Power In The Kite Runner

Power is a major influence throughout all of history. Wars, love, and countries all began with the same concept: power. Sometimes, power is used responsibly; other times the platform of authority is used in a manipulative way. Power can stem from an individual, but it can also be rooted in memories that haunt people forever. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini writes an impactful novel, showing the brutality Afghanistan goes through as power is corrupted in the country. However, Hosseini also probes the theme of authority that family has over others and how dark feelings can rule people’s lives. Power is depicted in three different manners in the novel: the Taliban’s rule over Afghanistan, Baba’s pull on Amir, and the guilt Amir feels over

“Because the truth of it was, I always felt like Baba hated me a little . . . The least I could have done was to have the decency to have turned out a little more like him. But I hadn’t turned out like him. Not at all” (Hosseini 19). Amir, unfortunately, doesn’t feel loved by his father, so Baba has power over his son and the decisions Amir makes in his life. Amir only wanted the kite after the competition so badly for one thing: to please Baba. “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (Hosseini 77). Baba’s power forced Amir to become cold, so he could be the son he believed his father wanted. As Amir becomes older, he starts to be more influential in his own life and taking management of his own decisions. In America, he has found home; however, Baba’s rule still makes him feel bad and believe that Baba should be the one who is happy. “For me, America was a place to bury my memories. For Baba, a place to mourn his” (Hosseini 129). Even as Amir becomes his own person, he wants to give Baba the power and make him feel in control and content. Eventually though, Amir realizes that his father does love him and doesn't let the authority drag him

This began all began in his childhood, after he witnessed Hassan being raped. Amir’s guilt ate him alive, he couldn’t even stand to see him, so he came up with a plan to get rid of Hassan. “Then I took a couple of the envelopes of cash from the pile of gifts and my watch, and tiptoed out . . . I went downstairs, crossed the yard, and entered Ali and Hassan’s living quarters by the loquat tree. I lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it. I waited another thirty minutes. Then I knocked on Baba’s door and told what I hoped would be the last in a long line of shameful lies” (Hosseini 104). It is evident that Amir’s intense remorse drove him to make ungraceful decisions. In the end, this only made his guilt worse. As the guilt seems to subside with time and his life in America goes on, Amir one day receives a call from Rahim Khan: “Come. There is a way to be good again, Rahim Khan had said on the phone just before hanging up. Said it in passing, almost as an afterthought. A way to be good again” (Hossseini 192). Khan's phone call makes Amir realize that the guilty feelings have only been living deep inside of him all along. Now, he wants to go and visit Khan, to see how he can be good again. Eventually, after rescuing Hassan’s son and becoming more of himself once again, Amir comes to the conclusion