LRB #4: The Roles of Soraya

In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, there are many characters that play an important part in moving the story along. This book contains a large amount of minor characters, ones whose one purpose is to fill in the blanks and help the main characters move on with their lives. The most important minor character thus far, hands down, is Soraya, Amir’s love interest turned wife. Though her introduction was nothing extravagant, it’s pretty much love at first sight and the two fall head over heels, getting married quickly due to Baba’s impending death from cancer. 

We walked in silence down a winding gravel path lined by a row of hedges. We sat on a bench and watched an elderly couple kneeling beside a grave a few rows away and placing a bouquet of daisies by the headstone. “Soraya?”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to miss him.”

She put her hand on my lap. Baba’s chila glinted on her ring finger. Behind her, I could see Baba’s mourners driving away on Mission Boulevard. Soon we’d leave, too, and for the first time ever, Baba would be all alone.

Soraya pulled me to her and the tears finally came.

This quote is very important in the aspect that it perfectly highlights the role Soraya takes on in Amir’s life. From the beginning of their relationship to where we are currently in the book, she has become his other half; she voluntarily took care of her dying father in law to help Amir and show her respect to Baba and she becomes Amir’s sole source of comfort after his passing away. I think this shows what a marriage is supposed to be like; I think you’re meant to be each other’s rock, which is what Soraya is to Amir and vice versa. 

Soraya also has another role to fill – soon enough, she goes from being the comforter to the one who needs comforting. After finding out that she is for some reason infertile, it is her turn to fall apart in a sense and Amir is there to comfort her just as she always does for him. I think this is another reflection on how love works; you’re there for each other no matter what the circumstances. 

Ultimately, I think Soraya is placed in Amir’s life because she fulfills the purpose of becoming his strength and comfort when bad things happen. She’s sort of like his lighthouse, guiding him through the fog of life, never failing, even when they’re both pushed to their limits, which is beautiful.

LRB #3: Baba and Cancer [aka The Part of the Book That Made Me Want to Tear My Heart Out]

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner contains many scenes that are meant to affect the reader’s thoughts and feelings. Chapter twelve is pretty much one big heart wrenching scene with a primary purpose being to get to the reader and make them feel. It does just that. The chapter begins innocently enough; Amir and his father are seemingly closer and living in America. His father has sold his car to buy a van and they now go to yard sales and swap-meets on the weekends. Amir meets a love interest who later becomes his wife, but this is not the point of the chapter. The important part appears about mid chapter – Baba is sick.

Though it is not revealed right away, it is eventually stated that Baba has terminal cancer, and it’s in a stage where there is no fixing it. No cure. Essentially this means that without treatment, Baba will die in a very short amount of time. Baba knows this and refuses treatment anyway; I think this is more a matter of pride and custom than anything else. He is a Pashtun by nature. Pashtuns don’t need charity or help with anything; they fight their fights and win on their own. Baba merely sees cancer as another fight, another obstacle to overcome – except this time, he’s not winning. 

“That’s a clear answer, Dr. Amani. Thank you for that,” Baba said. “But no chemo medication for me.” He had the same resolved look on his face as the day he’d dropped the stack of food stamps on Mrs. Dobbins’s desk.

“But Baba-“

“Don’t you challenge me in public, Amir. Ever. Who do you think you are?”

This was Baba’s response to being told he had terminal cancer and would die without treatment. This further backs the theory that he is a man of pride and refused to have help fighting his own battles, even if this battle would ultimately (spoiler alert) take his life in the very near future. 

They discharged Baba two days later. They brought in a specialist called a radiation oncologist to talk Baba into getting radiation treatment. Baba refused. They tried to talk me into talking him into it. But I’d seen the look on Baba’s face. I thanked them, signed their forms, and took Baba home in my Ford Torino. 

It is at this point in the book that Amir finally understands why his father is doing what he is doing. Baba sees cancer as his final battle, one he knows he is going to lose, but he would rather go out fighting on his own than have someone else fighting it for him. Amir can’t persuade him or change his mind or course of action. He can only honor his father’s wishes as it is obvious that his demise is impending and imminent. 

