A Thousand Acres

First off women are definitely not treated as awful as the women in A Thousand Splendid Suns are, but you can still see the inconsistencies between men and women in the book. One example of this is “Yet to this day she regretted not having completed the course and received her diploma—"just to prove"—as she had told a friend…

What are the characteristics of a hero? Does a hero have to have a power, great looks, and are privileged? Does every hero have to be a hyper masculine male who go to a far off land to battle monsters? In movies and novels, heroes are depicted as a perfect hyper masculine male who is considerably perfect in all aspects from the moment of their birth. Going beyond the movie and novel realm, in the modern world most people’s concept of a hero is fairly narrow. Rarely do most people concern…

The Theme of Conflict and Its Impact on a Novel’s Meaning In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, many of the problems that occur throughout Amir’s story, who is the novel's protagonist, can be traced back to the various conflicts that exist between Amir and his father, Baba. The various conflicts between this father and son, which stem from past events that aren’t revealed to Amir until he is much older, later influence the decisions that our protagonist makes as well as the person he…

Joseph Campbell, in his book chapter “The Self as Hero,” argues how all heroes go through similar, if not the same, stages on the way to complete their journey. He supports his claim by citing evidence from classic literary tales like “The Princess and the Frog” and “When the Two Came to their Father” and appealing to pathos and logos. Campbell’s purpose is to educate readers on how most hero stories follow the same path and can influence and be influenced by the public, who can learn from the…

In Literature many characters face struggles with their past and must deal with them. Amir from Khaled Hosseini’s book The Kite Runner must face his past in order to achieve the redemption he so desperately needs. Hosseini uses Amir’s attempts to relieve his guilt, the kite, and Amir’s illness that results from his guilt, to show that despite our past sins there is the possibility for atonement. Throughout the book Amir struggles with the memories and the guilt from his past. Amir tried multiple…

The Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel is an exciting tale filled with heartbreak, survival, overcoming obstacles and intricate symbolism. The story is of a young mans journey into adulthood and loss…and ultimately not just surviving a shipwreck. But becoming a survivor in general. Pi is a teenager in the midst of a devastating shipwreck that costs the lives of his family members. His father, his mother, among others. After surviving the initial crash, Pi finds himself on a life boat with a…

Where the Wind Leads is a memoir written by Vinh Chung. It tells the struggle of Vinh Chung and his family from communist oppression and their journey from Vietnam to America for a better life. The memoir is sentimental with belief and faith. The memoir tells about two different period journey of the Chung family. The first period describes about their life in Vietnam and their escape from Vietnam war. Once an emperor of the rice mill factory, the Chung had to fled Vietnam leaving everything…

Traditionally, kites symbolize freedom and happiness, in other perspectives, restraint and control, all ideas that can be applied to events and characters in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. However, kites symbolize so much more in the novel, the three stages of Amir and Hassan's relationship: love, betrayal, and redemption. The beginning of the novel displays the kite fighting contest as the last good time that Amir and Hassan shared together. Hassan is attacked immediately after this, and…

A Harsh Necessity Cruelty, including unintentional cruelty, can reveal things about a character’s situation and motivate their actions. Even social concepts such as the American Dream can be a form of cruelty, causing despair when a person or family cannot meet those ideals. Examples of this can be found in the play Death of a Salesman, where acts of unintentional cruelty drive the story forward, and where the ideals of the American Dream prove to do more harm than good. It…

The story of Kite Runner is an epic story of forgiveness and redemption. Amir betrays the one who is most loyal to him for selfish reasons and starts a chain of reactions. Amir wanted to make his father proud and made his friend pay a big price because it. The secret splits up the household and changes the course of the story. The only one Amir felt was proud of him was Rahim Khan because of the care and attention Rahim Khan showed him. In The Kite Runner, Rahim acts as father figure to Amir. In…