More handpicked essays just for you.
Influence of parent on child development
Influence of parents on child development
Influence of parents on child development
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Many children look up to their parents and crave close relationships with them. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini tells a story of a father son relationship that many people can relate to. The novel is told in the son’s perspective who’s name is Amir and throughout the book we see how Amir longs for a relationship between him and his father who he calls Baba. Amir grows up hearing a story of Baba fighting a bear, this story is used multiple times by Hosseini to symbolize how Amir changes his view of Baba throughout his life. Hosseini uses the story of the bear to first create a picture of how Amir sees Baba as a child. Growing up Amir is exposed to Baba telling a story of how he fought a bear. Amir says, “My father was a force of nature, a towering Pashtun specimen with a thick beard, a wayward crop of curly brown hair as unruly as the man himself, hands that looked capable of uprooting a willow tree, and a black glare that would ‘drop the devil to his knees begging for mercy’” (Hosseini 12-13). As a child Amir sees his father as this powerful, strong, and frightening man which can be overwhelming considering he was very young. An article states, “Baba becomes a fearful beast to Amir” (Shmoop Editorial Team). The way Baba carries himself makes Amir feel as if he is not good enough for Baba because of how frightening and …show more content…
strong he was, unlike Amir as a child who was very weak and scared. When Baba dies in the novel Amir uses the bear story to represent Baba’s life. During his father’s funeral, Amir begins to look back on everything that has happened in Baba’s life. Amir realizes, “Baba had wrestled bears his whole life” (Hosseini 174). He says this because Baba had lost his wife, had to rise a son himself, and left his home country to come to a place where he was poor and had to work very hard to make a living. Amir continues by saying, “In the end, a bear had come that he couldn't best. But even then, he had lost on his own terms” (Hosseini 174). Even though Baba had fought as hard as he could he couldn't win the battles of his life. Amir now realizes all the struggles and heartache his father as been through and doesn’t see him as the invincible Baba he knew as a child, but as someone who was struggling like everyone else. Amir has a dream of Baba and the bear and sees the changes in his father.
The dream starts out with Baba wrestling the bear like Amir had always heard when he was younger. Amir points out, “ He is the Baba of my childhood, Toophan agha, the towering specimen of Pashtun might, not the withered man under the blankets, the man with the sucken cheeks and hollow eyes” (Hosseini 295). Amir is referring to how weak his father had become in his last days. Baba was no longer the strong, tall, and powerful man he grew up with that was very independent. As Baba grew very sick he had become a different man than who he was and had become dependent of
Amir. Amir’s dream continues and begins to symbolize how Amir fought, as a child, for attention from Baba. While he was younger, Amir longed to be good enough for his father and seeked attention he never got. Amir’s dream shows, “Baba is sitting on the bear’s chest, his fingers digging in its snout. He looks up at me and I see. He’s me. I am wrestling the bear” (Hosseini 295). Like Baba, Amir has been wrestling with bears his whole life. One of his biggest bears was the struggle of trying to get the attention he wanted and needed from the man he looked up to. An article states, “ATTENTION is a survival need” (Kelley). Children need and long for attention, especially from their parents. As a child Amir did not get the attention he needed from Baba. He constantly battled with himself to become the son Baba wanted. Which ultimately led to Amir becoming the man he was today. The legend of Baba and the bear was used many times in The Kite Runner to show the changes in a father son relationship. Baba went from being a strong, mighty, and independent man to becoming weak and weary. His son Amir was affected greatly by the different views of his father from being scared of him as a child to him realizing Baba was human like everyone else. However, Amir had been fighting a bear himself which was the longing of his father’s attention. Like many children, Amir just wanted to feel loved and wanted, which everyone deserves especially by their parents.
Baba is overtly masculine, often described as a “bear of a man.” He is physically powerful with broad shoulders and exude. He exudes this energy to come across more powerful and assertive. Rahim Khan, appears wise and softer, in comparison to the rough Baba. To Amir, this represents a positive vs. negative battle in his life. Rahim Khan is the light, and Baba the dark. Amir, who desperately seeks Baba’s attention, is conflicted between following his dreams and making Baba proud. This contrast is highlighted by their opposite behaviors and mannerism. This good vs. evil resonates throughout the book. When it is revealed that Baba had “stolen the
The Kite Runner is a novel of a Sunni Muslim, Amir, and a Hazara boy, Hassan. Hassan is the son of Amir’s father’s servant. Amir and Hassan spend their childhood days playing with one another in the streets of Kabul. Amir’s father, Baba, as referred to in the novel, loves both of the boys equally. Although, Amir believes that Baba loves Hassan more than himself. Amir struggles to find understanding from Baba for killing his wife during childbirth. Amir strives to make him proud. The Hazara boy, Hassan, finds himself often in trouble protecting Amir, and questioning whether Amir would do the same for him. Over twenty years after Amir left Kabul, and his childhood friend, Hassan, Amir returns to Kabul to find his brother dead by the Taliban, and his son residing in a local orphanage. Amir ventures on to find a way to be good again, while trying to save his childhood friend, Hassan’s son. The motif changes to show how their relationship is growing and evolving thus helping Hosseini, the author of, The Kite Runner, develop his theme in the novel. Friendship does not require physical connection.. The Pomegranate tree is used as a motif and changes throughout the novel. Amir often returns to the motif of the Pomegranate tree. In the beginning of The Kite Runner, Amir and Hassan’s friendship is flourishing as they share stories and laugh by the pomegranate tree. Hassan and Amir bond over stories such as, “Shahnameh,” (Hosseini, pg. 103). As the novel continues, Amir throws pomegranates from the tree at Hassan, breaking the physical relationship between himself and Hassan. At the end of the novel, Amir returns to find the tree dead, and their physical relationship is gone, but they both think of themselves as friends.
