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....