Christmas Holiday Blog- The Theme of Redemption in TKR

Ok, so me and Steph have worked on 10 ideas of where and how redemption appears throughout the novel, and we're writing up 5 of the ideas each (Mr Francis, if we needed to do 10 each then please comment on here and tell me!). Just to let you know, the ideas are absolutely not in any order at all. So, here we go, 5 examples of redemption.....

1. When Amir puts money under Farid's mattress- shown in the quote 'fistful of crumpled money under a mattress'. This mirrors the way Amir set Hassan up to drive him out of the house in Kabul. It is the first real act of kindness on Amir's part, and we know that he does it because he is trying to redeem what he did to Hassan. The reader realises he is becoming a good person who is capable of redeeming himself.

2. Amir accepts being beaten up by Assef in order to save Sohrab- as Assef almost kills him, Amir begins to laugh, because 'for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace'. This laughter shows that Amir felt he is finally being punished for not preventing the rape, and can finally feel redeemed by saving Sohrab, 'we made it outside... my arm around Sohrab's shoulder'.

3. Farid's change of character- Farid originally dismisses Amir as someone who is only coming back to 'sell off your Baba's land? Pocket the money..?' but later finds out that he's actually saving Sohrab. After this Farid warms to Amir in an attempt to redeem his previous cold attitude towards him. His 'voice... lost the rough edge' and he dutifully decides to 'help you find this boy'.

4. Baba redeems his lack of support for Amir- after they move to America, Baba finally becomes proud of Amir's writing talents, for example when Amir graduates Baba says 'I am moftakhir, Amir. Proud.' Also Baba tells people 'Amir is going to be a great writer', and the night of Baba's death Amir catches him asking Soraya to read Amir's stories to him. This is a way in which Baba has redeemed himself for being so dismissive and disappointed with Amir's talent throughout his childhood. Baba may not redeem the way he practically ignored Amir for his entire childhood, but he does redeem his lack of support for Amir.

5. The end of the novel when Amir runs the kite for Sohrab- Amir says 'I ran', mirroring his act of running away from the rape scene in 1975, but this time he is running for a good, selfless reason. When Amir looks at Sohrab and sees 'A smile', this seems to be the moment that redemption is complete, because up until then Amir has managed to save Sohrab, but not make him feel happy. Amir is finally running towards the future, rather than the way he used to run away from anything he could not cope with.

My other task is to comment on the other themes people have worked on, and give an extra idea to what they have given. I'll do that once everyone has posted their work :)

Lesson 16/12

We officially finished The Kite Runner today!
I have to say, it's definitely one of my favourite books. I think that (unlike most people) I start to like texts even more after analysing them, rather than getting bored of them :)
I shall be posting soon(ish) to tell the world all about the theme of redemption throughout the text...

Lesson 26/11

We've been asked to write down some quotes to show Assef's evil, irredeemable character.... I wrote a lot down on paper, so here I'll just put up some of the ones from chapters 21 and 22:
'We listen to what God says... WE SHALL THROW THE STONES BACK!'- uses religion as an excuse to kill people
'You enjoyed the show today?'- takes pleasure from stoning people
'You don't know the meaning of the word 'liberating' until you've done that... let the bullets fly'- excited by death and killing, has a twisted understanding of the word liberating
'His hands slid down the child's back', and 'kissed the side of Sohrab's neck' -disgusting imagery, the reader knows he rapes children
'a half-Hazara, half-Uzbek thing'- doesn't accept some religious groups as people
'ethnic cleansing. I like it'- has become even more like Hitler as he's grown up
'I didn't say you could take him for free... you have to earn him'- likes toying with his victims, makes everything dramatic
'Let him watch. Lessons are good things for boys'- likes to corrupt children's innocence

You're.............. Lesson 24/11

Bright as fresh grass. A green-glass open window
Letting in spring air. A lamb to the slaughter
Sacred and pure. Soft snow falls, white as your fleece.
Easily dirtied, robbed of virtue.
A fruit tree sheltering, a home of companionship.
A comforting blanket, others warm to your smile.
Devoted like the sunrise, never failing, never absent.
The past. Some say a dog without a master.
Gone. A distant but clung-to memory.
A buzzing bee, bundle of joy.
An embrace, protecting against winter winds.
The second chance, the son, redeem.
A tree branch with etched, childish letters.
A sultan of Kabul.

Lesson 17/10

So, chapter 22....
Two areas of focus for today's post: Assef's character and how the chapter is written ('especially the end bit').

