How Does The One Leg Tell The Story In Chapter 1

This website is published by University of West Florida. It includes various information on the history of Afghanistan, culture, people, society, norms, and religious influences. It describes Pashtun’s honor code. Among these codes, the ones I found interesting includes, Zamaka meaning protecting one’s land and Nang meaning honor. According the article, “A Pashtun tribesman must always ensure his honor, and that of his family, is upheld” (“ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN”). In addition, person of high value such as Baba to break such codes is “considered disgraceful and may lead to social punishments such as expulsion of an individual or even a whole family from the group or other harsh punishments such as death” (“ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN”). These are good evidences to argue about events occurred in Baba’s life, a character from The Kite Runner.

2. Truth: “The sheriff hadn’t the heart to put him in jail alongside Negroes, so Boo was locked in the courthouse basement.” (Ch.1 p.14)

In this passage from Salvage The Bones, Jesmyn Ward shows how Esch, the main character and narrator of the novel, lost her virginity at a young age. The words that the author uses shows how Esch has started to express her rebellious side but also shows that she still feels hesitant about what she was doing. Even at only twelve years of age, Esch is shown as a girl who’s body has started to change and she starts to become a woman. Jesmyne Ward uses this passage from Salvage The Bones to show that Esch is starting to rebel against authority and even her friend Skeetah, that her body has started to change and she has starting to become a woman, and that sex was as easy as swimming for her when she started having it at an early age.

Quite the antithesis of Baba, an outspoken liberal, is Assef, best described in Hosseini’s eyes as a local radical. Radical not in his strict obedience to Islamic jurisprudence, but ironically in his dedication to the perversion of it, being a part of the Taliban that “reigned over years of theft, rape, murder and torture under the pretense of abiding by Islamic Law” (Sandstrom 2). He uses religion as nothing more than a pretext for the pathological cruelty he shows to others he deems more inferior, despising minorities like

When the Russian soldier asked for half an hour with the lady in the back Baba stood up and spoke against it. Baba had the courage due to his past experiences and adverse situations he has already faced. “I will take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place.” His personal values and beliefs went against Russian soldiers demands only because incidents before have had an impact on his character and they shaped his identity. Baba constantly tries to do good deeds to redeem and perhaps forgive himself. Another example of shaping identity is society pressure. Baba’s image mattered, how other people saw him and how they treated him was a part of his personal values and self worth. Wealth, status and honor were how he was portrayed in front of society. Society pressure and judgment shaped Baba’s identity and impacted his decisions. He was ashamed to tell everyone that he is Hassan’s father, a father to a Hazzara. He did not want to lose his identity of being a Pashtun or be disrespected due to his past. Just as Amir Baba was willing to deal with guilt and regret for personal desires and searched for true redemption the rest of his life.

This excerpt from the text shows how Fadi was harassed and discriminated against for how he looks. Another reason race is the biggest challenge for immigrants is the culture is very different from where you were from and stereotyping could take place. For example, in the book Shooting Kabul, some bullies show stereotyping. “”Look it’s Osama!” shouted a familiar rough voice… “Why aren’t you with your towel headed friends?” growled the voice again””(144). This shows that race can lead to stereotyping. The bullies show this perfectly by discriminating against Fadi’s people and culture as a whole instead of taking into account that not all people in Afghanistan are terrorists. It also shows how race is a big problem for immigrants. Likewise, in Shooting Kabul, an Afghani is once again discriminated against because of his Afghani culture and looks. Here in the book, Uncle Amin states “”He was attacked because the men thought he was a Muslim since he wore a turban and beard. They blamed him for what happened on September eleventh”(165). This shows that even though an innocent man who had nothing to do with the attack and just had race in common with the attackers was jumped and

“ Assef unbuttoned his winter coat,took it off,folded it slowly.--- I opened my mouth, almost said something .Almost.The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had.But I didn’t. I just watched.” When witnessing first hand Hasan get rape Amir decides to ultimately be a bystander. Amir comes from the ethnic group of Pashtun and Hassan comes from the ethnic group of Hazara they are both viewed and treated very differently due to their economical stance.Being from two different social classes Amir decides to be a bystander due to the fact that he fears getting hurt, he wants to get Baba’s approval and the way he wants to be viewed by others.

The love and disputes between father and son. The relationship that Amir has with Baba is quite complicated. Amir constantly tries to earn Baba’s love and respect while Baba has a hard time accepting how Amir is and compares him to Hassan. While travelling to Pakistan in the back of the truck Amir felt sick quite often by which Baba was quite annoyed. “I saw it on his embarrassed face the couple of times my stomach had clenched so badly I had moaned. When the blurly guy with the beads-the praying woman’s husband-asked if I was going to get sick, I said I might. Baba looked away.”In addition to this when Amir throws up, Baba apologizes to the fellow passengers to which Amir feels guilty and annoyed that he is just 18 and the way Baba is behaving is as if car sickness is a crime. This suggests that Baba was expecting Amir to be more self controlled and strong so that he didn’t feel sick showing us the conflicts he has with Amir as he expects a lot from him.

