Introduction to poetry

I chose to do the type of poetry I did for certain reasons for each one. I chose to do The Dusty Old Picture because that picture is from a long time ago, or so it seems. I wrote that poem because it reminds me of happier times of my childhood when my parents were together. I wrote the poem about sight because I don't like how people think that you can only see with your eyes because that's not true. People that are blind use their hands, feet, and imagination to see so I thought it would be nice to write a poem about that. I wrote about redemption because reading this book it seems like redemption is a major theme so I created an ode to show how important it is. I chouse Amir for the Bio poem because he's the main character, and he's kind of a complicated character so I thought a poem might help make him less complex. The ballad I just highlighted some of the points that I thought were important in the novel. For the found poem I picked a passage that I thought has real significance to an event in the novel. The passage I took for it is right before Hassan get's raped because it explains why Assef does that, and what Amir has going through his head before, and during while he's witnessing that happen for the topic of your choice poem For the topic of your choice poem I wrote a free verse poem about forgetting because Amir wants to try, and forget what he did to Hassan throughout the novel. Lastly for my final reflection I wrote a free verse poem about Hassan, and Amir, but it's mostly about Amir, and how he goes through life with the regret of what he did to Hassan.

Assignment #3

1. The message that I got from this book is that people need to live life to the fullest. People need to go through life without any regrets, or wishing things came out differently. Also that redemption is hard to do, but is always worth it in the end. Also that no matter what life throws at you you always have to be prepared for it because you never know how it's going to end until you get there.
2. This book was written for anyone who has ever had doubts about their place in the world, and if they've ever betrayed a friend how it can feel in the long run. Basically this book is written for almost everyone.
3. I think that the author was successful in getting the point across because he kept having Amir going through life living with regrets, and not really prepared for anything that life threw at him, and he kept getting a lot of bumps, and bruises so to speak along the way. He kept on having to learn a lot of lessons about life multiple time to get it threw his head. So just realizing that the message was there to help people go through a little easier, and not like Amir which is quite a bumpy road is very successful in getting across.
4. I think a friend should read this novel because it may go little slow which makes the book drag on forever, but it has all kinds of lessons from life in it. It opens people's eyes to the actual world, and makes it so they have to come out of their cozy little bubbles that they call their comfort zones. This book takes it slow, but is packed with lessons, and tips on life more than many of the books I read in my life so far. I think that everyone who is in highschool, and up should read this book.
5. This novel did help me because it opened my eyes to more of what life is like in other parts of the world, and it also taught me that some things are worth the fall, bruises, etc, and some things just aren't even worth it at all so pick which battles are worth them carefully because you don't know whether you are wrong or right until it maybe to late to fix it.

Blog 8

Amir is with his his half nephew Sohrab in the park during the kite tournament. Sohrab has a green kite to fly in the tournament, and Amir is going to be the kite runner for him. Amir is as happy as can be even though the ironic part is that besides the green kite, and him running it's just like when Hassan, and Amir were in the kite tournament together, and Hassan ran the kite. This quote shows what Amir is thinking while he's running the kite for Sohrab. " I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn't care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran." (371) Amir is extremely happy just to be running the kite for his nephew, and his happiness can't be described in no less than a million words. This quote is significant because of the fact that when he's a kid Hassan is the kite runner, and is running his blue kite for him, and now he's a grown man and is the kite runner for his nephew's green kite. This quote just takes the book back into a full circle, but with a happier ending.

Blog 7

Amir is looking at a photo of Hassan from when he was a kid, and reading a letter from Rahim Khan. Amir starts thinking about what is said in the letter, and trying to decipher what is what, and who is who in the letter. This quote states what his final outcome of the letter is "I had been the entitles half, the society-approved, legitament half, the unwitting embodiment of Baba's guilt. I looked at Hassan...The half who had inheritedwhat had been pure and noble in Baba. The half that, maybe, in the most secret recesses of his heart, Baba had thought of as his true son." (359) This quote is significant because it shows that Amir is doubting his place in his father's heart, and thinking that Hassan is who Baba thought to be his real son. Amir is putting himself down in this quote because he thinks that Hassan is more important to Baba then he is, and that's not true because if Baba didn't think of Amir as his true son then he wouldn't have asked the Soraya's father for her hand in marriage for Amir. Amir needs to believe that he does hold a special place in Baba's heart, and so does Hassan because Hassan is Ali's son and Baba and Ali were friends for forty-years. Amir is an imprtant person to Baba, but he starts to doubt it with looking at one picture, and reading one letter.

