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The Kite Runner 23587 Views


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Description:

Yes, there are kites. Yes, there are runners. No, despite how much we love running and flying kites, this isn't a happy story by any stretch of the imagination.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:01

The Kite Runner, a la Shmoop. We hope you weren ⁴ expecting a heartwarming tale based

00:09

on the title.

00:11

The Kite Runner is heavy stuff. Like throwing your arms in the air and screaming ⁗WHY?? Heavy. Some people are less

00:18

than thrilled about the idea that students are reading it.

00:22

They think The Kite Runner crosses that fine line between ⁳uper depressing †and ⁷ildly

00:27

inappropriate.   Is The Kite Runner appropriate for high schoolers? The book is full of not-so-family-friendly

00:34

stuff like sexual violence, pedophilia, and your regular ol' garden variety violence.

00:39

The list goes on.

00:42

And it only takes one racially-charged rape scene to get parental censors cooking. Yikes.

00:47

But why stop there? The reasons go way beyond hand-wringing about mature topics.

00:53

The Kite Runner also raises the hackles of some native Afghans, who claim that the book

00:57

paints a too-simple picture of the people living there&

01:00

&⁡nd the kids who played the lead roles in the movie adaptation actually had to go

01:04

into hiding to escape death threats from folks who weren't too happy with their work on the

01:07

film.

01:07

If the book has so many adults worried, are we sure that this story is a-okay for kiddos?

01:14

Well, maybe we shouldn't write it off just yet. Let ⁳ put some brakes on the hate train,

01:18

shall we?

01:19

Sure, the book might ruffle some feathers, but it also brings a whole lot to the table.

01:27

Maybe it's worth getting past all the fuss to give it a read. First of all, would it

01:31

kill us to learn more about Afghanistan, the country we ⁶e occupied militarily for more

01:36

than 10 years?

01:37

Probably not.

01:39

The Kite Runner also has all kinds of things to say about how the U.S. and Afghanistan

01:43

get along&  &⁡nd what the whole refugee situation is

01:47

about&  &⁡nd hey, did you know who the Pashtun <<Pash-tuhn>>

01:49

and Hazara <<Huh-za-ruh>> were before you picked it up? Yeah, we didn ⁴ think so.

01:53

So while there might be some moments that make us a little uncomfortable&

01:56

&⁷e can still learn some valuable lessons.

01:58

Now that we mention it, maybe the discomfort is part of those lessons. So what do you think?

02:06

Is the Kite Runner way too intense for teens&  &r is it too intense not to read?

02:11

Shmoop amongst yourselves.

02:16

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