All Boys, All Blogged: October 23, 2014

Focus: Why does Khaled Hosseini include the violent scene in Chapter 7?

1. Approaching the violence of Chapter 7 of The Kite Runner; either writing about or discussing Chapter 7 while keeping the following in mind:

“Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings, but it can also be cultural and societal in its implications.  It can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean…Violence in real life just is.  If someone punches you in the nose in a supermarket parking lot, it’s simply aggression…Violence in literature, though, while it is literal, is usually also something else.  That same punch in the nose may be a metaphor.”  --Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor

• What was most upsetting part of reading Chapters 7 and 8?

• How do you feel about Amir right now?

• What questions do you want to ask the author about this scene?
• What might the violence in Chapter 7 represent on a larger scale? Think about the world of Afghanistan and how it's starting to change in these chapters.
• What other stories does this scene of violence make you think of? Can those connections help you understand the nature of the rape in Chapter 7?

• Why this sort of violence and not some other?  For example, why not just have Assef beat up Hassan?

• Wondering what the author has to say about this convtroversial scene?

2. Exploring the symbolism of the kite and kite running

Find three different quotations about kites and kite running; try to spread these passages out, finding one quotation from one of the first few chapters, one from the middle chapters, and one from the chapters you've just read.

With your membership grid groups, read your passages aloud and discuss the following:

• In each quotation, which specific words and images stand out and why?
• What might the kite symbolize in each quotation?
• Is the meaning of the kite changing? If so, how?

3. Finishing an exciting round 2 of Scattergories vocabulary (Kite Runner, Chapters 1-6)

HW:

1. Study for tomorrow's vocabulary quiz over the words in Chapters 1-6 of The Kite Runner.

2. Bring either The Kite Runner or an independent reading book to class tomorrow.

3. Please read and annotate Chapters 9 and 10 for next Tuesday, which is the date of our first official fishbowl!