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Intro: A strong parent child relationship is essential to the growth of a child into adulthood. This is especially true in the quintessential connection between a father and son, as the elder is meant to guide the child to “come of age” and take the position of the man of the house. In the books The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonists in both stories are deprived of positive father figures, both figuratively and literally. Consequential to of the lack of parental guidance the two receive, Amir and Holden are in need of mentors to lead them. Amir and Holden both look to others for the wisdom and guidance they do not receive from their fathers, but while Rahim Khan helps Amir become a more …show more content…
brave, honest, and responsible man, Holden’s would-be mentors fail him because they prove untrustworthy as they want him simply to follow societal expectations and support the “phoniness” he hates. Contrasting the roles played by these mentors highlights a fundamental difference between them: unlike The Kite Runner, The Catcher in the Rye suggests that Holden fails to find himself because his guides do not understand the kind of man he would like to become. S1/BP1: In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Amir’s absent father is ‘replaced’ by Rahim Khan who first teaches Amir to be brave.
During the very beginning of the book, Amir is on a phone call with Rahim Khan, who tells him, “there is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 2). Rahim Khan acts as a true mentor and encourages Amir to do what is right, giving him wise and intellectual advice. Rahim’s advice is simple and allows for Amir to make his own choice. While Rahim’s words push Amir into conclusively taking action, they do not force anything on him. Rahim is permitting Amir to develop into a man on his own. Rahim Khan’s advice ultimately leads to Amir’s newfound bravery which is demonstrated when he “challenges” Baba and stands up for what he believes is right and for the better good. When Baba is diagnosed with cancer and tells Dr. Amani he does not want to take the chemotherapy, Amir protests, causing Baba to snap, “Don’t you challenge me in public, Amir. Ever. Who do you think you are?” (Hosseini 156). Amir knows what is best for Baba and no longer wants to be subordinate to him, so he stands up for himself and does what he thinks is best in the situation, regardless of his father’s wrath. Finally, upon arrival in Afghanistan, Amir goes to his old house. At first, he hesitates to head in, when Farid mentions that sometimes it is easier to just move on and forget, but Amir replies ,“I don’t want to forget anymore” (Hosseini 263). When Amir says this, he highlights the …show more content…
fact that he is ready to face his past and atone for his sins, along with his father’s. He no longer wants to hide behind his wrongdoings, but rather step up and become the man he has dreamed of becoming. Rahim Khan has guided and supported Amir to the point where all Amir needs is a little push to set him in the right direction; Rahim Khan is more than willing to give this push and because of that, Amir has benefited, and is on the road to manhood. S1/B2: Rahim Khan also guides Amir to become honest, a fundamental key to becoming the man Amir strives to be.
Amir is gearing up to head to Afghanistan, but knows before he leaves he must tell Soraya everything. This can be confirmed when Amir reveals, “I’d done what I hadn’t done in fifteen years of marriage: I told my wife everything. Everything” (Hosseini 325). Amir takes it upon himself to tell his wife about his past, not only admitting what he has done, but taking a step towards manhood. Amir has no idea how Soraya will respond, or if she will even be able to bear looking at him, but he knows what he has to do and finds the courage within himself to be honest and upfront with his wife. Amir demonstrates his newfound honesty yet again when he is talking with General Taheri. General Taheri asks who Sohrab is and Amir replies, “my father slept with his servant’s wife. She bore him a son named Hassan… That boy sleeping on the couch is Hassan’s son. He’s my nephew” (Hosseini 361; added emphasis). Amir does not hesitate to tell General Taheri about his father’s past; he does not feel the need to be seen as a perfect family and says with confidence, “He’s my nephew.” Amir then continues to demonstrate his honest traits, regardless of how it will reflect on him socially, saying, “That’s what you tell people when they ask” (Hosseini 361). Here, Amir is literally telling the General what to tell others if anyone questions the boy’s identity, but he is also validating that he
no longer wants to hide from his and his father’s past but rather to admit what has been done, and move forward.
Later on, Amir comments, “Listening to them, I realized how much of who I was, what I was, had been defined by Baba and the marks he had left on people’s lives. Now he was gone. Baba couldn’t show me the way anymore; I’d have to find it on my own” (Hosseini ___ ). This excerpt illustrates the turning point of the story of Amir’s redemption. The word “I” is extensively used in this specific quote showing that he begins to ruminate on how he should be changing himself for himself rather than himself for others. Another notable aspect of this quote is that Amir realizes that he is on his own now. This proves that he is now prepared to figure things out on his own which almost propels him past the conventional stage towards post-conventional. Further on in the book, Amir converses with Rahim Khan and states, “”You know,” Rahim Khan said, “one time, when you weren’t around, your father and I were talking…I remember he said to me, ‘a boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.’ I wonder, is that what you’ve become”” (Hosseini ___ ). This extremely important quote shows that if Amir is unable to worry about himself as a child, he will be unable to help people out for nothing in return in the future. If Amir is a boy who can focus on redeeming his own actions in a post-conventional way, he will turn out this way in the future or
A remarkable and absorbing novel, J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," may serve to calm the apprehensions of fathers and mothers about their own responsibilities, though it doesn't attempt to explain why all boys who dismay their elders have failed to pass successfully the barrier between childhood and young manhood. It is profoundly moving and a disturbing book, but it is not hopeless. Holden Caulfield, sixteen years old and six foot two inches in hei...
In Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to compete in the Hunger Games, a youth survival competition, ultimately winning the competition with help along the way. Separately, in J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield’s decisions in school lead to his expulsion. Upon leaving school, he begins a journey of self-discovery. Both characters face tests and trials which cause them to discover their inner strengths. Katniss and Holden exemplify the Hero’s Quest by answering their calls to adventure, meeting their mentors, and fulfilling their respective quests.
Whenever Amir would ask Hassan to do something he was reluctant to do, Hassan would still agree if he begged because “[he] never denied [Amir] anything” (Hosseini, 4). Hassan loves Amir an extraordinary amount, so much that he would commit an action that he otherwise would never have wanted to commit. Even when Hassan figures out that Amir has betrayed him, he still sacrifices himself for the safety of Amir. When Hassan lies and tells Baba he stole the watch Amir had framed him for stealing, Amir says Hassan’s lie stung “like [he’d] been slapped… [Hassan] knew [he] had betrayed [him] and yet he was rescuing [him] once again” (Hosseini, 111). Hassan knew what would happen to Amir if Baba caught him trying to get rid of his servants, so he lied to protect Amir, even when Amir had wronged him. Baba and Amir flee to America, yet Hassan remains loyal to them while still in Afghanistan. Rahim Khan asks Hassan and his family to move into Amir’s old house, as he can not maintain the house by himself, but instead they move into the mud hut Hassan used to live in. Hassan’s reasoning is “’what will [Amir agha] think when he comes back to Kabul after the war and finds that I have assumed his place in the house?’” (Hosseini, 219). Not even during the war, when he does not expect Amir to come back, does he temporarily take residence in Amir’s old house. Out of loyalty and respect, he lives where he always had, even when Rahim Khan is
It is not often that Amir’s love for Baba is returned. Baba feels guilty treating Amir well when he can’t acknowledge Hassan as his son. Baba discriminates against his son Amir by constantly making him feel weak and unworthy of his father. Baba once said to Rahim Kahn, “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son” (Hosseini 23). Amir doesn’t feel like a son towards Baba since he seems like such a weakling. This neglect towards Amir causes him to feel a need to be accepted by Baba to end the constant discrimination from his father and he will do anything for it. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: 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). Amir did not stop the rape of his good friend for one sole purpose. Amir felt that he had to betray his own half-brother to gain th...
Baba is a very high standing man in Kabul, but seems to be extremely harsh to Amir when he was a child. He is a very large, tough man who was very well known in the town and as Amir stated in the novel, “Lore has it my father once wrestled a black bear in Baluchistan with his bare hands” (Hosseini 12). This small detail of Baba makes it known to the reader that Baba is a man of great courage and strength. Some may think that an honorable man is one with no flaws, but many disagree. Every human being makes mistakes, including Baba. When Amir grows up and goes back to visit Rahim Khan in Afghanistan, he finds out that his father lied to him his entire life about Hassan being his half-brother. He also finds out from Rahim Khan that all Baba had back then “was his honor, his name” (Hosseini 223). He did not tell Amir and Hassan that they were brothers because they had a different mother and that would have made their entire family be looked down upon in the town. He did it for their own good, and wanted for them both to grow up as honorable men, like himself. There is a difference in making mistakes and trying to do what’s best to fix them, rather than making the same mistakes over and over again, which is what Amir seemed to do in the novel. Amir was the exact opposite of his father, which made it very hard for them to have a
When he gets, Baba’s friend, Rahim Khan’s call and hears, “Come. There is a way to be good again”(192), he decides to go to Pakistan without any hesitation. Amir has a vital need to be good again and guesses Rahim Khan knows about his past, so he wants to see Rahim Khan to try to begin his redemption. After hearing the stories about Hassan and his son Sohrab, he determines to go back to Afghanistan and saves Sohrab alone. With the strong will to be good, Amir is no longer a coward. Although there are so many difficulties, he eventually saves Sohrab and takes him to America. Furthermore, Amir tries to atone his previous sin. After he saves Sohrab, he spares no effort to make Sohrab happy and earn his trust. “I struggled out of bed and crossed the space between us. ‘I won’t ever get tired of you, Sohrab’… ‘That’s a promise. You’re my nephew’ ”(324). To express the love that he didn’t give to Hassan, Amir becomes another man: He is unselfish and generous. He considers Sohrab as the most important person in his life and tries his best to love Sohrab. In the end, when he sees a steady smile spread across Sohrab’s face while flying kites in America, Amir finishes his
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch
