Basic Book Review: The Kite Runner

(2) For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?); (5) Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? How is the author's life reflected in the book?; (8) Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.
The Kite Runner

From what I have read, I would say that the audience for this book is older teenagers and adults. One of the reasons why I say this is because some of the topics they discuss throughout this book are hard and a bit inappropriate for younger kids to understand. For example, when Assef talks about how he strongly supports Hitler and how great of a leader he was, this would probably be a bit confusing for a younger reader to comprehend. If someone is ten or eleven and they came across this part of the book, they might be confused as to what Hitler actually did and if he really was a good leader like Assef says he is, or if he was a horrible person as Amir says his father once told him. Since a person this age most likely hasn't gotten very far in depth with this part of history in school, they may not clearly understand this part of the book, which is an important part in shaping and describing Assefs character. Another part in The Kite Runner where some inappropriate content is discussed is when Hassan gets raped. When this action is actually happening in the book, the author doesn't specifically say the word "rape". Instead he just sort of describes what is going on, but it is pretty clear to the reader what is happening. However, if the reader of this book was, again very young, they most likely wouldn't be able to understand what was happening until the author actually states it, and even when the author does clearly state what went on when Assef and his friends attacked Hassan, this reader would most likely still be left with a lot of confusing questions. Even if a young reader did know what was happening, it is still a topic that is usually discussed amongst people above a certain age.

Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner, was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. In 1976 Hosseini and his family moved to Paris, France due to his father's job. The family had moved before, and back to Afghanistan, but this time they moved to the United States "because PDPA had seized power through a bloody coup in April 1978" (Wiki). He and his family settled in San Jose, CA where Hosseini attended Independent High School. Once he graduated, he enrolled into Santa Clara University. The Kite Runner was published in 2003, just about a year and a half after Hosseini left medical school. This book became and international best seller and was published in forty countries. It seems to me that this book is somewhat a reflection of his life and his challenges with growing up in Afghanistan and later moving to the United States. In the book, Amir and his father end up leaving Afghanistan and moving to northern California, which is the same thing that Khaled did when he was younger, just he moved with his whole family. This book seems like it is somewhat a reflection of the authors life through his eyes.

One relationship that particularly intrigues me is the one between Amir and Baba. From the beginning of the book when Amir's father tells him to leave him and Rahim Khan in the smoking room alone, it kind of had me wondering what kind of relationship the two had. When Amir thinks , " He'd close the door, leave me to wonder why it was always grown ups time." My first question that immediately came up during this part of the book was if Baba tried to substitute his time spent with his son with material items. I've heard of this kind of situation happen quite often with privileged children and their parents. It sometimes will seem like the children's parents will be to busy and occupied with their jobs and their own friends that they will somewhat neglect their child. They will also try and replace this time missed actually spending time with their kid with material items. Also, when Amir begins to write short stories of his own, his father seems less than interested when he tries to share one of them with him. He also says that sometimes he wishes that Rahim Khan were his actual father because he feels like he acceptd him more than his real dad does. It seems that Baba is a little displeased with Amir because he isn't really following in his footsteps. He isn't going down the path of law and politics like his father. Instead he enjoys reading books and writing stories which seems to displease Baba. However, as the story progresses and Baba and Amir move to the United States, it seems like their relationship slowely, but surely improves. Baba seems to be a little more proud of Amir after he graduates college, even though it is only community college, and you can tell that the two grow a lot closer, especially during the time of the flea market and when Amir meets Saroya.

I really enjoyed reading The Kite Runner. It seemed so real and even though it was actually fiction, I feel that I learned a lot from reading it. I am interested in reading other books from Khaled Hosseini.

Some Parents Really Need to Let There Kids Have a Life!!!

So, it has been a while since I've seen my friends from middle school and i really really really miss them. On Friday nights, there is this thing called Teen Night in San Francisco and a lot of my friends from my old school have been going since about 7th grade...and this is how long I've been begging my mom to let me go. It has been 3 years and this lady still won't let me go. I don't know what to do in order to convince her to let me go, but today I asked her if  I could go and she was irritating me! I originally planed to go last Friday night, but I had family visiting and one of my best friends wasn't going. Because of these two reasons I decided to hold off and just go next week ( which is tonight).