As for my thoughts on this portion of the book, I am completely devastated. I am first devastated by the fact that Baba has cancer to begin with because of his characterization. Baba is described all throughout the book as a big, strong, hardworking man that fights his own fights and succeeds by way of his own two hands. Cancer breaks this mold that was created for the character and changes everything; he goes from being the image he once had to being a sickly, weak, dependent man, much to his own dismay. This alone was enough to make me feel sad for Baba and sympathize for him throughout this part of the book. Furthermore, the cancer was foreshadowed earlier in the book by Amir himself when he mentioned in passing in the beginning. Though I knew it foreshadowed that someone would have cancer, I never thought it would be Baba. I found that one of the most devastating parts of the entire plotline. 

As you read through this part of the story, you accompany both Amir and Baba on Baba’s journey throughout this difficult part of his life; the cancer is getting stronger, Baba is getting weaker, and he doesn’t have much time left. Despite this, he does one last thing for his son – he asks for the General’s daughter to marry Amir. This part, despite being sad, made me happy. Even though he is in a severe amount of pain and is slowly wasting away, he still puts his son first, even if his earlier attempts at this were unorthodox and he wasn’t always the best father. This act of selflessness cleans Baba’s slate, at least for me it does. 

I’ve honestly grown to really like the character of Baba and witnessing him breaking down and dying because of something out of his control was painful to witness. Nevertheless, that is how I know I like this book. It has the ability to make me really feel and sympathize with the characters.  

LRB #2: Foils Continued and A Short Analysis of Hassan

In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the two main characters are a perfect example of foils. As I said in my last LRB, Amir and Hassan are complete opposites in both personality and actions. This is proven again between pages 80 and 109 of the book. The personalities of the two boys are put on display once again when Amir and Hassan grow distant after the incident in the alley and Amir ultimately decides to frame Hassan for thievery to get him kicked out of his life. Amir is shown to be a conniving, deceitful little boy that frames his best friend for a crime he didn’t commit just so he wouldn’t have to feel bad about what he witness and ran away from. Hassan, being the loyal and obedient friend he is, goes along with everything Amir says, condemning himself and his father to uprooting from their home and going elsewhere.

After Hassan says that he stole the money and the watch from Amir, Amir has a revelation. I flinched, like I’d been slapped. My heart sank and I almost blurted out the truth. Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me. If he’s said no, Baba would have believed him because we all knew Hassan never lied. And if Baba believed him, then I’d be accused; I would have to explain and I would be revealed for what I really was. This quote is the most important so far at showcasing both Hassan and Amir’s true natures. Despite the pain Amir has put Hassan through, he is sacrificing himself one last time to end the struggle his friend is dealing with. Even in the end he remains loyal and obedient to the boy he considers his best friend. Meanwhile, Amir is revealed to be a liar and to have caused a lot of pain for his ‘best friend’, the one person who stuck around for him despite his callous attitude and how caught up he is in seeking his father’s approval. Hassan even disregards the fact that Amir is slaying him like a lamb to get on Baba’s good side. These two characters are exact opposites, and the stealing scene highlights that better than anything else in the book has. 

Moving along, the character of Hassan really intrigues me now. Despite the fact that he is teased by other kids simply because of what class of Afghanistan he comes from, he chooses to remain a humble person, fully accepting of his life and what it entails. And despite the fact that his only real friend bosses him around like a slave, he remains completely and utterly loyal to him, submissive to a fault and willing to do whatever it takes to make his friend happy. Take for example the kite running scene that leads to the alley scene. Hassan didn’t have to run the kite for Amir; he simply wanted to make his friend happy by getting the kite for him. He put Amir’s feelings ahead of his own, which shows that he is selfless as well. Hassan is overall a kind hearted, obedient, wonderful friend that knows what to do for his friends and even steps out of the way if it’s necessary and in some aspects I would like to be more like him.

