Big Brother is Watching!

For my independent reading, 1984 by George Orwell caught my attention. Since I picked up the book, I have not been able to stop reading. It is ridiculously good. The book details a dystopia where the world has been divided into 3 large powers known as Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Oceania is a combination of the Americas along with the British Isles. Amongst the population, there are few who know of this past world, and even fewer who know the truth. Everyone is oppressed and manipulated into believing every single detail spewed from their leader, Big Brother. The population is under constant surveillance by the "ThoughtPolice" who punish anyone for "ThoughCrime" by erasing them from existence. Basically, Liberty has been crushed, and human rights were completely decimated in favor of a more controlled society. The Government's role is to manipulate your thoughts as well as your actions. It's a very sterile world with little to no progress. What really irks me is the thought of absolutely no free will. No moment is private. It's a totalitarian style government gone beyond mad. The most chilling thing lies within the message imprinted in the minds of every soul in Oceania. "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength." 1984 really makes you think about the common phrase, "History is written by the victor". This world presents itself as ideal, but every congenital human right is obliterated. Do you guys think rendering a population into mindless drones is the only way to ever achieve a "efficient" society?

Daddy issues: insigh to the relationship between Amir and Baba

Like any child, Amir grew up looking up to his father admiring everything everything about him. He loves him dearly, however he struggles with the acceptance of him. So far in the book we see numerous instances of Amir trying to prove himself to Baba in order to receive his affection. Baba struggles to relate to Baba, he expects to be a certain way and when he isn't, he becomes a little disappointed. " He signed me up for soccer teams to stir the same passion in me. But I was pathetic, a blundering liability to my own team, always in the way of an opportune pass or unwittingly blocking an open lane," states Amir. Baba hoped that his son would grew up to be like him. Amir in the process of trying to be accepted would do anything for it. We see this with the blue kite, as Hassan gets violated, Amir does not protect him and only wishes to present the blue kite to his father, which he ends up doing and finally gets a glimpse of the acceptance he wanted. As the novel continues I can infer that the relationship between Baba and Amir continues along the same path, with the struggle of acceptance.

POSTED BY: Mario Hernandez

The Sultans of Kabul: insight to their relationship

In The Kite Runner Amir and Hassan expose things about each other others character that we otherwise wouldn't percieve; they're a great example of duel foil characters. Their relationship provides perspective into the internal conflict each faces; Amir with the struggle to seek redemption from his father and Hassans guilessness which blinds him from the true nature of Amir and leaves him susceptible to pain in the form of betrayal. to think though that Amir would be a more noble person because of his status knowlegde and upbringing and Hassan would be more callous and selfish but in their relationship these traits are switched, in this way they feed off of each other are in a grotesque sense of equanimity; Amir ostricizes Hassan yet seeks validation from him and Hassan claims he would do anything "a thousand times over" for Amir yet he doesn't need amir, he can handle himself and become a great person if he really wanted to. There's many ways to interpret their relationship, how do you guys perscieve it?

The Kite Runner and the persistance of the past

In the first chapter of the book, we see that the narrator takes us to a flashback of the days of his youth. In the first page Amir says that the past can never be buried. “That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” Almost all the characters in the novel feel the influence of the past somehow intertwined in their lives. Sohrab for example, has been so traumatized so much by his past experiences that it affects all his behavior. The prolonged physical and sexual abuse he endured makes him flinch anytime Amir touches him or makes a motion towards him. Amir also does not let go of the past because he constantly is reminding the reader of it. He acknowledges that the myriad of experiences that most of the characters have had, shaped who they became.

Smile! Very few do.

Out of the several characters we meet, in Siddhartha, only three of them smile! The first to smile was Gotama; on page 27, Hesse writes, "With a secret smile, not unlike that of a healthy child, he walked along, peacefully, quietly." The second character to use his facial muscles was Vasudeva, "Vasudeva's smile was radient; it hovered brightly in all the wrinkles of his old face" (page 136). Lastly, the third character to smile was, indeed, Siddhartha. Hesse writes, "And Govinda saw that this mask-like smile, this smile of unity over the flowing forms, this smile of simultaneousness over the thousands of births and deaths-this smile of Siddhartha- was exactly the same as the calm, delicate, impenetrable, perhaps gracious, perhaps mocking, wise, thousand-fold smile of Gotama, the Buddha, as he perceived it with awe a hundred times" (page 151). We see the smile used as a symbolism of enlightenment; therefore, any character that did not have a revalation of perfection or equanimity did not smile! Well Hesse did not write about it in order to bring great significance to these wise individuals.

You've come this far...

I could not have read a better a book as Siddartha and for this (I dare say) Hermann Hesse is truly a man worthy of winning the Nobel Prize in literature in 1946. What I loved most about this novel was Siddartha's shaping of his personal ideals and his struggle to acquiesce with humanity. We can all agree that we ourselves are in Siddartha's shoes, in one way or other, in the sense that our adolescent and emergent adulthood is a time in our lives that asks a lot from us. How so? Well, for one, we must now realize that this year will be our first step to "self-realization": a time where we hold ourselves accountable for every single (if not most) aspects of our lives, and secondly we will be tested on our practice of them. The phrase "take the good with the bad" has been ever-prevalent in our lives, and now, as our latched hands unlock we are ever so tempted by what we need and what we want but we must never in any case forget that the future is not set in stone and how we face the brunt of reality is only one train of thought in the big scheme of things.

Life is What You Make It.

"Awareness is the quintessential teaching of the Buddha--from the awareness of cool air as you breath in and then out, to the profound awareness of natural perfection. And with boundless compassion and courage, the sole purpose and activity of all the buddhas it is to ring the alarm bell that brings us to this awareness." From the reading of Siddhartha, I gained a certain cognizance and perspective on my past,present and most importantly my future. Like Siddhartha, I wish to acheive a catharsis--where I can make sense of all the hurt, happiness, frustrating, confusion, pettiness that festers in myself (at times) and that surrounds me. Buddhism beleives that with every decision there is a lesson awaiting, whether that lesson is wanted or not is irrelevant; whether you learn from it and gain a sense of awareness is what really matters. That said, what was it that you all gained from the reading of Siddhartha? I know the obvious answer may be perspective, and if so, what perspective focally?