Emotions can drive one’s actions. Whether it be anger causing an individual to lash out or sadness causing someone to alienate themselves, emotions can change a person. Often emotions can overwhelm and cause an individual to be irrational. In The Kite Runner Amir lets his emotions drive his decisions. The Kite Runner present the story of a young boy fighting for his father's approval and ends with an adoptive parent trying to gain the child's approval. Amir’s emotions and actions make him who he is. A father's treatment of his children can be a deciding factor in the children's future. Amir and Baba’s relationship is complex. Baba’s ultimately loves his son. However, he is incredibly hard on his son. He wants for Amir to be the man he …show more content…
He had to “ decide who I [he] was going to be. I [he] could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan- the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past- and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run” (Hosseini 77). While Amir had a choice to go save Hassan or run, he chooses to run. Amir was too concerned about Baba being proud of him to stay true to his morals. He did not want Hassan getting any attention after his accomplishment of the day. Amir gets extremely jealous when Baba’s attention is not fully on himself. To justify his cowardice act Amir thinks only of gaining his father's approval instead of the betrayal to his friend. Amir would get upset when Hassan could do anything better than him. Amir would go as far as no longer doing something he liked if Hassan was better. This is a prime example of emotions getting in the way of Amir’s rational …show more content…
Amir realises he is incapable of living a tranquil life with his guilt. Guilt drives Amir to make yet another bad decision. Seeing Hassen in the house became too much for Amir to handle emotionally. So Amir conspired against Hassan. Amir’s guilt drives his actions in placing money and a watch under Hassan’s pillow and blaming him for stealing it. Ultimately, his plan worked to get rid of Hassan but not the guilt. Later in the novel, after Hassan has been executed, readers can see that Amir’s guilt still resides in his head. Amir has a dream where he has Hassan tied up and blindfolded. He says “The riffle roars...I see the face behind the plume of smoke swirling from the muzzle. I am the man” (Hosseini 240). In his dream he shoots Hassan. Showing that Amir feels as if he is the one who should be held accountable for Hassan’s death. The guilt follows him wherever he goes. Even when he tries to sleep guilt is there to torment him. Moving the whole way to America was a another failed attempt to escape the families issues in
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...
Because of Amir’s extreme desire to receive the attention and affection from Baba, he begins to subconsciously sacrifice his relationship with Hassan in order to fulfill his interests. However, as Amir continuously matures and begins to recognize his initial ignorant, detrimental actions towards Hassan, he no longer “worships” his father like he did in the past. This causes him to ensure a sense of independence because of his ability to quickly adapt to a completely new, unfamiliar environment and remain adamant on pursuing their own aspirations. When individuals highly idolize and worship the successes that their loved ones have achieved, their in-suppressible desire to emulate the achievements of others causes them to inevitably experience difficult circumstances that challenge their morality and principles. In The Kite Runner, Amir has always displayed overflowing affections for Baba due to his prideful feelings of being the son of a wealthy, prominent father.
In the book “THe Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, betrayal is is one of the big themes that occurs in this book. Amir shows the most betrayal of all, like him witnessing Hassan's rape and not helping him at all. That was his cowardly thing that he did and experiences guilt from it. Many years pass since that event he starts to feel what other people felt when he would betray them, like when he was betrayed by his father and Rahim Khan, because he found out that Hassan was his brother and he felt betrayal of trust just as he made the people he betrayed feel.
