Now or Never

Macbeth
Be thee like a rebel's whore
Let disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Cleave not to its mould
When the deed is done and done
When the battle's lost and won
Though thy mind cannot be lost
Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd
Stars, hide your fires,
Let light not see his dark and deep desires
Hear it not, for it is a knell
The heaven's breath
That summons thee to heaven or to hell
Thy soul's flight, if it find heaven,
Must find it out tonight
Hover through the fog and filthy air
Screw your courage to the sticking place
Spurn fate, scorn death and hopes 'bove
As do hounds, mongrels, curs and water-rugs
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon thy penthouse lid
Upon thy head they shall place
A crown, a scepter.
It will have blood
They say blood will have blood.
That will be ere the set of sun.
Aroint thee.
Kill him.

Unoka's Honour

     For all my life, I've loved music. I'd much rather wield a flute than a sword. When I'm with my flute, I feel like I'm in paradise. And paradise is all I want to be in. I don't wanna fight for titles like other men, or toil in the flaming sun for the demanding king. I know I am not the definition of a successful man, and I owe every neighbour some money, but, my son, I believe I was successful in bringing you up to be such a great man. I have great hopes for you. I want you to become what your father couldn't be, become one of Umuofia's most revered men. You know, in this life, I haven't many regrets. Actually I only have one. I don't regret shamelessly borrowing money from my neighbours. I don't regret not planting my yams when the time was right. I don't regret eating and drinking away my days. But, my son, what I do regret is not being able to provide you with a better home to grow up in. And I'm sorry that when I'm gone, you'll not have inherited a barn from me, like other young men. But enough of that; let me tell you, son. A man must honour his tradition and the spirit of his ancestors. Even more so should he honour his gods. In the future, do not let anything sway you, even when your peer succumb to betrayal of their beliefs, lest your faith prove to be weak. Be just like me [smile]. All my life, my family and friends have been trying to dissuade me from my dream of music. But, I believed playing my flute would be what is good for me, and so I did not crumble to their desires. Therefore, even when I'm dead, I am to be buried with my flute. Even if I am to be left for dead in the Evil Forest, I must take with me what I have loved my entire life.

A Mountain Unmoved by Faith

My mind is in great turmoil right now because before spring break, I believed Okonkwo was not a hero. However, now that I have finished the book,although the rational part of me still hates the side of him that is violent and emotionless, there is an irrational part of me that sympathizes with his dilemma. Okonkwo was a man who had strong beliefs, a strong sense of tradition, and unwavering loyalty to his gods. I cannot honestly say that that is not admirable, because while many of his peers and clansmen were being swayed by the promises of Christianity, he stood his ground and believed firmly in his tradition. In circumstances like these, it is easy for one to simply be swept away by the stream of peer pressure, but what I believe makes Okonkwo heroic is that he stood up for what he believed in to the end. He did not cowardly bend his standards to adjust to changes that were occurring around him like some lesser men would have done, he solidly stood his ground for what he believed was right. In the end he took a stand for what he believed was wrong in his own way, by taking his own life so that he would not see the changes he believed was wrong; he remained loyal and unwavering in his beliefs until the end.

More Racism

    The central conflict for Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner is man vs society, which also causes the man vs self conflict. The protagonist, Amir, is faced with the ethnocentrism of Pashtuns whenever he and his servant Hassan, who is a Hazara, are in public. Pashtuns are believed to be the pure race of Afghanistan, and Hazaras, who are of Asian ancestry, are seen as inferior. This can clearly be seen when Assef says to Amir, "I'll ask the president to...rid Afghanistan of all the dirty, kasseef, Hazaras" (44). This Pashtun ethnocentrism is what pulls apart the friendship between Amir and Hassan. This conflict serves as the basis for the entire story. Because Amir is a Pashtun, which is a superior race, and Hassan is a Hazara, which is an inferior race, Amir is caught between the pressures that attack him inside and out. For example, Assef pressures Amir into being ashamed that Hassan is his friend when he asks him, "How can you talk to him (Hassan), play with him, let him touch you?...How can you call him your 'friend'?" to which "[Amir] almost [blurts], He's not my friend! He's my servant!" (44).

