Search Story
Everyone has a long list of “must
read” novels that they never seem to finish. Considering that Kite Runner had
been on my long list of "must reads" before I was
assigned this project, I did not have a hard time making my decision when
I saw the list of novels for this project. Even after reading the descriptions
for the other novel options, I found Kite Runner to be more intriguing simply
because the setting was not America or Europe (the setting of the many American
and British novels and poems I have read throughout my high school career).
Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed many of the American and British novels I
have read in the past few years, but it was nice to get exposure to a novel
with characters in a different setting which such a distinct culture and
lifestyle.
When it came time to picking a perspective to analyze the novel, I initially planned on going with either a historical or biographical lens; both perspectives seemed like obvious options that I could most easily connect to the novel. Unfortunately, two of my group members had already chosen to use those lenses, so I felt the need to pick a different perspective. After giving the physiological perspective a bit more thought, I realized the multitude of psychological concepts I could connect to various scenes in the novel. Also considering that I am not interested in the history of Afganistan or Khaled Hosseini's life story, but I am interested in psychology, the psychological perspective is perfect for me. I am currently taking AP psychology and am familiar with a multitude of psychological concepts, including the few I decided to use for this search including: the inferiority complex, psychological development, psychoanalysis, defense mechanisms and learned helplessness. I hope to focus most of my analysis on Amir. I want to know how his interaction with Hassan connects with the idea of an inferiority complex. I want to track his psychological development throughout the book, and study how his id, ego, and superego changed as he aged. I also hope to study Hassan and Sohrab a little, as they were important characters in the novel. I plan on uncovering the defense mechanisms they displayed throughout the novel as well as study the reason for Sohrab’s mental state at the end of the novel.
I started all this research by looking for various sources that could give me a little bit more insight into psychological concepts. My psychology book seemed like the best place to begin, so I pulled multiple passages from my textbook. After that, I went to Gale, my preferred database, and was able to find various sites with valuable information. I choose passages from textbook and sources from Gale that provided me with the most detail about the concept, because the more detail I had on the topic, the easier it was to make connections with the novel. Now that I have found all my sources, I am ready to start my analysis!
When it came time to picking a perspective to analyze the novel, I initially planned on going with either a historical or biographical lens; both perspectives seemed like obvious options that I could most easily connect to the novel. Unfortunately, two of my group members had already chosen to use those lenses, so I felt the need to pick a different perspective. After giving the physiological perspective a bit more thought, I realized the multitude of psychological concepts I could connect to various scenes in the novel. Also considering that I am not interested in the history of Afganistan or Khaled Hosseini's life story, but I am interested in psychology, the psychological perspective is perfect for me. I am currently taking AP psychology and am familiar with a multitude of psychological concepts, including the few I decided to use for this search including: the inferiority complex, psychological development, psychoanalysis, defense mechanisms and learned helplessness. I hope to focus most of my analysis on Amir. I want to know how his interaction with Hassan connects with the idea of an inferiority complex. I want to track his psychological development throughout the book, and study how his id, ego, and superego changed as he aged. I also hope to study Hassan and Sohrab a little, as they were important characters in the novel. I plan on uncovering the defense mechanisms they displayed throughout the novel as well as study the reason for Sohrab’s mental state at the end of the novel.
I started all this research by looking for various sources that could give me a little bit more insight into psychological concepts. My psychology book seemed like the best place to begin, so I pulled multiple passages from my textbook. After that, I went to Gale, my preferred database, and was able to find various sites with valuable information. I choose passages from textbook and sources from Gale that provided me with the most detail about the concept, because the more detail I had on the topic, the easier it was to make connections with the novel. Now that I have found all my sources, I am ready to start my analysis!