child's back', shows how Assef is sexualising Hassan and it makes us feel uncomfortable. This shows Assef does not have the best intentions for the child and is inappropriate. Amir says he is afraid he might 'conjure him' making Assef seem like some sort of 'demon' and having 'supernatural powers'. Overall Assef is conjured up as a horrible character who we are supposed to dislike and think badly of.
The end of the chapter is told by Amir who is barely conscious and is therefore very brief. There are specific details about certain things, 'i watched the way his sandals pounded'... but not others, 'then i was looking up at the roof'. Because it's sketchy, it allows us to build up our own idea of what's happening and is evidence of how seriously injured Amir is. Amir ends up doing the same thing Assef did, laughing when he's being beaten up. That was Assef's 'enlightenment', this is Amir's, he becomes 'at peace'. On p.251 there is a future projection which foreshadows what happens to Amir.
'I saw a splotch of dried blood on his left sleeve. I found it morbidly fascinating that he hadn't changed clothes after the executions'. Here Hosseini is deliberately trying to make Assef seem unpleasant and odd and draws on echoes of how he was before, when he was younger. 'Wearing dark John Lennon glasses', makes Assef seem like a Western character and therefore out of place in Afghanistan, he should not be there. It shows Assef's hypocricy at him being against Western values. 'Saw marks on his forearm', shows Assef is a herion addict which is moral hypocricy as, according to himself he is 'purifying people'. 'You enjoyed the show today?' shows that Assef takes pleasure in executing people. 'He was almost panting' shows Assef was frantically excited by the thought of death and killing. 'Only rested for food and prayer' shows Assef thinks his brutal massacring is somehow 'holy'. Amir says Assef acts as if it was some 'great party', showing Assef's distortion of reality. Assef sees Hassan as 'my boy' which displays his 'ownership' of Hassan and the fact that he sees him as his. The fact that Assef's 'hands slid down the child's back', shows how Assef is sexualising Hassan and it makes us feel uncomfortable. This shows Assef does not have the best intentions for the child and is inappropriate. Amir says he is afraid he might 'conjure him' making Assef seem like some sort of 'demon' and having 'supernatural powers'. Overall Assef is conjured up as a horrible character who we are supposed to dislike and think badly of.
The end of the chapter is told by Amir who is barely conscious and is therefore very brief. There are specific details about certain things, 'i watched the way his sandals pounded'... but not others, 'then i was looking up at the roof'. Because it's sketchy, it allows us to build up our own idea of what's happening and is evidence of how seriously injured Amir is. Amir ends up doing the same thing Assef did, laughing when he's being beaten up. That was Assef's 'enlightenment', this is Amir's, he becomes 'at peace'. On p.251 there is a future projection which foreshadows what happens to Amir.
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Hassan's redemption?
Amir's car sickness has always been with him, as has his guilt for Hassan (well nearly always). The beginning of the chapter starts with Amir's 'car sickness' which shows he is still the same weak Amir that left Afghanistan all those years ago. As Alice said, Amir manages to conquer his weakness as even though the car sickness is still there, he tries to ignore it, 'i feel better. i lied'. For the first time in years Amir connects himself to Afghanistan again, he says, 'as an Afghan', reconnecting himself to the country he's going to. This could show that Amir is reconnecting himself with his sins and is going to redeem himself. Amir is redeeming himself by trying to get control over his weakness, knowing he 'had to leave as soon as possible'to make sure he goes through with going to find Sohrab. The repitition of the word 'afraid' shows he is afraid of his weakness getting him and still the insecure, self-criticising boy he always was. Just in case we think Amir is beginning to redeem himself and be free of guilt, Hosseini describes a nightmare Amir has about him shooting Hassan. As Alice said, in the last lines of the chapter Amir does a good thing by planting 'a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress', this echoes the watch Amir put under Hassan's mattress and the reason Hassan had to leave. This kind gesture could be the first step towards Amir's redemption...