Blog 6

Soraya, and Amir are now officially a married couple even though they skip a head by a few months since Baba has cancer, and doesn't have much time left to live. Soraya confides in Amir no matter what she has to say to him he doesn't regret marrying her at all. Eventually Amir asks her not to talk about the past anymore not because he doesn't like to hear about her past, but because listening to her past brings up memories from his own past. She agrees to not talk about her past anymore to keep Amir happy, and because she doesn't mind not talking about it. She tells Amir that she's glad that she's found him because he's different from other Afghan men which get's Amir wondering why he's so different from them. This quote shows the biggest reason why he believes he's so differen. "But I think a big part of the reason I didn't care about Soraya's past was that I had one of my own. I knew all about regret." (180) He doesn't care about her past because her past is basically all about her regreting something that she did, and Amir knows exactly what living with regret feels like because he regrets what he did to Hassan, and wrecking Ali, and Baba's forty-year relationship. He has been regreting for awhile now, and he just can't seem to find a way to forget about everything that has to deal with that. Soraya's past, and her regret always brings back memories of Hassan for Amir because those memories are strong representations of that emotion.

Blog 5

Amir, and Soraya are now going to settle down since the general who's Soraya's father, and Baba agree on it. Soraya wants to talk to Amir about something before they get married first though. When Amir arrives Soraya tells him her secret about how she ran away from home with an Afghan man that's into drugs. She tells Amir how she lived with him for about a month, and how when Padar makes her go home she screams, and becomes hysterical because she didn't want to go home. When she does go home though she saw her mother had a stroke, and how she felt so guilty after that. Amir tells her that her secret bugs him a little, but he still wants to marry her. This quote shows how Amir actually feels about her secret. "I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with. I opened my mouth and almost told her how I'd betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out, and destroyed a forty-year relationship between Baba and Ali..." (165). This quote is significant because it proves that Amir hasn't forgotten about how he betrayed Hassan. It shows how one person's secret can make another person remember one of their own. Soraya felt guilty about what she did after finding out her mother had a stroke, and Amir felt guilty after witnessing it, and not saying anything knowing that Hassan would've spoken up if the positions were switched. People can try to forget about the past, but they truly can't forget it because it's always going to find a way back to haunt them just like Amir's memory of Hassan does.

Blog 4

Amir is grown up now, and is attending college to become a writer. Baba doesn't approve of this, but Amir truly believes that he's meant to be a writer, and if he doesn't get discovered then he'll get a job, finish college, and keep writing. There is also another thing that he wants to do, and that is to settle down, and start a family. The girl that he wants to marry because he's madly in love with her is Soraya Taheri the general's daughter. The one problem is that she won't settle down because she hasn't met a suitable suitor. Amir believes that he's a suitable suitor for Soraya, and uses every excuse possible to talk to her, or walk by her. This quote shows how much he is in love with Soraya. "...I read in my poetry books that yelda was the starless night tormented lovers kept vigil, enduring the endless dark, waiting for the sun to rise and bring their loved one. After I met Soraya Taheri, every night of the week became a yelda for me. And when Sunday mornings came, I rose from bed, Soraya Taheri's brown-eyed face already in my head. In Baba's bus, I counted the miles until I'd see her sitting barefoot, arranging cardboard boxes of yellowed encyclopedias, her heels white against the asphalt, silver bracelets jingling around her slender wrists. I'd think of the shadow her hair cast on the ground when it slid off her back and hung down like a velvet curtain. Soraya. Swap Meet Princess. The morning sun to my yelda." (143-144) This quote is significant because it shows that Amir is moving on with his life, and not looking back on the past. Soraya is replacing all the bad memories with good ones especially the one Amir has of Assef raping Hassan. His love for Soraya is like Romeo's love for Juilet it's almost as complicated, and it's just as true. This quote shows that Amir is maturing into an adult who can think for himself, follows their dreams, and follows their heart. It shows that Amir is not even bothering to stop, and think about whether leaving Hassan, and being a coward was the right choice, and how it affects him now as an adult instead he looks forward into what he hopes is a bright future with Soraya.

