Book Compared to The Movie

Similarities-
After reading the kite runner, I decided to watch the movie for my last blog entry. The movie was very well done and stuck to the original plot. Some strong similarities between the book and the movie was the representation of the relationship between Amir and Hassan as children. The movie showed the two boys always together and laughing. It also emphasized the amount of love Hassan showed for Amir by having him always compliment, speak highly of, and stand up for Amir. Another relationship that was portrayed similarly in the book and the movie was the father- son relationship between Amir and Baba. In Amir's childhood, Amir and Baba have a hard time connecting because Baba is a tough guy who stands up for himself, and Amir has a hard time doing that. But as Amir gets older and Baba becomes sick, their relationship begins to grow stronger. These examples were the stronger similarities of the book and the movie, but for the most part the movie was very accurate to the events that occurred the story.

Differences-
Even though the movie stayed very close to the book, there were a couple minor differences. One of the differences was the order the book and movie were narrated in. In the book the story begins with Amir's childhood and goes through out his life in chronological order. But in the movie, the story begins with Amir when he is around the age of thirty. The first scene opens up with Amir answering the phone call from Rahib Kahn asking Amir to come back to Kabul. After this short scene, the movie goes back in time to when Amir was a child and then makes it's way upward chronologically. I believe the reason to why they decided to do this was to keep the viewer interested and for dramatic reasons. The producer might have been thinking that keeping the entire movie from his childhood, to his adulthood might drag out for too long. Another difference between the book and the movie was the depiction of how Baba felt moving from Kabul to America. In the book, the trip took very long and Baba was annoyed with how slowly things were moving. Then when they got to America, Baba was very depressed and missed home. In the book, the trip from Kabul to America was a couple second- scene, and while Baba was staying in America he seemed very happy.

Even though there were some differences between the book and the movie, I believe that the movie accurately portrayed the story and did not stray too far from the plot. I was enthused choosing the movie for my project because it was enjoyable to depict the similarities and differences between the movie and the book. It was helpful to also know the basics of what was occurring in Afghanistan during the time prior to watching the film.

AP Worthy?

I believe The Kite Runner is an AP worthy book. This story has many advanced qualities to it that would be well used for testing. Not only do I believe that this is AP worthy, it is also, in fact, already an option for some of the topics to write about during the essay portion of an AP English test. Some of the reasons why it qualifies as being AP worthy is because it contains complex issues, such as guilt and the inescapability of ones' past. Having a book with complex issues causes the student to think outside the box and to truly understand what they are reading. It also contains thematic ideas and literary devices. These will show if the student understands AP English concepts and how to find these concepts in the story.

This story contains the complex idea of the inescapabilty of ones' past and guilt. This is shown in the book because Amir cannot escape the guilt of how he never stood up for Hassan and only let him suffer. Even after Hassan would always protect Amir. Throughout Amir's entire life he has had this guilt on his shoulders and could never be truly happy. He would constantly think back to that time of his life, and would have a wave a guilt flood over him. Eventually, Amir goes on this journey to find Hassan's son after he dies and bring him back to America. His guilt of his past causes him to truly want to find Hassan's son and keep him safe, because he knows that he owes this to Amir. On this journey, Amir ends up running into Assef and getting into a brutally physical fight. Not only did protecting Hassan's son relieved some of his guilt, but having Assef physically hurt him cleaned his conscious and Amir finally begins to feel like he has gotten his punishment and is ready to move on. This convoluted topic gives the AP student a chance to read between the lines and to understand how these concepts are dealt with in different situations. It also creates many opportunities for students to express their thoughts on these complex subjects.

