Kite Runner Analysis Essay

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,

(‘Hosseini 142’). “So, if I understand, you’ll study several years to earn a degree, then you’ll get a chatty job like mine, one you could just easily land today, on the small chance that your degree might someday help you get…discovered.” This shows how Baba has higher expectations from Amir and is really disappointed when he hears that Amir wants to peruse a career in

4. We begin to understand early in the novel that Amir is constantly vying for Baba's attention and often feels like an outsider in his father's life, as seen in the following passage: "He'd close the door, leave me to wonder why it was always grown-ups time with him. I'd sit by the door, knees drawn to my chest. Sometimes I sat there for an hour, sometimes two, listening to their laughter, their chatter." Discuss Amir's relationship with Baba.

The story starts out as Amir recalls an event that happened twenty-six years before, when he was growing up in Afghanistan, and this is what made him who he is today. Before the event, he lives in a decent home in Kabul, Afghanistan with his father named Baba. Ali and his son, Hassan, are servants of Amir and Baba, and are also an ethnic minority.

Amir thought, “I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan – the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past…. Or I could run. In the end, I ran.” (Hosseini, 82) It was this conflict that changed the lives of all the characters. This was Amir’s, “final opportunity to decide who [he] was going to be.” (Hosseini, 82) As a result, He spent his adolescence ‘running’ away from his mistakes, because everywhere he looked “Kabul had become a city of ghosts…A city of harelipped ghosts.” (Hosseini, 144) To Amir, Hassan was haunting his memories. Amir couldn’t stand it so Baba and Amir moved to America. “For [Amir], America was a place to bury [his] memories.” (Hosseini, 136) In contrast to Kogawa’s novel, Amir’s actions resulted to the change of his life and the lives of people around him. Rahim Khan, a family friend, calls Amir in his adulthood asking him to come to Pakistan. Rahim Khan urges Amir, “There is a way to be good again.” (Hosseini, 2)

Amirs father, Baba, is a strong man very set in his ways. He represents the independent culture of old Afghanistan. He instills his ideals of masculinity on Amir, and believes he should be stronger, more sports oriented, and able to stand up for himself. “Of

After the betrayal of Hassan, Amir feels ashamed of himself. He feels all of the guilt and does not know how to become good again. He feels this guilt for the majority of his life, even in America. Subsequently Amir and Baba moved to America, Amir meets a girl. He always finds excuses to go see her and finally decides that he wants to marry her. So Baba went to go ask her father for permission and he said yes. Shortly after receiving this news, Amir talks with Soraya, his wife, and she does something that Amir has wanted to do for quite a while, she tells him her secret. Amir “envied her. Her secret was out, spoken, dealt with. [he] opened [his] mouth and almost told her how [he’d] betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out, and destroyed a 40 year

In the same moment, he discovers that Hassan was brutally murdered by the Taliban and that he had left orphaned child named Sohrab in his wake. In an attempt to right his past cowardice, Amir decides “(He) would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab” (255). Through this decision, Amir is allowed the growth he wasn’t able to achieve under Baba’s influence; as an adult responsible for his own choices, he doesn’t run away like when he watched Hassan’s rape in the ally. Instead, he learns of responsibility and selflessness as he risks traveling through a war-torn country to find a boy he has never met. His new resolve shows a tremendous change in his once cowardly personality - change that is dependent on his independence from his father.

Baba did something nobody in that truck would have done. Amir realizes the courage that Baba had in the truck was the courage he was missing when he could have stood up for Hassan. Amir for several years, even after he moves to America always recalls this memory in his past and he will never forget the sin he created when he left that alleyway. An opportunity comes for everyone to fix what they have done wrong and that chance has come for Amir as he gets a special phone call from

Amir and Baba eventually leave Afghanistan as well, forced out by the Russian invasion of their beloved country. Everything he does at this point proves that he truly loves Amir; he sacrifices his wealth, business, and life to bring Amir to the safety of the United States. In response to this new country, filled with new people and languages, Amir and Baba’s relationship drastically transforms. Before, Baba was all powerful and knowledgeable, but now, Amir guides his father in the American way. Nowhere is this more evident than when Baba vandalizes the Nguyen’s store after they ask

This is just the beginnings of his guilt. We leave Amirs childhood memories and return to the summer of 2001, where Amir and Baba, Amir's father, have moved to America (191). Amir

Keeping this lie from Amir has had taken a toll on Baba. Baba distances himself even more from Amir because he does not know how to act in front of him. Baba and Amir ended up moving to America when things started to get pretty bad with their government, it was not safe anymore for them to live their. They ended up in someone's truck, and they tried to escape because the Soviets had invaded Kabul and it has become a war zone. They eventually made it to Pakistan, than about two years later move to Fremont, California. Baba got a job at a gas station, and Amir goes on to finish high school and then goes to college. Baba and Amir were at a flea market, and Baba sees an old friend, General Taheri. Amir catches sight of General Taheri’s daughter. Amir finally gets the chance to speak to Soraya but General Taheri turns down the

They have lived there for two years, and Baba works at a gas station. They have difficulties adjusting to the life in the U.S. Baba gets angry when the manager asked for his ID when he tried to pay with a check, and says that in Afghanistan everyone trusts each other. Amir asks Baba if they should move back to Pakistan, but Baba says they are in the United States for Amir to finish high school and go to college. The night Amir graduated, Baba takes him out for a big dinner and give him an old Ford Grand Torino as a gift.

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.

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