This picture represents the rich and the poor. At first when looking at it, it seems bizzare because the poor man is on the top of the teeter-totter, which to me represents power. The rich man is at the bottom, representing weakness. When looking at it closer I realized in order for the poor man to come down to the ground, the rich man must push off from the ground, freeing the poor man to safety. This is a great photo to potray the heiarchy in a social ladder. Hassan is the poor man, because he is a Hazara and Amir is the rich man because he is a Pashtun. Pashtuns overule Hazaras and hold the power when comparing lifestyles.
Like Jenn stated, this picture depicts perfectly the Pashtun and Hazaras. In Afghanistan, the Shi'a people were the lower class while Amir's people stood at the top of the social pyramid. This evil introduces the destruction of humanization; however, all humans should be regarded as equal. It shouldn't matter what clothes you wear, what house you live in, what religion you practice or the food you eat, all or his have a purpose on this earth and being born into a family where one may have different beliefs than someone else is something out of our control. The Sunni people are also considered the "crown" which means authority, power or celestial power. Therefore, they are considered "better" than the Shi'a people, and deserve to dominate their country.
ReplyDeleteThis picture can also be a good depiction of the the destruction of Afghanistan after the Taliban take over. The Hazara's are struggling to stay alive and are basically praying to keep on living. Therefore, the Hazara's at the top of the teeter-totter can be regarded to as reaching out to plea for their lives in the country that they have grown up in.
The poor man could also represent Hassan reaching out his hand to help Amir and his moral troubles. Multiple times in the book, Hassan is represented as a morally strong person because he knows what to do and is very courageous. At times even Baba recognizes this and is flustered by the fact that his son Amir cannot be more like him. Once again, this picture depicts all of the times that Hassan tried to help Amir. But in the end, Hassan is still on top and Amir always has trouble trying to get himself to be morally strong and courageous. The perfect example of this is when he witnesses Hassan's rape and does not act.
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