Over the course of the novel, Baba implies that he is not proud of Amir and the only reason he knows Amir is his son, is because he witnessed Amir 's birth. He states to Rahim Khan that he thinks Amir needs to stand up for himself more often. Countless times during the novel, Amir feels like he has to fight for his affection, that he has to earn Baba’s love. In order to prove himself worthy of affection and to redeem himself for not being a son Baba could be proud of, Amir yearns to win the kite runner competition. He reminisces on a memory, when all “I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption” (65). In the aftermath of Hassan’s rape, Amir got rid of Hassan so he would not have to face the cause of his guilt on a daily basis. Amir buries the secret of the rape deep within him, where he hopes that it will not come back to haunt him, which is not the case. “We had both sinned and betrayed. But Baba had found a way to create good out of his remorse. What had I done, other than take my guilt out on the very same people I had betrayed, and then try to forget it all? What had I done, other than become an insomniac? What had I ever done to right things?” (303). As mentioned earlier, Amir is not one who stands up for himself. In order for Amir to redeem himself for betraying Hassan, and not standing up for him earlier,
Baba ran from the truth, and so did Amir to protect the family name, even if that meant betraying the people closest to him. Baba was a man more worried about his image than anything, and that is what he taught his son as well. Slowly that is all Amir knew how to do: protect his family and himself, leading him into a life of guilt, and running from people when situations were challenging, instead of making the admirable decision and helping a friend. He shows his unconditional love when he suddenly packs up and leaves all he has ever known, “‘[Ali and Hassan] can’t live [there] anymore.life here is impossible for [them] now”’
The coming of age experience is an important time in a person’s life. It is described as the time period in which a young person changes from a child to an adult. During this time, the person matures emotionally and physically. They become more understanding of the world around them. In “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caulfield’s life is in shambles after he is kicked out of school. In contrast, Esther Greenwood from “The Bell Jar” seems to have it all: a glamorous internship, high grades, and a successful career. Salinger and Plath express their feelings through the coming of age experience of their protagonists in their novels to illustrate the different backgrounds, the feeling of being insecure, and their similar attitudes toward superficiality.
While Baba attempts to live his life according to the Afghan saying, “Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end.crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis [nomads]” (Hosseini 356), Amir strays from this traditional perspective. Baba chose to continue his life unmindful of his past, while Amir, eventually decides to confront him. Although both Baba and Amir have acted immorally, the choices they make find redemption affect the success of their individual attempts. In the novel, Amir’s quest for atonement is more effective than Baba’s because he acts virtuously, while his father, acts selfishly. Ultimately, Amir is the more successful of the two because, in opposition to Baba, he seeks holistic atonement and is willing to make sacrifices to achieve redemption.
He writes Amir a letter and tells him not to feel guilty about what he has done. Even in person, Rahim Khan says to Amir “[insert quote here].” Rahim Khan has no reason to care about Amir and be nice to Amir and yet unlike Baba, he does. He shows that love and care do not need a reason. This is something that both Amir and Baba seem to struggle with throughout the book.
When Amir takes Baba to the doctors, the doctor suggests chemotherapy for Baba to prolong the cancer but Baba did not want any medication. Amir tells the reader, “He had the same resolved look on his face as the day he’d dropped the stack of food stamps on Mrs. Dobbins’s desk” (156). Baba did not want help even if his life was on the line. Baba also starts to take pride in Amir when he tells General Taheri, “Amir is going to ne a great writer,” Baba said. I did a double take at this” (139). Amir is starting to realize that his father who was untouchable and was a legend in Kabul was truly human. When Amir tells Baba that he wants to marry Soraya, Baba calls General Taheri to set up a meeting between the two men. As Amir dropped off Baba at the Taheri’s for the meeting, he says, “Baba was hobbling up the Taheri’s driveway for one last fatherly duty” (163). In this instance, Amir sees Baba as a true father. Amir feels Baba’s acceptance when Baba tells Amir on lafz, “It’s the happiest day of my life Amir” (166). Baba is telling Amir that through everything in his life from him marrying Sophia, to Amir winning the kite tournament, all the way to Amir graduating high school, Baba has never been prouder. After Baba’s death, Amir says, “As words from the Koran reverberated through the room, I thought of the old story of Baba wrestling a black bear in Baluchistan. Baba had
The trope “parent-child relationships,” encompassing both parental and mentor relationships, appears in many stories or texts. Not surprisingly, parent-child and mentor relationships run throughout all of the books examined this year in English class, most obviously in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The two protagonists in these novels, both of whom are boys struggling to find their place in the world, have significant adult figures who try to guide them in their journeys to maturity.