The Kite Runner Study Guide

1. Women: In the novel, women were not seen as equals to men. They had to keep themselves conservatively dressed with their faces covered.
Betrayal: Amir and Hassan were raised together. They were breast fed from the same women. They were raised as brothers aside from the fact that Hassan was Amir's servant. Hassan always stood up for
Amir, but when Hassan needed Amir to save him Amir simply ran like a coward. This caused the end of their relationship.
Brothers: Although Hassan and Amir are raised almost like brothers, they never realize thats what they truely are until towards the end of the novel. Hassan never finds out the truth about Amir being his blood, but Amir does. Amir knowing this makes him regret his decisions on how he treated Hassan.
Guilt: Amir suffers with hidden guilt after he sees Hassan gets raped because he did nothing to stop it. Hassan's rape doesn't stay hiddin forever though. Hassan tells his father the whole story, and they both leave. This sort of comforts Amir because he knows someone knows his secret, but Amir's father is still in dark as to why the man who was his servant, friend, brother left.
Redemption: After Amir learns Hassan is dead, he becomes determined to bring Hassan's orphaned son to America to live with him. By doing this, Amir feels set free of the guilt he felt built up toward Hassan.
Exodus: When the Russians invaded Amir's country alot of families, including Amir and his father, leave to find safety. Amir and Baba smuggle themselves into a nearby country, and then leave for America.
Fathers and Sons: Amir and his father are a direct representation of patriarchal society. Amir strives to please his father, but always falls short. His father is always a little bit disappointed that Amir is not like him.
Class distinction: Amir and Hassan were always persecuted becauses of their relationship. Hassan is Hazara, and Amir is Pashtun. Also Hassan was Amir's servant and in those days it was not common to associate with those of different beliefs and different class ranks.



2. Parallelism: Hassan and Amir's friendship can be seen as parallel with the invasion of Afghanistan by the Russians. Their country begins to go downhill while they live together. When they boys friendship reaches its breaking point because of Hassan and Ali leaving, shortly following their country is invaded by the Russians. Character Foils: Amir and his father, Baba, were complete opposites. They were so different that they even questions if they were father and son. Amir wasn't an athlete; he was more interested in writing. He also didn't stand up for himself because he wasn't a fighter. His father was an athletic man. He had power and always stood up for what he believed in.
Forshadowing: In the book, Hassan's first word was Amir, and Amir's first word was Baba. This forshadows Hassan's loyalty to Amir and Amir striving for the approval of his father, Baba.
Flashbacks: Amir always has constant flashbacks of events that occurred with Hassan. He tries to forget about Hassan so his guilt won't surface, but he doesn't accomplish this.
Positives and Negatives: The novel was absolutely great. It really opened my eyes to what the Middle East was like. The author accomplished this without using too much fancy and over-decorative writing. The one downfall of the novel was the grafic scenes it contained. They did need to be written, but once I read them I had to put the book down for awhile.


3. Settings: Kabul, Afghanistan in the 1933-1970s Fremont, California in the 1980s
The role of women in America vs. the role of women in Afghanistan, Pashtun vs. Hazara, Afghanistan under monarchy rule vs. republic rule, Afghanistan before and after the Russian invasion,


4. Minor Characters: Rahim Khan was Baba's best friend. He also understood Amir and helped him with his problems. Ali was Hassan's 'father'. He was also Baba's servant. Baba saw his as a brother; they were both raised together. Ali was the one who took Hassan away after he found out about the rape. Soraya is Amir’s wife. She brought love back into his life, and she covinced him to return to Afghanistan to get Sohrab and bring him to live in the U.S. with them. Sohrab is Hassan's son. He is the key to Amir letting go of his guilt. Assef was the leader of the bullies that tortured and raped Hassan.


