Independent Study

How does the independent study book you have read relate to your big question?
Provide textual support and pertinent details from the book.

Over the summer I read Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I love this book because much of the book was the evolution of identities and the path to manhood.From Amir, even as a young boy, he never thought he could live up to his father and so defined himself as a failure. As his love of books and writing began to blossom he found he believed himself to be an artist. I love at the end when his entire sense of identity is redefined when he is finally told that his childhood servant, Hassan, is actually his brother. This revelation brings into focus the inexplicable love that Amir has always harbored for Hassan. Amir is forced to come to terms with his recently discovered "other half." In order to rectify his feelings of insufficiency as a young boy, Amir must recognize that together him an his brother Hassan are everything that his father ever wanted. Finally he realizes the importance of being the best version of yourself and that no person can achieve perfection.

Love the earth and sun and animals,

Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,

Stand up for the stupid and crazy,

Devote your income and labor to others...

And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

Walt Whitman

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering."

St. Augustine, 354 430

Why do we not stop to know ourselves? I have a very close friend who at the critical age of 17 is just now trying to decide what he likes to do. Why do we wait so long to understand our purpose in life?