The historical fictional novel, The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. Amir is friends with a Hazara named Hassan, who is the son of Ali. Ali and Hassan are both servants for Baba and Amir. Kabul changed drastically once Afghanistan is under a Soviet Invasion. Soon enough the lives of Amir and Hassan changed forever.
    The author’s purpose of writing this novel was to show the importance of loyalty, truth, love, and regrets. In the book the author describes the relationship between Amir and Hassan. the quote, “ For you a thousand times over” represents a symbol to their friendship. Hassan is a very kind and loyal person. Especially to Amir since they have grown up together. In some parts of the book it explains how Amir was being disrespectful to Hassan, but Hassan kept his loyalty and decided to ignore it.
One example during their conversation/argument is:

“I'd sooner eat dirt,” he said with a look of indignation.
“Really? You’d do that?”
He threw me a puzzled look. “Do what?”
“Eat dirt if i told you to,” I said. I knew I was being cruel, like when I’d taunt him if he didn't know some big word...
“”If you asked, I would,” he finally said, looking right at me. I dropped my eyes.(Pg.54)

Another example is:

Then Hassan did pick up a pomegranate. He walked toward me. He opened it and crushed it against his own forehead. “There,” he croaked, red dripping down his face like blood. “Are you satisfied? Do you feel better?” He turned around and started down the hill. (Pg.93)

These quotes show how no matter what Amir does to Hassan he wouldn’t do the same back.
Amir challenges the friendship in some form of way to show how he is feeling and putting it out all on Hassan to see what he would do. Hassan would never hurt Amir in such a way. When Amir picked up the pomegranate and threw it at Hassan, Hassan picked up the pomegranate but doesn’t hit Amir but himself. Hassan believes that he shouldn’t hurt Amir in any ways either if it is physical or mentally. Hassan did nothing but to be nice and respectful towards Amir, Hassan should deserve the same respect back especially from Amir but he decided to be the opposite.
Even though Amir had done all these things to Hassan, Later on in Amir’s life he regretted what he did. I love how Hassan uses the phrase “ For you a thousand times over” because it shows how he would do anything for Amir if he askes him to do anything.

During the third paper clip, there is one part that really struck out to me was the part where Sohrab attempted to commit suicide. In the book it states,

“Home for kids?” he said, his smile fading. “ You mean an orphanage?”

“It would only be for a little while.”

“No,” he said. “No, please”

“Sohrab, it would be just a little while. I promise.”

“You promised you’d never put me in one of those places, Amir agha,” he said. His voice was breaking, tears pooling in his eyes. I felt it like a prick. (pg.341)

Later on in the book it explained how Amir could not talk Sohrab to the U.S. and would have to but Sohrab back in the orphanage first to be able to take him to the U.S. Amir told Sohrab the situation but was very unhappy with it. Sohrab’s unhappiness resulted him of attempting to commit suicide by cutting himself in a bathtub. Sohrab lost a great amount of blood but was able to live. In my opinion, the only reason why Sohrab attempted to commit suicide was because he was put into orphanage before and because in the book it states how the Assef would go to the orphanage and take the kids. Sohrab was unfortunately taken and had a bad experience with Assef because they did stuff to him and was scared. Amir promised Sohrab that he would never put him back to the orphanage, but Sohrab tried to kill himself because he was afraid that Amir will break the promise.

The weakness of the book in my opinion is when I had a discussion about the conflicts that made the ending, well not so great. The quote and explanation above shows how the conflicts effect the ending. I wished the ending was better but there is a reason why it isn’t as good. Hassan had many conflicts throughout the book and it took a while for him to get over his conflicts. Hassan’s main conflict was the broken friendship between Amir and himself. Hassan and Ali moved to Hazarajat. By moving, it left their friendship to a confusing ending. Amir wasn’t able to see Hassan again. Conflicts can effect people’s lives very deeply because there are some things in life that can can bring back bad memories. This is the same for Sohrab’s situation. Sohrab had a few conflicts but were pretty intense and it will take him a while to get over his conflicts and move on.