Blog 3

Amir, and his father Baba left their home to go to Peshawar, Pakistan. They want a better life so they dicide to travel there by truck, but when they get to the place where the truck is suppose to pick them up they find out that the truck is broken, and needs to be rapaired. So Baba, and Amir spend the next two weeks at the place waiting for the truck to come only to have Karim another person waiting for the truck tell them that the truck is broken beyond repair, but the driver's cousin is in town with a fuel truck, and can smuggle them into Peshawar. This quote shows what the truck is like through Amir's point of view, "The air wasn't right, it was too thick, almost solid. Air wasn't supposed to be solid. I wanted to reach out with my hands, crush the air into pieces, stuff them down my windpipe. And the stench of gasoline. My eyes stung from the fumes, like someone had peeled my eye lids back and rubbed a lemon on them. My nose caught fire with each breath. You could die in a place like this, I thought." (121-122) This quote is significant because Amir, and Baba spend a lot of time in this environment so much that when they can finally get out Amir doesn't even know the date. Amir, and Baba sort of coonnect on this long trip which is what Amir wants more than anything in the universe. Baba stays with Amir through out the whole trip, and tells him to think of something good, and happy in hopes that Amir might catch some sleep. Through out the ride people were vomiting everywhere, and Karim's son Kamal actually dies from all of these problems with the air in the back of the truck so Amir is extremely thankful that he doesn't die from all the hazardous air in the back of the truck. Just like when people get into really bad accident their friends, and families are extrmely thankful that they aren't hurt, or even the soldiers that are fighting in the war when they come back safe, and sound their families are thankful that they aren't hurt just like Amir is thankful he doesn't die.

Blog 1

Amir, and Hassan are two typical kids that like to cause all kinds of trouble. Amir likes to cause trouble more than Hassan, but Hassan will do anything that Amir asks him to because he's Amir's friend, and doesn't want Amir to hate him. Hassan, and his dad live in a shack on Amir's property because Hassan's dad is Amir's family servant. Well these two kids like to pick on a poor defenseless one-eyed german shepard that belongs to Amir's neighbor even though Hassan's father Ali tells them over, and over not to pick on the dog. Ali normally tells the boys the samething over and over after he catches them causing trouble. This is what Ali tells them, "He would take the mirror and tell us what his mother had told him, that the devil shone mirrors too, shone them to distract Muslims from prayer. "And he laughs while he does it," he always added. scowling at his son." (4) This quote is significant because it shows that Ali can just tell Amir that what he's doing is bad and wrong, but he really can't control Amir. Hassan normally is the one that get's the scowl, and he doesn't complain about it because he knows that Amir really can't get in trouble by Ali. Many kids, and parents can relate to this quote because whenever children get into trouble parents normally go on about how when they were kids how they wouldn't have gotten away with what the children did, etc. To the kids it's just a warning, and then they'll most likely go, and do it all over again. Amir, and Hassan are friends that are from two different worlds because Hassan's family is Amir's family servants so they are basically from two different worlds like parents and kids at times.

Blog 2

Hassan, and Amir just participated in a kite flying tournament where Hassan is the kite runner using Amir's blue kite. Hassan is a Hazara, and most of the people that live in Amir's town are racist towards Hazaras. People like Assef who's the same age as Amir, and Hassan is a regular kid who thinks that he's better than everyone else especially the Hazaras. So when Hassan insults Assef he decides to get even with Hassan in the most brutal way possible. This quote tells what he does to Hassan, "Assef knelt behind Hassan, put his hands on Hassan's hips and lifted his bare buttocks. He kept one hand on Hassan's back and undid his own belt buckle with his free hand. He unzipped his jeans. Dropped his underwear. He positioned himself behind Hassan. Hassan didn't struggle. Didn't even whimper. He moved his head slightly and I caught a glimpse of his face. Saw the resignation in it. It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb." (75-76) This quote is significant because it shows how racist people in this town are to Hazara's. Assef only did this to Hassan because he's a Hazara, and because Hassan stood up to Assef to protect himself before. People in this town are almost if not as racist as back in the Civil War era, and before that when African Americans were thought of as less than. This kind of treatment is unacceptable no matter what happens this treatment is heartless behavior even for revenge. Racism in this town is horrible because Assef rapes Hassan just because he defends himself, and is of a different race. Amir doesn't speak out to help his friend at all, and sadly that still happens today because people think that if they speak out the person that commits the rape is going to come after them so they just ignore it, and say that they didn't see anything just like Amir does.