Post your follow-up comments about the Thursday,April 24 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.
3 comments:
In the Socratic seminar today on The Kite Runner, the main topic that was brought up included Amir being the one person who could have stopped Assef and his disciples from torturing Hassan. Amir was questioned during the discussion if he actually was noticed by Hassan and it was confirmed that he was seen. There were many events that occurred during this scene that altered the story quite a bit. Amir never helps Hassan during this scene but he also thinks back to how Hassan always helps Amir from all the times he got in trouble. One dream he had played out a scene where the entire world was covered in snow and Amir was weak and fell into the ground. The only person that helped him up was a badly hurt person, Hassan. When Hassan was being raped, he was scared by Assef and is unable to get back to normalcy through almost the rest of chapter eight. There was a lot of questioning about why Hassan didn’t fight back when he was getting harassed. There was a part in the book where Amir was comparing Hassan with a lamb that was helpless and all that it could do was surrender and let the superior take control. Rape in this scene was not about sexuality but about superiority and showing dominance to Hassan.
This dominance was portrayed through the eyes of Assef; comparing himself with Hitler. Earlier in the book, Assef mentioned that Hitler was the Supreme Being and in the discussion, it was established that Assef wanted to resemble Hitler. He says how he hates Hazaras and wants to show them whose leader. Assef raped Hassan without feeling any regret but he wanted Hassan to feel ashamed and never forget the lesson he was taught. In the seminar, the group also talked about how Hassan and Amir leave Baba’s house to keep Hassan safe from Amir.
In the seminar today about The Kite Runner chapters 6-9, the main subject was when Hassan was raped. There was a long talk about why Assef did in fact rape Hassan. Was it a sexual act in which Assef is homosexual or was it because Assef wanted to be in dominance of Hassan and it was a power hungry act? And why didn't they just beat Hassan up? Why did they have to take it to the extreme of rape? The class agreed on that it was so Assef was shown to have the control and the power over everything. He wanted to be like his role model, Hitler which he often mentioned when the two groups had an encounter with each other earlier in the book. Also, did Hassan see Amir watching? And the question was brought up about when the rape was occurring, why Amir kept thinking about dreams and memories? The group discussed how he was thinking about the dreams and memories just to get his mind off of what was happening to Hassan, and how poor Hassan was not fighting back. He says that Hassan is like the sheep that they kill on
Eid-e-Qorban, how the sheep doesn’t fight back just kicks a little bit. The group also talked about when Baba cried when Hassan and Ali left and what impact it had on the story. From then on, and sense Amir didn’t stick up for Hassan like Hassan had done so many times before for Amir, Amir’s life changes.
My first reaction to the end of this section was that a lot had happened already, but we are only one third of the way through the book, so I wonder what is going to happen between now and the end of the story.
I think that this is a very sad section of the book. Hassan always protected and stood up for Amir, but Hassan's presence haunted him, because it reminded him of what had happened when Hassan was raped. I understand why Amir wanted Hassan to leave, because he reminded him of his faults, and that Baba was right about him not being able to stand up for anything.
Baba had spent practically his whole life with Ali, but it wasn't clear why he was so upset about Ali and Hassan leaving. The book says that Baba never refered to Ali as his "friend", and to Baba's knowlege, Hassan did commit the unforgivable sin of stealing. For a man that believes there is only one sin: stealing, why is he so willing to forgive? Why was Hassan willing to sacrifice so much for Amir?
Amir took advantage of Hassan's loyalty and loving friendship. I think he set Hassan up to get caught stealing because he was trying to get the burden off his shoulders; the burden of seeing what happened to Hassan, not doing anything about it, and keeping it a secret.
I think Amir subconsciously believed or wanted one of two things to happen: either that Baba would kick Ali and Hassan out of the house, which would relieve Amir's anxiety because Hassan wouldn't be around any more, or Hassan would deny that he had stolen anything, and everything would unravel because, "If he'd said no, Baba would have believed him because we all knew Hassan never lied. And if Baba believed him, then I'd be the accused: I would have to explain and I would be revealed for what I really was."
I blame Baba for inadvertantly making Amir feel that he was never worthy, or that he had to hide things. I think he is the cause of this big complicated mess because of how Amir feels about himself, always second guessing himself.
Since Hassan told Ali everything, I think Ali became aware of how much Amir had hurt and taken advantage of Hassan, so that's why he said it was impossible for them to continue living there.
Amir thought, "strangely, I was glad that someone knew me for who I really was: I was tired of pretending." I don't think that Amir had really thought everything through, and he deeply regretted this outcome.
Post a Comment