Another reason why this book is AP worthy is because it contains thematic ideas and different literary devices. Some thematic ideas of this book would be guilt, the tensions between social classes, and love and kindness towards one another. Guilt is shown when Amir does not stand up for Hassan when he is being raped, tension between social classes is shown by the semi-open and semi-hidden friendship between Amir and Hassan, and love and kindness towards one another is shown between the majority of characters who meet Amir and help him throughout his journey in life. The Kite Runner also contains literary devices. One literary device that is used prominently is symbolism. A few examples of symbolism is the book are the pomegranate tree, and how it symbolizes Amir and Hassan's friendship, and kite flying, which represents happiness, freedom, and betrayal. By including the use of literary devices and having multiple themes, the author creates this book to be AP worthy. Students will need to understand how to retrieve these elements from the book and need to be able to understand them and why they are there.

Themes

Through out the book, The Kite Runner, there have been many themes and meanings covered. This includes friendships, father-son relationships, and the power of man over a location.

One of the main parts of the story is the friendship between Amir and Hassan. The book shows a lot of their friendship when they were young boys. At that young age, the two boys were extremely close, but the complication between the two classes created Amir to become hesitant with being seen playing with Hassan in public, since he was a lower class. This represents how people are able to become friends with someone who is totally different from them and really connect, but there are a lot of others complications to worry about on the side. As time goes on, Hassan and his father, Ali, end up moving away and not working for Baba anymore because the environment was becoming too difficult for Hassan. Then, Baba and Amir end up moving to America, because the environment of Kabul had become dangerous to live in, and they had the money to escape. The two boy spent years apart and created lives for themselves. "I wish you could see Sohrab. He is a good boy. Rahim Kahn and I have taught him to read and write so he does not grow up stupid like his father." (Page 216) This proves that distance is able to disintegrate friendships because not seeing each other causes it to be easier to ignore one another. This book also proves that even after not seeing each other for many years, Amir is still willing to care for Hassan's son after Hassan gets shot in the head and dies. He was willing to go all the way to Kabul, where he could easily die, to save his childhood best friend's son. This shows that friendship is able to last forever, even if they were never reunited over so many years.

Another theme in the story is father-son relationships. This is shown in the book through Amir and Baba. Throughout Amir's childhood, Amir was always striving to gain Baba's appreciation and acceptance. Baba was a tough man who was very different from Amir, which caused difficulty for Baba to relate to his son. As time went on and Amir and Baba grew older, their relationship became stronger; he helped Amir with girls and supported him through his wedding. "'Thank you Baba. Are you all right? Do you feel up for this?' 'Up for this? It's the happiest day of my life, Amir,' he said smiling tiredly." (Page 167)  He also became supportive of Amir's passion for writing. "..I said, though as soon as I picked up the leather-bound book, I knew. I traced my fingers along the gold-stitched borders. I remembered the fireworks the night Rahim Khan had given it to me, the night of my thirteenth birthday, flares sizzling and exploding into bouquets of red, green, and yellow. 'I can't believe you can write like this,' Soraya said. Baba dragged his head off the pillow. 'I put her up to it. I hope you don't mind.'" (Page 172) I believe the reason for this new strength in their relationship was because of how Baba was sick and close to death. Knowing that he did not have much longer, Baba began to patch up their relationship and began to try to understand and relate to his son.

Finally, this book also demonstrates the theme of the power of man over a location. The author shows this theme by including the current events that were happening in the world during the time period of the story. The author writes about how the Talibs were taking over Kabul and other surrounding territories. There was violence, chaos, and starvation everywhere. "Alas the Afghanistan of our young youth is dead. Kindness is gone from the land and you cannot escape the killings. In Kabul, fear is everywhere, in the streets, in the stadium, in the markets, it is a part of our lives here Amir Agha. The savages who rule out watan don't care about human democracy." (Page 216) By having this event be in the book, it represents that in the short time of around twenty years, a country can go from a peaceful homeland to a terrifying, unsafe, war zone, that is all caused by humans.

