Amir's Influence In The Kite Runner

Amir questions his relationship with Hassan and says, “I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that” (Hosseini 25). This is the first occurrence in the novel of Amir acknowledging that him and Hassan are different. Amir is superior to Hassan in the eyes of Afghani culture. Later Amir almost says to Assef, “But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant!” (Hosseini 41). Amir later questions what he says, and does not understand what he really thinks Hassan is to him. Another example of Amir realizing his superiority is when he was not not beaten by a teacher like the other students. Amir says, “But my father was rich and everyone knew him, so I was spared the metal rod treatment” (Hosseini 90). Amir recognizes his father’s wealth and realizes he receives special treatment because of it. This thought of being superior is inevitably capable of being installed in a child’s brain that they are above others and deserve special

Throughout the whole book, Amir has been vying for love from his father, often against Hassan, and feels powerless when he does not get it; this causes him to attempt to assert power in other aspects of his life, usually over Hassan. Amir feels as if Baba does not love him, and feels powerless to fix it; he says, “I always felt like Baba hated me a little, And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I? 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). He believes there is nothing he can do to make his father love him; after all, he cannot change the past, and he cannot change himself substantially. This feeling of powerlessness affects him in such a way that he feels the need to compensate for this loss of power elsewhere in his life. He would exploit the kindness and forgiveness Hassan always showed him, and would try and prove his superiority and worth in that relationship. Amir once asked if Hassan would eat dirt if he asked him to, and afterwards said, “I knew I was being cruel, like when I’d taunt him if he didn’t know some big word. But there was something fascinating--albeit in a sick way--about teasing Hassan. Kind of like when we used to play insect torture. Except now he was the ant and I was holding the magnifying glass,” (Hosseini 54). Amir is filling the power gap he feels in his life with power over Hassan, and is trying to show Hassan how much control he has over him. Hassan, Amir’s servant and a genuinely kind person, is in a vulnerable position against Amir,

As father and son, Baba and Amir have some similarities, but they are both very different people.

Throughout the novel, The Kite Runner, courage plays a large role in determining the fate of each character. All of the characters show courage in different ways. For example, when Baba lost his wife and the mother of his children, he chose to raise his two sons on his own. Baba’s son, who is also the main character, Amir, is seen as the opposite of his father. Baba is a courageous, smart and very public man. Amir, on the other hand, struggles to stand up for himself and never feels the need to be courageous during his youth. He feels inferior to his best friend, Brother and loyal servant, Hassan. Hassan is constantly being praised by Baba for being brave, loyal and Baba views Hassan as his proudest achievement. Amir has a strong craving for respect from his father which influences the choices Amir makes throughout his life. He is constantly battling between choosing his morals or his father’s approval. However, during a conflict that happens later in the novel, Amir finally shows his courage and

The average person encounters challenges in everyday life that shapes their character. These challenges are what make up their character and proceed to show the outcome of their life. There are many ways to change your character such as shifting your perspective on others without judgement or learning from prior experiences. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Amir is the character that changes greatly based on the maturity he has gained from his childhood to adulthood. Amir’s character has been shaped by many factors, the two biggest influences involve his best friend, Hassan, and father, Baba. These two influences shaped Amir at an early age. The third character that shaped Amir happens later in his life involving the women that he later ends up marrying. Amir goes from being a selfish child to being a selfless adult.

S1/B3: Finally, Rahim Khan successfully shapes Amir into becoming the responsible man he has always wanted to be. This is indicated when Amir and Soraya are attempting to have a baby and Amir wonders what kind of father he will turn out to be. He thinks, “I wanted to be just like Baba and I wanted to be nothing like him” (Hosseini 184). Although Baba was the ‘ideal’ man: strong, popular, and well known, this is not the man Amir wants to turn out to be. Amir sees that Baba was secretly a materialistic, selfish, dishonest coward. So, while Amir wants to be a popular and strong idealistic father to his child, he does not want to leave his child feeling neglected by him, as he experienced with Baba. Amir would rather be a responsible and understanding

The character of Amir goes through drastic changes as he moves from adolescence to adulthood. As a child Amir begins his life in Kabul, where his character is shaped through conflicts with his father and Hassan. Later, when he moves to America he leaves these conflicts behind and is able to create a stronger relationship with his father. However, when Amir is an adult he is called back to Afghanistan by an old friend to confront these earlier conflicts. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, observable changes can be seen in Amir’s character as he moves from Kabul, Fremont, and later back to Kabul.