5. Symbols: Baba's House symbolizes protection and security. Flying kites was the thing to do in Afghanistan. Kite fighting was hard, and often people were left with scars. Even though people went through alot of pain and hardwork, winning was always worth it. The kite symbolizes endurance. Hassan's slingshot skills were amazing. He used it to save Amir, and Sohrab saved Amir with a slingshot, just like his dad. The slingshot symbolizes courage. The pomegranate tree shows Hassan and Amir's relationship. They carved their names into the tree and it produced fruit. When Hassan died the tree still existed but no longer produced fruit. Sohrab was a symbol of the good that Amir wanted to have in his life.

asdfjkl; my week!

So along with having to teach at dance team try-outs, this week ended up being...different. I went on a field trip with my unified pe class to practice playing basketball at GC&SU because we're getting ready for special olympics. Also after school i had fashion show practice while I was supposed to be at dance! Thursday finally came and it was time for the fashion at school. Well while we were having a dress rehursal someone decided to steal my phone! Of course I had everyone and everything searched until it was found. Luckily it showed up in someone's bag; I honestly don't care if it was them who took it, i'm just glad I have it back. Otherwise the fashion show was AMAZING. I had a total blast being apart of it. Friday finally came and I was looking forward to having my first normal day this week, but that didn't go as planned. I totally missed first period, I thought it was a Thursday lol. Then we had a drug bust during second period!!!!!! So after it was finally over I was on my way to third period and I turned the corner and ran into two huge police dogs! Now i'm pretty sure we've discussed my fear of dogs so my reaction was absolutely rediculous to say the least. And finally when I made it to my class we we're even allowed to go teach at the pre-k because we wouldn't have had enough time :/ Then I go to body sculpting when the bell rings but my teacher shows up 20 minutes into class and tells us to change back into our clothes because we weren't going to work out. This is when we discover a classmate's phone got stolen while we left was in the locker room. So the whole class got searched and I missed a few minutes of lunch (but that wasn't a big deal). Finally my day returns to being somewhat normal and dance try-outs are held. Then finally drive off to my house to regroup lol.

Competiton Dance

Our dance team has a competition season; but during football season we lost alot of girls so we needed more in order to compete. This week we held try-outs for anyone at school who was interested. For the try-out routine we taught our hip-hop dance. They also had to learn fundamentals (splits, heel-streches, pirouettes, etc.) and one set of kicks. It was alot to teach, but in the end we found what we were looking for and i'm very happy for those of you who are now apart of our dance team! I'm sure we'll exceed in the season to come.

senior week:)

so every year the last home football game is called senior night. Every senior who participates in a fall sport is walked out by a loved one during pregame and recognized for their talents. Well before the football game during school a pep rally is held. I'm on the dance team so I got to perform during the pep rally. One dance I participated in was very simple; all of the football cheerleaders, competition cheerleaders, and dancers danced and stunted together to a UDA track. Also the senior dance girls were told the week of the pep rally to create a dance/kick routine to perform. It turned out to be amazing :) My girls are completely amazing. All turned out well except for the fact that we lost the game and it was freezing cold; but we still walked out with our heads held high!

City Life Vs. Rural Life

In the movie "Mean Girls", Cady Heron, a fifteen year old girl, spent most of her childhood living in Africa. She was home-schooled, and didn't have that much interaction with others her age. Her idea of fun was working and playing with the different animals in the country. Then her parents decided to leave their zoologists jobs in Africa in order to relocate back to the United States. Now Cady had to enter into the world of city life, which was a total culture shock. The city had malls, parties, places to hang out, and public schools. She had to deal with the cliques of teenagers like the jocks, the cheerleaders, the nerds, the outcasts, and the mean girls. She went through her journey of finding out where she belonged. Even though this is just a movie, it's plot portrays the reality that there is a difference between city and rural living.

What ever town or city a person calls home, most of the time there will be conflicts that occur. In order to keep the peace, law enforcement is usually in place. In less populated counties crime seems to happen less often. A typical Jones County newspaper will cover the local high school sports, upcoming events in Gray, Ga., and a few names of loved ones that have pasted in the obituaries; but every once in a while a robbery, drug bust, or domestic violence case will appear on the front page.

