Monday, March 29, 2010
"Why are you here?" asks Farid. "I mean, why are you really here?"
When Farid poses that question to Amir the night before they plan to meet the Taliban leader whom they hope will help them recover Sohrab, Amir replies, "For the boy." Yet that response isn't enough for Farid. Years and years of cultural values and beliefs force him to push Amir more and he then asks, "What I mean to ask is why that boy? You come all the way from America for....a Shi'a? This, of course, kills all the laughter in Amir. In what way has this cultural perspective, and/or cultural discrimination, shaped and twisted not only Amir's life, but that of his father's life, and even the lives of his fellow Afghans? As you continue to read chapters 21, 22, and 23, please reflect on the events and circumstances discussed in earlier chapters and tell me how good men, men like Baba, Rahim Kahn, Amir, Farid, and even Baba's father, find themselves perpetuating a cultural practice they know devalues and dismisses a segment of their own society? Do you think it had to be this way? Why or why not? (In responding to this question, please feel free to extend your opinion through text-to-text or text-to-world connections.)
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The cultural discrimination has shaped Amir's life and the lives of the other afghan men in this novel because even when their heart wants one thing, these men must settle and abide their cultural values. For instance, Amir and Hassan have grown up literally like two brothers. They even have breastfed from the same woman. They were in any American's eyes. the readers eyes friends. However even though this may seem so Amir doesn't consider Hassan his friend. Because of his beliefs he always sees the line that separates Sunni from Shi'a, and Pashtun from Hazara. on page 25 Amir even says, "I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either." This shows that even at a young age Amir and other afghan men already knew that society had to be this way. In the end i believe that this attitude of cultural differences had to be this way. As my mother says many times, you can't easily change a consistent habit. This view of classes and values had been going on for many years. These men had no other way but to do the same. They could fight all they want but in the end society would smother their actions.
ReplyDeleteThe cultural discrimination and twisted Amir's life. Amir and Baba are Pashtun and Hassan and his father were Haraza. Having two different reiglions, one was treat as dirt while the others were known. Amir was able to go to school while hassan lived his life as a servant and being called "flat-nosed" This only displays how life was in Afghanistan and how people viewed others.
ReplyDeleteCultural discrimination has twisted the lives of not only Amir and Baba but the lives of other afghani's as well, because no matter how bad they wanted to do something that they knew would be right and no matter how bad their hearts wanted something they had to follow their culture. Like Rahim Khan he wanted to marry the Hazara girl and his parents wouldnt allow it because it was against their religion. Also like Amir and Hassan they grew up just like brother, but one was treated like dirt and the other treated like royalty.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with Sherline. The way Amir was taught while growing up was that his kind the Pashtun were supposedly more superior to the Harazas, Hassan’s kind, and they were only to be used as servants, not friends. As children both Hassan and Amir knew the way their lives had to be lived because of their society and cultures. In the book when Amir and Hassan were facing Assef Amir pleaded and said that Hassan wasn’t his friend but his servant. We the readers can see that they were much more than that to each other because of all that they went through together. Their cultures and society were corrupted and kept these two boys apart. The way of life in the Afghanistan has been a never ending cycle and the Afghans kept it going in order to survive in their own society. It’s like Darwin’s theory, having to adapt to the environment to survive. .o Baba and all that he stood for was only to protect his and his child’s life.
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