One day Asseff rapes Hassan as an act of power, and Amir witnesses the actions but acts in a cowardly matter and simply avoids the matter by ignoring it. Amir then proceeds to cut off the relationships between himself and Hassan, “I actually aspired to cowardice, but the real reason I was running, was that Asseff 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. Was it a fair price? The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara. Wasn’t he?” Amir did it because the traditional and historical beliefs were more important than friendship. This action displays how being born in a different social class can outweigh all feelings of love and friendship with one of a different social group.

. In the end, I was Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi’a, and nothing was going to ever change that”(Hosseini 27). Amir struggles to be a good friend and truly loyal to Hassan even though their relationship basically makes them best friends. He is unable to admit he is friends with Hassan because he is from the upper social class and is taught by his Afghan tradition and history that Pashtuns are too pure to have relationships with Hazaras because they are below them. Hassan is treated as a friend and a enemy by Amir because he wants to follow what he has always been taught as the principles of Afghan society while he wants to challenge the societal norms by staying true as a friend to

Throughout generations, fathers have played an important role in their children’s life; specifically their son’s. A son may learn many life lessons from their father figures, such as morals and how to confront difficult situations. In the novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir, does not seem to inherit the same morals and common sense as his father, Baba. Both Baba and Amir have sinned a plethora of times, but their individual sins and how they dealt with the guilt, differs greatly. This perspective proves that although a father and son may share the same DNA, they do not always think or react in the same manner.

This is shown when Amir describes Hassan or other “normal people” in his life. Despite their ethnic differences, Amir and Hassan “fed from the same breasts”, took their “first steps on the same lawn”, and it’s learned later in the novel that they are half brothers (11). Countless hours of their childhood consisted of them playing pretend, flying kites, reading stories, and just talking with one another. This definitely falls in the parameters of friendship, but Amir “never thought of Hassan and [him] as friends” (25). In moments of chaos, Amir finds Hassan expendable in order to protect himself and his desires. When Hassan refused to give up a kite that Amir desperately wanted, Hassan was attacked and raped while Amir hid. Although Hassan was taking the beating for him, Amir thought that “he was just a Hazara” so there is no need to go out into harm’s way (77). This way of thinking can be traced back to the large majority of the people surrounding Amir viewed Hazaras as subhuman. Amir described a boy named Omar as “a pretty good guy” but refers to Hassan as “your hazara” and insults his “tight little eyes” (68). This perception of Omar being a good guy despite his degrading comments towards Hassan shows how much Pashtuns had influenced Amir. A Marxist, however, would say that Amir supported the dominant ideology thus keeping the bourgeoisie at the top.

Hassan’s inferior character is presented by the way he serves Amir, ‘While I ate and complained about homework, Hassan made my bed’, which implies that no matter how close they may be, Hassan remains the servant which he accepts and is content with, ‘I’d hear him singing to himself in the foyer as he ironed’. Also, Hassan addresses Amir as ‘Amir agha’ which highlights his respect to Amir. However, despite their divisions, when they are alone together they consider themselves equal, ‘”Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul”’, creating irony as they are both aspiring the same hopes and dreams but we know that it is unattainable.

Amir had great influences on him as a child; Baba was a brave person, generous to everyone, and should’ve influenced Amir to be the same. On the contrary, Amir was selfish and chose not to stand up for his friend, even when the situation desperately needs it. This is not because of how he grew up, of his environment. Amir’s genetics made him to be fearful and mean, as shown throughout the book. “I knew I was being cruel, like when I’d taunt him if he didn’t know some big word. But there was something fascinating - albeit in a sick way - about teasing Hassan.” (Hosseini 54). Even though Amir had great influences growing up, Hassan took the brunt of his attacks and neglect. Near the beginning of the book, Hassan is raped in the alleys running a kite for Amir. Going after Hassan, Amir finds Hassan while this is going on but does not stop the rapist or stand up for his friend. Instead, Amir ran away and proceeded to abandon Hassan emotionally after the event. Baba was a brave man and would’ve stood up for Hassan, regardless of the danger to him, but Amir was not influenced nearly as much by his positive environment rather than his negative cowardice, or

The Kite Runner, a novel written by Khaled Hosseini, focuses on Amir’s journey in life, both physically and emotionally. During Amir’s childhood Afghanistan became very unsafe. He and his father, Baba, fled from the city of Kabul to Pakistan and then made their way to America in hope of a better life for Amir. "For me, America was a place to bury my memories. For Baba, it was a place to mourn his." The need for Amir to "become good again" is embedded in the idea of a physical for redemption of his dignity.

As much as the book showed growth within Amir and how he realized his mistakes, he primarily disregards Hassan as a friend because he put Baba’s love in front of the relationship and always took into consideration his race and his social class. While Hosseini writes about Amir fulfilling his destiny and fixing his wrongdoings with Hassan, it brings up questions about how to treat each other: can you always fix mistakes later, or should you do the correct decision right