Post A # 2

Vocab
Austere (61)- severe in manner or appearance
Abhor (52)- to loathe, detest utterly, regard with extreme repugnance

Figurative Language
"I felt his glare on me like the heat of a blistering sun (61)." (simile)
Amir and Hassan are about to fly their kite in a contest. Amir's father is intently watching them from a rooftop, and he is feeling the pressure to win the competition in order to not let his father down.

"He turned on me now, his face as red as a tulip (90)." (simile)
Baba is angered when Amir asks him if he has ever considered firing Ali and Hassan as their servants. He tells Amir how he has lived with Ali for 40 years, and he's not gonna sell him away.



"Hassan serving drinks to Assef and Wali from a silver platter. The light winked out, a hiss and a crackle, then another flicker of orange light: Assef grinning, kneading Hassan in the chest with a [brass] knuckle (100)." (imagery)
Earlier on in the plot, Hassan had protected Amir from a beat down from the brass knuckles by aiming a slingshot at Assef's head. Assef is just a scumbag bully, who as well as punches him out, rapes Hassan. I was almost scared how clear I could visualize this quote in my mind. I could picture the look of confusion on Hassan's face for an instant after he was hit, the smug satisfaction on Assef's face as he knocked him out, and the light of the fireworks illuminating the scene for only a fraction of a second.

Quote
"There is no monster, he'd said, just water. Except he'd been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake. It had grabbed Hassan by the ankles, dragged him to the murky bottom. I was that monster (86)."
After Amir and Hassan's kite wins the competition, Hassan has to go and retrieve the kite. Hassan is Amir's kite runner. Hassan is cornered by Assef and two others, and he gets raped by Assef. Amir had gotten there to see them take his pants, but then he left because of fear. All of his life, Hassan had comforted and stood up for him in times of need, hence the quote above. Now, Amir is thinking back to all of the times that Hassan said it was okay, and Amir now knows it is not.

Theme
The only way to stop a bully is to verbally or physically confront them. If Amir had attempted to intervene, he could have prevented one of his best friends from getting raped by a bully that both of them hated.