Dealing with challenges- PLN #3

                           One way to evaluate a person is how they deal with something, like in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner where two boys cope with a tragedy in two very different ways. Hassan is raped and Amir witnesses it.  

               Amir becomes withdrawn. He spends most of his time in his room reading. Amir also tries to avoid Hassan as much as possible. He also begins lying a lot. He feels so guilty yet he doesn't know what to do. He is confused. He knows what he has become. He lies and says Hassan stole from him so that Hassan and his father would leave. After Hassan lies for Amir even after he accuses him of stealing Amir thinks to himself, "I wanted to tell them all that I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake. I wasn't worthy of this sacrifice; I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief. He is selfish because he is putting his own feeling above his fathers, above Ali's, and above Hassan.

              Hassan, how ever is very loyal and strong. After the rape Hassan continues to cook and clean for Amir even though he knows that Amir saw what happened and did nothing to stop it. When Amir accuses Hassan of stealing he lies for Amir and says he did it because he knows that if he told the truth, Amir's father would never forgive Amir for what he did. When Hassan tells Baba, Amir's father, that he stole the watch, Amir thinks, "Then I understood: This was Hassan's final sacrifice for me." Hassan knows how much it means to Amir to have his fathers respect so his last "gift" to Amir is to lie for him, the boy he had been raised with. 

              I recently had a substitute teacher who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for 10 years. He seemed so happy and was so funny I couldn't believe it when he told us what happened to him. He was beaten with bats and his chin was broken, and he had the scars to prove it. He told us that out of his blood relatives only his sister and he survived. While he was describing what he went through he told us, “I only saw my wife for five minutes a year for ten years. And yes we're still married” 'Wow,' I thought to myself, 'five minutes a year' and they're still married. I don't know how they managed to do that. I don't know if I could have been that strong. I think that's really remarkable, especially considering the rate of divorce now a days. Going through something like that and still coming away being able to have such a joyous personality really speaks volumes about a persons character.  I think he is a remarkable person who, like Hassan is very strong, and very loyal to himself and his loved ones.