The phantom limb pain the woman is experiencing is described as a painful condition of the amputated limb after the stump has completely healed. It is a chronic pain that occurs in more than 80% of amputees especially those who suffered pain in the limb before the amputation. Theories suggest that phantom limb pain results from redevelopment or hyperactivity of cut peripheral nerves, scar tissue or neuroma formation in the cut peripheral nerves, spinal cord deafferentation, and alterations in the thalamus and cortex. More so, the CNS integration, which involves reorganization and plastic modifications of the somatosensory cortex, effects the receptors in perceiving the pain of the amputated limb despite of the limb itself being absent. In addition,

Khaled emphasizes Baba’s sacrifices to show how they lead Baba to his atonement. First, Rahim Khan attests to Baba’s character and actions in his letter, saying: “He was a good man […] everything he did […] it was all his way of redeeming himself” (Hosseini 302). This reveals that Baba finds peace with his regrets and made up tor them by creating the orphanage and committing other kind deeds (302). Baba protecting the Afghani woman trom a violent rapist on the way to Peshawar also demonstrated Baba’s atonement. Baba protects the woman because he had already committed the worst sin in his own mind- theft of the truth trom Amir and Hassan; he had to continue redeeming himself by sacrificing his safety (115-16). Last, Baba helped so many people that not even was the parking lot tull at his funeral; people were parking blocks away. The mourners taking their time to commemorate Baba illustrate that Baba has truly made up tor his lies by giving all he can to the people around him (173). Baba’s actions are just one way Hosseini explains how devotion to kindness is connected to atonement.

Baba is one of the few muslims in Afghanistan that believes there is only one sin, theft. He states to Amir with a great sense of sterness, ''When you kill a man, you steal a life . . . [you] steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness” (18). Although Baba tries to teach this lesson to Amir, he himself is a thief; he stole the “right to the truth” by retaining the truth of Hassan (18). Along with Baba’s betrayal to his son, he also betrays his beloved servants, Ali and Hassan through adultery. Sanaubar, Hassan's mother was potentially driven away by guilt; leaving Hassan without a mother and Ali without a wife.

Raisuddin Bhuiyan is a Bangladeshi immigrant who is heavily influenced by the Islamic views and beliefs. By coming to America, he seeks for a better lifestyle which he felt is not enough living in Bangladesh. He encounters several robberies in Dallas as an Immigrant working at a local gas station in Dallas. He gets shot one day for being what he is, an Arab working immigrant. Rais is confused as to why the man, Mark Stroman, pulls the trigger even after he had given him the money. He is not angry or mad, but rather prays to God at that very moment. He prays, “...Then which of the favors of your Lord will ye deny? All that is on earth will perish: But will abide forever the face of thy Lord-full of Majesty, Bounty, and honor.”(Giridharadas 29). He begs God for mercy for the sake of his family, especially his mother who he did not want her to feel sad. He will dedicate his life to helping other people if he survives this tragedy.

In scene one, from page 13-17, Amir tells his more Muslim- and Pakistani-identified nephew, Abe, why he does not want to defend an Imam (Islamic religious leader) who has been imprisoned without cause. Amir simply can’t stand being linked with Muslims or Islam and explains to Abe his reluctance to Islam through a description of his first crush in sixth grade and his mother’s outrageous reaction and vulgar anti-Semitism of him having a crush on a girl of Jewish descent.

Islam is a common subject throughout the story. It is represented in the novel because each character views their religion differently. Some characters, like Baba don’t prioritize their religion as much a Amir and Hassan. Amir and Hassan frequently visit the mosque numerous times throughout the course of the book. “Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sun is a variation of theft” (Hosseini 17). In this quote it shows that Baba was not involved and practicing his religion unlike most pashtuns. Because the characters views on their religion are primarily different, Islam tends to either bring together or apart relationships of characters in the novel.

As a further means of separating the population into distinct groups, religion acts as a divisionary force between characters and cultures. There are two primary conflicting cultures represented in the novel that are the cause of religious differences: Sunnis versus Shi’ites and secularism versus religious fundamentalism. Similar to the discrimination based on ethnicity, the conflict based on religion is primarily exemplified through Assef and Hassan, who are Sunni and Shi’ite, respectively. As such, any justification for inclusion and exclusion of people not based solely on ethnicity could just be rationalized through differences of religion. With this prevalent culture present, the importance is in the author’s depiction of the “bleak hypocrisies of the Taliban period--the disgusting cruelties performed in the name of righteousness” as stated by David Denby in “Hard Life.” Through the