Buzkashi Boys Response

        Rafi is the protagonist in the film Buzkashi Boys because he is the central character in all conflict throughout the book, which serves to influence his perception of the world and identity.  In other words, he is a dynamic, round character, qualities synonymous with a protagonist and not a secondary character.  Ahmed played the crucial role of changing Rafi's views on the world, leading him to become more courageous, daring, and independent.  We see this change evident in the film.

        Amir and Hassan are able to have a much closer relationship than Rafi and Ahmed because of Baba's approval of their friendship and his fondness for Amir.  Unlike Rafi and Ahmed, Amir and Hassan were raised together, sharing the brotherhood of being nursed by the same woman, as well.  Also, the leader-follower dynamic was different between the two, Amir leading and Hassan following in the Kite Runner and Ahmed leading in the film.  Yet the relationships were also strikingly similar.  Both involved friends of different societal classes, which was clearly against societal norms.  When wealthy Pashtun friends came over to Baba's house, Amir did not play with Hassan, and Rafi's father disapproved of his son's friendship for this reason.  Class relationships are clearly a significant aspect of Afghan life that is less evident in America, though it is certainly present.  The friends learn from each other, playing together but gaining deeper meaning as well.  In both friendships the friends of the lower class, Ahmed and Hassan, change their wealthier friends' views on the world, simply in their personalities.  Hassan's genuine, non-violent nature shows Amir goodness, and he encourages his friend to pursue a writing career, unlike his father.  As stated above, Ahmed changes Rafi by encouraging him to be bolder, more audacious, and to pursue his loves.  He makes him tougher.

        Both are coming of age stories, exemplifying rather abrupt transitions from innocence to experience.  This probably happens quite often in a country so full of harm, since 1980.  In Kite Runner, we see the rape of Hassan changing the lives of both boys.  Amir is filled with abundant guilt and sorrow.  Hassan is  traumatized.  This single event polarizes the boys, and changes the courses of their lives.  They are transformed.  The rape forces upon them the development of thicker skin, response to emotions that most adultis don't experience.  This may have been part of the reason for Amir's disappointing reactions.  He is not meant to experience something so traumatizing at such a young age.  The death of Ahmed has a similar effect on Rafi.  This leads him to grow, to become tougher and stronger.  He decides to live in Ahmed's image, to carry out his will in light of his death.  Rafi forms more of an identity for himself after, a critical step in maturity and adulthood.

Night Blogs

        The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel illustrates the nature of the isolation created by the Holocaust.  First, the Jewish people are discriminated against, alienated by the antisemitic influence of the Nazis.  This isolates the Jews socially, in their plight.  They are also isolated physically, first put together in ghettos, in which they are essentially interned, and later, are isolated from the world in concentration camps.  We see this in Sighet, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Buna in Night.  Furthermore, people are separated from their families; the Wiesel family was split at Birkenau, resulting in sadness and diminished hope.  The book also demonstrated another, unique sort of isolation: the isolation of individuals that the Holocaust created, the "every man for himself" mantra.  The threat of death isolates us.  Generally, it makes us more selfish, more focused on our natural instinct of survival than altruism.  This passage sheds light on this idea: "... he slapped my father with such force that he fell down and then crawled back to his place on all fours.  I stood petrified.  What had happened to me?  My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked.  Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal's flesh.  Had I changed that much?  So fast?" (p. 39)

        Yet solidarity must be found to maintain some sort of hope, to escape the threat of death.  God, Judaism, and prayer does this for many people at Buna.  It lets them know that there still is light.  Isolation is neither sustainable, nor permanent.  Night also demonstrates, through the experiences of Elie Wiesel during the Holocaust, the importance of faith and hope in preserving one's motivation to keep moving forward, to survive.  On page 41, A young barracks leader, a Pole, advises the Jews to keep faith, and to stay together: "Ahead of you lies a long road paved with suffering.  Don't lose hope.  You have already eluded the worst danger: the selection.  Therefore, muster your strength and keep your faith.  We shall all see the day of liberation.  Have faith in life, a thousand times faith.  By driving out despair, you will move away from death.  Hell does not last forever... And now, here is a prayer, or rather a piece of advice: let there be camaraderie among you.  We are all brothers and share the same fate... Help each other."  Prayer is commonplace at Auschwitz and Buna, as we see in the book.  Wiesel begins to lose faith in God, seeing no light in the mass graves of Birkenau but the fire of death.  He despairs, and this has a negative effect.  Wiesel must realize that He to whom he was faithful before was not a separate entity, but light inside of Wiesel.  Indeed, He, it, God, is a part of him.  Realizing this, and the solidarity of others facing the same plight, truly helps Wiesel survive.