Baba, is what Amir called his father. Amir always looked up to Baba. He never wanted to disappoint him. Amir always wanted to be the only boy in the eyes of his father. He was jealous and would do anything for Baba to look up to him or respect him, as his son. Hence, the kite and alley incident. Through all the lies and deception, Baba still viewed Amir as innocent in many ways. Though Baba always wanted Amir to be athletic, play soccer, and display a talent of kite running and flying like Hassan and himself, he still loved Amir and saw his talents as a
In Khaled Hosseini’s book, The Kite Runner, Amir is an example of growing up, making mistakes, and facing the consequences for those mistakes. Amir grows so much throughout the book. He is a fictional example of maturing and growing up in a realistic manner. Making mistakes is a part of this growth, even though his were extreme. The reader is introduced to Amir and is disgusted about how he treats Hassan and abandons him in a time of needing rescuing. His mistakes disgust us, especially after Hassan has been by his side the entire book. As the reader gets deeper into the book, they start to develop feeling of anger but sometimes sympathy, towards Amir. By the end, we are not as angry as Amir than the reader to begin with. Amir has grown into
In order to grow and prosper, one must make mistakes and learn from them. People are not born perfect; everyone must live and everyone must learn throughout his/her lifetime in order to mature. In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni, Amir does exactly this. He makes several mistakes, these mistakes are not wasted, because, in time he learns from his wrong-doings and redeems his himself. Several if not all of the mistakes Amir makes are directed toward his childhood friend, and brother, Hassan. The first mistake Amir makes is not a tangible one. This mistake being he does not see Hassan as a friend while they are children because they’re part of two different ethnic groups and cultures. Because of this difference, Amir does not stop
Amir's actions showed how much of a coward he was. Amir suffered his whole life living with the guilt of knowing that Hassan was raped, much like Baba lived his whole life in guilt knowing that he stole the truth from Ali by committing adultery. 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 help a
The Kite Runner is a book about a young boy, Amir, who faces many struggles as he grows up in Kabul and later moves to America to flee from the Taliban. His best friend and brother , Hassan, was a big part of his life, but also a big part of guilt he held onto for many years. The book describes Amir’s attempt to make up for the past and resolve his sins so he can clear his conscious. Amir is worthy of forgiveness because although he was selfish, he was very brave and faced his past.
Thinking Baba was dead, Amir already started to worry about his future and how he was going to make it in life by himself. All of Amir’s life he had someone to always count on, he could count on Hassan to fight most of his battle for him and Baba to provide him with food, shelter, and an education. But when it could have possibly been time for Amir to leave the nest he realized how unprepared he was for the world. He also realized that who he was “had been defined by Baba”(Hosseini 174), his whole image was because of his father and not him. Once Baba did really die, Amir was “terrified” of the thought of finding his own way in life because “Baba couldn’t...show the way anymore”(Hosseini 174). In addition, Amir relied on others to get him
Mere minutes ago, I was confronted by my son, my Amir, who was begging me to read what he dubbed a “short story”. This isn’t the first incident I’ve experienced with him showing his breakage from the family legacy. Amir has consistently disappointed and underperformed in important skills, (ones I had mastered at his age) including soccer, kite running, and, self-defense. His short story, which I instead had Rahim read for him, is another example of how Amir is just so stubborn that he can’t focus on the countless skills relevant in his life.
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.
This relationship shows how indifference and thoughtlessness for one’s feelings can drive a person to make the bad choices for a father’s love. Most importantly, the relationship between Amir and Baba after living in America greatly increases the lesson that a father’s rejection can cause bad decisions as well as show how a son’s happiness requires a father’s attention. Truly, a caring fatherly
Though some may rise from the shame they acquire in their lives, many become trapped in its vicious cycle. Written by Khlaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner describes the struggles of Amir, his father Baba, and his nephew Sohrab as they each fall victim to this shameful desolation. One repercussion of Baba hiding his sinful adultery from Amir is that Amir betrays Hassan for his father’s stringent approval. Sohrab’s dirty childhood also traumatizes him through his transition to America. Consequently, shame is a destructive force in The Kite Runner. Throughout the course of the novel, Baba’s shameful affair, Amir’s selfish betrayal, and Sohrab’s graphic childhood destroy their lives.
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,
In the book Amir can be seen as a troubled young boy who is struggling with a tremendous amount of guilty. It is easy to blame Amir’s actions on his guilty and his father’s lack of love for him. The movie does not allow this. The movie characterizes Amir as a young boy who is to blind by his owns needs to be a decent and noble friend. The movie does not do a good job of showing that Amir felt horribly guilty about what he did to Hassan. It portrays Amir as uncaring and selfish. The movie also changes the depiction of Amir as an adult. While the book shows Amir as a man who has not yet learned to stand for what is right until he comes face to face with his past all over again, the movie jumps the gun and shows the change earlier with the change of a scene. The scene that is changed is when Amir and Farid visit the orphanage where Sohrab is supposed to be. In the scene Amir is the one to try and kill the orphanage owner instead of Farid which takes away from Amir’s cowardice persona that is portrayed in the book. The movie makes Amir seem stronger before his time while the book keeps up his weakling persona until he is faced with a situation he cannot help but stand up to. Similarly the characterization of Hassan is just as lacking as Amir’s in the movie. In the book, Hassan is shown as being selfless beyond a doubt and loyal to a fault.