Life in America for Baba and Amir is much different than their life in Afghanistan. Specifically, Amir adapts well to America. He completes high school and college. Furthermore, he follows his dream of becoming a writer. In American Amir becomes a young man who marries Soraya. The reader witnesses a kinder, non-vindictive Amir.
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...
He begins his story in pre-civil war Afghanistan. He and his Hazara servant Hassan spend many hours per day together. One of the most cherished times spent together was when Amir would read stories to Hassan, under a pomegranate tree. Amir had a love for literature, a trait similar to his mother, who died while giving birth to him. However, this troubles his father ("Bâbâ," Persian for father), who tries to make Amir more like himself, active and courageous. Baba puts Amir on a soccer team and tries to teach him to defend himself, but fails with every attempt.
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
Baba is first depicted as an unreachable man who was well respected in the community. Amir recalls his birthday party where he was “scanning over the invitation list a week before my birthday party and not recognizing at least three-quarters of the four hundred [. . .] Then I realized they weren’t really coming for me. It was my birthday, but I knew who the real star of the show was” (94). Amir did not know it at the time, but Baba had sins he was trying to absolve. Through his actions toward redemption, Baba touched the lives of many. Regardless of their social status, Baba would lend a he Amir recalls how Baba “always carried an extra handful of Afghani bills in his pocket just for them; I’d never seen him deny a peddler” (245). Baba would offer his wealth to every beggar he came across. Along with this, he also built an orphanage with his own money, planning, and time. Baba did everything in his power to redeem himself and eradicate himself of the guilt in his heart. Some say he was redeemed; others disagree. Rahim Khan tells Amir of Baba’s dilemma:
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”’
Amir overhears this and is very troubled that Baba doesn’t approve of him. To Amir, this is a realization that he is a coward and his father notices it. Later in the book, Amir sees Hassan being raped and he is contemplating jumping in and being courageous because he says, “I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be” (Hosseini, 77). Amir realizes that he has to decide “who I am”....
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.
Baba is displayed as an immoral man while at home because he is not loving to his son and he cheated with his friends’ wife and had a child. Even some of Baba’s good qualities such as his care for Hassan and Ali, his father, seem to have a selfish motive behind them because he wants to keep his son close to him. While Baba is never the fatherly figure in the first part of the book, once they leave their home, Baba seems to care a lot more about Amir. This may happen because he does not always have Hassan around to remind him of the terrible mistakes that he made in the past. However, even when Hassan is leaving, Baba still cares about him. Even though Hassan may be a symbol of past mistakes, he is still Baba’s son in the end and family always has a strong bond. Therefore, Baba’s character shows his moral side because instead of hating his illegitimate son, he cares for him as much as he can given the cultural standards of the two opposing religions. By healing his cleft lip and remembering Hassan’s birthday every year, Baba is able to show his caring side that is seldom seen with his relationship with
The longing for parental acceptance is often what leads to childhood downfall. At some point a child strives to make their parent proud. When a lack of attention is displayed in a parent child relationship there is a lack of communication and support. In The Kite Runner this type of relationship is shown through Baba and Amir's interactions. Throughout The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Amir and Baba’s relationship takes many turns. Their relationship affects the plot through many situations such as when Baba acts uninterested in Amir's life, When Baba fails to treat Amir the same as Hassan, and when Baba takes his guilt and anger out on Amir.
In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the author follows the development of protagonist Amir through a life filled with sorrow, regret, and violence. Amir encounters numerous obstacles on his path to adulthood, facing a new test at every twist and turn. Amir embarks on the long journey known as life as a cowardly, weak young man with a twisted set of ideals, slowly but surely evolving into a man worthy of the name. Amir is one of the lucky few who can go through such a shattered life and come out the other side a better man, a man who stands up for himself and those who cannot, willing to put his life on the line for the people he loves.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel based in Afghanistan that shows the betrayal between two boys with two different social backgrounds. Four years later “The Kite Runner” was filmed by David Benioff, which shows the meaningful message that the book delivers in a movie. Throughout the book and movie, Amir the protagonist must live the rest of his life with guilt from his childhood. Although the movie gave the same meaningful message that the book delivered, the book was further developed, which had more detail and kept the readers wanting more. Ultimately these details that were present in the novel gave the readers a better understanding of the characters, which led to the relationships
Throughout the story Baba is shown as brave and powerful through symbolism of the bear, while Amir is found to have no connection with the bear. In the story Amir states that, “I have imagined Baba's wrestling match countless times, even dreamed about it. And in those dreams, I can never tell Baba from the bear” (12). Amir, not being able to tell the bear from Baba shows his strength and power. The way Amir is imagining and dreaming about Baba wrestling the bear shows how he looks up to Baba and adores him. But also how Amir is unable to identify who is who shows that how Baba’s powerful characteristics also make others fear him. As Amir was reflecting he thinks, “In the end, I ran. I...