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        Night, in the book, serves as a symbol for the absence of God and despair.  Here, it is critical to recognize the Biblical role of night.  God first dispelled darkness, creating light, helping us understand that night can serve as a symbol for the absence of God.  In Night, nightfall corresponds with a terrible event, often.  On page 12, Wiesel establishes, "Night fell... Suddenly, the gate opened, and Stern, a former shopkeeper who now was a policeman, entered and took my father aside.  Despite the growing darkness, I could see my father turn pale."  The news that Wiesel's father receives is that of the deportation, news of hopelessness and grief.  It comes with the falling of night.  The symbol is also particularly evident upon Wiesel's arrival to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  He says, "In front of us, those flames.  In the air, the smell of burning flesh.  It must have been around midnight.  We had arrived.  In Birkenau." (p. 28)  It was in this darkness that Wiesel experienced the death of hundreds of innocents.  And it expelled his God, a source of eternal light, in the face of interminable darkness.

Barbie Doll and Literary Analysis

        Barbie Dolls are the toys of the little girl.  White beauty and skinniness.  What everyone wants to be.  Smiling and content, with a nice-looking boyfriend.  Muscular, strong.  Flawless.  Ken.  But this is not the real world.  It is pretend.

        In Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy, readers learn that societal pressure can cause people to alter their true identity, in favor of one that is more accepted.  We see this theme in the poem initially in the title, Barbie Doll, which exemplifies the norms of beauty for women -- this is generally being white and skinny.  We see a girl who played with dolls as a young girl, seeing their utopian qualities of beauty.  She hits the "magic of puberty," stated in a metaphor in the poem, and her body is changed, much like magic does.  She becomes more developed, and is called out for having "a great big nose and fat legs."  A girl who is intelligent and healthy, with good skills, is forced to apologize for herself.  For not fitting conventional beauty.  Just like with Rachel in the Girl Who Fell from the Sky, the girl's beauty is a single story: her body, and is objectified.  Advised by society to flirt -- play coy and wheedle -- and get skinny, the girl eventually has to take off her mask.  Her blue bottle of criticisms breaks.  She cuts her fatness, who she is to conform to societal norms.  The girl changes who she is.  But, as the poem ironically says, now, the girl is pretty.

Movie Response

        Just like Rachel in the Girl Who Fell from the Sky, Charlie experiences isolation because of his difference from most people.  He too experiences trauma, and it makes him reserved and shy.  But this allows him to listen.  It allows him to learn about the people around him, so that he is better able to make good decisions.  He is outwardly kind and polite, having no conflict with others.  These are the perks of being a wallflower.
        Yet his reticence also is detrimental to him.  His lack of expression, of feelings or attitudes, leads his emotions to be trapped inside of him, like Rachel's blue bottle.  They accumulate, and boil over, in the punches Charlie threw at the Patrick's bullies, and the punch Rachel threw at Tamika Washington.  They boil over in the Truth or Dare game at the party.  And they chronically oppress Charlie, keeping with him the repressed memory of his aunt's sexual abuse of him.  The same goes for Rachel; the incident on the roof is kept with her.  If Charlie had been more talkative and open, even after the trauma he experienced, he would have been better able to cope with his emotional struggles.
        But there are those people who bring out brightness.  Who allow you to reveal your dark secrets, and help you move past them.  Sam and Brick are these people.  Kind and fun, they are true friends and lovers.  True lovers do not only give sexual contact.  They talk with you, and help you move on.  Joy is beautiful.  Charlie's love was full of it, infinite, forever.
        For me, this movie was a great representation of a realistic struggle of coming of age.  Some parts of me, I think, are very much like Charlie.  I am cautious, sometimes.  But I also love to be with other people, and I love talking to them.  To listen, and share my ideas, and build a more complete perspective on life.