The seminar
influenced my thinking by opening up a wider range of topics for discussion.
Being able to hear the opinions of my classmates made it easier for me to
understand the text. The discussion truly made me put myself into the shoes of
the characters, and try to imagine just what it would have felt like to be
them. Much of the discussion focused on the relationship between Baba and Amir,
as well as the dramatic changes they endure when they immigrate to the U.S. A particularly interesting question
that I had not thought of in depth before was whether or not refugees should be
seen as cowardly for leaving their countries in a time of war. While reading
the book, I had not thought much about the this concept of cowardice, and I
though it was an interesting question that sparked some very diverse responses.
The
statement that I agreed with the most was that Amir would probably never be
able to forgive himself for what he let happen to Hassan. Many of my classmates
agreed with this statement, and added on that Amir may constantly try to make
up for his actions, but life without regrets is an impossible feat. The
statement that I least agree with is that refugees can be considered cowards
because they fled their countries in times of war. I personally believe that if
a person is placed in a dangerous, life threatening situation, it is only
logical and fair that they be allowed to leave. Refugees are often innocent
people, who have been caught up violence, which in many cases, seems impossible
to stop. I think it is unfair to deny refugees the change to move to other
countries and try to make better lives for themselves, and even their families.
If there had been more time for discussion, I would have liked to further
discuss the life of Hassan, and how it compares to that of Amir. I am still
puzzled by Hassan’s unfaltering loyalty, the fact that he would drop anything
to help Amir, the fact that he wore black for 40 days in mourning for Baba. I
think it would have been very interesting to discuss the idea of loyalty, and
see if my classmates valued it, gave it, and to what extent.
I think that
the group did very well at being courteous an allowing those who were speaking
to finish their thoughts before sharing their own opinions. This particular
seminar group was composed of those who tend to dominate the discussions, and a
great thing about this discussion was the number of different ideas people had.
I felt like each individual person had adequately prepared, which made it easy
for the discussion to flow and cover a wide range of topics. Because everybody
in the group was courteous I felt comfortable speaking and knew that I would
not be interrupted by anybody, and took care not to interrupt anybody. The
combination of everybody sharing their ideas whenever they could, as well as
allowing others to speak created a stimulating discussion, that was able to dig
deeper into a lot of the themes of The
Kite Runner.
A particular area that could use
improvement would be the amount of time spent on each topic of discussion. I
felt that the discussion lingered on some topics and ideas, namely the
relationship between Baba and Amir, as well as how they were faring in the U.S.
While these topics are complex, and have many areas that can be analyzed, the
discussion got to the point where it seemed like people were repeating others,
or themselves. Avoiding this would make discussions less redundant and open up
other important topics and themes for discussion.
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