1 Juana Salazar Mr. Kite Honors English December, 14, 2018 Questions for the Kite Runner (Pages 101-124) 1. He considers most of his gifts blood money since he knew that Baba would have never thrown him that party if he wouldn't have won the kite tournament. A gift that does not fall into that category was the gift Ali and Hassan gave to him, since he knows that Hassan meant well and he still appreciated it, since Hassan thought of Amir no matter what circumstances he went through, and even though he saw Amir when being assaulted. Also the gift Rahim Khan gave to him which was a leather notebook for him to write his stories which was something Baba was not going to support him in. 2. The story of Kamal develops when Baba and Amir had to wait for the truck to go to Pakistan, in which they had to go downstairs to the basement, it also mentions him being assaulted by using the words bleeding down there, his pants, and tried to fight. Kamal was present and helped hold down Hassan when Assef raped him. Kamal in the ride eventually died because he couldn't breathe, the father after seeing his son die fought Karim for his gun and killed himself. I think it's appropriate to say that quote if the reader felt that way but not everyone feels that way, because that event may have occurred before Hassan’s rape. 2 3. During these chapter it is seen that Afghanistan has passed through some tough times which forced lots of people to migrate to different regions running away from the soviet. He has not changed within these chapter because he still was being selfish since he framed Hassan which made him leave and when he is eighteen he wanted to keep Baba safe and not risk his life for another woman who was going to be assaulted. His relationship with his father has not changed because Baba still doesn't put importance on Amir’s personal needs and focuses on other people which is the same distance he got before the tournament. I think it mean out of two people there is one that is not worthy of being, and that one has the most important necessities of them both 4. Amir sets up Hassan by putting his new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under Hassan’s mattress. Amir does that because he feels that Haasan should leave since he is feeling to guilty living around him. Baba’s reaction was that he forgave Hassan and did not accuse him of anything. Hassan sacrifices himself again by admitting to steal the thing underneath the mattress, because if he didn’t Amir would lose the little love he has from Baba for being a liar.Hassan and Ali decide to leave the house since life was going to be impossible for them. 5. Amir when seeing that Hassan was about to be raped he just stayed still and decided not to do any action just because Assef had brass knuckles, compared to his father who stood up for a woman from a russian soldier and mentioned that he would take a thousand bullets before he lets that indecency happen. Amir is really scared and was not letting Baba do that since he tried to hold him down when he was standing up to the woman, he was also being selfish. 3 (Pages 125-142) 1. It makes it clear that he is aware who plays a role in the destruction of Afghanistan and he feels like Israel is the only one doing the work. Even though America had opportunities but he wasn't fond of it. It gets him in trouble with his muslim friends because he gets so caught up with the politics and his friends don't understand what he mean which is why he said to amir that religion has nothing to do with it. 2. It was a sunday of 1983, Amir was gazing through books at a bookstore, when he heard screaming and glass breaking, so he drops the book and finds the Nguyens hiding behind the counter with fear. They upset Baba by asking him for his ID because he was going to be paying with a check. Amir explains Afghani cards by saying tha back in Kabul they snapped a tree branch and used it as a credit card, and the person receiving it carved notches on the stick with his knife. At the end of the month the person charged would pay for their expenses. 3. My response to this quote was that i don't find it true what he says in the part ”for me America was a place to bury my memories” since he still remembers them at occasions, however I feel that he should have mourned his memories because of his actions, and baba shouldn’t be mourning but burying memories to adapt to a new country. 4. Baba’s economic, financial, social status lide was very different in America and Afghanistan since no one depended on him to do something for them he typically had money from that , in terms of money in america he had to work at a gas station with no benefits, with social status was different now since he did not have acquaintances within the community.amir was trying to make money by making books and selling them, while 4 baba was reing to make money at the flea market. Baaba refuses food stamps because it reminded him of his biggest fear “that an Afghan man would see him buying food with charity money” also because he was successful in Afghanistan, that he wanted to continue to be so in America. Baba tries to rekindle his social status by going to a bar after Amir’s graduation and treated the people like he did in Afghanistan.He does this yo try to feel like home again since he was mourning his past. 5. He shoes that he still remembers what happened in the past with Hassan while trying to impress Baba, and he doesn't want to do the same mistake because he feels if he does what Baba’s expectations ask for he could end up hurting someone else. It makes Amir seem like he is changing his actions to try to recover his peace. (Pages 143-165) 1. When Soraya was younger, she use to teach Ziba how to read and write and would help her out when she would pronounce words incorrectly. Sooner or later, Ziba was able to read and write all by herself, which encouraged Soraya to want to become a teacher. This makes Amir remember when he use to read to Hassan, he would say mean words when Hassan would say something incorrectly that he wouldn’t understand. This shines a light by showing that Amir and Hassan never had a firm relationship and that he used to toss hassan around for not knowing certain things while Amir did. 2. Baba does not want the Russian doctor to check him since the Russians, at the time of the story, took over Afghanistan and were the main reason why Baba and Amir had to leave, and also were the cause of all the destruction that occurred on the land.Even though he is 5 in a new country he still hates Russians who destroyed his life. Amir tries to convince Baba that the Russian doctor was not even born in Russia and wasn’t apart of the destruction or is a bad person at all, but Baba refuses to listen to him and made Amir find another doctor, an Iranian doctor. 