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Impact of violence on readers
Violence in children's literature
English I – Unit 5: Short StoriesTest: Short Stories
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What would you do if I hit you with this?” Amir said. He was tossing the red pomegranate in his right hand. I said nothing, I really loved Amir agha, But I don’t think he loved me I knew for certain he felt guilty about seeing Assef and I. I knew the pain he carried was something to be dealt with. I didn’t say anything. I just stared into Amir’s empty eyes. I felt weak, I really didn’t want to fight with Amir, but I let him have his way. I gripped the pages from the story Amir promised to read to me. I really wish that Amir didn’t do this. He always does this. I couldn’t answer because I knew what he had done. “What would you do” he repeated. Again I said nothing. Without any warning. a ball of fruit paint exploded on my chest soaking me. I screamed in shock and pain, as my body hit the ground. the red seeds attached to my shirt flowed down and fell to my feet. But I did nothing. I was in awe but at the same time, I expected it. …show more content…
“Hit me back!” He yelled.
I looked at the red stain that shun as if it were a spotlight where on my chest, marking where my heart was, and looked back at Hassan, confused. Why did Amir agha want me to hit him, didn’t he know how much I cared about him? “Get up! Hit me!” He said. I followed his order, and looked at him, in distraught. Before a next thought could even cross my mind, Amir threw another pomegranate, this time, it hit my shoulder, and the juices splashed on my face. “Hit me back, hit me back goddamn you”*
* I picked up a pomegranate and looked at Amir’s tired eyes. I knew what he wanted. But giving Amir agha what he wanted would be out of character. My love and respect for Amir agha were beyond the limit. So I stood there and smashed the pomegranate on my head. “There, are you satisfied? Do you feel better?” I said to Amir agha. he burst into tears an fell to the ground rocking himself back and forth like a helpless baby. I really hoped that he could get over this and we could me ion as friends. But I wasn’t prepared for what he would do later on.
We all are heroes of our own story, and it is a quality seen in many movies and books. The hero's journey is about progress and passage. This journey involves a separation from the unknown, known world, and a series of phases the hero must go through . Each stage of the journey must be passed successfully if the person is to become a hero. In “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir faces a series of trials and goes through obstacles where the concept of his childhood dies. Amir's mother passes away during his birth, and his left with the suspicion that his father blames him for her death. Amir longes for his father's attention and approval, but does not receive any affection as a son. He grows up with his Hazara best friend, Hassan. In Afghanistan culture, Hazaras are considered lower class and inferiors in society. Amir describes his friendship with Hassan saying, “then he would remind us that there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break." (20). Amir first refuses the call of action due to being afraid of the adventure ahead of him. Call to action is the very first step of the hero's journey, where the hero is disrupted and the
I stared into his face, feeling a sense of outrage. His left eye had collapsed, a line of raw redness showing where the lid refused to close, and his gaze had lost its command. I looked from his face to the glass, thinking he's disem...
Amir's actions showed how much of a coward he was. Amir suffered his whole life living with the guilt of knowing that Hassan was raped, much like Baba lived his whole life in guilt knowing that he stole the truth from Ali by committing adultery. Baba ran from the truth, and so did Amir to protect the family name, even if that meant betraying the people closest to him. Baba was a man more worried about his image than anything, and that is what he taught his son as well. Slowly that is all Amir knew how to do: protect his family and himself, leading him into a life of guilt, and running from people when situations were challenging, instead of making the admirable decision and help a
Hassan and Amir are best friends, or as Amir likes to look at it, Hassan is someone whose there and has his back no matter what, but they’re not friends because back then to be associated with a Hazara was like social suicide. Hassan acts as Amir’s servant, he is illiterate and because of Amir’s advantage to read and write Hassan worships him for that. When a bully comes after the two of them Hassan stands up for Amir and defends him with his slingshot. Amir however never repays Hassan for his kindness and self-sacrifice, in fact, when the town bullies return to get revenge on Hassan they physically assault him and Amir watches while it happens and does nothing. Hassan knows that Amir did nothing and because...
