How Does Hosseini Present Baba In The Kite Runner

The man who wears different masks and rarely unravels the secrets he keeps, is often the man who carries a heavy burden. In the start of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Baba is presented as this morally driven character who stood as the icon of determination. However, as the story progress readers uncover that he was no man that could “drop the devil to his knees.” (13) Instead he is revealed to be flawed character who suffered just like the rest, but kept it hidden through his actions. As Amir’s father he was not the warmest when interacting with his son, in fact he was described to have been impatient during their interactions. Despite their constrained relationship it’s slowly revealed why he acted so. Hosseini first presents Baba as

As a child looking up to his father Amir stated “my father [Baba] molded the world around him to his liking.” (15) With the use of the word molded it could be inferred that he was the type of man who crafted the world to his desire. He did not simply allow life to fill the form it should have, Baba shaped it to what he saw fit. When others told him that the plans he concocted would never result in anything he proved all his skeptics wrong. Baba became the “richest man in Kabul” (15) and owned various business all of which he was able to do so relatively early in his life. However, despite the success he met in Kabul he was not able to do the same in America. Instead “It was living in America that gave him an ulcer” (129) and he spiraled down in health. To Amir the move to a foreign country was a fresh start, a new chapter to unfold before him, but to Baba it eventually became a place where the ghosts of Kabul came to

In fact he affected people so much by his presence alone that when he passed away Amir confessed “[I] had been defined by Baba and the marks he left in people’s lives.”(174) though, he was distant towards his son, Baba acted out his belief. He preached that “There is no act more wretched than stealing.” (18) hoping that he could warn his son, preventing him to trudge down the road he took with Hassan. Baba stood up for his beliefs and provided as a constant warning to Amir. The man he appeared to be in front of his son was an illusion Baba wanted to appear as. All of his life he lived a lie and hoped that participating in charities would dilute his tainted conscious. Despite living as a warning to his son Amir still believed that he needed “Show him [Baba] once and for all that his son was worthy.”() This desire eventually lead him to allow the rape of Hassan, continuing the cycle of sin his father