The Kite Runner Site
Citation
Hosseini, K. The Kite Runner. New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2003.
Abstract
The Kite Runner is a fictional story of two friends, Amir and Hassan who live in Pakistan and have a fierce love and friendship for each other. The novel juggles the story of Amir and Hassan's friendship and struggles with Amir's move to America and the rise of the Taliban and their destruction of the Pakistani people. When Amir puts his fear before his friendship with Hassan, we see him abuse Hassan to make himself feel better; when Amir moves to America we see his trying to fit in with his new surroundings despite having customs that often directly interfere with this goal; when Amir grows up we see his journey to redeem himself for his treatment of Hassan and struggle when his father's past and secrets come back to haunt him. The Kite Runner is a powerful story about a society and culture very few of us understand or trust with recent history being what it is; this story shows us the humanity of those who we don't understand and makes us think about how our own decisions and prejudices affect those we associate with.
Philosophy
As I have said in many posts, multicultural education is important: this novel reminds me that I need to make sure I consider the opinions, customs and differences of my students. There are a few things I want to say about this novel: 1) bullying is not good and I hope to make my classroom a place where students learn to respect each other's ideas, backgrounds and work; 2) when students of other cultures try to fit into the classroom, students need to remember to assist them and respect their customs, which means as a teacher I have to help these students and also respect them as a role model for the rest of their peers. Amir had trouble fitting in, which in his case was because not only was America not a helpful place for him with his customs, but he was personally doing his own best to not adhere to them either; his father not gaining command of the language as Amir did, had an even tougher time--in the classroom, ESL students do sometimes show up and I want to try and be the teacher who gives them appropriate resources so that they don't get discouraged and unable to gain understanding like their peers. This is a very relevant concern for educators today. Another aspect of the novel that stood out for me was the idea of peer violence: Amir sees his friend Hassan get sexually attacked by Assef, a bully in the community, and does nothing but instead from his guilt he also treats Hassan like a victim and ends up getting him sent away. Many children are the victims of abuse and bullying, so in my classroom I will take claims of abuse seriously and get kids the help they need (yes, this is a legal responsibility), plus help to enact policies in the school that create an environment where bullying and peer pressure are not allowed to ruin a student's motivation to learn or survive.
Citation
Hosseini, K. The Kite Runner. New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2003.
Abstract
The Kite Runner is a fictional story of two friends, Amir and Hassan who live in Pakistan and have a fierce love and friendship for each other. The novel juggles the story of Amir and Hassan's friendship and struggles with Amir's move to America and the rise of the Taliban and their destruction of the Pakistani people. When Amir puts his fear before his friendship with Hassan, we see him abuse Hassan to make himself feel better; when Amir moves to America we see his trying to fit in with his new surroundings despite having customs that often directly interfere with this goal; when Amir grows up we see his journey to redeem himself for his treatment of Hassan and struggle when his father's past and secrets come back to haunt him. The Kite Runner is a powerful story about a society and culture very few of us understand or trust with recent history being what it is; this story shows us the humanity of those who we don't understand and makes us think about how our own decisions and prejudices affect those we associate with.
Philosophy
As I have said in many posts, multicultural education is important: this novel reminds me that I need to make sure I consider the opinions, customs and differences of my students. There are a few things I want to say about this novel: 1) bullying is not good and I hope to make my classroom a place where students learn to respect each other's ideas, backgrounds and work; 2) when students of other cultures try to fit into the classroom, students need to remember to assist them and respect their customs, which means as a teacher I have to help these students and also respect them as a role model for the rest of their peers. Amir had trouble fitting in, which in his case was because not only was America not a helpful place for him with his customs, but he was personally doing his own best to not adhere to them either; his father not gaining command of the language as Amir did, had an even tougher time--in the classroom, ESL students do sometimes show up and I want to try and be the teacher who gives them appropriate resources so that they don't get discouraged and unable to gain understanding like their peers. This is a very relevant concern for educators today. Another aspect of the novel that stood out for me was the idea of peer violence: Amir sees his friend Hassan get sexually attacked by Assef, a bully in the community, and does nothing but instead from his guilt he also treats Hassan like a victim and ends up getting him sent away. Many children are the victims of abuse and bullying, so in my classroom I will take claims of abuse seriously and get kids the help they need (yes, this is a legal responsibility), plus help to enact policies in the school that create an environment where bullying and peer pressure are not allowed to ruin a student's motivation to learn or survive.
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