Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Essay

Baba always seemed to be ashamed to have Amir as a son and appeared to be a lot more proud of Hassan, who was just a servant. At a young age, Amir starts to believe his father blames him for his mother's death. Amir admires Baba, he craves Baba's attention even though Baba seems much more interested in Hassan. All these tensions come to a breaking point during the kite-fighting tournament. Amir sees the tournament as a way to finally win Baba's love.

Baba spends little time with Amir and is embarrassed of him when he will not stand up for himself. Amir's father struggles to connect with Amir because their interests are different Baba does not understand Amir's love from writing and disinterest for soccer. Most of the time Baba seems untouchable and distant, closed off in his room leaving Amir alone. Ali is the opposite when it comes to affection towards Hassan. Everyday Ali and Hassan are doing chores together, talking to one another and sleeping in the same room together. Hassan's father, Ali, takes a partial fatherly role to Amir as well by telling him stories and taking care of him. By being there as a supportive and nurturing father Hassan trusted Ali enough to tell him about the rape where as Amir gets nervous just by being in Baba's presence. Ali shows that even as a servant, he is a caring, understanding and most importantly a better role model for Amir and Hassan to follow.

French philosopher Michel Foucault once said “If repression has indeed been the fundamental link between power, knowledge, and sexuality since the classical age, it stands to reason that we will not be able to free ourselves from it except at a considerable cost,”. This quotation is saying that repression is the reason why people are not free to express themselves and explore new things. According to Foucault, the only way to be free involves consequences. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson discusses the consequences of repression through his characters Jekyll and Hyde. In this story, Jekyll attempts to live the suffocating expectations of Victorian society, but he ultimately creates an alter ego in order to deal with his suffering. This alter ego, Hyde, was created at a “considerable cost” to Jekyll.

Life would be an easy journey without guilt or consequences, wouldn’t it? The lure of a guiltless conscience entices Jekyll because day in and day out Jekyll walks the chalk of a morally good human but the monotony of his daily activities bores him. This thrilling lifestyle pushes him to the create his potion and thus Hyde. Dr. Jekyll is “pushing the envelope” in the science field, separating man’s two natures, and finally walking off the chalk line without the consequences.

Although Baba was a good man he was not perfect, due to breaking his own rule of stealing. Baba lived a life of hypocrisy. When Baba lied to Amir about Hassan being his son it broke his number one rule. When Baba stole Amir’s right to the truth, he became a sinner. As Baba lived his life in sin, he stayed resilient and kind. After his health began to fail, he felt regret that he never told Amir this story. However, because he had to learn about the truth from an outsider, Amir never could truly forgive his father. Although Amir did not have similar traits as his father, they were still very similar because they both kept things to themselves. After the incident with Hassan, Amir felt shame and guilt and kept the truth from everyone just as Baba had done. Due to this secret it hindered Amir from true happiness for many years. In order to seek closure, he needed to revert back to his father’s teachings. When Rahim Khan called, it opened the door to his recovery. Rahim Khan stated “There is a way to be good again, he said. A way to end the cycle. With a little boy. An orphan. Hassan’s son. Somewhere in Kabul” (227). With this, Amir was able to end the cycles of lies and sins. Throughout Baba’s life he constantly complained about Amir’s inability to be like him and learn to

Within any person’s life, he or she will face firsthand struggles mentally of guilt. Therefore, they want to redeem themselves of their actions. In The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hossieni, the theme of redemption is evident through Amir’s actions. Amir craves the affection and attention of his father, Baba, which he rarely gets. His mother died after he was born, and he thinks that his father’s affection is lessened because he thinks it is his fault. In the process of obtaining Baba’s affections, Amir did not realize that his actions would hurt his friend, Hassan.

A main theme in the novel, The Kite Runner, written by by Khaled Hosseini, is that of redemption. As the novel is read and the plot is unfolded, the main character in the novel Amir starts to look for redemption of his sins from his dark past. Khaled Hosseini analyzes The Kite Runner by using different ways to show how Amir seeks redemption for his past and the sins he has made, and how Smir seeks for that redemption as the plot goes on. Hosseini shows this throughout the novel by making references to a mental image of a lamb that is a recurring to Amir, a scar right above Amir’s lip, and the blue kite. Amir’s father demonstrates a good sense of leadership and traits of a good, well-rounded man.

For example, Baba feels love towards both Amir and Hassan -even though Hassan is not his son. Moreover, Amir feels fatherly love and connection towards Shorab, even though he is not his son. The desire to father someone comes from more than just being related to someone -is comes from the desire to protect the weak and provide them with safety. Beyond this, another way in which the father figure has a moral responsibility towards his son is to show him how to behave; in essence be a moral compass. It can be argued that Amir's relationship with his father, though strained at times, is ultimately one where Amir totally adores and respects his father.