The theme of friendship in The Kite Runner also shares similar characteristics of  friendship with The Handmaid's Tale. In The Handmaid's Tale, friendship is shown between Offred and Moira. They were friends when they were young girls being trained to become a handmaid, but then were separated after the training and had not seen each other for a long period of time. During this time of separation they lived completely different lives, Offred being a handmaid to a commander, and Moira being a Jezebel. Then, after time goes on, they end up reuniting with one another, but Moira is not the same person she used to be. Now she is a person with no hope and has given up on trying to fight the system. This plot relates to The Kite Runner because Amir and Hassan were great friends when they were young boy, they end up moving away from each other and creating separate lives for themselves, and then they reunite through a letter written by Hassan. The only difference is that Moira changed her personality by not having any hope, and Hassan changed in the story because he ends up being killed.

Style

In the novel, The Kite Runner, the style of writing is pretty simple. It is told in a realistic fashion and is placed in chronological order, telling the life story of Amir ever since he was a little boy. The author does a nice job transitioning Amir's ages without dragging his life out or jumping too fast through out his childhood. The entire story is told from the point of view of Amir. This will cause the reader to see more in depth to who Amir is and what he is thinking and how he is viewing different events.

Another stylistic piece that happens in The Kite Runner is the use of the Farsi language. Through out the story, Amir may describe something or another character may speak to Amir in the Farsi language. After saying something in Farsi, the author will place a comma after the word and then say it's definition. "Leaving his beloved hometown, his Watan." (Page 174) Having this in the novel causes the reader to become more involved and understanding of the character's culture.

Another way the author helps the reader become more knowledgeable about Amir's culture is the two events of the wedding and the funeral. In the section of the novel I am currently reading, Amir gets married to a woman named Soraya. They met at a flee market and as soon as Amir saw her, he fell in love. The wedding that they have is very traditional and is called "giving word". "The general held me at arms length and smiled knowingly, as if saying, 'Now this is the right way- the Afghan way- to do it, bachem.'  we kissed three times on the cheek." (Page 167) Amir describes the whole wedding and all of the traditions that I was unfamiliar with and it was interesting to compare my traditions of weddings to his. Then, as the section went on, Amir's father, Baba, ends up dying because of cancer. The funeral is also traditional and has some differences to what is a traditional funeral for my family and I. "The men's section of the mosque was a large square room, covered with Afghan rugs and thin mattresses placed in parallel lines. Men filed into the room, leaving their shoes at the entrance and sat cross-legged on the mattresses. A mullah chanted surrahs from the Koran into a microphone. I sat by the door, the customary position for the family of the deceased." (Page 174) Having the writing style of placing these descriptions of the traditional weddings and funerals, and the incorporation of the Farsi language into the novel help educate the reader of what the character's lifestyle is and it creates the reader to become more involved in the story.

Characters

Amir- Amir is the main character of The Kite Runner and the story is from his point of view. He is thirteen years old and lives with his dad and two servants. When Amir's mother was giving birth to him she passed away and Amir has always blamed himself for his mother's death. He also believes that his father blames him for the passing of his wife as well. Amir and his father do not have a strong relationship with each other and usually go throughout their days without communicating. Even though these two characters do not speak, Amir still looks up to and sees his dad as a strong, stable, and admirable person, and Amir craves appreciation and acceptance from him. One servant that Amir and his father have is a boy the same age as Amir named Hassan. This has always been Amir's closest friend ever since they met. Since Hassan is Amir's servant, he never likes being seen playing with him or else people will make fun of him because he is Amir's servant. Hassan has always treated Amir with endless respect and love, but Amir has never reciprocated the same amount of affection that Hassan gives him. When Hassan and Amir play together, Amir sometimes plays little tricks on Hassan to entertain himself. Amir also feels that in some ways Hassan is a better person than him, and to make himself feel better Amir teases Hassan for what he does not know educationally. "'What does that word mean?' 'Which one?' 'Imbecile' 'You don't know what imbecile means?' I said grinning. 'Nay, Amir agha.' 'But it's such a common word!' 'Still, I don't know it.' If he felt the sting of my tease, his smiling face didn't show it." (Page 28). This quote shows how Amir teases Hassan for not knowing a word that he had read, but Hassan does not feel bad about himself for asking.
-I feel like Amir's character is cowardice. He only looks out for himself and is afraid to stand up for what he knows it right.

