The Kite Runner

This semester we are reading a book called “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini.

The novel was his debut, first published in 2003, and is now a worldwide success.

The book starts when the main character Amir receives a phone call he doesn't seem too pleased about. He starts thinking about his past, and sins he had committed that had made him the person he was today.

The author takes us back to the late 70s in Afghanistan when Amir is a young boy and meet his father, Baba, a wealthy and important business man. Their relationship was very strained and Amir felt he wasn't being the son his father had hoped for as he was not interested in sports or a career like his father. All Amir cared about was writing stories and reading.

Amir's best friend, also an important character in the book, is Hassan. He is the son of their servant Ali who is also Baba's adopted half-brother. Amir and Hassan grew up together and were almost like brothers. The only problem was their background. Hassan was a Hazara, while Amir was a Pashtun. This meant that Hassan was a Sunni Muslim while Amir was a Shi'a Muslim. History and religion is not easily overlooked, therefor Amir never really saw Hassan as a friend and would only play with him when there was no one else around.

A main event in Afghanistan at the time was the annual kite tournament, hence the title of the book. Every year there would be a large competition and this was something Amir intended to win. Not for his own glory and fame, but to prove himself worthy of his father, and earn his respect.

When Amir cut the last kite in the sky, Hassan ran to catch the fallen kite, which was a huge honor together with having the last flying kite. Hassan didn't return so Amir went looking for him. He found Hassan in an ally being sexually abused by a gang of bullies Amir was familiar with. Amir was present but did nothing to help, he just hid behind a wall. This costs him their friendship as well as lifelong guilt.

Because of the problems in Afghanistan at the time, Amir and Baba were forced to leave the country, and fled to America, leaving everything behind, including Hassan and his father. After living there for many years, Amir received a call from his old friend Rahim Khan who dying. This is the same phone call with which Hosseini opened the book. Rahim Khan asks him to come back to Afganistan and see him one last time, and Amir does what he is asked. When Amir arrives he is met by a person that was once his friend but is no longer recognizable. Amir is suddenly faced with his past again, and now, for the first time, he would have to face it and take the consequeces.

This is how far I have come in the book and I am enjoying it a lot. There are a lot of things I have left out in my summary, but I feel I have given a good overlook of the book so far. I find the book both educational, and a good read. Educational because I've learned a lot about Afghanistan history and the conflicts between Hazaras and Pastuns. On the other hand I am, as I was saying, enjoying the book a lot. I find the story very good, and well written.

My favourite quote in the book is Hassan's whisper to Amir “For you a thousand times over”

I find this a beautiful thing to say, and very touching. Especially considering their past. Hassan always had Amir's back, and no matter how mean or unfair Amir was back, he never said a word.

Advice to fellow students!

In International English, we discussed an article called "Facebook hits exam results by 20 per cent". Then we were asked to write a little about it on our blog.

Here is a link to the article

In short, the article describes a study that indicates facebook may contribute to lower grades among many students.

The study showed that students who used facebook at the same time as they were working on an exam – even if just a little – had, on average, 20 per cent lower results than students who did not. 210 students between the ages of 19 to 54 were examined by researchers in America. The study determined  that Facebook users scored a grade point average of 3.06, while non-Facebook users scored an average of 3.82. Furthermore, three-quarters of those who used social networking websites while studying, did not believe it was affecting their studies in any negative manner.

This study puts in doubt a commonly held view that young people's brains are adept at performing several  tasks on electronic devices at the samt time.

Professor Paul Kirschner, author of the paper, said many students – while working with schoolwork– would have Facebook or other similar websites running at the same time. This causes distractions and while students may believe they are doing more in less time, they are in fact using more time to finish individual tasks and also are also making more mistakes.

This article is very interesting as I can relate to it to a great extent. While I recognize Facebook to be extremely distracting while trying to concentrate on my homework, it has become a very big part of  my generation's social life and is hard to shut off. The constant “checking” if anything is new for fear of missing out on something going on, has become a daily routine for many. The problem however, is that this routine appears to have a negative impact on our learning and ultimately our grades.

The lesson to be learned here is that when studying you should be studying, and that's that. Facebook and other social networks are for later and should be turned off during homework! We should really be focusing while working with assignments and exams, rather than spending twice as long on a result half as good as it could otherwise have been.