One of the same excuses my mom has been giving me about the reason she won't let me go is because she doesn't have any information about it and doesn't know who runs it, where it is, blah blah blah. However, each time she says this, I give her more and more information. I told her that they meet at a rec center in San Francisco, I gave her the address of the rec center, I told her that I'll let her know where we go after that at least 2 days in advance, I told her all the people who are going, gave her the administrator's name, and even his phone number.  For some ridiculous reason, this isn't good enough for her and she keeps asking the same question. Seriously, WHAT MORE INFORMATION DOES SHE NEED?!?!?! My mom also says that it isn't safe, but I don't know what she's talking about. I lived in San Francsico almost all my life up until the summer of my 7th, transition to 8th grade year. I've caught the bus there myself to school for 2-3 years and nothing ever happened to me. I could understand if this was just a bunch of teens getting together, but this has adult supervision and is completely safe.

 I had a very good talk about this with one of my friends who goes there and she encouraged me to keep asking. She also agreed with me on the fact that if parents don't let their kids do anything, they'll most likely end up rebelling later on. Her mom even agreed with me. I told her i would keep asking if I could come with them  but I don't know what to do to change her mind. If you have any ideas let me know. ......maybe I'll ask my dad if I can go next week. He's a lot more reasonable...

Re: all the debates about religion...

I've noticed that there have been a lot of debates both online and at school about religion. There have been very deeply religious people going against people that aren't so religious and it kind of seems like a waste of time. I do think it is interesting to hear peoples opinions, but they should know that they won't be able to change peoples' opinions on such a deep topic just simply be arguing with them. I found a good quote from Ebone's blog about her opinion on the debate over religion. She says:

 ...you can't force someone to see the world from your point of view. You can't convince someone not to express their opinion without offending yours...now in present-day America, anyone is allowed to believe in any religion they want and can express it in whatever way they want.

I am not a very religious person at all, but I wouldn't exactly call myself an Atheist. I DO believe in God... most of the time, but sometimes I have my doubts over weather he's real or not. Ebone says that you can't force someone to automatically agree with your point of view and nowadays, anyone is allowed to believe whatever they want to about religion. Some people can't really understand this and this is one of the things that turns me off to being part of a specific religious group. I personally really do not like having to be in a room where someone is preaching to me about God or whatever religion they're part of. It quite frankly makes me feel a little weird and uncomfortable. I'm not sure why this is, but it might be because I don't completely agree or believe what these people are saying and I also feel like they're trying to force their religious beliefs on me. 

For example, me and my mom have this family of friends whom we've known for quite a while. They are very religious people and they like to share their beliefs with their friends, including us. My mom is accepting of the information they share with us, but I don't really enjoy having to listen to it. I remember one time there was a guest at one of the classes and she was saying how even though there isn't any proof that God is real, we can still believe in him, or something like that. Anyways, my friends mom immediately commented on what this lady said about how there isn't any proof that God is real. She began passionately arguing that he is real and that there is proof. She handed her a book that someone wrote about proving that God is real and pretty much forced her to read it in the middle of the discussion. This honestly made me pretty uncomfortable even though I wasn't the one who was being questioned. I felt kind of bad for this lady because she herself was a believer of the same religion my friend's mom was, but she sort of got attacked for one true comment she made. I understand that religion is something that people can get very passionate about, but i hate it when these people get so passionate that they keep on arguing with you and try to get you to change your mind and agree with them.This is a free country and anyone is allowed to believe whatever they want to, so sometimes it;s best to keep your religious ideas or beliefs to yourself if no one asks about them so you don't offend anyone or make them feel uncomfortable.

