2003 in literature

Gatsby set himself on a self-destructive crusade to destroy yet recreate the past. The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald is about Jay Gatsby who uproots his entire life to around his personal quest to be reunited with his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby’s mission takes him from poverty to wealth, to a reunion with his beloved, and to his tragic death. The story of Gatsby is the story of a man who is pinned between an ever-consuming shame and immense guilt. Gatsby is ashamed of the fact that…

Saadat Hasan Manto is one of the greatest short story writers in Urdu literature who has produced twenty two collections of short stories dealing with different subjects such as partition, human life, social taboos, communal violence, so on and so forth. His stories revolving round the subject of partition of the subcontinent after independence in 1947 are more famous and more known than his other stories. Toba Tek Singh is one such story, a masterpiece, which is interwoven with the theme of…

‘Follower’ by Seamus Heaney is a poem that pulls on your emotions and that of many people can relate to. It is about a boy who has idolized his father his whole life, wanting to be just like him, but as he grows up he realizes that his father may not be as he thought he was and changes directions to where his life was heading. Throughout his life he was always following and looking up to his father but the roles switched, where he was once following his father, his father is now following him.…

In The Kite Runner, there are two important characters, Amir and Hassan. Amir is the main character as well as the narrator of the story, leading to seeing events through his eyes. As Amir is telling the story, he thinks of an event that happened twenty-six years before, when he was a little boy, living in Afghanistan, saying that that made him who he is. Amir is the son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and he grows up being used to getting what he wants. Amir grows up with his father Baba,…

The novel, “All the broken pieces” by Ann E. Burg, is a fantastic book. This book is a constant page-turner, and is very straightforward so you don’t get lost anywhere in the book. This book takes place in the United States towards the end of the Vietnam War. The main character Matt Pin, is from Vietnam but has to move to the States because of the war and the toll that it was taking on his country. During the novel Matt has to overcome hatred by his classmates in order to achieve his goals, and…

In books, on TV, and generally anywhere else, honor is depicted as the protagonist always making the moral decision without a second thought. Though, in The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, honor and sacrifice are conveyed as an afterthought to Hosseini’s main character Amir. Because honor came as a second thought to Amir, he then has to try to gain redemption through a dangerous journey back to his homeland, and fight to save his conscience and a young boy’s life. Throughout this journey the…

Both Baba and Amir have committed sins against their loyal friends/servants, and live in guilt, which leads them on a journey to redeem themselves, by doing good deeds. Amir's mission to redeem for himself makes up the main point of the novel. From the get-go, Amir endeavors to make up for himself in Baba's eyes, principally in light of the fact that his mom had passed away when conceiving him, and he feels he is guilty for her passing. To make up for himself to Baba, Amir supposes he should win…

It’s December 1st, and chapter one opens up right away with a reference to the past, 26 years ago to be exact, “on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.” (Hosseini 1) when the narrator was just 12 years old, that has made this nameless narrator, “What I am today.” (Hosseini 2). This event that occurred in an alley has haunted the narrator and how you can’t just simply bury the past because it always comes back to you. The narrator recalls a phone call from last summer from someone named…

In the novel The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini, one of the main themes that the novel is constructed on is redemption. The first half of the book deals with Amir’s actions to redeem himself in the eyes of his father. Amir’s mother died shortly after giving birth to him and he feels that his father blames him for the death of his mother. He tries his best in writing, working, and participating in the kite competition. Amir's quest for redemption led to the ignorance of his actions. Amir…

Sovia Ti “There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft [...] when you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth” (17-18). In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, Amir was a character who had committed this sin. Soon after Amir won his first kite tournament, he witnessed something that traumatized both him and a close friend. Amir, like many other characters, could not stand up for himself, which created problems for his future relationships with his friends and family. His…