Yet, there are certain points in the novel where Baba provides his perspective on life to Amir, demonstrating compassionate, father-like qualities. This is highlighted when Baba states “There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft… When you kill a man, you steal a life…You steal his wife’s right to her husband, his children’s right to a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth (19-20). Baba educates Amir about the principles in which he values you to be true about sins. Yet, this is ironic because Baba proves to be a thief himself, which expresses more instances of alienation in Amir’s childhood existence. Baba shows to be hypocritical when he deprives Amir the right to have a father figure. This drives the conflict of the novel. He gives the impression how it is a sin to steal the right to someone. Although not recognizable at first, he clearly goes against his beliefs when analyzed. His disloyalty adds on to alienating Amir. This is because later on in the novel, Amir himself comprehends that Baba was truly a thief. This is expressed when Amir notes, “And now, fifteen years after I'd buried him, I was learning that Baba had been a thief. And a thief of the worst kind, because the things he'd stolen had been sacred” (225).

Connection is one of the most basic human needs that people require in order to live content and prosperous lives. It may not seem as vital in comparison to other primal needs such as sustenance or shelter, but it is absolutely essential in order to find the path to hope and happiness. In Khaled Hosseini’s book The Kite Runner, the author weaved a stirring tale of loyalty and betrayal, of how the bonds that bind could also easily be severed when one submits to fear and cowardice. The majority of this enthralling novel was focused on the main character Amir and his struggle to rein in the guilt he experienced after allowing his best friend Hassan to be raped. The book also revolved around Amir’s strained father-son relationship with Baba, his passion for writing which was only ever encouraged by Baba’s best friend, Rahim Khan and the gripping account of how he eventually ended up finding redemption for his past transgressions by saving the life of Sohrab, Hassan’s son. Throughout his life, Amir was heavily influenced by his relationships with Baba, Rahim Khan, Sohrab and Hassan, who all for better or worse, had a significant impact on the person he grew up to be.

When Amir is a child, he feels his father blames him for his mother’s death and cannot love him. He does everything he

But that is not why Baba was treating Amir like that at all, Baba was mad at himself because he was hiding a secret he should of told Amir a long time ago. A year after Amir was born and his mother died Baba had sexual contact with a different female but the thing is the female was a Hazara women and she was Baba’s adopted brother/servants wife and she ended up pregnant with a baby boy named Hassan. Everybody in that house knew except the two people that needed to know the most and that was Hassan and Amir, having that secret bundled up for all those years caused that family hell. Amir grew up thinking his father didn’t love him and that he treated him and Hassan totally different but Amir never knew why.

Betrayal resulting in guilty emotions is emphasized when Amir shows signs of betrayal to Hassan. It is shown that Amir betrays Hassan when Amir doesn’t save Hassan from being raped by Assef. When Amir says “I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.” (Hosseini, 1), it is implied that Amir lets his guilt of betraying Hassan define who he is, and this guilt weighed Amir down in his life. In addition, when Amir witnesses Hassan being raped, Hosseini uses personification when he makes Amir say “The wind shrieks, blows stinging sheets of snow into my eyes.” (74). This describes Amir’s feelings of being lost while Hassan is being raped. Amir doesn’t want to hear what he is hearing, and he does not want to see what he is seeing. Also, Hosseini uses a metaphor by making Amir say “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. Was it at a fair price?” (Hosseini, 77), and from this, it is implied that by comparing Hassan to a lamb, Amir is having an

When Amir and Baba, his father, depart and live in California to escape the Soviet war, they leave Hassan and his own father to a terrible life. But years later, Rahim Khan, an old family friend calls Amir from Pakistan, and Amir go back to

He asks him if Amir is able to come back to Afghanistan to right his wrongs. It is the need for redemption that finally draws him back to Taliban-governed Afghanistan, after many years of safe life in California. Amir is very fond of Rahim Khan. Rahim Khan then tells him about everything that has happened the past few years. Rahim spills the truth after all those decades. Hassan is a half brother of Amir. Ali turned out to be infertile and his wife becomes pregnant from Baba. Amir never understood Baba's affection for Hassand but all the missing piece start falling together after hearing this long-kept secret. Shortly after the departure of Amir and his father, Hassan and his father came back to Amir’s house. They become servants of Rahim Khan. Hassan married a Hazara girl and a little boy named Sohrab was born. Due to the discrimination against ethnic minorities like the Hazarat, Hassan and his wife were shot in front of their son. Sohrab was taken to an orphanage where he was locked up.