Assef's character:
'John Lennon glasses'- Western reference shows the out of place wealth of the Taliban- the real Afghans are poor and suffering.
'marks on his forearm'- Assef is obviously frequently abuses drugs, which once again shows the hypocrisy of the Taliban, because their aims are supposed to be to help make the country pure.
'You don't understand the meaning of the word 'liberating'.... let the bullets fly... breathtaking.'- the reader is disgusted by how excited Assef gets as he talks about killing people. This shows his character as malicious and insane.
'Would you like to see my boy?'- likes the thought of having ownership of a child- perverse.
'His hands slid down the child's back'- this makes the reader uncomfortable as we know Assef  is not phased by sexually abusing children.
'Amir jan'- the use of jan here is ironic because he's addressing Amir in a fond manner when he obviously wants to kill him. This makes Assef all the more frightening as we remember how polite he appeared to Baba when he was younger, when actually he is planning evil things. He also seems to be toying with Amir here.
'Ethnic cleansing. I like it'- reminds us of the young Assef aspiring to Hitler's actions- now he's become very much like Hitler in character.


All the quotes above help to describe what Assef is like, and so throughout the chapter we learn more and more about what he's been up to since 1975- and we learn more and more that he has become even more evil and dangerous since then.

So, the end bit of the chapter:
Foreshadowing is used by Hosseini in Amir's narrative as we find out something important happens at the end of the chapter- 'I remember... the end of course... I always will.' This creates tension and suspense, and later on so does 'Then the end. That, I'll take to my grave:' which makes the reader want to read on. What actually happens is pretty shocking and very graphic- for example 'vitreous fluid' is mentioned, and the reader is prepared for this because something even more major than Amir being beaten has to happen for him to actually manage to escape. Hosseini has already shown that Amir will escape with his life, because Hosseini has used a jump forwards in time to tell us Amir survives- 'I think I gave him a good fight'. The way that Amir escapes is pretty unexpected- Sohrab saves him. the point when Amir speaks of 'Sohrab's little hand in mine' shows the reader the horrific things children of Afghanistan have to endure, but what I find most interesting about this sentence is that Sohrab doesn't ever show this much affection to Amir again... This shows how desperate Sohrab was to escape.

Lesson 12/11

Today we looked at Chapter 19. Here are the things that I found most interesting:

1. Amir's change in character-there are lots of examples in this chapter of how Amir's character is strengthening, for example he copes with 'the car-sickness'-something he never previously managed, even when he was 18. Also he is becoming less of a push-over, as when Farid 'snickered' Amir presses him for a reason why; 'No, I want to know. Why do you do that?'. When Amir was a child he never stood up for himself-or others-but he is beginning to now. Another positive change in character is that he's becoming more honest- 'There had been enough lies already'.
2. Hosseini uses setting in immense proportions to enhance the narrative in this bewilderingly inspiring and literary section of this marvel of a novel. The best example is Farid's guess at what Amir's house looks like- 'Three storey...nice backyard...fruit trees...American car...servants'. This guess is actually the truth, which shows the reader that Amir had a sheltered childhood. Farid's guess is mirrored later on, during the description of his own house- 'one storey', 'dirt road', 'leafless poplars', and 'broken mud walls'. This mirroring accentuates the contrast in wealth and upbringing of Amir and Farid, making the reader empathise with Farid. Also the fact that the real Afghanistan was hidden from Amir as a child suggests that the truth was also hidden from the reader.

 The final lines of the chapter sparked my interest somewhat. Planting 'a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress' mirrors the way Amir set Hassan up, in a way that shows an improvement in Amir's character. This first act of redemption mirrors his last act of sin.   

Lesson 10/11/10

So, today's lesson was all about Hosseini's use of voices in chapters 16 and 17. Here were the things I found most interesting things.....
 1. Chapter 16 seems to be a bit like an introduction into the second half of the novel... Partly because it's back into the time frame we had at the beginning of the novel, and partly because what happens either side of the chapter is Amir's sin, and Amir's redemption.
  2. The different voices Hosseini uses throughout both chapters changes the way that the reader interprets the mood and atmosphere of the chapters. So for example, chapter 16 is told by Rahim Khan- there is a switch in narration. This means that Rahim's story is coming directly from himself, rather than through Amir first, so all the bias of having a 1st person narrator to tell his story through (i.e Amir), Rahim IS the 'first person', so no details are missed out, no facts misinterpreted. This could be a pretty sneaky trick used by Hosseini to show that Amir often manages to conceal or reject the full story.
 3. I really liked the way Hosseini managed to incorporate Hassan's voice into chapter 17 through a letter. It meant (like with Rahim) the reader knows just as much as Amir, rather than having to guess some of the things that he'd rather not mention. The pure innocence demonstrated through the letter, as well as the never-failing devotion of Hassan to Amir, makes it even worse when we learn about Hassan's death.