LRB #1 Foils in The Kite Runner

The first 80 pages of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner successfully went from being a boring snoozefest to heart-wrenching. The most obvious thing that stands out in the first 80 pages is the contrast in characters, especially Amir and Hassan. The two are foils, to say the least; they are almost exact opposites. Everything Amir is, Hassan is not, and vice versa. The easiest thing to point out is the personality contrasts between the two. Amir is a weak, jealousy prone, betraying Pashtun. Hassan is a loyal, strong, fighting Hazara. These differences become more and more apparent throughout the pages we’ve read so far in the book.

A very important quote appears in chapter 6 of the book when Amir asks Hassan if he would eat dirt if he told him to. “If you asked, I would,” he finally said, looking right at me. I dropped my eyes. To this day, I find it hard to gaze directly at people like Hassan, people who mean every word they say. This quote is relevant to the discussion of foils because it shows Hassan’s true nature. Regardless of how Amir treats him, he is going to be a loyal friend and do anything he can for his best friend. Examples of this include running the final kite for Amir and taking a beating and rape in order to securely bring back said kite. Hassan goes to extremes to do whatever his best friend wants, which is a quality of his people, the Hazaras, servants of Afghanistan.

Amir, on the other hand, is the opposite of Hassan. Having grown up wealthy, Amir is a spoiled child who seems to have no regard for others aside from fooling himself into believing he was really friends with a Hazara. Amir is a Pashtun, who are seen as the upper class in Afghanistan, and subconsciously, he also sees Hassan as a servant. The first relevant quote to this appears in chapter 5. But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant! For the first time, Amir is admitting to himself that deep down, he sees his friend as a simple servant. Feelings cannot unbind the ties created by the roles that society creates for us. 

One more relevant quote appears in chapter 7. In the end, I ran. I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt. That’s what I told myself as I turned my back to the alley, to Hassan. This may very well be the most important quote of the first 80 pages of the book. Amir turns his back to the gruesome act he sees being inflicted upon his ‘best friend’ and runs, simply because he wants his father’s approval and realizes that in order to do this, he must slay his best friend, his lamb, Hassan. Both of these quotes work together to show Amir’s true nature; as  a Pashtun, he sees himself as better and more of a person than his Hazara friend, even if he didn’t consciously admit it until chapters into the book. 

Furthermore, the characters being foils helps to underline an emerging theme and possible meaning of the work in the story. Though both boys try hard to be friends and to accept the other for who he is, Amir seems to have a rougher time with this simply because of the fact that they come from two different groups. This highlights the fact that social roles – roles that society creates for people to fill – are always going to prevail despite effort and wanting things to be different. It is impossible to fully break the ties to these roles that are ingrained in our minds, and Amir is slowing learning that throughout the first 80 pages of the book.

Taming of the Shrew: Act 5

1. Analyze Kate's final speech. Is she sincere or ironic? Should we take her at her word? Or should we imagine a gap between what she says and what she means? Does the context of her words change their meanings? What are different possibilities in performing this scene? 

I honestly can't really tell if she's being sincere or ironic, but from the reaction Petruchio gives, she must be sincere at least to a certain extent. It is obvious from the end of Act 4 into the beginning of Act 5 that the character of Katherine is completely different from who she was in the beginning. She has been "tamed," and she is now wrapped around Petruchio's finger. If she didn't mean the things she said, she wouldn't have come when he called for her in the first place; she would've simply stayed back like Bianca and the Widow did when they were summoned. I think we should take her at her word because she is now a changed woman - she let love in, or what is on the road to becoming love - and it changed her, honestly for the better.

In performing this scene, body language is key, especially if the audience is questioning Kate's sincerity within her final speech. It should also be taken into account the way that she acts around Petruchio and the way she speaks around him. Does she seem to be acting? As long as the body language, her tone, and her actions all seem consistent, then I'd be positive she's sincere with her words.

2. What happens to the power dynamics in this scene - between men and men, women and women, men and women? 

The gender roles of this time period are brought into perspective by none other than Kate herself. Directly before she begins her final speech, the audience is shown the way the men act when they are alone together. They treat their wives like pieces of furniture that they own and boss them around like they control every aspect of their lives. The most obedient wife wins their bet, which is extremely sexist but pretty normal for the time period. The women mostly stick together, if not only for the aspect that they all have to be loyal to their husbands, but not to the extent that Katherine was. She eventually turns on them and lectures them on the importance of being loyal to their husbands because it is their job to do so, just as Petruchio wanted. Basically, the men ruled everything and women were playthings - fun to have their way with and even more fun to boss around, but if they step out of line, there are dire consequences. 