    The conflict is resolved completely after Amir returns to Afghanistan after the takeover of the Taliban at the call of a dying Rahim Khan, his father's friend, who informs him that Hassan is dead. Amir is hit with the pain and guilt of his betrayal once again, but this time he is struck by the fact that he has no way to make things right again. Rahim Khan tells Amir than Hassan has a son, Sohrab, and that he wants Amir to bring him to safety. At first Amir is reluctant, and he asks Rahim Khan, "Why me? Why can't you pay someone here to go? I'll pay for it if it's a matter of money" (233). Rahim Khan angrily rebukes him, "It isn't about money, Amir!...I'm a dying man and I will not be insulted! It has never been about money with me, you know that. And why you? I think we both know why it has to be you, don't we?" (233). Amir decides to return to Kabul, his home town, and find Sohrab. Eventually, he finds Sohrab in the home of Assef. He finally stands up to Assef after many years of fear for Sohrab, who symbolizes Hassan, and fights Assef. At the end of the story, after Amir brings Sohrab to live with him in California, the Pashtun superiority is finally overturned when Amir's father-in-law (who is a Pashtun) asks him, "People will ask...why there is a Hazara boy living with our daughter. What do I tell them?" (380). Amir takes a stand for Hassan, Hassan's bloodline, and tells his father-in-law that Sohrab is his nephew. And he says, "And one more thing, General Sahib [that's his father-in-law], you will never again refer to him as 'Hazara boy' in my presence. He has a name and it's Sohrab" (380). When he stands up for Sohrab, that is when Amir's struggle with himself ends. He realizes he is not ashamed about the fact that Sohrab is a Hazara, and that he never should have been ashamed of Hassan.

    This story's racist conflict is a central issue in many other stories, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli is one of the most prominent which come to mind. The conflict here is man vs society; the story is about a white boy who runs away from home and lives in the "black" part of the city. The problem is, the boy is "colourblind"; he does not see the difference between white people and black people. In fact, he does not even believe that they should be called "white" and "black", because when he looks at their skin colour, there is not a defined "white" or "black". In both The Kite Runner and Maniac Magee, the protagonists are faced with the problem of racial segregation. In both stories, the problem is solved by the main characters facing this racial segregation, and showing that there is in reality nothing to segregate.

Post-colonialism: AKA Racism

    Today, no matter where you look, countries everywhere have been affected by European colonialism. Modern North America is a result of European colonialism. And, wherever there is colonialism, there is assimilation, because there is the belief that European culture is better in every way. And wherever there is Eurocentrism, there is post-colonialism, which is racism against the indigenous peoples of colonized countries. Post-colonialism developed as a result of European behavior against the natives of colonized countries. It consists of the belief that European mannerisms and culture are superior to those of the assimilated races'.

An example of post-colonialism in media is the following advertisement:

     Here we have a "white" child talking to a "black" child. The black child is dressed in rags, poor, and is standing in a shy, position with his head tilted down. The white child is well dressed and wealthy. This conveys the message that black symbolizes poverty, inferiority, and shame, while white is superior and godlike. The question on the advertisement asks, "Why doesn't your mamma wash you with fairy soap?" This makes the black child seem dirty, while the white child is made dreamlike, a fantasy, because he is washed with "fairy" soap. The advertisement discloses the message that to be like the white child, clean, well dressed, wealthy, your child must be washed with this "fairy" soap. The advertisement also discreetly inserts the assumption that everyone wants to be like the European white child, that the "black" look is unwanted. Ultimately, the advertisement announces that "white" is good and "black" is bad.

Why Xanxus is a Better Character than Squalo

     The characters Xanxus (pronounced ZAN-ZUS) and Squalo (pronounced SKWALL-O) are both from the manga "Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn!", however, Xanxus is evidently a better character than Squalo. First, Xanxus is a better character than Squalo because the Squalo's first name is Superbi. If Xanxus is not better than Squalo, then he will become very angry which will cause him to fire his guns indiscriminately,  hit random people, and wreak havoc in the world. Guns are better than swords, right? See? You just said Xanxus is better than Squalo. Since Xanxus has always been better than Squalo, of course he is better than Squalo. Squalo sucks! If you do not believe me, Xanxus will come hunt you down. Listen, either Xanxus is better than Squalo or Squalo is better than Xanxus, and since Squalo sucks, Xanxus can only be better. This fact becomes obvious after Xanxus's character was introduced because the popularity of the manga increased. Therefore, Xanxus made "Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn!" popular, which makes him better than Squalo. Only Cadia thinks Squalo is better than Xanxus, and she's the only one out of one thousand interviewed, so therefore everyone else thinks Xanxus is better than Squalo. This then supports the fact that Xanxus is better than Squalo because everyone thinks he's better than Squalo. In conclusion, Xanxus is better than Squalo because Squalo is not better than Xanxus.

