24.11.10 and 26.11.10

ITS SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

24.11.10

Today we played this game where everyone described someone using questions like 'what season would ....be?' and then we did the same for the character of Hassan in The Kite Runner. We also looked at the poem 'You're' by Sylvia Plath and then used what we had each decided Hassan would be e.g. I chose that he would be the colour yellow, and we had to put it in a poem in the style of 'You're'. I'm not putting it on here because mine was super rubbish and a bit rambly and strange. I found this quite useful in exploring the character of Hassan, because it reminds me of hotseating, which we did last year in english (and also in drama) to explore the character of Eddie from 'AView From The Bridge'. I think it really helps my understanding of the novel if I can understand one of the main characters and explore what I think about them.

26.11.10

Today we looked at 'Definitions of Personality Disorder' which included the requirements for an antisocial personality, psychopathy, borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality and sociopathy. There was a list that had these requirements on it, and we were asked to put a tick next to the ones that we thought were like Assef, like 'Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger', like when Assef beats up Amir when he comes to collect Sohrab, which would be in the category of borderline personality disorder.
I liked this activity, because it makes you realise just how much Hosseini put into creating an unstable character like Assef, because on the sheet there are 60 traits, and I  have ticked 45 of them that could be used to describe Assef.

I've written the quotes about how Assef is an evil character rather than blogging them.

19.11.10

Harry Potter came out today - it was awesome. Ron is not fat BTW, he's hench :P That links with what I'm about to say because Harry Potter is literature, and has some kite runner-y bits in like Harry has all those personal battles and stuff just not like Amir's coz Harry's a wizard and Amir is not. I'll shut up and get on with the blog now.

So, this lesson we did like a big poster thing that had the names of most of the characters on it and their personalities and the way they act towards people (e.g. Assef - Bully, evil, Hitler is his role model...) and then we also had the themes of the novel like guilt, and then the parts or people in the novel that fit with that, e.g. Amir's guilt over what happened to Hassan and how he didn't try to stop it.

I think this activity was really useful because it helped to have all the themes together and to read how other people see the characters in the novel and it was good to be able to see different ideas, because on some of the themes I wouldn't have really known what to say but now we did that activity I have a few more ideas.

17.11.10

This lesson we read through chapter 22, which is the chapter where Amir finds out that the guy at the execution was Assef, who is also the guy who has Sohrab, and so he has to try and get Sohrab from him, which ends in a fight and a gross part where Assef's eye gets slingshot-ed out by Sohrab.

Hosseini's storytelling in the end of this chapter includes mirroring from previous chapters, like how when Sohrab actually takes out Assef's eye; it mirrors how Hassan threatened to take out Assef's eye. It is also thte product of the foreshadowing in previous chapters, like the one eyed dog from the beginning of the novel. This feels like closure for the reader, because its like now Sohrab has hurt Assef, which is really what the reader has been waiting for since Assef's character was introduced- his come-uppance.

Quotations about Assef :

• 'tall Talib in white, still wearing his dark John Lennon glasses' - this is before you know he is Assef but after the execution so you know he is bd, but his physical appearance is described as you would describe a good character, e.g. an angel, with the white, and most people would associate John Lennon with good, not someone who would stage a public execution.
• 'Marks on his forearm, I'd seen those same tracks on homeless people...in San Francisco' - this gives you the impression that Assef is some sort of addict, which shows the hypocrisy, he's supposed to be purifying people when actually he isn't pure himself.
• He talks about the massacre of Hazaras as if its something he's proud of, and something that makes him good, 'virtuous, good, and decent' which sort of makes the reader wonder whether Assef is in his right mind.
• Assef refers to Sohrab as his boy, which shows that he feels that he has ownership over him. Hosseini then makes the reader feel uncomfortable as it describes how Assef innapropriately treats the child, 'his hands  slid down the child's back'.

12.11.10

I like how in chapter 19 you can see that Amir has tried to overcome his weaknesses, like his car sickness; he has recognised that it is a weakness and he is trying to overcome it. I also think that while doing this, he is showing that he is becoming more mature and dealing with his problems instead of shutting them out. Another sign of his maturity is where Farid offers him the lemon and he just takes it instead of arguing with him 'As an Afghan, I knew it was better to be miserable than rude'; it seems like Amir realises now how other people actually feel, different to how he was when he was younger with Hassan, where he would deliberately do things to annoy him or make him feel small, like poking fun at him because he couldn't read.

I also like it near the end of the chapter where its as if Amir is correcting what he did to Hassan and Ali when he put the watch under Hassan's mattress to frame him, because in this chapter he puts money under a mattress to help Farid and his family.

Yeah, its rambly, but I know what I'm getting at and eventually i'll write a blog that everyone else understands :D. Yeah that was a smiley face. :O

Chapter 17 - 10.11.10

Chapter 17 is an interesting chapter in the way that there are different voices; there are the letters from Hassan, Amir's narration and also Rahim Khan's direct speech when talking to Amir about how Hassan was executed.
When we were asked to write about voices in chapter 17 in 15 minutes I panicked a bit seens (not actually sure if thats a real word but its only a blog and if you can put a smiley face then you can put words that aren't real too) as I tend to ramble on about nothing for 15 minutes before actually getting into the question, e.g this blog. So you can imagine my shock when I actually managed to finish the question (haha except for conclusion, but I did actually finish what I wanted to say in the actual question so I'm still counting it as a victory) and I was even more shocked when I found out that some of the stuff I had written was actually right YAAY, like that part about Rahim Khan's bluntness possibly meaning that he has experienced so much violence that he isn't shocked when it happens anymore, even to someone close to him.

Circle of Narrative - 5.11.10

Today we were looking at how the circle of narrative in the Kite Runner is completed before the book is actually finished. I didn't realise this until we did about it in class, but I'm sure I'd have been a bit confused if I had, like, where is the book going? Except because I didn't realise that, I just carried on reading without thinking that. Anyway, the circle of narrative starts in December 2001 where Amir is remembering the 'winter of 1975' and the events that happened then, and also he is remembering a phone call that he had recently received from Rahim Khan telling him that 'there is a way to be good again'. By chapter 14, the reader has found out what happened in the winter of 1975 and important events up to June 2001, which is the time that chapter 14 is set in. It is in chapter 14 that the phone conversation between Amir and Rahim Khan occurs,about 'the way to be good again' thus completing the circle of narrative half way through the novel, meaning that there is still half the book to go which will be about something different, the 'different' being the way to be good again, through redemption. Sorry if this was really rambly. 

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 is mainly about Baba and Amir's relationship and it sort of shows how their roles have reversed a little bit since they have moved to America. I found it interesting talking about how Baba needs Afghanistan to remain powerful; I wouldn't have made that link if we hadn't talked about it in class. I understood that Baba wasn't as powerful in America as he was in Afghanistan but I think that I got into the book too much, and just read it for a book instead of reading it as something to be analysed.  

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 is the chapter we have been assigned to write about for the class essay that sort of turned into a homework. I found the lesson we spent trying to find quotes and stuff useful for writing the essay because it gave me ideas from other people when if I had just had to write the essay on my own at home I would have been totally clueless and winging it! Chapter 10 is the chapter where Amir is remembering how he and Baba got out of Afghanistan and the journey out. I think it is quite an important chapter because it shows Amir's frustration with how his father behaves, not just his admiration, like when Amir clamped 'a hand on his thigh' because his father was being a hero but in a situation where it could get him killed. Amir wants to be like his dad but not when it would put him in danger, which reflects on his reaction to what happened to Hassan.