Comparison Between Great Expectations And The Kite Runner

In both The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, literacy and education play a key role. The education of a man gives him power, and can determine his stature or influence in the community. Literacy gives a man an insight to knowledge that can be important. By developing characters with different levels of education, Khaled Hosseini and Harper Lee develop and strengthen the idea that literacy and education are dangerous tools, and can make the difference between life and death. Khaled Hosseini and Harper Lee depict literacy as both helpful and harmful. They also show how being uneducated leads to being taken advantage of. Using these ideas they strengthen the idea of educating and literacy being

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,

Hassan is a victim of discrimination, bigotry, and class structure in Afghan society. Hassan and Ali are members of the Hazaras, a minority group of Afghanis. Amir and his father are Pashtuns, the majority, who believes they are a better class than the Hazara. Religion was all that separated Amir and Hassan, as did tribe and class. Amir learned from his father that the Harara tribe to which Ali and Hassan belonged, were inferior people. Because of this bigotry and basic class structure, Hazaras are often victims of physical, emotional and psychological abuse. Thus when a crisis comes and Hassan is being attack, Amir not only doesn't come to Hassan's aid, but also allows him to be brutally abused. Morality lacks because of this class structure, which allows people to be treated as second-class citizens. Considerations towards morality and religion helps the reader to broaden there understanding of the novel and it would be impossible to appreciated the book lacking them.

Amir felt this way because in the end he was a Pashtun and Hassan was a Hazzara. When guests would come over to play with Amir he would Exclude Hassan. Amir would only play with Hassan when no one else was around.

Best friends typically have loyalty that comes with the friendship, and Hassan was all about the loyalty, whereas Amir had trouble giving Hassan what he deserves. For instance, after Amir had won the kite race, Hassan had caught his kite to then be met by a bully, Assef, and his friends in an alley way. Amir is a bystander to what would be the raping of Hassan and Amir tells it as “I could step in to that alley, stand up for Hassan-the way he’d stood up for me…” to then finish with, “In the end, I ran.” (Hosseini 77). Amir immediately regrets his self-proclaimed cowardly decision. As Amir grows older, the circle of life catches up to him and he has the opportunity to stand up for Hassan’s son, Sohrab, against Assef. Revisiting the experience, he had of standing up for Sohrab, he admits “That was the first time I’d fought anyone.” (Hosseini 288). Amir is aware that he messed up with his opportunities with Hassan, in turn he ironically is the first to stand up for Sohrab who was up against the same person that troubles Hassan.

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Amir was the son of a wealthy social worker. He was brought up with the son of his servant, and perhaps his only best friend, Hassan. Amir had a rocky relation with his father. At times, it seemed as his father loved him but those moments didn’t lasted forever. He thinks Baba (his father) wishes Amir were more like him, and that Baba holds him responsible for killing his mother, who died during his birth. Despite being best friends, Amir thinks that Hassan is beneath him because he belonged to an inferior cast. He used to mock him jokingly or tried to outsmart him. In all fairness, it was Amir’s cowardly nature that

When Amir was looking for Hassan after the kite flying contest he is talking to someone asking if they had seen him. He refers to Hassan as “our servant’s son” (69). He and Hassan are best friends at home through their entire childhoods. Despite this, he still does not even refer to him as a friend to society; to the people around him Hassan is just his servant. Then later in the novel after he has witnessed Hassan getting raped, he does not want Hassan to be living with them anymore. He asks Baba “have you ever thought about getting new servants?” (89). He tries to exile his best friend for no reason at all even though they have been through everything together. This is the foundation of Amir showing this theme of exile towards Hassan, and it only gets worse. Hassan begins to notice what Amir is doing and tells him “I don’t know what i’ve done, Amir agah I wish you’d tell me. I don’t know why we don’t play anymore” (88). He ignores Hassan and shuts him out into exile even though all he has done is be loyal to Amir. Soon after Amir wants to completely exile Hassan and get him out of his home for good. Amir decides to frame him so he “lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted [his] new watch and handful of Afghani bills under it” (104). Amir lets Hassan take the blame for this act completely and exiles him out of his life forever. Hassan even writes to him but Amir does not respond. Amir exiles Hassan and shows the theme of exile through his actions toward Hassan throughout the

First, the reader must understand just what makes a good "war story". The protagonist of the novel, Tim O'Brien, gives us his

