Monday, March 29, 2010
Stories within Stories
Throughout the narrative Hosseini has continually woven a vast array of memories, dreams, and epic tales into the story. These additions becomes stories in their own right, and they often help readers better understand the personal, familial, and cultural challenges Amir and Hassan face together and alone. Whether it is Hassan telling Amir his dream about a monster in a lake or Amir remembering how he and Hassan imagined themselves to be the world's "greatest explorers" as they paraded a tortoise around in a wagon, these stories reveal just how much these two boys struggle to move beyond their individual and cultural limitations. Which one of the many stories woven into the narrative made the greatest impression on you and how did it help you better understand and appreciate the story?
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The story that made the biggest impression on me was the one about Amir and Hassan painting the tortoise and then carrying it around in the wagon because the story told about how much fun Amir and Hassan has even though they were supposedly from to different social classes in that particular time period. This woven narrative helped me to better understand the novel because it showed me that even though Amir had done Hassan wrong in the past and they weren’t speaking when Hassan left Amir’s house, Amir still thought about him and the fun things they used to do when they were younger. It helped me to understand the bond between brothers even though they didn’t know they were brothers until the end of the book when Amir went to Afghanistan to get Sohrab and bring him back to the states to live a better life.
ReplyDeleteThe story in the novel that had the most impact on me was the little story Hassan told Amir of his dream just before Amir's kite tournament. Amir was literally a nervous wreck and was so nervous of the upcoming competition. He wanted to win to finally get his dad's attention. Hassan probably told Amir the dream to calm him down. In the dream Amir is the brave one who decides to go into the lake with the monster at the bottom. Once in the lake Hassan joins him showing the other reluctant people that the lake was actually safe. This had the most impact on me because it showed that Hassan knew Amir so well that he tried to calm him down by telling him a story where Amir is the courageous one. In the same way this reminds me of my grandfather always trying to cheer me up not my direct words but by anecdotes and little dreams. Till this day i don't know if these stories were true but in the end i could see that between the lines he, like Hassan, was trying to cheer a friend up.
ReplyDeleteone of the stories that made a big impression on me was the story about Rostam and Sohrab. Only because it was one of their favorite stories.but Amir ends up taking the story and swtiching it up while Hassan listens with excitment. By Amir twisting that story it encourage him to write his own. I tought it was kind of funny how Hassan named his son Sohrab, who was the story hero
ReplyDeleteThe story that had the greatest impact on me was the one when Hassan was indeed telling Amir about the monster in the lake. However I took a different approach on the reasoning of its purpose. We the readers all know that Hassan tells Amir this dream to calm his nerves on the upcoming tournament, I find it quite ironic. In the dream Hassan is the one who’s scared to go into the lake and Amir is the brave one that shows Hassan that there’s nothing to fear. It’s an ironic situation because after the kite tournament when Hassan gets raped Amir is known to be the coward instead of the courageous one and runs. This impacted me greatly because all through the rest of the book I was wondering when Amir would finally become the brave man Hassan truly saw in him. This relates to me in real life situations when I’m about to run and my best friend Celina is there talking me through it and saying things to make me laugh to calm my nerves. The stories within this story all have purposes and Hassan’s dream had a bigger purpose then one would think of.
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