Poetry Blog Post

alright, the poem I have chosen to educate you all with is this lovely poem by my personal favorite: shel silverstien.

Where the Sidewalk Ends
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Analysis:
This poem, though written in a children's poetry book can have a much deeper meaning than I understood when I first read the peom in the 20th century. When reading the poem, one almost feels as if they are leaving the world behind them to walk off the edge of the sidewalk. A sort of chasing the rainbow concept. These two children (as illustrated in the book) are following signs of their imagination where they believe the sidewalk ends. The end of the sidewalk also signifies the edge of the world. To walk of the end of the sidewalk is to step into a world unknown. A sort of inbetween step into the street and the life of an independant, one with responsibilities. "Where the chalk-white arrows go" (11), even the doodlings of toddlers point to the future.

A daunting future it would seem, "And we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow"(16). The measured years of the lives of children pass very slowly, but eventually, the path will lead you to the end of the sidewalk. This poem was placed as the very last poem in the book. Once you finish the book, you are at the edge of the sidewalk and street and should be ready to cross onto the tar to finish your life as a child (or so shel thinks). But by walking off the end of the sidewalk, one "leaves this place where the smoke blows black/And the dark street winds and bends" (7). The ignorance of childhood can finally be left behind when one takes the tiny step onto the street.

Quarter 1 post

Finally, quarter 1 is done.
I did well in this class and am proud of my grade, I learned a lot about writing effective thesises and how to successfully support them in my essays. I also learned a lot about movie direction and how to analyze photographs. That was very interresting. I am still struggling on how to organize a body paragraph and how to write topic sentances that aren't repetitive. The class environment is excellent. It's fun and the way the desks are set, you can see everyone. To further stregnthen my learning in class, I can get more effective peer reviewing and actually listen to thier advice to improve my writing. For quarter 2 I want to get a perfects score on my essay and and make my thesises less listy.
Overall, things went pretty well. During the first few days of school I was a wee bit overwhelmed by my lack of knowledge on essay writing and the expectations that Mrs. Froehlich had, but now that my skills have improved I am ready to write the 12 paragraph essay that is due next quarter.

Fifth Outside Quarter Reading Post

I have recently finished my book and the last 50 pages or so have completely changed the story.
Amir and Baba leave for America because the Russians are invading Afgahnistan. Hassan and Ali are living in a remote village faraway and have no more contact with Amir and his father. Amir gets married to Soraya (he lives in California now) becomes a published author and his father dies of lung cancer. Amir gets a call from Afgahnistan and hears that Rahim Kahn is dying and he wants to see him. Amir goes to Rahim. Rahim tells him that his father had an affair with Ali's wife and that Hassan is his half brother. Amir ends up searching for Hassan's orphaned son (Hassan was killed by the Taliban). Assef became part of the Taliban and has Hassan as his slave. Assef comes very close to killing Amir but them Sohrab (Hassan's son) saves him with his sling shot (Hosseini 289). Amir tries now to get custody of Sohrab and to take him to America, the only way he can do that is if he puts Sohrab in another orphanage temporarily. Sohrab then attempts suicide. Amir finds him, takes him to the hospital and eventually back to America (Amir was going to tell Hassan he didn't need to go back to an orphanage when he found him almost dead). Sohrab doesn't talk for the rest of the book. The last scene is Sohrab and Amir running a kite together in California and Sohrab smiles for the first time. (324).
When Amir finds out that Hassan is his half brother, he flies into a rage and yells at Rahim. Understandably so, he now understands why his father paid so much attention to Hassan. In teh book it says that Amir was the "sociably acceptable son". If people had known about Baba's affair with Ali's wife, he would have lost his reputation and Ali would have been incredibly hurt. Amir now can relate to Baba a little bit. Baba had also hurt his best friend, how could he live with him now and know that he has hurt him so much? Amir's guilt drove Hassan away, but Baba kept Ali around as a reminder of the wrong he did. This was most likely the motivation for all the good things that Baba did in Afgahnistan, like build the orphanage. Amir feels even guiltier for what he did to Hassan now that he knows he did it to his own brother. When Rahim tells Amir that Hassan had a son who is still out there and suffering, Amir was cowardly at first and didn't want to have to remember all that he did, he thought that it was all in the past. When he finally relizes that this is the way to redeem for himself and honor Hassan, he knows he must rescue Hassan from his Taliban captors.

Fourth Outside Quarter Reading Post

Here is another question about my book:
How is this novel similar to other pieces of literature that we have studied in class?