Within these two novels, there are many psychological and moral journeys which parallel numerous physical journeys in the lives of the protagonists. In ‘Jane Eyre’ the main purpose is to search for identity, and Jane begins this by leaving Gateshead to escape the Reed family to further her prospects. In contrast, ‘The Kite Runner’s protagonist’s main purpose is to search for redemption due to his guilt and melancholy over mistreating his servant Hassan as well as feeling blamed for his mother’s death by his father, Baba- Baba himself undergoes a journey to self-knowledge whereas Mrs Reed in ‘Jane Eyre’ experiences no guilt. The moral journeys of both figures are associated with Religion which can either allow or restrict you from being able

Amir and Hassan both love each other in the book, “The Kite Runner”, even though they have two different personalities and physical characteristics. Amir is not athletic, nor does he possess the physical characteristics of his half brother, Hassan. Amir loves reading the Koran to Hassan and writing his own stories. On the other hand, Hassan is very athletic and is a servant to Amir and Baba. Hassan is illiterate during his childhood because he was never taught how to read or write, eventually that changes during his adulthood, when he writes a letter to Amir. Amir is a Pashtun or Sunni Muslim,

Hosseini shows that it is Amirs immense guilt that drives him to want to make things right and to earn redemption. We learn the basis Amir's guilt through his memories. It is caused by a lack of response at a time when his loyal servant and close friend Hassan is in trouble. Amir makes a conscious decision to hide in the distance and just watch, not because he was afraid. He sacrifices Hassan in order to earn his fathers attention and affection. This decision results in Hassan suffering though a traumatic experience and is the root of Amir's lasting regret.

Truly talented writers critique societies foolish actions whilst warning them of their impending future. However, few manage to genuinely depict the origin of these foolish acts. George Orwell’s 1984 and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner critique both political and social oppression to demonstrate that blind loyalty and the surrendering of free will is the demise of modern society.

Many authors often use two contrasting places, such as two different countries, to emphasize the differences in ideas and reinforce opposed forces that are central to the work. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, two countries that are seen as two polar opposites, Afghanistan and America, are brought together to reinforce two completely different lifestyles for a boy named Amir. Growing up in a country known as a land of terrorists and war changed him as he moved to America, known as the land of opportunity and freedom.

From reading chapters one to four, one of the main aspects of Amir and Hassan’s relationship is the sense of control Amir has over Hassan. It becomes apparent that Amir is the one with the most authority in their friendship when he ‘talked’ Hassan into firing walnuts at the neighbour’s one-eyed German shepherd, ‘Hassan never wanted to, but if I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me’. This highlights the way Hassan looks up to Amir and obeys him due to their religious, cultural and social differences, ‘I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a’. Nevertheless, Amir does express his sensitive side towards Hassan and feels protective over him, especially when he can see he’s upset, ‘I reached across my seat, slung my

Throughout the novel, Amir endeavors to be approved by his father, Baba, who is admired by people in Kabul. Unfortunately, Baba believes that Amir, unlike him, is very unmanly “and [that he] never fights back. He just... drops his head ” (Hosseini 24). Since Baba wishes for a son who would stand up for himself, he can’t help but observe that Amir’s friend Hassan, as the guy who “steps in and fends the [bullies] off” (Hosseini 24) is his idea of the ideal son. Though aware of his father’s expectations, Amir is unable to change himself and instead envies Hassan and the fact that Baba treats him like his own son by“[patting]Hassan on the back. [and even putting] his arm around his shoulder [like a fatherly figure]”(Hosseini 15). Despite the manifestation of this hatred in Amir, he continues to recognize the bond that he shares with Hassan, “ brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast” (Hosseini 11) which is because both their mothers died during birth. The confusing emotions he feels for Hassan has Amir face a situation in which he acts inappropriately and allows the guilt to manifest upon him. After winning a very important kite tournament for the first time and “seeing Baba on that roof, proud of [him] at last” (Hosseini 71) Amir begins to search for Hassan who had gone to run his kite earlier. Finally, Amir finds him in a dark alley and as he “peeks around the corner” (Hosseini 75) he witnesses a sight that eradicated not only his relationship with Hassan but also Baba’s brotherly relationship with Ali, Hassan’s father. Peeking through the corner of the alley, like a bystander, he watches his one and only friend getting raped. The guilt that came upon him was for two reason; one, his lack of courage to stand up to