Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Kite Runner Ch 10-13
Post your follow-up comments about the Wednesday, April 30 discussion of The Kite Runner here. If you were assigned the observer task of blogging, write a brief summary of the discussion's main ideas. If you are blogging voluntarily, try to add comments that extend the discussion; do not just repeat was was already said.
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It seems to me that this section of the book, chapters 10-13, is more of an interlude that just fills in and tells what happens to Amir in the years between the start and finish of the *real* story.
Amir is very observant and notices every detail of Soraya's face when he sees her for the first time. I think he is a little over-infatuated for only seeing her carry coffee, and then sit down amongst a box of old records and paperback books, even though he denies interest when Baba asks if she had made an impression on Amir. I have a feeling that Baba knew from the very first time Amir and Soraya met that Amir liked her, and that she was going to be the one he would want to marry.
I thought it was very interesting and odd that even though they were in America and had lived there for several years already, it was still very prevalent and important that things were done in a formal, and proper Afghan way. For example, when Amir talked to Soraya, he was teetering on the edge of scandalous, since he always talked to her when her father wasn't around. Even though her mother was right there and was involved in their conversations, not to mention that they were both in their early 20's, it was still improper to talk without their parent's permission.
Another thing I noticed was that in the Afghan community, girls don't really get much say in who they are going to marry. The young man is the one who expresses interest to their father, who will then go and ask the girl's father. The girl's father is the one who makes the decision of whether or not the "suitor" has a worthy family background, and gives the final yay or nay regardless of whether his daughter likes the suitor or not.
The thing that I thought was the most important from this entire section was on pg. 142, when Baba says, "It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime, Amir." I think this quote just really ties in everything that has happened in the story so far. The ONE day in the alley changed both Hassan and Amir's entire lives. THE DAY the King's reign in Afghanistan ended in a coup, led to all of that country's governmental troubles, and changed the lives of thousands. THE DAY that Baba decided that they were going to go to America changed the course of Amir's life. THE DAY that Soraya asked Ziba, her hired help, if she wanted to learn how to read and write forever changed her life because from then on she knew she wanted to be a teacher. THE DAYS when Soraya was 18 that she spent with an Afghan man affected the course of her life because she said "I have to have my face rubbed in it for the rest of my life," and because for a long while after that no suitors had come her way until Amir. I have a feeling that Baba had some life altering days that we don't know about yet since he is the one who said this quote.
I think that a big reason why Amir was OK with Soraya's past is because he had a past of his own, and he didn't want to be judgmental especially since he had been running away from being judged about what he had done his whole life. I do want to know if Amir ever told Soraya about everything that had happened, because I don't think the book ever specifically says if he tells her his story, just that she told him hers.
Lastly I thought that the author, from the time when Amir is little to when Baba dies, did a really good job of progressively ageing Baba just by the little things that are said throughout this section.
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