Arjie’s Journey in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy Essay example

The novel centers on the theme of social class, a key factor that separates the world of Amir from Hassan and tries to hinder their true friendship from blossoming. As what caste system suggests, those who are under the dominant and powerful party must adhere to rendering service to those in the upper class. True enough, in the novel, Hassan respects and admires upper-class Amir amid neighborhood bullies and intimidation which make them stick together through any hindrance. It is in their friendship that the concept of caste system is explicated.

Amir’s mother, Sofia, dies in childbirth; Amir inherits her love of literature and probably her looks to some extent, but, her being dead, never receives any motherly love or guidance, which could have helped him out of the cowardly hole he later digs himself into. Amir’s father’s best friend and business partner, Rahim Khan, tries to give Amir the motherly love he clearly needs, fostering Amir’s love of writing and steadfastly standing up for him when Amir’s father, Baba, criticizes him, but Rahim Khan does not do enough to instill honesty, courage, and strength of conviction in young Amir. Amir’s best friend, Hassan, a servant a year younger than Amir, is everything Amir is not: athletic, brave, loyal, honest, and kind, inciting jealousy in Amir. Assef, a local bully, poses a real threat to Amir, hating Amir for the crime of befriending a Hazara (oppressed ethnic minority), but Amir is protected by Hassan, allowing young Amir to freeze and not stand up for himself in Assef’s presence. Last, but most importantly, is Amir’s father, Baba, and his views on Amir: he blames Amir for Sofia’s death,

A man is insensible to appreciate prosperity until he has tasted adversity. Adverse situations shape an individual’s identity and play a significant role in one’s life by shaping personal values, determining one’s own potential and self worth. Khaled Hosseini conveys how hardships shape individuals identities through the characters of Amir, Baba, Hassan and Ali in his novel The Kite Runner. Like every individual they go through a series of incidents and hardships that shape who they become and how well they deal with struggles in

In the book the Kite Runner by Hosseini, the main character, Amir, grows up in Afghanistan, and the strong culture affects his moral character while he lives their and after he moves away. He is unable to fit in with the cultural expectations his father puts on him, the religious racism divides him and his half brother Hassan, and the traditional family values cause tension between him and his wife, this all leads back to the theme of Amirs struggle to fulfill his ideals of masculinity.

Amir’s misadventures begin as a boy living in an affluent Afghanistan world. On the day of his birth, his mother hemorrhages to death. Robbed of any feminine influence or comfort, he goes to his overshadowing Baba for love and acceptance. His father denies his only son the tenderness he desires, leading Amir to believe his father despises him. After all, Amir’s

Shyam Selvadurai’s Pigs can’t fly is the story of a young boy who is torn by reality and his family’s efforts to suppress his true sexuality. His internal conflict eventually leads him to self destruction, when his beloved sari is torn into pieces. Because of the gender social norms of his family, he is forced to transition form the beautiful, loving world of the girls to the harsh, unforgiving world of the boys. In Shyam Selvadurai’s Pigs can’t fly, the gender social norms imposed upon Arjie causes turmoil within him, and ultimately destroys him morally. His turmoil is caused by his mother’s rejection of him, his cousin Her Fatness’s weakening of his influence amongst the girls, his feelings of not belonging with the boys, and his forced

The novel begins in Afghanistan, the home country of Amir, a Pashtun boy. Growing up in a beautiful house in the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, Afghanistan, Amir lives a lavish life. Unlike other Afghan boys, Amir has a privileged life as his father Baba is a wealthy and well-respected business man that does his best to provide the best life for his son. In Afghanistan, the ideal stereotypical boy considered of becoming a good man is one who plays sports and is of a stronger build. Amir, on the other hand, is a thinned-framed intelligent boy that loves reading and writing stories over playing sports. “But I was pathetic, a blundering liability to my own team, always in the way of an opportune pass or unwittingly blocking an open lane. I shambled about the field on scraggly legs, squalled for passes that never came my way. And the harder I tried, waving my arms over my head frantically and screeching, "I'm open! I'm open!" the more I went

Amir was a son of a reputed father and he gets to attain school and he gets to learn and experienced many things. For example, he gets to participate in the poetry recitation where he is much interested in and sports although it wasn’t his choice. Whereas, Hassan as a servant stayed home to do the household work. Hassan made Amir’s breakfast, cleaned his room and did all the household chores while Amie goes to school. Though Hassan desires to get the education but there wasn’t a chance given to him as a servant. Therefore, despite illiteracy he would passionately listen to what Amir would read for him. Additionally, Amir grows up as young child who longs for his father’s love and approval. He lives with inexplicable jealousy of Hassan. Whereas, Hassan grows up as a young child serving under Amir and respecting Amir’s order. Hassan is cheerful, loyal and loving. He always attempt to please and serve Amir. Moreover, Hassan wasn’t privileged like Amir as he had to undergo insult and defamation by other people around

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a remarkable coming-of-age novel describing and revealing the thoughts and actions of Amir, a compunctious adult in the United States and his memories of his affluent childhood in the unstable political environment of Afghanistan. The novel showcases the simplistic yet powerful ability of guilt to influence decisions and cause conflict which arises between Amir’s childhood friend and half-brother, Hassan; Amir’s father, Baba; and importantly, himself. Difference in class The quest to become “good again” causes a reflection in Amir to atone for his sins and transform into the person of which he chooses to be.

