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.