As we discussed The Kite Runner, Sean mentioned the presence of a feeling of closure in the story, especially in chapters 14-18 when Rahim Khan contacts Amir and Amir makes amends with his past. We came to the conclusion that Hosseini wrote this way to appeal to the Western mind.
So this is a lie.
Hosseini tied up various loose ends of Amir's past just so we Americans could sigh with relief and release our balled fists and get on with the book knowing that Amir had confronted his torn past. Sure, it makes some of these ideas pretty and wraps them up in a nice, neat parcel, but I feel cheated.
I feel cheated of the real story. The way Amir's life really played out or the way Hosseini really wrote it. I want to know what the book would have been like if Amir had to live the rest of his life in ambiguity, drifting through the depths of the unknown. Would his emotions get the better of him and drive him to insanity? Would he conquer his grim past and carry on with his life? Too bad I'll never know.
Of course, we really don't know the truth about Hosseini's motives, but I found the idea intriguing. How often do authors rewrite or change the message of their pieces to attract specific audiences?
Wow. I find that really interesting as well, because I'm comforted by closure. I think when we have a story where there's no doubt about how everything works out, the thinking stops and it's easy to just turn off your light and go to bed. That's nice for a school night when you're tired and the first thing you're looking forward to is sleep. But on the other hand, if there's nowhere to let your mind wander after the last page, how good can it be? Shouldn't every story have that one idea that you can still work out after the assignment's done?
ReplyDeleteI personally think the best kind of endings are when there's a story closure but not an idea closure. The story always must have an overlying theme that relates to our world, and that can never be cut off. The specific problem in a book might be resolved, but the author gives you room to formulate your own ideas about how else the problem could have been solved.
Basically, if there's a major plot line error that is never addressed in the end, I have a problem. For example: A major villain in the beginning simply falls off the pages of the book? Major issue. Simply ignoring something doesn't give a story a mysterious edge, it just frustrates and doesn't accomplish anything. But a cliffhanger strikes a nice balance because it acknowledges the problem and then pulls back, smirking, saying "Well, I don't think I'm going to tell you that just yet."
Personally, I think Hosseini tied up the ending nicely, but the idea of redemption and atonement still remained. He doesn't claim to have the answers to how everyone's sins are dealt with, so the ideas you can chew on are still there. I feel that Amir's closure made up for Baba's ambiguity, which Hosseini gives us to explore if we so chose.
P.S. oops. that was a really long post. I apologize.
I'm right there with you Lauren. I feel completely cheated from the real story. It's not fair to treat everybody that happens to live around here with "the western mind" kind of story. Life is not a pretty picture painted with simple texture and dull colors. It's a freaking mess! Whenever a book ends in ultimate closure, like the Harry Potter series, or any fairytal you can name, my imagination wanders onto what could have been. What if Harry became a suicidal drunk, plagued with the images of his close friends' deaths? (Granted, this is probably why they wrote Harry Potter Should Have Died). What if Cinderella and Prince Charming rushed into a hopeless marriage, and both of them leave it more distraught then before? It's just not right! Closure is something that makes you feel all warm and safe, because everything is good again. But sometimes, I think everyone needs a little bit of a reality check, or we're all gonna go around thinking that life will always end in one big closure. Well guess what? It doesn't.
ReplyDeleteI must admit, this idea is intriguing, but I would have to say that I really do like the way it is written. I think Hosseini already gave us enough clues that for the past so many years, after the rape incident, after moving to America, after completing college and after getting married, he still felt guilty and tried to bury it, each day he had sleeping problems. He was a disturbed person and he would have stayed fragmented forever if Rahim Khan wouldn't have given him that call. I felt that the book wrapped up pretty smoothly. Amir was trying to keep Hassan's dream alive through Sohrab and he started living his life for him. Amir's happiness laid in Sohrab's, (indirectly Hassan's), happiness. I also felt that partial closure about Afghanistan's political situation. He brought Sohrab back from there, and said that he's working on some projects for Afghanistan (which was also part of Hassan's dream in the letter he left). We still don't know how the war in Afghanistan would have ended, we still don't know today. I don't know what else he could have done to wrap up that idea, since there are still Taliban tensions. I believe that Hosseini had minimal flaws in the book; I believe he wrote an incredibly amazing story (especially the end).
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