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               Amir becomes withdrawn.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.

In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner there are people like Hassan, who seem inherently good, and people like Assef who seem inherently bad, the reason they behave this way is because of their background. The Kite Runner follows the story of two Afghan boys, Amir and Hassan, who may as well be brothers,except Hassan is a Shi'a and a Hazara while Amir is a wealthy Sunni. Hassan was raised as a servant of a wealthy family. He is the son of a cripple. Things such as this tend to be humbling. After befriending a girl named Oliviain preschool, I soon learned she was epileptic. She hasn't been to school in over five years so now she only has two or three friends her age. After being with her during some really terrible seizures and seing how far behind she is mentally it became almost unbearable to be with her. Then I realized how genuine she was, how sincere, and extrordinarlily kind she was. Every time I see her it is truly humbling. Things like this are some reasons why people like Hassan are inherently good. Then there are people like Assef. Assef is another Sunni boy who belileves he, and all of those like him, are superior. As a result of his beliefs he antagonizes Hassan and his father. He also taunts Amir for befriending a Hazara. These beliefs lead Assef to rape Hassan. Assef was raised in an environment that has taught him that he is superior. If he was born in Houston, Texas odds are he wouldn't feel so strongly about the Sunnis and Shi'a. It was his background and life experience that taught him his beliefs.  Just because you were taught that way doesn't mean that it is good or right. The question then becomes what really is good and bad? I believe that if it hurts someone in any way or would hurt them if they knew, then it is bad. If something would benefit people in some way then it is good. A good person is someone who does more good than bad. Something that is said in the movie is when Rhahim Khan, another good man, tells Amir that there is a way to be good again. I believe that all people have the potential to be good and the potential to be bad, we just have to decide which path we want to take and carefully weigh our decisions because they may end up costing us a lot more than we want.

PLN #1

               I am currently reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini chose to read this book because I knew several people who had read it and they loved it. Another reason is because it takes place in the Middle East where I was earlier this year. I really like this book so far and I think part of it is because I am easily able to create a mental picture of the country they are in. I went to Dubai and Oman earlier this year. While I was their I met this one guy, his name was Kamyar, he was from Afghanistan.Kamyar is one of the funniest, nicest people I've met. He had similar features to Hassan and a combination of personality traits of Amir, Rahim Khan, and Hassan. Like Amir, he too had to leave Afghanistan because of the violence there. 

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