I’d recommend this book because it explains the friendship between Hassan and Amir. The friendship between them is the main thing that changed and grew conflicts off of the changes of their friendship. This book explain the hardships of their lives when the Soviet Invasion happened. Not only does the streets of Kabul change but  people changed too. This book is intense, despite the fact that conflicts kept building and building. At first, I wasn’t too fond of this novel but as I got deeper in to the book, my eyes got glued. I love the book, especially the part where the war had taken effect over everything and explained what the war did to his life as he grew up. I would recommend this book for readers who wants to see that war can effect other people’s lives.

Read more...

The Kite Runner: Final Section

Reading the whole book of The Kite Runner I realized that I enjoyed reading it then I expected. During the third paper clip, there is one part that really struck out to me was the part where Sohrab attempted to commit suicide. In the book it states,

“Home for kids?” he said, his smile fading. “ You mean an orphanage?”

“It would only be for a little while.”

“No,” he said. “No, please”

“Sohrab, it would be just a little while. I promise.”

“You promised you’d never put me in one of those places, Amir agha,” he said. His voice was breaking, tears pooling in his eyes. I felt it like a prick. (pg.341)

Later on in the book it explained how Amir couldn’t talk Sohrab to the U.S. and would have to but Sohrab back in the orphanage first to be able to take him to the U.S. Amir told Sohrab the situation but was very unhappy with it. Sohrab’s unhappiness resulted him of attempting to commit suicide by cutting himself in a bathtub. Sohrab lost a great amount of blood but was able to live. In my opinion, the only reason why Sohrab attempted to commit suicide was because he was put into orphanage before and because in the book it states how the Assef would go to the orphanage and take the kids. Sohrab was unfortunately taken and had a bad experience with Assef because they did stuff to him and was scared. Amir promised Sohrab that he would never put him back to the orphanage, but Sohrab tried to kill himself because he was afraid that Amir will break the promise.

I had a discussion about the conflicts that made the ending, well not so great. I wished the ending was better but there is a reason why it isn’t as good. Mr.Sutherland talked about how Hassan had many conflicts throughout the book and it took a while for Hassan to get over his conflicts. this is the same for Sohrab also. Sohrab had a few conflicts but were pretty intense and it will take him a while to get over his conflicts and move on.

Read more...

Response to Fermin's post

      I found a interesting quote on Fermin's blog about Drawings.

Something that I enjoy to do on my freetime is to draw. I love to draw! I only need a notebook, pencil, and an ipod to keep myself active not physically but mentally. Almost everyday, I draw for about half an hour. I started to draw when I was a little kid and as years passed, my drawing skills improved a lot. What motivated me to start drawing was when I saw many favorite cartoons. When I was a little kid, I loved to watch DragonBall Z and WWE. Those were my favorite TV shows. As I observed the characters very closely, I took out a piece of paper and a pencil. I then began to draw. At first, my drawings were not too good. Day after day, I practiced and by the time I looked at my past and present drawings, I noticed dramatic changes. I can't say that I'm an expert because I'm not. I'm just an amature.

      This quote stood out to be because Fermin and I have something that we both like to do. Even though he likes drawing, on my free time I like to play on my guitar. I know relate to my guitar alot by hey I do what I love, don't judge. Now, Fermin as many years of practice on drawing and he was able to improve gradually overtime. I bet Fermin is pro at drawing. It has been a year and 2 months ever since I have gotten my first guitar. I remember that day so clearly like it was yesterday. One thing Fermin and I have in common is that we are both self taught. All I had was a guitar, a pick, a tuner, and the internet. Now you see Google is your best friend. I am not going to lie being self taught is really difficult because when you take lessons they start out by teaching you all the chords, notes, and tabs. But, I only knew how to do chords. No one taught me notes or how to read tabs. Now I know how to read tabs, sort of but still. I am making progress here.
      Doing something that you are inspired is different than being forced to do. My inspiration for learning how to play guitar is mainly Taylor Swift. She is a very talented singer and guitarist. From what I have experienced, everytime I try something new I eventually will quit and won't go back to what I was doing. Guitar has changed me for so many reason like giving up. If I stuggle with a song I know that if I persevere I would complete the song. From what I remembered, I improved so much during the past year, months and weeks. My parents rewarded me for my passion and hardwork for guitar by buying me a Fender guitar. Many people say that I am good but I don't see myself as good. I see myself as okay. I am really not that great. But I am improving. I realize that it takes time, practice, passion and dedication to do what you love doing.