To impress one’s parents in any culture much less the Afghan culture may be one of the biggest most proud moments of child’s life. Such is true when the boys win the kite running competition. Amir wants nothing more than to impress his father and keep the family name alive and strong. He feels as if this was a way to redeem himself to his father. The importance of family in this situation stands out and demonstrates how much the Afghan culture bases itself on family. It is obvious that Amir believes that nothing is more important than his family. This value of family being first, which he learned at a very young age, and making them the most important figures in one’s life carries with Amir throughout his whole life. He never forgets where his roots are and why they are there. Family was of importance to Amir at a young age and he carried that mentality with him throughout his entire life. The mentality that family comes first does not only apply to

Here in this essay I will discuss the complex relationship between father and son to demonstrate the need for a father figure in the novel "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. The relationship between a parent and a child is a precious and haunted bond, but is not always a love relationship, but a relationship is full of pain and longing. The relationships clearly demonstrate this need for a father figure are those between Baba and Amir, and Amir and Sohrab.

Over the following four years, Marji learned of how her grandparents were left poor because of the Shah, the leader of the Iranian government. Shah was well known for robing men and women of everything they had worked for and leaving them with nothing. Nevertheless, Marji was schooled on the different levels of society in Iran, which left her to consider her family as rich because her Dad drove a Cadillac. Despite being a child, Marji accused her dad of being anti-social towards a class that could not read and write. To clarify Marji helped out a friend with the writing of some love letters. Mehi was the family maid that could not read or write. Mehi fell in love with the boy

( p. 46, Shyam Selvadurai) This quote demonstrates a change in Arjie’s perception. Moreover, the fact that Selvadurai implicates this quote at the beginning of the chapter is symbolic. He does this to symbolize a change in Arjie through the physical appearance of a supporting character. Furthermore, Arjie is caught off guard which depicts how fictional his thoughts on reality are. During the conclusion of the chapter Arjie’s perception of love and beauty is revolutionized through the “love life” of his Aunt. Arjie goes on to say “…I felt no pleasure, for I knew that, although everything would happen in the way I had dreamed there would be something missing. … I thought of the love-comics and how fervently believed in them, believed that if two people loved each other everything was possible. Now, I knew this was not so.”(pp.99-100, Shyam Selvadurai) This clearly indicates a change in perception in the young boys mind and this would be one of the first steps in the transcendence of Arjie’s character. Selvadurai effectively uses Radha Auntie and many other supporting characters throughout the novel in order to aid the main character evolve. Similar to Arjie, Marjie from Persepolis depicts evolution through the aid of supporting characters. In this novel, Satrappi uses many characters to evolve Marjie’s understanding of the world. For example, at the beginning of the novel, Marjie is introduced to her uncle Anoosh. He is branded as a communist under the Shaw’s

Through the portrayal of a society where politics are ethnic-based, masculinity being amplified is only one of the few thematic ideas that are present, others include the atonement of sins, resentment, immigration, expectations in a father-son relationship and barriers between different classes or castings. Concentrating primarily on subject of immigration, another significant parallel is present. In a biography of author Khaled Hosseini, Great Neck Publishing discusses Hosseini’s life, “The family subsisted on welfare during their first year in the country, with Hosseini 's father working at a flea market for extra income before finding a job as a driving instructor”. Relating back to the revelation of multiple themes, Hosseini depicts the struggles immigrants face while adapting to a new culture and environment of an unknown abode in The Kite Runner, similarly as he did himself, through Amir and Baba’s life abroad in America. Although Baba was a well reputed man back in his homeland, he too struggled, like Hosseini’s father, to being financially stable, which is evident through his job at the flea market, ultimately representing how they had to start over. Hosseini conveys the struggles of his characters in a fictitious text as a portrayal of his real life experiences which quite pointedly makes the novel more influential for readers to grasp onto the events that take place around the world thereby acknowledging the minorities, such as the

Each of these characters are developing individually to reject and grow away from family one reluctantly as a crying child (Anil) driven away from his family by the witnessing of a crime and the other an unnamed man from Scotland who converts to Islam by choice and then falls in love with a Sudanese waitress. In Anil the child is