You're....

trying to write a poem!

On Wednesday it was really fun as we looked at the poem 'You're' by Sylvia Plath, which is all about how the narrator feels towards someone; personally i think it is about the narrator's child. Anyways, we took this poem structure and tried to re-create the same layout and style for ourselves, although this time we talked about one of the characters from the Kite Runner. Very clever :)

I, however, am not, and am struggling to write my poem to the same standard of my dogs' poem, let alone Sylvia Plath. And most of the lines that Miss very kindly said were good, we're stolen from the book.

So far i've got...

You're

my Chinese doll, chiselled from hardwood,

flourishing at Midday,

my harelipped kite runner,

my troubled mulberry seed.....

Now, i realise how shocking this is, and Miss asked for around 14 lines for next lesson, so i'll have another stab at it!

The first meeting...

So today was our first lesson with our supply teacher for the next two weeks, which was very nice :)

We spent the lesson talking about the main characters and the themes in the book. We decided that the main characters were Hassan, Amir and Baba...and Assef plays an important role as well. We also discussed the themes, and hopefully I can remember most of them to talk about with you all now:

1. Story telling - not only is the book one story, but there are lots of sub-stories throughout. Amir learns alot in this book through other people, just like the reader
2. Redemption - Amir tries to redeem himself for watching Hassan getting raped when he was 10 years old by finding and rescuing Sohrab
3. Pride - Baba has great pride in himself, and lacks pride for his son. Hassan also gets shot because he stood up to the Taliban, because he was right and telling the truth about the house
4. Friendship - The break of friendship between Amir and Hassan, and the friendship between Rahim and Baba
5. Love - Amir reaching out for love from Baba, and the love between Hassan and Amir as children, who turn out to be brothers
6. Guilt/shame - The shame of Amir throughout the book
7. Violence - The different types of violence throughout the book; emotional, sexual, verbal and physical all happened between Amir and Hassan, which drove them apart

I remember there being 8, but unfortunately i failed to remember it, sorry!

TOODLES.

Hosseini's story telling skills....

Well, I think Mr. Hosseini is very skilled in this chapter (chapter 22), because when I first read the book, I remember literally being like "nooooo" as soon as I realised Assef was back (I appreciate that I am a lot slower than all of you so I wont embarrass myself by telling you the point when I realised).

Hosseini uses foreshadowing to suggest that something bad is going to happen - "unaware that it would be the last bit of solid food i would eat for a long time". Further on in the chapter, Hosseini foreshadows that something bad is going to happen because of the way that Assef  acts around Sohrab; the way that "his hands slid down the child's back, then up, felt under his armpits". This also makes it very uncomfortable for the reader to read, which I suppose allows the reader to feel more involved in the story.

Also, Hosseini implies to the reader before Assef actually says anything that he is the 'baddy' in this chapter by subtly dropping echoes of Assef beforehand, the vulgur description of when he had a dried blood spot on his left sleeve and "he hadn't changed clothes after executions earlier that day", instantly reminds the reader of the previous bad character, Assef.

From page 249 onwards, the dialect becomes a lot more broken and sharp; Hosseini doing this to create tension and suspense. Also, just like throughout the whole book, when times get tough for Amir, Hosseini lets us know this by suddenly going off subject through Amir's thoughts. Even after the italics on page 251, the narration is slightly faded as Amir can't remember everything that has happened - for the first time in this book. By Hosseini doing this, it emphasises the reader just how brutal this chapter was as the memories stand out.

The last point I'm going to talk about today is symbolism. Earlier in the chapter Assef tells a story to Amir about when he was so unfairly beaten up, to the point where he burst out laughing - as if he was cured. This also happens to Amir in where he was so unfairly beaten up and he got to the point where he was laughing. However, Hosseini makes this happen to both characters to demonstrate the contrast in personalities. Assef realises he can become even more powerful, for the worse. But, Amir becomes cured of his weakness, and is no longer afraid.

TOODLE PIP - see what I did there?

The return of Assef....

Assef has got even nastier, if that's at all possible. Before Assef even is seen in Chapter 22, there are echoes of him throughout. Assef's description is horrible and slightly hypocritical; "I saw marks on his forearm - I'd seen those same tracks on homeless people living in grim alleys in San Francisco." Assef's a drug addict, a person who is looking after himself properly, is actually controlling thousands of people, and controlling them in a horrible way too! It's clear that Assef hasn't changed, and even though he is discriminating against thousands for their appearance, he still is different from everyone else - "his skin was much paler than the other two men's" and was "wearing his dark John Lennon glasses, looking like some broad-shouldered, New Age mystic guru." Assef has the same presence as he did before, making everybody petrified in just his body language - "I had a sudden urge to urinate."