While living in the city, crime is to be expected. Alot of big cities are tourists sites and have many attractions for them to visit. Thiefs and muggers tend to prey on the visitors because they're easy targets. Most tourists do not know their way around the new area and can become careless about how they carry themselves. Also gang involvement contributes to the higher crime rates in cities. There are multiple gangs like crips and bloods who only agree on disliking and hurting others who don't agree with their gang. They're full of hatred toward one another which brings on the frequent fighting, stealing, and killing. This violence begins to tear a riff in the community.

In order to get around town, some kind of transportation is always needed. Cars are the most common in this century, whether a person is in a city or in a rural area. In most towns, a car will be your best friend. Some towns might not have all of the stores, industries, or facilities a citizen would want to have access to; because of this drives to near by cities are called for. In the town i reside in now, if i wanted to continue taking gymnastics classes year round i would have to drive to Macon, Ga. Its only a thirty minute drive, but that may be an inconvience to some. There are no city buses, and it's rare to find a taxi on the roads. Though there are school buses for students who do not have their own way of transportation, having a car would be the best decision for those living in a rural area.

Most who live in the city are always on the move, which is to be expected because the city never sleeps. There are so many different buildings and attractions that city dwellers come across everyday. For them to reach their destination, multiple ways of transportation are available. City's often fund a transportation system. Atlanta's government provides the Marta for its locals and visitors. This is a subway/bus systems that goes through different parts of the city, dropping off its passengers at designated spots. There are alot of pedestrians walking through the city. This is because some distances are not very far from one another. Also the taxi business does better in the city because of limited parking, weather, and other circumstances. A local might have decided to walk to work one day, but when it was time for them to leave rain began to fall causing him/her to catch a taxi. Although cars are still the most popular way of transportation in the city, people have other options which may help them avoid traffic.

exam week!

Wow..1/4 of my senior year is already gone! It's definitely a bitter sweet moment. My exams are finally over :) Even though I only had to take an exam in three of my classes, the week was extremely stressful. I wasn't worried about my physics exam and I didn't know I had a test in unified PE either. So it was just my AP statistics I need to study for. In the end my unified PE exam ended up being the HARDEST test I've ever taken. I know you're probably laughing and thinking how can a PE test be hard, but unified PE is different. My class works with the special needs children that attend our high school. The special needs students are the athletes and we're the partners. We go to special olympics to compete in softball, basketball, bolling, and soccer. It's the best class I've ever chosen to take. Anywho..lol our exam was basically self-assement, which sucked because you can't study for that type of test. We had to think of a sport, it couldn't be one of the ones in which we compete, create adapted rules for the atheletes, and make a lesson plan. Then we had to identify how that sport would help our class. We also matched up every partner with an athelete and state why we matched those people together. Finally we named teachers who could handle teaching or substituting our unified class and say the qualities we thought they posessed to do the job. It was absolutely a brain cruncher lol. Well it's over now, so on to the next part of my senior year!

Reflection:)

My example essay has finally been turned in. Overall i would say this essay has been the easiest so far. I think i feel this way because i really enjoyed writing about my topic. It made me think of things that were obvious, but no one wanted to admit. Finding example to write about wasn't the hardest thing to do. My challenge was finding a good order for them, making sure they flowed together, and stayed on topic. For anyone else who might be writing an example essay, i would suggest that they pick a topic they enjoy writing about and make sure all of your example compliment each other.
Ummm...this whole blogging situation has been interesting. When I'm using my blog for posting my paper and giving and recieving comments I don't reallly enjoy it. Don't get me wrong i love that people can read my paper and give me critques, but ALOT of the commments I get are don't have any substance to them. Also when I read others papers it sometimes makes me doubt my own writing abilities. When I blog just as a rant i really do get off topic and end up wasting alot of time lol. I think my blog and I just have a love-hate relationship at the moment!