INTERESTING POINT- when Rahim breaks the news that Hassan is in fact Amir's brother, something very interesting has to happen. Very early on in Rahim's confession, when all he's admitted is that Ali couldn't have children, Amir 'began to see where this was going'. He catches on so quickly that the idea comes to mind that maybe deep down, Amir already knew Hassan was his brother. Hmmm....

Lesson 20/10

Ok so part of today's lesson was reading chapter seven.... the rape scene. Not very nice, but a really cool bit of literature from Hosseini.

He uses loads of foreshadowing of the rape, e.g:
 'reports of a fight breaking out'- violence is present and fairly accepted on the day of the tournament
'blood trickled... blotted my finger against my jeans'... like the bloodstain on Hassan's corduroy trousers
'Cut him! Cut him!'- the neighbourhood urging the violent atmosphere along
'shadows started to lengthen'- connotation of bad things happening in darkness

 There's also loads of irony in the fact that the event, winning the tournament, results in the 'greatest moment of my twelve years of life' for the present Amir, is the same event that results in Hassan getting raped, and therefore Amir's worst moment in life.

So much more, but I'll write it aaaall in the essay :)

Lesson 15/10

 Today was tres bon! My favourite parts of Chapeter Five:
1. I realised from the quote 'Hassan was crying. Ali pulled him close, clutched him with tenderness' that Ali and Hassan's relationship is the perfect opposite to the relationship Amir and Baba have, and Hosseini probably did this to make Amir's lack of attention from Baba seem all the more sad, and so the reader feels sorry for Amir.

2. I also liked that descriptions of Baba in chapter three, 'towering Pashtun specimen' are used again for Assef in chapter five, 'towered over the other kids'. This contrast could be used to show how somebody dominating and powerful can use it these characteristics to be kind (like Baba) or evil (like Assef). However, the same description used for them both could also be used to suggest that the two characters aren't that dissimilar... And that if you're dominating in society, you will be able to easily hurt people (in Amir's case with Baba and Hassan's case with Assef). Hmmm. Interesting stuff.

Lesson 13/10

My favourite quotes about Baba's character from chapter 3:
1. 'I could never tell Baba from the bear'.... raises the question about whether Amir means that he admires his father, thinks his father is strong and powerful, or fears his father? Or all three??
2.'I mean to speak to you man to man. Do you think you can handle that for once?' ...........Baba seems to treat Amir quite harshly, and doesn't seem to give him much of a chance to prove himself before becoming impatient. However, this seems to only be towards Amir- noone else who knows him receives that kind of harshness. A key point of Baba's personality.
3.'I wasn't like that'.... shows his desperation in trying to make Amir more like himself. Suggests he's not a brilliant father if he's doesn't love Amir for the individual that he is.

Overall Baba seems to be an intelligent, kind, generous man... to everyone except Amir.

Lesson 9/10

Today was good because I liked analysing chapter 2 of T.K.R...... massive amounts of foreshadowing were revealed that I definitely haven't noticed before!

Research into Russians in Afghanistan

Well. In Christmas 1979, Russian troops invaded Kabul (the capital of Afghanistan).
Reasons:
              -The Soviet people were told that they were going to liberate Afghan communists.
              -The Soviet Union wanted better access to the Indian Ocean for trade and their naval fleet. Control of Afghanistan would make trade with India and the Middle East easier.
              -Afghanistan has important natural resources such as: natural gas, uranium, iron ore and copper; all which the Soviets wanted.

The Russians claimed they had been invited in to support the 'legitimate' government, lead by prime minister Hazifullah Amin. He led a communist based government, a belief which rejects religion, which explains the discontent among the Afghans. The Afghans formed a group which they called the Mujahideen, who declared jihad to overthrow the government. The Soviet government called the Mujahideen 'Islamic Extremists'

 In 1979 Amin was shot by the Russians, and replaced by Babrak Kamal. Many Afghan soldiers had deserted to the Mujahideen, so 85,000 Russian soldiers were needed to keep Kamal in power.

However, the Afghans knew the surrounding countryside extremely well, so although the Russians resorted to napalm and poisonous gas, they could not eradicate the Mujahideen, and by 1982 the Mujahideen controlled 75% of Afghanistan. The Russians then left, because their weak economy was being crippled by the massive expense of the troops in Afghanistan. By the end of the 1980s, the Mujahideen had started war with itself as the Taliban began to gain power.