3. The way Amir disgusted Baba in his early stage of illness was by trying to force him to do chemotherapy even though he said no to it, which was why he said “Don’t you dare challenge me in public, Amir. Ever. Who do you think you are?” 4. After the cancer has metastasized, Amir wants his dad to go to General Taheri’s home and ask for Soraya's hand in marriage. 5. He envy’s Soraya by being able to tell Amir before they actually got married that she had runned away with a man and wasn’t afraid to tell him, compared to him he had mentioned that he didn’t like what she did but then he recalled of the event that occured with Hassan and he said to himself “How could I, of all people, chastise someone for their past?” Her burden was the fact when she ran away with an Afghan man her mother suffered a stroke which caused her right side of her face paralyzed. (Pages 166-189) 1. Their wedding reflects Afghani culture because Amir and Soraya go through some of the traditional rituals and rites of the Afghanistan culture. The wedding follows the afghan customs, such as music, clothing, food, special activities, and other customs that bring the family and other Afghani acquaintances together. 6 2. The burden that Amir still carries at his wedding is the guilt that he felt for what he did to Hassan a long time ago he also wishes that Hassan were there to witness his big step into manhood and was thinking about him and how his life would have been especial his wedding and who did he marry in such a big day. 3. Within these two books the acceptance that these two people recieve was related since when Cisneros had written books and her father didn’t like that coming from her but when he was lying in his bed before death he wanted to hear the stories that his daughter wrote and after hearing them he decided to accept her decisions on why she did that which was the same thing Amir experienced with Baba. 4. Amir feels this way because everyone that has an important factor in his life seem to be dying slowly also how he is restricted to have a type o happiness, since he isn’t able to have a child of his own, and he can’t even live life prosperously because he ends up thinking about Hassan in the end and all the things he did to him, regardless of how far he got in life and all of his achievements that he encountered. 5. Amir and Soraya decide against adoption because they both don’t think that it will be a good idea or fair for the baby, and Soraya more so wants to have her own baby with her own blood and go through the stages of pregnancy as well as seeing the characteristics of the family within the family. Soraya’s father claims that adopting a child is no good since the child will grow older and want to know who their real parents are, and since they are Afghani, they believe that blood is very important. (Pages 190-258) 7 1. The narration shifts between chapters 15 and 16 because in chapter 16, Rahim Kahn is telling his perspective of why he went to Hazarajat to see Hassan, and is also telling Amir everything that had occurred to Hassan and to him in chronological order, meaning that the story needs to switch to his perspective so that it’ll make more sense and have details. 2. Rahim Khan seems to be suffering from the same fate as Baba because in the story, he coughs up blood, just like Baba, he is coughing dramatically and doesn’t have a long time to live, like Baba, and lost a whole lot of weight like Baba did also. He behaves the same as Baba because he neglects help from Amir to make him have more life. 3. One of the bombshells that occurred in this chapter was when Hassan had written Amir a couple of letter in the past in hope that he’d receive it in the future and if so he would know that he has a family and still remembers him to later figure out that Hassan was shot to death along with his wife, another bombshell was also when Amir found out about Hassan being his half brother, and how all three men in their lives kept this lie from them all these years. 4. The hints that he lists in chapter 18 were when Baba hired Dr.Kumar to fix Hassan’s harelip. Baba never missing Hassan’s birthday.and saying “He is staying right here with us, where he belongs. This is his home and we’re his family.” Also by weeping when Ali and Hassan were leaving. 5. “Nay, it’s worse. Much worse,” “They don’t let you be human” This quote shows that the people living among Afghanistan were oppressed to live like animals because of the violence around them because of the Taliban's. 8 “Do that again and I’ll cut out your tongue, you old donkey!” This quote shows that the people didn’t have much importance to hekm was around them even though they were in public like in the soccer games where Rhanim Khan got into a conflict with another man. “You practically needed a visa to go from one neighborhood to the other. So people just stayed put, prayed the next rocket wouldn’t hit their home” The people who had to travel around neighborhoods had to travel under a “protection” because if they didn't they would be basically going into their death trap since they are “unknown” their. 6. “The streets were clogged with bicycle riders, milling pedestrians, and rickshaws popping blue smoke, all weaving through a maze of narrow lanes and alleys.” “I saw children dressed in rags chasing a soccer ball outside the huts.” “Have you forgotten your manners? This is my house! Amir agha is my guest tonight and I will not allow you to dishonor me like this!” 7. Hassan teaches Sohrab how to use the slingshot that he used when he was younger, he also teaches him how to read and write so that he doesn’t like he was at his age. Sohrab is like Amir because they both like and understood the literature so well. He is like Hassan since they are both great with the slingshot and he is kind hearted. 8. I don’t think Amir has the right to call himself an Afghani because every conflict that had occured in Afghanistan he was a child and he was “blinded” by the luxurious life he had lived. Since when he gets to Afghanistan he seems so new to process and he looked like a tourist by his reactions. 9 9. A redemption that occurs at the end of the chapter was when Amir plated a fistful of Afghani bills under the mattress in Wahid’s house. This scene is almost the same, just that it had a diffrent attempt, when he framed Hassan by putting his watch underneath his mattress. 10. “Grim reminder of it were strewn along the road: burned carcasses of old Soviet tanks, overturned military trucks gone to rust, a crushed Russian jeep that had plunged over the mountainside.” “Now, though, they squatted at every street corner, dressed in shredded burlap rags, mud-caked hands held out for a coin. And the beggars were mostly children now, thin and grim-faced, some no older than five or six” “We’re filled beyond capacity and everyday I turn away mothers who bring their children”