This chapter begins with Amir explains how Baba and Ali meet. Baba's father, Amir's grandfather, was a very respectible judge who was given a case of two drunken drives hitting another car and killing two parents, leaving their five-year- old son an orphan. The judge decided that the to drunk drives had to enlist into the army and then his adopted the son, telling the servents to tutor him and be kind to him because this was his new son. The new son's name was Ali. Ali and Baba grew up together a lot like Amir and Hassan are growing up together, although Baba never refers to Ali as his friend. Does Baba believe that Ali is less than him? Is there jealousy becasue Baba's father adopted another son when he already had one? Because Baba's father had Ali tutored by the servents, does he know how to read and write? Although like father like son, Amir never refers to Hassan as a friend either. Does Amir believe that he is better than Hassan? Is there jealousy because Hassan is getting more attention from Amir's father than Amir himself? How could Amir not see Hassan as his friend? After all they taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands and to build a fully functional homemade camera out of a cardboard box together. How could you not call that person your friend? They also spent the winters flying kites, actually running kites. This is the first time that the book refers to the kites running; why do you believe that the kites are important in this spot? Does it represent something? Is it showing the freedom that the boys have right now to be together with out truely being made fun of or being looked at oddly? How Amir sees Hassan is how the world sees him; not the same as the majority. After all Amir is Pashtun and a Sunni and Hassan is Hazara and a Shi'a and nothing can change that. I'm curious to know why Amir is so set on saying nothing; he does say it twice. Does this mean that somehow Hassan will change his outside apperences to look like the Sunni or is he truely saying that there really is no way to change? But no matter what Amir thinks Hassan is to him, he can't forget all the thinks they have done together and their is no history, ethnicity, society, or religion that is going to change that. Maybe one of the reasons that Amir can't see Hassan as a friend is because he treats him like a servent. After all, Hassan has to make him breakfast, make his bed, polish his shoes, iron his clothes, and pack his bag. Then when Amir and Baba leave, Hassan has to stay home with Ali and do the house chores. How can Amir come home and then just act like nothing is different between the two boys? How can Hassan act like there is nothing different between the two of them? But they do go on like nothing is different and to have lots of memories. Although Amir's biggest memory of Hassan and him is when they sat underneath the pomegranate tree, ate pomegranates, and Amir read to Hassan. Although Amir is not very nice to Hassan. Amir likes to show that he has the upper hand and is happy to tell Hassan the definitions to words he doesn't know although he doesn't always tell the truth. Even though Amir thinks that he is making up for the rude and unneeded lying by giving Hassan one of his old broken toys, he isn't. The lying to the person you believe is like a brother to you in not a harmless prank that can be easily fixed with some material object. This gesture is like saming that money can buy love and we all know how love like that truely is. Moving on to the story that Amir makes up while telling is to Hassan, why would Amir do that? Although, this is the beginning place that Amir realizes that maybe he should write. Hassan's totally love for the story was the way the light Amir need to get the fire started to start writing. Although, when he writes his first story why does his dad not want to read it? Does he not want to encourage his son to be doing these things that he finds not worth of his son's time? And why does he feel relieved when his friend Rahim Khan says that he will read it? No matter the reason, Rahim loves the story; he even tells Amir "bravo." To Amir this is what encouraged him to write. Rahim even writes a letter to Amir telling him how he has a talent and needs to use it and not let it go to waste. He also adds that being able to write irony in his first story is amazing because there are writters that go their whole life trying to write a stroy with irony. Because of his excitement, Amir goes downstairs waken Hassan (Hassan and Ali are allowed to sleep in the house when Baba was gone.). When Amir gets done reading the story to Hassan, Hassan has a question that stumps Amir completely. Amir at first thinks it is ok that Hassan would ask but then a voice enters his mind saying,"What does he know, taht illiterate Hazara? He'll never be anything but a cook. How dar he criticize you?" This statement from Amir's mind shows that Amir is growing further away from Hassan and his relationship; Amir is starting to see the differences.
Chapter 5
Beginning with the roar of what Ali told Amir and Hassan is only duck hunters is how chapter five starts. The two boys are so terrified that Ali conforts them by holding them close to him until early in the moring even though the roaring had stopped with in an hour. When Ali pulls Hassan closer, Amir becomes envious of Ali and Hassan's relationship as father and son. Amir wants his father to love him that much that Amir wouldn't even have to say anything to his father and he would already know. In the morning, Baba showed up running in the house looking for the Ali and the boys, hoping everyone was ok. When Baba wrapped his arms around the boys, Amir was happy that the roaring of the gun shots had happened because he was finally able to get some affection from him father. After a while they realized that the shoting was not from duck hunters, is was signalling that the monarchy was in the past. The king, Zahir Shah, was away in Italy and in his absence, his cousin Caoud Khan had ended the king's forty-year reign with a bloodless coup. Hassan and Amir listened outside Baba's study while Baba and Rahim listened to the radio, although, they didn't really understand what was going on and became bored so they decided to go to their tree. Although, then stumble on to some trouble when a rock get threw at the back of Hassan head. The boy who threw is was Assef. Assef was born from a German mother and an Afghan father; however, most of his features he inherited from his mother, ecspecially his height and build. Assef toward over the Afghan kids and then their was is knockles that had already knocked a kid unconcious. Assef was only talking to Amir and Hassan because one, Hassan was Hazara and Assef had a plan to get rid of all Hazaras; and two, Amir was friends with Hassan. When Amir realized that Assef was going to beat him up because he was hanging out with Hassan and Amir's father was keeping them around, he almost blurted out that he's not my friend, he's my servent, but he didn't. Then Assef explained his theory on how Hitler was a great leader and how next time the new president was at his house eating supper, he was going to tell him that Hitler was a great leader and that he should to the same thing he did and kill all the Hazaras to make the country pure. When Assef was pulling out his famous knuckles though to beat Amir up Hassan held up his slingshot and stood his ground and scared Assef away. I would like to know what Hassan would have done is he would have known what Amir almost shouted out? Would Hassan have stood up to Assef and stopped him from beating up Amir? Also, does Hassan believe that him and Amir are friends? And another thing, by bringing in Hitler, does this foreshadow how the new government is going to run? Does Amir keep remebering the alley because he say someone killed in the alley way? At the end of chapter five, Amir skips ahead a couple of years and talks about the how, even though the monarchy had been abolished and a new president lived in the Arg, the rest of the customs have stayed the same, including Baba getting something for Hassan on his birthday. Although this birthday gift was different from the rest he had recieved in the pervious years; this year Baba got him a plastic surgeon. Yeah, Hassan was just as suprised but then he finally realized what is was for and then he was happy because he was finally going to be able to smile without his cleft lip. When everything was done and healed up Hassan was able to smile. There for, when Amir said the "nothing would change things. Nothing." he was wrong, because know he don't look as much as a Shi'a. Although, is Baba doing this because he believes that something like the Holocaust could happen? Is he trying to make Hassan look more like a Sunni? Although the most troubling line for me is the last, "because that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling." Hassan has finally got he cleft lip taken care of and now he stops smiling. This has to be foreshadowing that something big is going to happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment