Compare And Contrast Father Son Conflict In The Kite Runner

The archetype of the Quest in relation to the archetype, Father-Son Conflict is often portrayed in various literature and films. These two archetypes tend to intersect with one another often giving each one an added layer of depth. Khaled Hosseini (2003) manages to incorporate both the Quest archetype and The Father-Son archetype in his novel The Kite Runner. Hosseini portrays one main father-son duo to develop the idea that having a strained relationship often leads one character to go on a quest to mend the connection. Throughout the novel, the two archetypes feature the father-son duo, Amir and Baba, specifically tracing Amir’s journey to gain his father’s acceptance and to find the missing part of himself due to the lack of paternal approval.

It depicts a quarrel between father and son who also have differing values, much like Amir and Baba. This ultimately leads Nemo to disobey his father and the father goes on a quest to find his son. Nemo wants to go to school, While his overprotective father, Marlin, wants Nemo to stay safe because of his ‘lucky fin,’an underdeveloped fin, in which Nemo proceeds to ignore. Nemo sticks up for himself by saying “you’re not my dad” (Pixar, 2003) The absence of communication results in both the father and son suppressing and building up their frustration . In both pieces of literature, one side goes on a quest in order to make up for their actions. In the film Finding Nemo (2003), the dad is the one who goes on the quest, while in the Kite Runner, it is the son figure who goes on the quest. Marlin blames himself for the death of his wife and his children, so he becomes overprotective of Nemo but he questions his parenting skills along the way and if he’ll ever see his son again. While captured, Nemo realizes that his father’s paranoia was justified but still too over the top. When they reunite, they come to a mutual agreement that Nemo doesn’t wander off and listen to his father more and that his father will let him do more

Harper Lee, like Houssaini is able to make a character, in this case Jem, go on a quest in order to figure out an underlying connection between himself and the father figure that is either absent or hard to appreciate in Jem’s case.. In the beginning of the book, Jem does not understand why his father is defending Tom Robinson or why his father will not defend himself against his detractors. But throughout his journey that summer through his own activities and through watching his father in the courtroom, Jem comes to appreciate his father’s values and comes to see himself as more like his father. As he says, “Atticus is a gentleman, just like me!” (Lee, p.