Lesson 1/10

The best thing about Friday's lesson was probably reading more Enduring Love extracts.... Good book! I've also researched the Pashtuns and the Hazara, and found out some pretty interesting stuff about the conflicts between the two groups, which gives a bit of useful background to the Kite Runner... I've printed it off on a sheet rather than blogging it because it's useful to keep research in my folder.

Lesson 24/9

The most interesting thing for me about today's lesson was probably when we looked at the extract from 'Birdsong', which read 'Prologue. 1948. Before'.... I learned that tension can be created at the very beginning of the book through the simplest of methods- foreshadowing. It made me want to go and find 'Birdsong' and find out what the plot was leading to... :)

The Scrumpled Paper Ball- 5 reasons it could be significant in a novel

I've thought of 5storylines that give the piece of paper a significance. (I think that's what we were supposed to do!?)

The piece of paper could be......

1. A discarded paper aeroplane that the teacher has crumpled up and thrown over their shoulder in disgust after being hit in the face by it. The entire (imaginary) novel is about a boy who longs for independence and freedom. The paper aeroplane is symbolism of his freedom, and how it is crushed by people more powerful than him.

2. A list titled 'The Hate List' written by the main character (a boy)'s sister. The story begins with the siblings arguing in the corridor at school- things get heated and the boy shouts 'well, at least it's not my fault Mum's dead'. the girl runs into an empty classroom crying, and writes the list, which is actually just the boy's name over and over again. A strict teacher walks into the room and snaps that the girl shouldn't be inside at break. As the girl walks out of the room, she scrumples up the list and throws it into a corner.

3. A printed out picture of the Queen. The novel is about a schizophrenic English teacher who is fired at the beginning of the story for bringing in darts and getting children to aim for the picture of the Queen that was pinned to his noticeboard. The heated debate between himself and the headmistress ends in the headmistress screaming at him to leave the premises and never return, and before he leaves he tears down the picture and throws it at the headmistress. The novel is about how he is recruited by an extremist group to assassinate the Queen- his schizophrenia means that half the time he worships the royal family and half the time he detests them.

4. A paper 'bullet' leftover from an alien invasion. The aliens come from Planet Paper, and aim to take over the world by paper cutting every human being to death. Unfortunately the aliens were not aware that humans had invented the paper shredder, and after not very long, the few remaining ships fled. One 'bombing' had taken place at a school, and one of the 'bullets' from the ships had entered the classroom through an open window.

5. A piece of paper ripped from a child's exercise book. The novel could be about a cleaner at a school who had aspirations to become an author, but didn't do very well at school, and with no A-levels, no publishers will even consider reading her work. The cleaner enjoys cleaning out the English classrooms, because when no-one else is around she gets out the childrens' exercise books and reads the stories they've made up. Every now and then she writes little comments in the books pretending to be the teacher, in order to help the children to improve. In this particular scene, she reads a story titled 'Failure', the plot being an exact recount of her life. She rips out the page, scrumples it up and throws it on the floor, then runs out of the room home to her computer, determined to write a letter of persuasion to make the publishers read her work (which ends up being a best-seller at the end of the novel).

Lesson 22/9

So today's lesson was all about structure....
I thought the best part of the lesson was probably when we did the comic strip story thing- it was interesting because I understood the idea that a big factor in writing a successful novel is deciding what order to tell the story in- authors need to think through the entire story in chronological order, and then mix up the order in the best way for the audience to stay interested and for the plot to unravel.

More About The Pipe

I just researched the picture, and found out that it was created by a French artist who wanted to show that although it WAS a painting of a pipe, it wasn't actually a pipe- to explain this he said 'could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation'. I think the link this has to the Kite Runner could be that the book isn't actually what it first appears to be- you have to research into it's background to fully understand what it's about.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Ok so Mr Francis has told us that the phrase 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' and the picture of a pipe is something to do with what we're going to be doing next lesson... He also said that next lesson we'll be starting work on the Kite Runner. The phrase is French for 'this is not a pipe'. I reckon that the pipe represents the Kite Runner, or any piece of literature, because in the subject English Lit you can say your opinion and not be wrong- so long as you justify your answer. So it isn't wrong to say 'this is not a pipe' because if you justify it with thoughtful enough reasons, you'll get the marks in the exam. And there are so many possible interpretations of everything (which we'll hopefully discover whilst studying the Kite Runner).

That hopefully made some sense.