Hassan- Hassan is the son of Amir and his father's servant, Ali, but also works as a servant in their house as well. He is the same age as Amir and they usually play together and are good friends, but the effort in the relationship between Hassan and Amir is very uneven. Amir loves playing with Hassan, but the fact that he is his servant influences Amir to not want to be seen with Hassan and causes him to feel embarrassed when he is with him in public. With that being said, Hassan always loves playing with Amir and sees Amir as this wonderful person who he would never want to let down. Hassan appreciates Amir so much and would likely take a bullet for him. At one point in the story, Amir wins the kite flying competition and Hassan runs to retrieve the kite for Amir. When he finds the Kite, Assef, a boy his age, says to either give him the kite or he will hurt Hassan. "'But before you sacrifice yourself for him, think about this: Would he do the same for you? Have you ever wondered why he never includes you in games when he has guests? Why he only plays with you when no one else is around? Ill tell you why, Hazara. Because to him, you are nothing but an ugly pet. Something he can play with when he's bored, something he can kick when he's angry. Don't ever fool yourself and think you're something more.'" (Page 72) This shows how even others around them are realizing the unevenness of their relationship, and how they can never truly be equal as friends.  This quote also shows that Hassan would get beaten up just so that Amir could have his kite back that he won. This represents the amount of .....Hassan is a caring person who only wants the best for others.
-I believe that Hassan only wants to do good. He always looks out for others and wants the best for them, but he never looks out or cares for himself.

Baba- Baba is the father of Amir. He is a strong, very large man who is looked highly upon in his town. "But no one ever doubted the veracity of any story about Baba. And if they did, well, Baba did have those three parallel scars coursing a jagged path down his back. I have imagined Baba's wrestling match countless times. Even dreamed about it. And in those dreams, I can never tell Baba from the bear." (Page 12) He has never had a good relationship with Amir and they usually do not speak to each other very much. The reason for this is because Baba is a man who enjoys intense sports and manly activities. But Amir is a boy who's sport is kite running and enjoys writing by himself. This difference between them influences there to be few topics to discuss which causes an awkwardness between the two.
- I believe that Baba is a well respected man in his town because everyone feels protected around him. But I think that he should protect and care for his son first and to not put others before Amir.

Assef- Assef is another boy in town who is the same age as Amir and Hassan. He always causes fights and bullies his peers with his two side kicks standing right behind him obeying his every need. In this story he makes fun of Amir for hanging out with his servant, Hassan, and ends up physically hurting Hassan as well. Assef is a tough boy who plays soccer and is able to get away with his abusive actions by having the ability to speak to adults in an easy, comfortable way. "'Still playing soccer, Assef jan?' Baba said. He'd always wanted me to be friends with Assef. Assef smiled. It was creepy how genuinely sweet he made it look. 'Of course, Kaka jan.' 'Right wing, as I recall it?' 'Actually, I switched to center forward this year,' Assef said. (...) Baba nodded. 'You know, I played center forward too when I was young.' 'Ill bet you still could if you wanted to, 'Assef said. He favored Baba with a good natured wink." (Page 95) This conversation shows how easily Assef can speak with adults, even if they are the parent of the boy he bullies. It also shows how the conversation is a lot easier for Assef and Baba, than for Amir and Baba. This probably hurt Amir to watch this conversation, knowing that he could never have a conversation like that with his dad.
-I feel like Amir's character is a horrible person who only cares for himself. He believes that since he is a part of a rich family that he can treat everyone like they are below him. This will only lead him to grow up not caring for anyone else and staying narcissistic.