Read more...

What is the definition of Beautiful?

Why do people always mention skinny, tall, long legs, banging body type of girls? I am tired of people referring skinny girls as beautiful. What about the ones that are not skinny and is average or over weight?  What makes skinny girls so much better? I wish everyone can accept the fact that everyone is beautiful in their own ways. Yes I know that i have written a blog post about this but this topic is slightly more different than the previous ones. By no means, I am not offending for those of you that are skinny. Nothing about being skinny is bad, but the fact that other than skinny is considered bad. We all know that being overweight is bad as in health problems but I am not here to talk about it. People judge others by their appearance and does not realize that they are not benefiting themselves. Sure you can make fun of someone and feel good about it but really step in people’s shoes and realize what if feels like to be teased everyday.

My parents always tells me that I am fat, It brought me down so much that it lowered my self esteem. I would cry myself to sleep knowing that I will never be beautiful compared to other girls. It affected me so much that I would starve for the rest of the day and only have something to drink. It was a crazy path until something in me changed. I realized that every skinny girl is referred as beautiful. Is it their appearance that is beautiful? Someone can be beautiful on the outside and ugly in the inside. Someone can be ugly in the outside and beautiful in the inside. Why don’t we ever give credit for those who are lets say not skinny?.Someone can say.”Whoa! Look at that chick she has nice....” Yeah you get the point but what do they say to a non-skinny girl? Nothing except negativity. What this whole post is about is to explain what I meant about skinny girls being referred to as pretty. Last time, I am not offending anyone in any way. I really can believe I wrote about my situation... Overall, I learned to love myself to who I am because no matter how much judgement I receive from people I know that someone likes/loves me for who I am.

Read more...

The Kite Runner: Second section.

 

All I can say is, Wow. While reading the second section things got pretty intense. The section involved alot of deaths and conflicts. Amir took Baba to a doctor because Baba has been very ill. Baba found out that he has cancer. The doctor  offered him Chemotherapy but Baba didn’t accept. Amir wanted Baba to accept the Chemotherapy but Baba just simply says, “Don’t challenge me in public, Amir. Ever. Who do you think you are?” (Pg.156) At that point I realized that Amir wanted Baba to accept the chemotherapy so that Baba has a change of fighting off of it. Amir wanted Baba to live longer and stay around longer but Amir needed to accept that Baba refused because he felt like it was time for him to go.

Amir met General Taheri’s daughter Soraya. After meeting her and talking to her for a while Amir fell in love and decided he wanted to marry her. Baba had to pay for the wedding. The wedding was very expensive but i wonder how and why Baba saved so much money that he could pay for this. After Amir and Soraya got married, they both realized that they weren’t about to have a baby. Soraya had to go through many different tests to see what was wrong but they weren’t about to have any kids. The only choice that was left with them was to choose adoption. Once Soraya had moved in with Amir and Baba, Soraya decided to take care of Baba because he was too ill. One night Baba didn’t take a painkiller medicine because he told Soraya that he had no pain. The next morning Baba did not wake up. Baba’s death really struck hard on Amir, he really misses him.   