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
November 10th
I found it interesting, yet hard, learning about how Hosseini uses voices in Chapter 17. I found it reaaaally hard trying to fit everything I wanted to say into 15 minutes of writing, deffo have to work on that...
Anywaay I DID enjoy it, especially looking at why Rahim Khan tells Amir about Hassan's death without emotion. I enjoyed learning about this because when sir first asked us about it, I actually had no idea why. So, learning that Rahim Khan tells the story almost like 'a police report' clearly makes what he is saying indesputable and makes Amir suffer more, right? But of course.
Anywaay I DID enjoy it, especially looking at why Rahim Khan tells Amir about Hassan's death without emotion. I enjoyed learning about this because when sir first asked us about it, I actually had no idea why. So, learning that Rahim Khan tells the story almost like 'a police report' clearly makes what he is saying indesputable and makes Amir suffer more, right? But of course.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
November 5th
I am going to try and use correct puncutation in this blog, just in case it is read out again :) full stop.
So, again, enjoyed reading and analysing The Kite Runner and, having done the homework, have enjoyed that too (ish). I particularly enjoyed learning about the 'narrative circle', as I had actually never heard of this phrase before. I always find it really interesting learning how people's lives have turned out, in real-life and in books. When I first read the book, I was very intrigued as to how Amir's life would turn out. In this chapter, we finally get to know. His wife is described as having 'the face of a Grand Ball princess' and having 'bird-in-flight eyebrows and nose'. I think this simile is amaaazing because I can imagine exactly what she would look like from that and it really brings me into the story.
It is clear this 'second part' of the book is about redepmtion and there being 'a way to be good again', after the first half of the book has been about Amir's sin. This is something I worked out after I'd read the book, but being the eng lit analyists we are, we have worked it out before the end, yay.
So, again, enjoyed reading and analysing The Kite Runner and, having done the homework, have enjoyed that too (ish). I particularly enjoyed learning about the 'narrative circle', as I had actually never heard of this phrase before. I always find it really interesting learning how people's lives have turned out, in real-life and in books. When I first read the book, I was very intrigued as to how Amir's life would turn out. In this chapter, we finally get to know. His wife is described as having 'the face of a Grand Ball princess' and having 'bird-in-flight eyebrows and nose'. I think this simile is amaaazing because I can imagine exactly what she would look like from that and it really brings me into the story.
It is clear this 'second part' of the book is about redepmtion and there being 'a way to be good again', after the first half of the book has been about Amir's sin. This is something I worked out after I'd read the book, but being the eng lit analyists we are, we have worked it out before the end, yay.
Thursday, 4 November 2010
October 2nd
I enjoyed reading about how Baba is weakening. Obviously I didn't enjoy the fact that Baba was weakening cos he's great, but I enjoyed studying it yeaah. He is shown to be alienated as he is the 'lone republican' and seems much older as he complains much more and has more ailments, 'traffic noises gave him headaches'.
Baba and Amir's relationship has significantly changed as, when they were in Pakistan Baba was in control. He was a 'strong pashtun specimen' like a 'bear'. Standing up for people even till the last minute in Pakistan when he saves the woman from being raped. However when they reach America there seems to be a role-reversal as Baba looses his strength because he is an outsider and has 'broken english'. However Amir is educated and can speak good english. This gives him power over his father, he controls the situations like in the shop when he has to 'take Baba home'. At the end of this chapter though Baba finally becomes 'proud' of Amir which is what Amir has wanted seemingly all his life.
Baba and Amir's relationship has significantly changed as, when they were in Pakistan Baba was in control. He was a 'strong pashtun specimen' like a 'bear'. Standing up for people even till the last minute in Pakistan when he saves the woman from being raped. However when they reach America there seems to be a role-reversal as Baba looses his strength because he is an outsider and has 'broken english'. However Amir is educated and can speak good english. This gives him power over his father, he controls the situations like in the shop when he has to 'take Baba home'. At the end of this chapter though Baba finally becomes 'proud' of Amir which is what Amir has wanted seemingly all his life.
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