I know I've only really talked about his appearance and briefly about his personality - but I'll talk about this is more detail in the other blog just to keep everyone smiling :)

TOODLES.

Ze beginning of change...

Wowza. Theres a lot to take in looking back over my notes. There is definitely a lot of mirroring, which i think is real clever because it must have taken ages to put all those hints in - impressed. I quite like Farid in this chapter because he gives Amir the reality check I think he needs to realise that he's got to stop feeling sorry for himself. I especially like the part of the chapter where he gives the children the watch but then... "They hadn't been staring at the watch at all. They'd been staring at my food." This shows Amir's ignorance and lack of understand about how most people in Afghanistan live their lives.

I also like the irony of Amir's fear becoming a strength - showing Amir starting to grow as he becomes aware that he has to deal with this, and can't carry on ignoring it. I am now going to cleverly back up my point with a quote such as "But I knew I had to leave as soon as possible. I was afraid I'd change my mind."


So yeah, onto the next bloggaty blog.

TOOOODLES.

Chapter 17 - Just like I will be in 33 days (without the chapter part)....

I dont actually mind you reading this one out... probably change my mind after i've pressed 'publish post' though.

I think that chapter 17 is becoming one of my faveeee chapters. It's full of sentences that are written really well and make me jealous that i can't write like that - although this blog is pretty fine, if I do say so myself. Hassan still appears so cute that I want to go up and give him a cuddle and tell him it'll all be ok, but then he gets shot.

(awkward silence turtle)

Although Amir is in a way the bad character of the book, we all have a bit of a soft spot of him. But i lost it in this chapter. NAUGHTY AMIR. He's soooo annoying i want to tell him to get a grip. All he can think of is himself and he's still hooked (is that the word?) up on the idea that he has a 'secret' brother, not the fact that his brother just died. Why would you think like that? I have no answers.

I do apologise sincerely that this blog isn't the least bit serious, but my draft of this one was so intense i scared myself.

TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODLES (PLEASE SAY THIS PROPERLY)

Half way there...

We looked at the circle of narrative, and in chapter 14, one 'circle' is complete. The book started in December 2001 all the way back at the beginning, and then Hosseini then went back in time to 1975 to fill us in on all the juicy gossip. Roughly half way through the book, Chapter 14, we reach the point of June 2001. This means that the rest of the book is about the next 6 months - another turning point; the first half shows Amir's sin, the second half shows Amir's redemption. "There is a way to be good again."

I liked all the subtle hints that we found and talked about which relates again to Chapter 1; the kites, the golden gate bridge, the phone call all emphasise the circle of narrative, showing their importance. Hosseini uses a lot of time phrases to tell the story in Chapter 14 and 15. There are repeated time phrases such as 1981, which was wrote about in Chapter 10, when they left Kabul. There's a huge aspect of change, not only shown when Amir describes Kabul, but when he sees Rahim too. Now he's returned, Rahim is old and fragile- "a thing made of skin and bones pretending to be Rahim Khan opened the door". I like this quote because it mirrors Baba's and Amir's relationship; when Baba became ill, Amir took control, and now that Rahim's ill, Amir has to find Sohrab. 

There are obviously loads more connections, but i would hate to deprive anyone else from having their blog read out loud.

TOOOOOOOOODLES. 

Chapter 11...

Don't feel like you have to read this out loud, really not that interesting today... although if you've got this far, you're probably going to carry on anyway:

Chapter 11 shows the relationship between Baba and Amir, and this is the turning point for them because this is where Amir begins to act as a carer towards Baba. Baba begins to weaken and his strong, dominant character starts to fade away - ahh.

So, i am completely incapable of making a plan. I must work on making it un-readable.


TOOOODLES.

(its FRIDDAYYY)

Chapter 10...

Chapter 10 shows that Baba and Amir's relationship is back to normal, and the glory of winning the kite tournament was short lived. If I was Amir i would feel even worse now, because getting the kite from Hassan didn't even benefit their relationship in the long run.

I thought the bit where Baba is nearly killed is really really well written, as is the rest of the book but i like how even in the face of death Amir still struggles to voice his opinion to his father  - "Do you have to always be the hero?"

Although, saying this, Amir doesn't exactly try hard to stop Baba, he tugs on his shirt and tells him he's going to get shot but only tries once, and i'd like to think that most people would try a little harder to save their parent, especially if they've already lost one.

Also, after "the gun roared", his thoughts aren't exactly normal in my opinion; "it's done then" isn't a reaction i would have expected....