It's great that some people are so passionate about religion and are willing to fight and argue about what hey believe in, but I usually choose to stay out of these conversations because I know that if i tell a really religious person that I am kind of unsure about God being real, or that I'm not religious i might get attacked. I think it's best to let everyone have their own opinions and you don't have to agree with them, but you can at least accept them.

this dumb guy at the pizza place was pissing me off today!!!! >:(

Today my cousin Nasia came from Hawaii to visit the family for her birthday with her mom. They are staying until Tuesday and today we went shopping downtown in San Francisco. Our other cousin, Sophia came to meet us there and for dinner we went to Blondie's Pizza on Powell St. While we were waiting for our pizza to come, me and Nasia went across the street to Urban Outfitters. I really had to pee so after I bought clothes we rushed back to Blondie's. When we got there we asked the guy behind the counter for the key to the bathroom and he was being very rude.
In the beginning he said that he needed to see a receipt, which was understandable. So, we went to the table to get the receipt from Nasia's mom, Tina. When we went back to show the guy the receipt, he took it, but he still didn't let me go to the bathroom. We ended up just going back to the table. We told Tina that the guy didn't give us the receipt back and she wanted it so we went back up to get it for her. When we asked the guy for it back he said that he didn't have it and that he through it away. We told Tina, so she went to the guy and asked him for it. He told her that he through it away because he thought it was garbage and that we gave it to him to throw away. This was complete BS because he also said that when we gave it to him it was crumpled up, which is another lie because we did not give it to him like that. When we handed him the receipt it was perfectly straightened out. I have absolutely no idea what this guys deal was, but he was really getting on my nerves. What really irritated was that he had a smirk on his face almost the whole time we were talking to him.
Eventually I got to use the bathroom but that was only because some guy was waiting for his girlfriend and when she came out he asked her to let me in. This was really nice of them and Tina ended up getting her receipt because the guy printed out another one. She also made him come and apologize to us, but I think that Nasia was too nice to him after that. When he said sorry she just said , “Oh, it's okay.” I personally would have said something smart like “Yeah, that's what I thought,” but I didn't want to cause anymore of a scene. This guy just really pissed me off and I felt the need to share it with you all.

RE: Why with all the drama? By Stab Anderson

These past two weeks at school have been very... interesting. There has been a lot of rumors spread and drama that has happened this week and it seems like it is starting to get way out of hand. In Stan's post he says :

 I don't understand why everyone starts all this drama at school... Especially at this school, we came here to learn, we did the application and everything, not once did it say "There will be copious amounts of drama.". Rumors are stupid and are most commonly not true, they are usually made when a boy likes a girl and the friend of that girl likes that boy. I know it may sound a little confusing but from what I've noticed, that is always the main source of drama. ...Someone who starts drama is often outcasted and ignored. After a while no one pays attention to them. So nothing good can become of you if you start rumors.

I completely agree with what Stan says here. I remember when I came on my shadow visit and to the orientation at ASTI and the teachers and students all said that one of the best parts of this school was that everyone was like a family and that there was no drama so everyone could focus in school. Now it seems like this was all a lie. I do enjoy some parts of ASTI. I like all of the friends I've made and enjoy the teachers I have, but it seems like there is a lot of drama at this school because of its size. Since this school is so small, rumors spread around fast and it causes a lot of trouble and many people get their feelings hurt because of it. I'm not going to mention specific names, but I have a friend who was strongly impacted by a rumor that was spread that she was accused of starting, when she didn't. It really hurt her, and a lot of other peoples' feelings.



When I was deciding what schools I wanted to apply to, I was very against just applying to an all girls school. It always seems like girls have a lot more drama with each other than guys do. Boys normally just handle their arguments physically and, event though this isn't really any better, it's kind of not as bad as the way girls handle their arguments. Even though violence is never the answer, at least when guys do this they are confronting each other. Girls normally either talk about each other behind one anothers backs, or gain up on one person which can be very very hurtful. Some people may say that this is better than getting beat up, but having a group of girls talk bad about you and turning against you can be very hard to deal with.



I usually try to be pretty nice to every one in the beginning because I don't like people talking crap about me behind my back. However, if someone upsets me or just really irritates me, I sometimes include myself when other people talk about them. I think the reason I do this is because it feels good to know that I'm not the only one who feels a certain way about the person. I don't start rumors about people, though because I just don't think it's worth it to make up stupid stuff about other people. Also, if you start rumors, people will end up hating you and eventually you will have no friends. It's kind of sad , but at the same time I find it difficult to sympathize with a person that talks about a while bunch of people behind their backs. I hope this drama will eventually stop.