A Room of One's Own: Journal---Chapter one

2008年2月20日星期三

Journal---Chapter one

The beginning of the story is brief. The narrator just told his unforgettable memories on the alley. The phone call from Pakistan made the narrator remind of his father, his friends and his past life in hometown. The sight of twin kites let him think about Hasson who said:" For you, a thousand times over." to him. I also got the information that the narrator called Hasson the kite runner, so I would put more attention to the character--Hassan. Though I have no idea what the relationship between these characters, the sentence actually touched me a lot.

Another significant sentence in chapter one I think is:" There is a way to be good again.", which reveals that there must be something important happened in the past.

Meanwhile,the narrator repeated almost the same words both at the beginning and in the end. The opening remarks of the chapter is: I bacame what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. The ending words of the chapter is: I thought of the life I had lived until the winter of 1975 came along and changed everything. And made me what I am today. Why the narrator showed the same meaning for twice, which arouse my interest in what had happened in the winter of 1975.

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Characters

๑۩۞۩๑Amir — protagonist and narrator of the novel, said to be born in 1963, in Kabul, who begins as a well-to-do boy in monarchical Afghanistan and later migrates to America following the downfall of the monarchy. Amir is Hassan's half brother; however, Amir does not learn of their relationship until much later in his life. Hassan never learns of the relationship.
๑۩۞۩๑Hassan — a childhood friend of Amir, although Amir never explicitly admitted to this. Hassan is first thought to be the son of Ali (Baba's servant and inexplicit childhood friend) and Sanaubar; later in the story, Hassan is revealed to be the illegitimate son of Baba and Sanaubar. Hassan died without ever knowing about this fact.
๑۩۞۩๑Assef — a sadistic teenage rapist (and later notorious pedophile) from Amir's neighborhood in Kabul, antagonist. As a teenager, he rapes Hassan. As an adult he sexually assaults Hassan's son, Sohrab, and numerous other young children of both genders. Assef is the son of a German mother and Afghan father. He is a Nazi sympathizer and a has hatred of Hazaras, giving a book about his "idol" Adolf Hitler to Amir for his thirteenth birthday. Many years later, he becomes a Talib-executioner and pedophile. Sohrab severely damages one of Assef's eyes during Assef's fight with Amir.
๑۩۞۩๑Baba — The father of Amir and Hassan. He is said to be born in the year 1933 (when the Afghan king begins his 40-year reign). He is described as a big, strong, healthy looking man with wild brown hair and beard. Baba is depicted to be of about 1.96 meter (6'5") in height. He is a bit of a party-maker, and known for his strength. (He is said to have fought with a black bear and won the fight, in his younger years). During the book, Baba seems to be a bit disappointed in his son Amir, who he wishes to be as much as a man as he is (but his son only reads books and lets others fight off bullies for him). After leaving Afghanistan for America, he ages quickly and dies at fifty-three, in 1986, of cancer. He lives long enough, though, to see his son Amir marry a young Afghan woman called Soraya. Many people attend his funeral.
๑۩۞۩๑Ali — Baba's servant and inexplicit childhood friend. He is initially thought to be the father of Hassan. Before the events of the novel, he had been struck with polio, rendering his right leg useless. He is killed by a land mine.
๑۩۞۩๑Rahim Khan — Baba's business partner and best friend in Afghanistan, later he was the one who tells Amir about Hassan's actual father. Amir liked him as a child, and Rahim Khan is also the one who invited Amir back to Afghanistan to pick up Sohrab. Later in the story, Rahim Khan goes off alone leaving a letter to Amir telling him not to find him. He dies peacefully knowing he has successfully made Amir the man Baba wanted him to be.
๑۩۞۩๑Soraya — an Afghan woman living in Fremont, California. She marries Amir. Soraya wants to become a teacher. Before marrying Amir, she ran away with an Afghan boyfriend in Virginia, which according to Afghan tradition made her unsuitable for marriage, but because Amir also had his own regrets, loved and married her anyway.
๑۩۞۩๑Sohrab — son of Hassan, traumatized and sexually abused by the Assef; Rahim Khan contacts Amir later in life in an attempt to get him to come back to Afghanistan to find Sohrab. In the end, he is adopted by Amir.
๑۩۞۩๑Sanaubar — Ali's wife who gives birth to Hassan as a result of an affair with Baba. She then leaves home to pursue the life of a gypsy. She later returns to Hassan in his adulthood, providing a grandmother figure for Sohrab.
๑۩۞۩๑Farid — bitter driver who is initially abrasive toward Amir but later befriends him. Farid's two daughters were killed by a land mine years back. Farid is Amir's means of transport, information, and knowledge of current Afghanistan when he returns.

A Room of One's Own

2008年2月20日星期三

Journal---Chapter one

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Welcome to my room

The kite runner

Characters

Khaled Hosseini

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