Kite Runner Project (Ami, AJ, Prunella)

The Process

We chose to do a box kite for our project, because it resembled a floating lantern which represents hope. While building it there were a few problems, like we did not kno what we were doing, we did not have the propper supplies, and we got hurt. First we cut the dowels to make the structure of the kite, we then spray painted the longer ones black. Then we needed to smoothen out the dowels, and since we had no sandpaper we used nail filers. Then as we were following the directions we had some more complications, we had to make noches in the dowels, and while we were trying to make it 2 of our group mates cut themselves. Eventually we made the structure and started on the panels.

The panels are made from construction paper, red, yellow, blue and black. The black represents the darkness of the story, the red represents the blood that was shed, the yellow represents the hope and the blue represents the calmness and peacefulness of the beginning. On the black pannel we put the theme of the story, we chose guilt. On it Ami wrote about how guilt affected the stories, and the lives of the characters. We also put some photos that represent guilt. On the red panel we had the character. AJ wrote about Assef an antagonist in the story, and a static character. He connected him to the joker from the dark night, by saying how they were both crazy and kinda a sociopath. We then did a symbol from the book on the blue panel. This was written by Gillian and she chose the pomegranate tree. She said that it represented a safe haven for Amir and Hassan as kids, and how they felt drawn to it at times. For example Amir went back to go visit the tree when he went back to Afghanistan after living in America. Lastly on the yellow panel Prunella wrote the turning point, which was Hassan's raping. She wrote about how that event changed the course of the story. And how things would have been different if Amir helped him. On the bottom panels there were quotes from the book, we chose all those quotes because they meant something to us and they really described the story. We also had four tails. The tails were just some ribbon from the store and a black marker. On each tail there was a word; hope, betrayal, loyalty, and peace all words that describe the story. Our kite was a success but it was sadly to heavy to fly.

Our experiences and Thoughts

Prunella's Experience

My experience in the kite building was fun but very stressful, I wanted to make it look nice and neat, but still want it to be light enough to fly. However the kite became too heavy to fly. While making the kite, I was stressed out about making sure that everyone had done their parts and that the grammar was okay. Also making sure the kite all fit together the measurements that we took were a bit off. It was a very hard proccess. But in the end I feel so proud of our kite, it may not be able to fly but it looks nice and it got us a good grade. While working on the kite I found a deeper meaning from the book, especially after reading all of our panels and the quotes I had a new understanding of the book. I really did enjoy making the kite, depsite all the problems we faced.

AJ's Experience

Building the kite for the Kite Runner was a great experience. It was great to work together with my fellow classmates to build this kite which really emulates everything the story tries to tell us. Building and assembling the kite made me really think what this book is actually all about. It made see the symbolism of different things, such as the Pomegranate tree, and it’s meaning. Although I am relieved that we are done making this big box kite, I’ve learned many things from the process. Such as teamwork, and how to even build a kite. I cut myself on my thumb to prove it! Building the kite itself was a long process, since we chose to do a box kite instead of just a regular kite. We had to buy materials, look up how to do it, and plan to meet up, even before we actually started to build the thing. Building the kite to several days, with lots of work. Even though there were a lot of different problems with the kite, we learned to make it work all together. In the end the kite looked great, and we were all proud of our work. All in all, it was a great time building the kite and I hope that we’ll do something like that in the near future.

Ami's Experience

I really enjoyed building this kite with my classmates because we really had to work together to make this work and I think my other group members enjoyed making the kite as much as I did. It was difficult and we had some complications with the kite but I think that it turned out pretty good. We really worked hard on it and worked as a team so it was successful. We could not fly it because it was too heavy but it looked nice and we really had the chance to understand the book in a deeper level. I learned a lot from making this kite and I am proud of my group and I. All of us cooperated into making this kite which made it look really nice. It was such a long and hard process but we had fun making it and all of us learned and understand the Kite Runner on a deeper and different level. Overall, I had so much fun making this kite with my group members and I'm very proud of our kite.