Amir had to go to Pakistan in order to see Rahim Khan. Rahim Khan became very sick. Amir arrived to Pakistan and visited Rahim. Amir noticed that Rahim is very sick to a point where he is coughing out blood all the time. Rahim told Amir that he wanted to see him before he dies and Rahim wanted Amir to do him a favor which is to find Hassan’s son Sorab.

Read more...

Response: Substitutes

       I came across a post named Substitutes by Luis Alba. His post made me compare UPA Substitutes to ASTI substitutes

Lately we have had many substitutes, which is not bad so far. I have noticed many things about these substitutes. First of all, it is always the same substitute compared to my other school. In my old school we would always have different substitutes for some reason. Also, people from ASTI are very respectful to the substitutes. In my old school, there was little respect for substitutes, do not get me wrong, many people did have respect for the substitutes. Finally, I noticed that the substitutes are very loose, or not as strict. This surprised me because I thought that ASTI would have gotten strict substitutes so we would not get off task.

       For those of you who don't know Luis and I went to school together. Although we didn't have the same classes we sure do have the same Substitutes. Comparing UPA (Urban Promise Academy) to ASTI Substitutes. they are fairly different. UPA usually get random substitutes while ASTI has the same substitutes. I noticed something very different between students at UPA and ASTI. Whenever UPA has a substitute for any class, the students in the class would act very immature and causes a lot of trouble. One example I have experienced while we had a substitute in 8th grade is teachers would be nice to us, students and everyone would be a total meanie to the substitute which I feel bad for because he/she is taking their time and energy to teach us and all we are doing is just fool around. Honestly, I do fool around sometimes with friends while the substitute is there but its not really heavy as throwing stuff around the room, stealing, or even trashing the whole room. Eventually if some of the students does trash the whole room the substitute would have to clean up the mess.        

What I noticed and like about ASTI is whenever we have a substitute we act normal and ourselves instead of being immature. When we have substitute the class would stay quiet and actually listen. This shows how mature and serious we are and we can act normal around a substitute without any fooling around or problems. Unlike UPA, we do not trash the room or throw things. We also do not play jokes with the substitute. I was surprised by how my class acts they way they do when our current teachers and that shows that we are different than most highschools/ middleschools. I believe that if we do take advantages with the substitute we would all receive detention or something cruel as our punishment.

Read more...

The Kite Runner: First section.

So far reading The Kite Runner until section one is interesting. Although there is some dramatic scenes, I really enjoy this book so far. In the book, there was one scene that really stuck me. The rape scene. Assef and his friends saw Hassan alone, Assef's friends pinned Hassan down while his pants were down and Assef proceeds to rape Hassan. I thought this scene was really horrible, the fact that Amir did not go and get help was unbelievable. Instead, Amir stood there and watched for a moment and ran away. After, Amir saw Hassan and pretended like he was looking for him, Hassan came crying and bleeding and gave Amir the blue kite. They haven’t talked about this ever since the day that this happened. In my opinion, I wished Amir would go and help Hassan. I understand that Amir was scared to help Hassan because Assef can really beat anyone up. My question is Who was Amir thinking of? Clearly, Amir did not help Hassan because he is scared but was also traumatized by the whole situation that he saw. Amir soon felt horrible for not helping Hassan.

After the rape scene, I think the conflict escalated more between Amir and Hassan. Sometimes Amir would be loyal to Hassan and sometimes he would not be loyal because of jealousy. Amir is jealous of Hassan because of how his father Baba is paying more attention to Hassan than he is to Amir. Amir over heard his father saying how he isn’t doing anything to his life but reads and write. Amir was sad but still had hope that he was going to be a writer. Another conflict that happened in section one is the fight between Hassan and Amir. Amir threw a pomegranate at Hassan and told Hassan to throw it back but instead Hassan just stood there while Amir kept throwing pomegranates at him. Hassan did not throw on back but instead he picked it up and hit it against his head and left. I can understand why Hassan did not throw it back, he wanted to stay loyal to Amir.

Overall, I really enjoy this book or this section. I can’t wait to finish the second section.

Read more...