Monday, May 7, 2007
Moving Forward
From chapter sixteen to twenty i believe is a breaking point and is the climax of the book. For once we finally see the Hero in Amir, we see him shine and his "true colors". Amir receives a phone call that brings him back to his once homeland, as he goes to visit his dying friend Rahim Khan he is faced with a challenge. Not only is it hard to see his once "father like" figure dying a similar death like Baba did, he is faced with news that will change him forever. Amir's childhood servant whom he picked on mercilessly was in fact his brother. Baba was forced by society and for his family’s safety and reputation to keep this secret from everyone, he was known as a high society man and would be ridiculed and maybe killed for having a child with a Hazara. We see with this news Amir now looked back on every single thing and realized why he was so different and how Hassan was what Baba looked at for a son. Without being angry at Hassan he then found out the horrible news that Hassan had been shot and killed trying to protect a place that Amir once called home. Rahim Khan then asks that Amir grant his dying wish, which is to find Hassans son Sohrab, Amir relentlessly, and finally decieds he will embark on this journey. When Amir decides to leave and to help Rahim Khan is the distinct part in this book where i think that Amirs "good" part of his character out ways the "bad", even though he knows that he has been lied to by Rahim Khan his whole life he helps him and even though he is treated as a spoiled America he still proceeds to find Sohrab. Amir's love for Hassan and regret for not helping him in his desperate time for need shows through his decision to risk his life and his wife’s sense of security. Through these chapters I can know look at Amir and realize that he made a mistake, a human mistake but he try’s to make those mistakes right, and do something for his brother. I believe these four chapters change the whole perspective on the book, the whole outlook I had upon the main character. Not only is the secret finally revealed Amir chooses to do the right thing, which I believe leaves readers satisfied and waiting in anticipation to see if Amir finds Hassans child, and his reaction to finding him. Will he want to adopt him or will he be able to leave him in poverty when he knows he can easily provide for a brothers son, and an old best friend.
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1 comment:
Hey Keeley,
I love how positive you are throughout your response; it is really refreshing to see in the face of such a depressing book. This is something that is a challenge for me, but I admire how easily you are able to do that.
I can't even begin to imagine the feelings of betrayal that Amir would have felt when he found out that truth had been partial his entire life. Most people would have taken the news bitterly and gone on to resent his father and Hassan's father for not telling him. But you are so right when you say that his "good" side outweighs his "bad" side. He overcomes his own selfish feelings in order to save the life of his half nephew. I think that this could have been because of the guilt that he was still dealing with over Hassan's rape. He needed to rectify the past and allow his courageous side to dominate.
The author did a really good job of pulling the reader into the book in these chapters, like you said. For most of the book before these chapters, I dreaded reading the book and I didn’t want to continue reading. But these chapters made me want to see if Amir ended up the metaphorical car wreck that the preceding chapters had been leading up to, or if he was going to man up and redeem all of his previous actions. I loved finishing the book because it gave me the closure that I needed. This author did an excellent job of making this book into an emotional roller coaster.
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