Dear Reader,

    The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini makes many connections to other pieces of writing.  One connection I found was between The Kite Runner and Speak by Laurie Halse.  On page 86 when Amir is at Kaka Homayoun’s house in Jalalabad he thinks to himself, “ ‘I watched Hassan get raped,’ I said to no one.”  The afternoon that Hassan was raped by Assef, Wali, and Kamal, Amir had the opportunity to stop the rape from happening, but instead he ran away.  When he ran away he didn’t even get help.  He could of done something to stop it, but he chose to let it happen.  In Speak, the same thing happened.  Melissa Sordino was at a summer party when she got raped.  There were many other people there, and there must of been at least one person who knew what was happening.  No one got help for her either, they just let the misfortune occur.  The Kite Runner is also like Speak in the sense that both of the victims of the rape, Hassan and Melinda, did not tell anyone themselves.  I feel like there are many other connections that could be made from this novel to other novels.  Have you found any connections between this story and other ones?
    Something I can relate to from The Kite Runner is on page 46.  Baba is giving Hassan his birthday present when Amir thinks to himself, “It wasn’t fair.  Hassan hadn’t done anything to earn Baba’s affections....”  Amir is jealous that his father cares for Hassan so much.  Sometimes he wishes he was Baba’s favorite, and that Baba treated him better than he treated Hassan.  Although it sounds terrible, I can relate to Amir being jealous, and I know that many other people can too.  I know that when I like someone a lot, and I see other people all over them the green eyed monster comes out.  Although they’re not mine I still get envious of everyone that person is close to, and I wsih they would treat me like they treated those people, or even better.  When you desire someones affections so desperately you can’t help the evil side of you that emerges.  Can you relate to Amir in this situation?  Have there been other times in the novel where you were able to relate to him, or any other character?
    One quote that really spoke out to me was on page 55.  Amir asks Hassan if he would eat dirt if Amir told him to do so.  Hassan than asks in return if Amir would ever ask that.  Amir says no, but afterwards thinks to himself, “That’s the thing about people who mean everything they say.  They think everyone else does too.”  The quote really opened my eyes.  When people are extremely truthful, such as myself, it makes them view everyone else as a truthful person as well.  It shows me that you need to be careful when you are faced to judge someones words as truthful or deceitful.  You can not be so naive as to see everyone as a truthful, wonderful human being.  Although in most cases that could be true, the world is full of horrible people at the same time.  You need to decide if the person you are talking to is who you think they are or not.  What does this quote mean to you?  How do you see my views on the quote? 

                                     Sincerely, Destiny Messier