Amir & Soraya

In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir and his wife Soraya are very similar.  They share many circumstances which double as themes of the novel.  The first of these similarities is that they both love to read.  While this is more superficial, it does explain one of the reasons they make a great couple.  On a deeper level, they share regret for past mistakes.  Soraya ran off with a man in Virginia and Amir let Hassan get raped.  In this instance, the difference is that Amir doesn't ever tell anyone his secret. This explains why he is never truly happy while Soraya can move on with her life.  "But I think a big part of the reason I didn't care about Soray's oast was that I had one of my own.  I knew all about regret (p180)."  Additionally, the two are both very proud of their career aspirations.  Soraya and Amir both faced criticism from their parents but continued their studies.  Most recently in the novel, they are joined by their mourning for not being able to have a child.  I think these three similarities, regret, pride, and sorrow, are all themes of the novel stressed by Amir and Soraya's relationship.

Baba and Amir: foil characters?

While reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, many parts of the story seem to set up Amir and his father Baba as foil characters.  While I'm not quite sure if they are, they certainly differ greatly in their behaviors and opinions.  First, Baba is very successful   As a child, he was very successful, winning at everything and working his way to the top of the social ladder.  We also know that he loves to throw big parties.  Amir, on the other hand, is shy and is not popular at all.  In fact, he is often picked on by other kids.  Baba loves sports while Amir has no interest in them whatsoever.  Amir is a pushover, while Baba is very set and strong in his beliefs.  For instance, he refuses to receive welfare in America saying "In Afghanistan I work, in America I work.  Thank you very much Mrs. Dobbins, but I don't like it free money (p 129)." At many times in America, Amir and Baba see things differently, like when Baba refuses chemotherapy.  In the end, however, they are happy with each other, and I think Baba becomes a role model for Amir.

Irony & Imagery

There was a lot going on from a literary standpoint at the part of the The Kite Runner (by Khaled Hosseini) when Ali decides that he and Hassan needed to leave.  First, there is irony in the fact that Amir set up Hassan to be kicked out of the house by planting his gifts in their hut.  Instead, the opposite happens when Baba forgives them and asks them to stay, almost favoring Hassan over Amir.  When they insist on leaving and the Amir begins to describe their departure, Hosseini uses imagery to describe the sorrowful season.  "Slithering beads of rain sluiced down my window....  I stepped back and all I saw was rain through windowpanes that looked like melting silver (p 108, 109)."  This imagery makes good use of darkness and rain, archetypal symbols for sadness and mourning.  Similarly, Amir's likening the rain to melting silver recognizes the value of Hassan's friendship that is being lost.  The ultimate effect is that the reader senses how much this memory disturbs Amir.  It also points out the great friendship that Amir is losing.  It is one of the saddest scenes in the book so far.

Repeat after me...

Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost is a poem filled with repetition.  Upon first reading the poem, I didn't really realize the repetition and therefore had no understanding of it.  However, after re-reading the poem, I realized Frost's use of repetition and the insight that it provided me on the meaning of the work.  The first repetition he uses is most obvious.  Frost use the word "I" to start half of the lines.  "I have been one acquainted with the night (line 1, 14)."  "I have looked down the saddest city lane (line 4)."  Other lines use the pronoun as well.  The main importance of this repetition is that it separates the speaker from other people in the story.  In fact the only other person mentioned, the watchman, he avoids.  This repetition makes the reader realize that the speaker is alone.  He has no home and is isolated from other people.  The final repetition is that of the first and last lines, quoted above.  This line simply introduces and later reinforces the topic of the poem: the speaker is familiar with night.  And because night and darkness are a symbol of evil, perhaps this means he has not led a good life.   Otherwise, it could simply mean that he has no home and wanders the streets at night with nowhere to stay.   Either way, the repetition of the first line helps reach that conclusion.

Metaphors Aplenty

Sorting Laundry by Elisavietta Ritchie consists of an extended metaphor which characterizes the relationship between the speaker and her lover.  The poem starts by saying "Folding clothes, / I think of folding you / into my life (lines 1-3)."  What follows are 13 stanzas describing the material that is in the laundry.  Her description of shirts, skirts, and pants "head over heels"  shows that she is still very much in love with her love, despite the length of their relationship.  The wrinkles that she mentions, needing to be smoothed or ignored, symbolize the mistakes and flaws in the relationship.  At the end, the speaker mentions a shirt left by her former lover.  This then makes her realize how lonely she would be without her current love.  She then stops describing the laundry and says that a mountain of wash would not be able to replace him.  This final phrase emphasizes her feelings toward her love while also referring back to the original metaphor of folding clothes to remind her of her love.

Paradoxes are Cool

To me, Batter my heart, three-personed God by John Donne is a very ironic poem.  The speaker talks to God as if he wants nothing more than to love him and be with him, but he refuses him at the same time.  He says "Yet dearly I love you and would be loved fain, But I am betrothed unto your enemy (lines 9,10)."  This poem is the story of all people who want to be holy, but are to used to their old ways.  This sonnet uses paradoxes to illustrate this.  In the last three lines, the speaker says he will never be free unless God imprisons him or chaste unless God ravishes him.  Both seem like impossibilities, but he is saying that God is his only chance at holiness as he can't become so on his own.  I suppose it is up to the reader to decided whether this is out of pure laziness or simple inability.  Is the speaker really incapable of accepting God, or is he simply dumping all the work on His shoulders.

Trying to make a statement...

To me, the poem The Convergence of the Twain by Thomas Hardy is pretty insensitive.  It talks about the sinking of the Titanic and was actually published shortly after the event.  The poem talks about the ship, saying that its vanity was of little value and contrasting it with the indifferent ocean.  Obviously the luxurious ship focused too much on appearance, as the fate of its passengers are well known.  However, the Hardy doesn't stop there.   He says, "Till the Spinner of the Years / Said 'Now!' And each one hears. / And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres (lines 31-33)."  He basically is saying that it was the ship's destiny to sink.  They should have seen it coming, and the focus on appearance was at fault.  Now, the jewels  "lie lifeless" on the ocean floor, having given no comfort to the families of those who lost their lives.  I agree with Hardy, I think he has a point, but did he really have to publish this days after the incident?