This novel, although being completely new to me, is similar to American classics in many ways. First of all, it is mainly about a boy who struggles with friendship and guilt. This reminds me of the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. In that book, George cannot deal with Lenny sometimes. He gets on his nerves and causes trouble for him, but in the end they are still brothers (sort of) and need each other. It is like this in The Kite Runner. Hassan and Amir are extremely close and lean upon each other for everything. Amir is always struggling with his father (Hosseini 34) and how he is disappointed in him, but Hassan is always there to serve him and help him cheer up again.
Also like in Of Mice and Men, George ends up killing Lenny because Lenny had compromised thier position in the workforce and would most likely be sent to jail. Amir backhandedly killed Hassan when he didn't save him from Assef (Hosseini 154). If Amir had done something, Hassan would never had left their household and would have come to America with Amir and Baba, saving him from the Taliban.Of Mice and Men and The Kite Runner are similar in that here are two men with companions and best friends who end up murdering them for completely different reasons. They both deal with guilt and despair and must move on in their lives to survive.

Third Outside Quarter Reading Post

Hi! Another question about my book is:
What are the major struggles and conflicts your character encouters?
How do the characters face the conflicts and how does going through these conflicts herlp the characters to learn more about themselves?
In my book, The Kite Runner, the main character Amir is ridden with conflicts. The main conflict in the book is between him and his guilt. When he was about 10 years old he watched his best friend getting raped and did nothing about it. He ran away and acted like it never happened. He felt so guilty, he couldn't keep seeing his friend Hassan every day and be reminded of what he did. He ignored Hassan and was cruel to him, eventually he put a large amount of money under his bed so that his father would think that Hassan had stolen it. It is Amir's fault that Ali and Hassan left, breaking a 30 year relationship between Ali and Baba (Hosseini 241). For the rest of his life, images of Hassan's face haunted him at night and when was as if Baba was stabbing him in the heart every time he wished that Hassan had been with them.
His guilt worsens when he finds out that his father's friend Khalid knows about what happened to Hassan. Khalid then tells him that Hassan was his half brother after Baba had an affair with Ali's wife (Hosseini 325).
This conflict taught him that he can't sit back and watch anymore. He showed that he had learned his lesson when he went back to Afghanistan to get Hassan's orphaned child. He fights on of the Taliban members and is horribly injured but finally feels like he has proved his loyalty to Hassan.

Visual Blog Post

taken 10/19/07

Second Outside Quarter Reading Post

Hi,

I would like to take some time to answer some of the questions that we were asked about my outside quarter reading book, The Kite runner:
The main characters in this book are Amir, Hassan, Baba, Rahim and Soraya (so far).

• Amir is the narrator of this book; the book starts out when he is a child living in Afghanistan. His mother died in childbirth and so he lives in a large house with his father and servants. His father manipulates him the most, Amir feels that Baba isn’t proud of him and wishes he were more like him. When Amir would rather read a book than play soccer or doesn’t win the kite running race, Baba acts disappointed and distances himself from Amir. This causes Amir to be resentful and eventually gets into a lot of trouble trying to win his father’s love. Every decision that Amir makes is influenced by what he thinks his father will think of him.
• Hassan is Amir’s family’s servant. He lives with his father Ali (his mother ran away after giving birth to him) in a small hut outside Amir’s large house. Hassan is completely devoted to Amir; his first word was Amir’s name. Hassan has a mysterious way of knowing exactly what Amir is thinking and what he needs. Having grown up with Amir his whole life and being taught such obedience and loyalty at such a young age, Hassan would never leave Amir, even after Amir betrays him in the most traitorous way. Amir and Hassan’s lives eventually lead them to part, Amir goes to America and Ali takes Hassan away from Baba’s household, Hassan is loyal to Amir to the very end, his dying words were to Amir.
• Baba is Amir’s father; he was an athlete, a scholar, bold, popular and was the leader in everything he did. Baba is also loving (not always to his son) thinks of others and is loyal to those who are loyal to him. When Amir came home after school and told Baba that he had learned that Iranian people are greedy, evil and two-faced, Baba sat him down and told him his philosophy of life and that his old teachers of the Koran know nothing other than how to serve Allah. He is a modern thinker, not bound to the ways of ancient Afghanistan.
• Rahim is Baba’s best friend and business partner. Rahim understands Amir and his love for reading and nature. Rahim gives Amir a leather notebook where Amir eventually gets his idea for his best-selling novel. Rahim loves Afghanistan, and doesn’t leave to go to America even when the Taliban are taking over and ruining life in Kabul.
• Soraya is Amir’s wife that he met in America. She is also Afghani and comes from a well known family. They love each other, but unfortunately she is barren and they cannot have children.
  The End