[I'm totally leaving that up there because it was a really good answer.~]

In the beginning of the play, Baptista had the most power because he controlled when Bianca could be married. This shifts in the end to Petruchio having the most power because he married Katherine and made it possible for Bianca to be married.

Bianca had the most power in the beginning, female wise. This shifts to Katherine having the most power in the end.

Among the men and women, the women are all submissive by the end of the play, which is an especially big change for Katherine who was beating people with instruments and giving snarky, rude responses in the beginning. The men are their superior lords.

Taming of the Shrew: Act 4

1. How is Petruchio's masculinity represented? Examine his treatment of servants, Kate, etc.

Petruchio is presented as an all-powerful man that seems to be in control of everyone, including the servants and a very somber Kate that is being unknowingly controlled. He treats the servants horribly, belittling their work and their positions in the world. He threatens them and strikes several of them, all the while acting mostly nice toward Kate and claiming his irateness is entirely out of love. He is giving Kate a taste of her own medicine and letting her find out how it feels when she acts this way toward other people. He is forcing her to see the error of her ways. 

2. Many critics mark the sun/moon scene in the road to Padua (scene 5) as the turning point in the play which indicates Kate's taming. What is different about this scene? If she is tamed, what is she submitting to? Is it really a "submission," or can it be interpreted in other ways?

This scene is different because in every other scene where Petruchio has challenged Kate, she has always argued back with a witty retort, but this time she doesn't give any. In fact, she doesn't even bother to try and argue with him at all and simply agrees to whatever he says. If, and that is a very big if, Kate is tamed, she is submitting to Petruchio's rule - i.e., she goes along with whatever he says, agrees with him completely, and other things of that nature. I don't think this is really a submission, though. One possible interpretation could be that Kate is simply sick of the way Petruchio has been treating her and is eager to visit her father's home because at least there she will get to eat. Maybe she only goes along with the things Petruchio says because she is desperate for a break from him already, considering that he is getting into her head already.

Taming of the Shrew Acts 2 and 3

1. How does Petruchio "tame" Kate? Consider how he seems to define their roles. Petruchio "tames"Kate by getting into her head. Everything insulting she would say to him, he would turn into something romantic and respond in that manner. He outwitted her, basically. He saw it as his job to be wittier, to twist her words and get inside of her head and "tame" her.

2. How does Katherine act in the scenes where she says little or nothing? For example, in Act 2, scene 1, how does Katherine behave when Petruchio reports on his success in wooing Kate and in their plans for marriage? Because the text provides little explanation, you must decide how she would act based on your interpretation of her character from previous scenes. I think Katherine is acting rather careless about the whole thing. She doesn't think it's right for her father to force her to marry someone whom she just met and whom is obviously playing a part to get something out of her. She knows he doesn't love her, as they just met, and she knows he wants something. Most likely money. However, I think she does like him maybe just slightly. He's witty and sharp tongued just like she is, which I believe is something that would draw her to him. 3. Imagine viewing this play in the Elizabethan era. Identify 4 moments of comedy. The conversation between Kate and Petruchio is comedic because of the insults they sling at each other and the way Petruchio twists her words so easily. Petruchio showing up crazily dressed to his own wedding was comedic because it's just so completely opposite of how he was expected to dress, and he was probably planning on a hasty exit.  When Bianca begins to translate and says things along the lines of "I don't know you" and "I don't trust you" in response to Hortensio telling her he loves her is purely comedic.   The argument at the wedding is comedic because of the way that Petruchio says he is pretty much honored, not to stay with Katherine, but to leave anyway. 4. Disguise is a major theme in TotS. What famous Bible story involves deceit and disguise? [I honestly have no idea at the moment and will fill this answer in when I think of it.] The story of Jacob and Esau is full of deceit and disguise.