The Kite Runner

I used The Kite Runner to do the how to write annotation. It was kind of hard at first, but then I realized that it was like rhetorical analysis and we worked on that forever last year so it got easier as I went. I would like to try more writing like this. The author uses short and impactful sentences to bring the reader's attention to a subject. It also can be used as a bit of a shock factor. His one sentence paragraphs are followed by longer explanations of the previous statement. The author also used a lot of dialog which is something I think I could use a lot more of in my writing. I know there are instances when dialog is unnecessary, but I think if I could utilize it in the correct situations then my writing would be much better.  The way the author uses quotes and dialog is very effective. He doesn't just use words because they are words. He uses the words to inspire feelings and really bring real world realizations to the reader's eyes. Like when he is trying to prove that Sohrab's parents are dead and he is an orphan. The man asks if he has "death certificates" and Amir thinks to himself how they can ask for "death certificates" when in fact most people in Afghanistan don't have "birth certificates."
I really thought the book was about the point of Amir trying to atone for his sins in the past. It has an internal conflict throughout the entire story. On page 275 Amir takes a deep look at who he thinks he is and he says it is okay because that's "how you were made." I think that by trying so hard to save Sohrab, he is trying to repay Hassan for what he tried to forget in the past. In the end he runs the kite for Sohrab just like Hassan ran the kite for him 26 years earlier. Overall I thought the book was pretty good, but I didn't read it for enjoyment and I think it was better that I didn't. I got a lot more of a technique experience from this book than I did enjoyment from the wonderful story telling. I thought the book told truths that are often hard to face. It reminds me a little of The Sunflower in the fact alone that guilt is a thing that often drives people to do good things. There was a lot for Amir to learn from his sins in the past and in my eyes he pushed out the internal picture of the man he had seen himself to be before and he showed himself that because of the person he was at 12 years old did not mean he had to be the same "gutless" man later. I believe that a lot of Amir's "gutless" feelings came from his father and the way he interacted with Amir as a child. Like the part in the book when Amir is so excited because he won the poetry battle against his whole class and his father only had one word to say to him. "Good." Perhaps Amir wanted to prove to his father that he was more than "good" and he could do something that would make him even prouder than he ever was before.The kite running brings a sense of innocents and a connection among all generations. It seems like his sins begin with kite running and then his redemption comes with him running the kite himself. This book really showed me how different writing could be and it showed internal looks on guilt and human interests. I suppose it's on to the next book!