He would do anything, even as a small child, to please Amir. Even after he grew up and had a son, he told his son about his love for Amir. “And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words. Mine was Baba. His was Amir. My name.” (Hosseini, 12). If this was a teenage romance novel this would be a love triangle. Between Amir, Hassan and Baba. Amir spent his entire life trying to make Baba like him, to forgive him for killing his wife, to understand him, and get that special father to son bonding. Baba instead gave his attention to the servant’s son, Hassan. Later the story we find out that Hassan is Baba’s son too, but this is after both have died and Amir is a grown man. During his childhood Amir would have done anything to gain his father attention like Hassan had. Baba, feeling guilty, gave his attention to Hassan, and treated him kindly, out of guilt for not being able to recognise Hassan as his son. Yet Baba never treated Amir diskindly, other than the fact they never got along. Hassan did not go to school, and spent his time helping Ali with household chores, but got respected by Baba, and given gifts during holidays and a kite for flying season. Amir and Baba did not click in the way both of them wanted too. Amir tried to fake interests in sports for Baba, but after watching a rider get trampled by his horse, and started crying during the one and only sport event Baba took him too. “I cried all the way back home. I remember how Baba’s hands clenched around the steering wheel. Clenched and unclenched. Mostly, I will never forget Baba’s valiant efforts to conceal the disgusted look on his face as he drove in silence.” (Hosseini, 23) This was Amir memory of the sporting event. Amir need for love from Baba, led him standing in the alley watching Hassan get raped, knowing that when he brought that blue kite to Baba he will earn his love. Hassan on the other hand could not love Amir any less. To
It shows his concern and hurt because he knew he had betrayed everyone and he only had Baba left in his life. He was in a strange place and he was insecure with out baba. The same question Amir asked himself are the same questions I ask my self when I think about losing someone.
The Kite Runner focuses on the relationship between two Afghan boys Amir and Hassan. Amir is a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim, while Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a. Despite their ethnic and religious differences, Amir and Hassan grow to be friends, although Amir is troubled by Hassan, and his relationship with his companion, one year his junior, is complex. Amir and Hassan seem to have a "best friend" type relationship. The two boys, Hassan and Amir, are main characters in the book titled, The Kite Runner. The two boys have a relationship that is significantly different compared to most. There are many different facets that distinguish the relationship the boys possess. The boys do write their names in a pomegranate tree as the "sultans of Kabul" (Kite Runner 27) but, their friendship is not strong and it is one sided. Hassan has love for Amir. He loves him like a brother. Hassan is exceedingly loyal to Amir. The relationship between the two boys is emotionally wearing and rather gloomy for the most part. The main reason for their complicated relationship is the fact that Amir is Pashtun, and Hassan is Hazara. The Afghan society places Hassan lower than Amir. Hassan is Amir's servant. The placement of Hassan in the Afghan society disenables Amir from becoming Hassan's true friend. Amir sees Hassan as lower than human. Amir ruins the chance for friendship between himself and Hassan because he is jealous of Hassan, he thinks of Hassan as a lower human, and because Amir possesses such extreme guilt for what he has done to Hassan. Amir is an unforgivable person overall.
During this time we learned a lot about him. He grew up with a boy named Hassan who was his servants son. Hassan and him were like brothers, the bestest of friends. But when we truly take a look at their friendship we realize that Amir was a terrible friend. Hassan would do absolutely anything for him, because he loved him so much. Amir teased him and never included him with the other kids. Hassan never let that bother him though becasue that is how much he cared for Amir. During the kite tournament Hassan was beaten and abused and Amir saw it all. He did not help, he did not scream, he did absolutely nothing which shows just how low he is. This poor boy was assaulted so that Amir would have his kite. Amir was a coward and would not confess to what he saw. He did not comfort Hassan or even allow things to go back to normal. He was racked with so much guilt that it pushed him away from Hassan because he did not want to deal with the consequences. This shows how immature Amir was an how inconsiderate he was towards Hassan and all that he endured for
Baba saw no justice in being an onlooker whilst a crime took place, which is exactly why he confronted the soldier, saying he would rather die than let a married mother be violated. Amir was selfish though, begging his father to sit back down and be quiet. Unlike Baba, Amir had little bravery and would not stand up for himself, let alone a strange woman. In his mind, sacrificing the good-mindedness of a fellow passenger seemed far better than being held there. Throughout the book, Amir explains himself as not understanding women for he never had a mother or sisters. He grew up around men and therefore never learned proper respect and treatment towards women. He recalled on his wedding night, “All my life, I’d been around men. That night, I discovered the tenderness of a woman.” He was scorned for not learning what Baba had tried to teach him all of his life:
Amir finds it hard because he sees in Hassan what he wants to be, but Amir has no way of achieving this goal so he doesn’t understand the way Hassan thinks. This also helps the reader understand what Amir thinks about himself. Amir believes that he is a liar and by seeing Hassan who is a kind and honest person he feels guilt and thus he finds it hard to look at honest people like Hassan.