A Conscientious Coward

The protagonist of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is Amir. Although the author does not describe Amir’s appearance physically, I would assume that when he was young he would have the characteristic naïve glint in his eyes like every other boy his age. The book mentions that he is not a fighter. His father laments that “‘…he never fights back. Never’” (24). Therefore, Amir can also be characterized as skinny, not of the muscular build. He would also have generic Afghan physical qualities such as tanned skin, black hair, and brown eyes.

The best word to describe Amir’s character is cowardly, at least in the first half of the book. He is dependent on his father to solve all his problems. For example, during the encounter with Assef, a bully, he kept “[wishing he’d] look up and see [his father] coming up the hill” (43). This shows his dependence on his father and his inability to rely on himself to solve his own problems. Another example of Amir’s cowardice is when his friend and servant Hassan was being raped by Assef. Amir watched in fear, and in the end, when he was deciding whether to help Hassan or not, “[he] ran because [he] was a coward. [He] was afraid of Assef and what he would do to [him]” (82). The reason Amir ran was because he was afraid. However, he did not even tell his father what happened to Hassan because he was afraid his father would chastise him for his cowardice. This reveals Amir’s selfish nature. He was more concerned with gaining his father’s praise than for the virtue of his one faithful friend. However, one redeeming quality Amir has is his conscience. After the incident with Hassan, he feels guilty about what he has done. This is what puts his apart from antagonists like Assef. He knows that he has done evil and he feels guilty. As a result, he tries unsuccessfully to amend his relationship with Hassan by provoking Hassan to attack him back. This is can be seen when he says to Hassan, “‘I want to you to stop harassing me. I want you to go away’” (94). The real reason Amir says this is revealed in these next lines: “I wished he would give it right back to me, break the door open and tell me off—it would have made things easier, better” (94). He wanted Hassan to somehow make things even between them, avenge himself for Amir’s abandonment of him during Assef’s assault.

Amir’s motivation in the first half of the book comes from his desire to please his father. Everything he does is done with the goal of reaching his father’s high standards. An example of this is when he wins the kite fighting contest, it is “…the single greatest moment of [his] twelve years of life, seeing [his father] on the roof, proud of [him] at last” (71).

The story takes place during the dying days of Afghanistan’s monarchy, with the first part mainly set in Kabul; the second setting, after the takeover of the Taliban, is mostly in California, where Amir and his father flee. Amir is a Pashtun, a “pure” Afghan, while his servant, and friend, Hassan, is a Hazara, is a mixture of Afghan and Asian descent. This causes Amir to be ridiculed and teased in the face of other Pashtuns, particularly, the antagonist, Assef, for being friends with a “‘…dirty…Hazara’” (45). Therefore the main conflict of the novel is man vs. society, where Amir struggles to maintain his friendship with Hassan against a community who sees his friend as inferior. This ethnic divide is what eventually breaks apart their friendship. Their relationship is severely damaged after Assef rapes Hassan with the desire to “‘[teach] a lesson to a disrespectful donkey’” (80). After this incident, Amir and Hassan’s friendship begins to deteriorate due to Amir’s conscientious feelings of guilt because he is unable to even look Hassan straight in the eye anymore.

Amir’s character is deeply flawed, which makes him easy to connect to. If I put myself in his shoes, I think I would have done the same as him, and fled. Being a hero at such a young age is not an easy feat, and the novel would have seemed too unreal if he had saved Hassan. However, his conscientious guilt is what makes him human and easy to relate to. He reminds me of Amelia from Jodi Picoult’s Handle With Care. Amelia’s sister has an incurable disease that makes her need more attention than normal from her parents and caretakers. When a wrongful birth lawsuit is filed against her mother’s obstetrician/gynaecologist, Amelia develops bulimia and commits self-mutilation to escape from her problems because she does not believe that her sister’s birth was wrongful but she is expected to help testify for wrongful birth. To be able to vent her pain, she starts cutting instead of facing her parents and telling them how she really feels. Similarly, Amir is pressured by his father and does not face his problems. To an outsider, Amir may seem selfish and cowardly, but inside, he is brave enough to admit that he is a coward, and later in The Kite Runner he gathers the courage to mend the divide he created between himself and Hassan.