The Kite Runner: You'll Love To Hate It

       The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, 2003, Riverhead Books

 Summary: This is a story about a coward, a coward named Amir. The Kite Runner takes place in Afghanistan around 1975, and the older narrator is looking back when he was "became a man." Amir was young and spent most of his time with his servant Hassan who was also his backdoor best friend. Hassan was considered part of the family; a son to Baba (Amir's father), and Amir finds out 20 some years later that Hassan was actually his half-brother. Which explains a lot considering Baba would always try to include Hassan into their activities and that often made Amir jealous. Jealousy was a big part of this book because it drove Amir to create the mistake that he has to bare for the rest of his life. As a form of gaining his dad's affection, he triumphed in the kite running contest with help of Hassan; shortly after Amir went looking for Hassan that claimed he went to capture the winning kite and found himself hitting a dilemma. Assef, the bully of the block, wanted the kite and Hassan refused to give him it. Which led to Amir witnessing Hassan, the boy who fed from the same breast, whose first words he uttered was 'Amir', get raped and beaten up. Without saying a single word.

 Many years passed and Amir moved to America due to the uprising wars and conflicts in Afghanistan. Just before his dad got diagnosed with cancer and died he married Soraya: a women with a bad reputation. She once ran away with a man and was frowned upon the Afghan society, but Amir accepted her because he "knew all about regret" (Hosseini 180). He never told Soraya about Hassan until 25 years when he had nearly escaped death from Assef in order to save his newly found half-nephew Sohrab from being Assef's sex slave (Sickeningly funny how history repeats itself) and attempts to adopt Sohrab. Since Hassan and his wife got shot when Sohrab was younger and had no death certificates, it was nearly impossible to adopt him. Amir suggested Sohrab go back to the orphanage and Sohrab, so terribly frightened and betrayed (Amir promised to never take him back there) he decided to kill himself. Turns out he survived but Sohrab's trust was never healed and never fully forgave Amir and neither does his voice box, as Sohrab barely said a word in the past year. The book ends with Amir flying a kite for the first time since the winter of 1975 and Sohrab actually smiles at Amir.

Quote: "'We're the same, you and I,' he was saying. 'You nursed with him, but you're my twin'" (Hosseini 307).

Quotation Context: Amir was in the hospital after almost getting killed by Assef, Sohrab saved Amir's life by blinding Assef in the eye and ends up dying. Amir was dreaming and Assef says those words to him. This quote by far is the most accurate to summarize the book because this book clearly categorizes two types of evil people: People who do evil things and people who witness evil things and do nothing about it. Amir was the second one and Assef was the first. Because of his decision, his fate was completely turned. One simple decision to not act on his impulse, to not save the life of his half-brother. "You nursed with him" refers to Hassan, and how they grew together and fed from the same breast. But yet they were completely different; Amir was selfish and Hassan would give his world to Amir, Hassan was pure. Amir knows in his conscious that he's just like Assef, cruel and evil.

 

Reminscenes and disappoints: Sweet Summer

My book Sweet Summer by Bebe Moore Campbell is about Bebe’s past reminiscences about life living in Philadelphia with her mother during the school year and in North Carolina with her disabled father in the summertime because they weren’t married. Good memories and bad memories; including when her father died. His method of dying was somewhat predictable taking into account he crippled himself the same way he died: car accident. As she gets older she begins to notice that the longing of her father virtually connects her to all ties in her life, her friends, her father figures, her motives. At a young age her best friends were girls who also didn’t have their fathers, “…What made us soulmates was this: we were daddy’s girls without daddies.” (Campbell 87).

 The book slowly shifts away from her father and leans towards her coming-of-age. She comes to discover why her dad divorced her mom and her reaction was not a wwelcomed one, “My mind had painstakingly woven the image of his innocence; now that tapestry was slowing unraveling, leaving me angry and confused” (Campbell 200). She found out her dad had accidently killed a boy while driving, making it three car accidents. As she blossoms into womanhood she finally realizes that although her parents are separated they’ll always be a family and even though her father was absent, she was not fatherless.

            In this quote she's reflecting as she's walking down the aisle, as she strolls her father down the aisle and sees her uncles and all the men that helped her become who she is. She says, “I have grown strong and whole from the blessings of my many fathers” (Campbell 255). It represents the meaning of all the stories, all the characters that carved their signature in her heart. She says “many fathers” which indicates that all the other men, including her uncles, pastor, neighbors and older father figures were and played the role of her father while her actual dad wasn’t. They covered the holes her dad dug up unwillingly. They all loved and guided her to be that woman who they saw walking the aisle into marriage. They all formed her. This quote made me reflect on my father and my other father figures and I realized I only have my dad; I don't have any blood uncles and all my aunt's husbands are either nonexistent or not close to my heart. To realize how crappy my relationship with him is I want to change it before it's too late, and I might not change his urine duct or have long talks at night. I can't especially empathize with the author because my dad can walk and he's been around my whole entire life. But it made me realize the importance of a father, because you only miss him when he's not there.