...take maturely instead of leaving for someone else to clean up her mess. I also did not think that she should have come back into Hassan’s life after all those years; Hassan was having a family of his own and she just walks in his life asking for forgiveness and wanting to be a part of his life when she had that chance, but she made the choice to leave. The only one who redeemed himself was Amir. Amir found Hassan’s son; Sohrab and helped him get the pay back that Assef needed after what he did to Hassan that winter many years ago. All though Hassan and his wife are dead and do not get to be in their son’s life, and see what life Sohrab has at least he eventually made right instead of leaving “what if’s “and doubts of uncertainty in people’s minds. Deep down I do believe Amir wanted to do something that winter but was really just too afraid to stand up for a Hazara.
Amir was never the kind of character to stand up for anyone, not even himself he was always known as the ‘coward’. “ A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.” (pg.22). The best example of this would be when he hid his money and gifts under Hassan’s mattress in order to get Hassan in trouble so Baba would get rid of him. This shows how underhanded Amir would get just because he was jealous of how Baba treated Hassan. Instead of approaching Baba or Hassan and talking about how he felt like he was neglected, he decided to try and get Baba to dislike Hassan by making him look like a thief. However, this backfires on Amir as Hassan is a person of character and even though he did not actually
Amir wants to make himself look better and make Hassan look worse so Baba will love Amir and think he is the better one. Amir fails to recognize that Hassan does not mean to take away anything from Baba and Amir’s relationship and only wants to be his friend. Despite many days of playing together, Amir views Hassan as the servant boy, and sometimes even just a filthy Hazara. Amir witnesses Hassan being attacked and raped by Assef, and knows he has two choices: “[he] could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan--the way he’d stood up for [Amir] all those times in the past... Or [he] could run. In the end, [he runs]” (Hosseini 62). Jealousy makes Amir turn against Hassan in a time where Hassan desperately needs help. Amir chooses to protect himself rather than protecting Hassan, who is being brutally hurt emotionally and physically. He constantly feels a tinge of guilt for what happens, but only makes it worse by continuing his selfish ways. When Amir and Hassan drift, Amir decides to get rid of Hassan instead doing the right thing. He tells Baba that Hassan has stolen money and does not stop Hassan when he confesses to the crime. Amir does the ultimate act of betrayal and feels even guiltier afterwards because Hassan does nothing to deny it; Hassan only wants to do what makes Amir
For most of the book, Amir tries to deal with his guilt by mainly avoiding it. Doing this clearly does not do anything towards redeeming himself, and his guilt continues. That is why he cringes every time Hassan's name is said which is shown when Amir recounts, "I wondered where Hassan was. Then the inevitable. I vomited on a tangle of weeds" (Hoseini 186). Throughout the book, it teaches the reader that sin must be confronted in order to find redemption. This shows that Amir's sins are building upon themselves and he is unwilling to face them. Neither feelings of betrayal nor punishment are enough to redeem Amir. Rescuing Sohrab from Assef is not enough either. When Assef almost kills Amir, he feels "healed," as though now that Assef has hurt him, he is redeemed. He even tells Farid that in the room with Assef, he "got what he deserved." Only when Amir decides to take Sohrab to the United States and provide his nephew a chance does he feel at peace. Then finally at the very end of the book when Amir says, "Sohrab's blood on his hands", and Amir manages to forgive himself, he redeems himself at last. As we get closer towards the book's end, Amir is not the only character who needs redemption. When Amir finds out about Baba's betrayal of Ali and Hassan, he finds out that everything he thinks he knows about his father is a lie. Until Rahim Khan reveals Baba's secret, Amir thinks he is the
drew his sword and plunged it deeply into his side. As he removed the sword from his side, blood sprayed the white fruit on the tree, turning it a dark purple color.