Literary Lenses: The Kite Runner displays the marxist lens through the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Amir struggles with defining the relationship between him and Hassan because of the divide in class. Amir is a Pashtun and Hassan is a Hazara, which means he is also a servant to Amir’s family. Pashtuns are the superior ethnic group, while Hazaras are the minority. They play like friends and have done things together since birth, but Amir is unable to define their relationship as a friendship because of what society is telling him about his interactions with such a person. This causes much of Amir’s inner turmoil. This divide is what ultimately tears their friendship apart. Amir seeks anger from Hassan, instead of his usual loyalty and following of his status, when they are under the pomegranate tree. …show more content…
Instead, Hassan smashes one on top of his head. Both characters struggle with breaking out of the cages their society has placed around them. Amir lashes out after witnessing Hassan’s rape because he is upset with himself. He did not try to help Hassan because of the divide between their social classes and the confusion and inner turmoil their relationship caused him. He tries to frame Hassan by placing money under his mattress, seeking a reaction from him. He wants Hassan to tell the truth and not conform to societal standards, but he does by saying he stole the money. Society’s view of social class and Amir’s relationship with Hassan are the root cause of many problems that appear in The Kite Runner. The two views clash, leaving Amir to struggle with what to do and who to
In “The Kite Runner,” the main character, Amir, is a Pashtun and his best friend Hassan, who is also one of his family’s servants, is a Hazara. Amir grew up very privileged due to his family being Pashtun. Hassan, however, grew up in a family of poor, lower class servants because they are Hazara. Because of the class system in Afghanistan, none of the characters in the book were able to choose or change their social class and instead were born into one which essentially predestined their future and how they were treated by others. Amir constantly took advantage of Hassan throughout the novel because of his social class and illiteracy, neither of which he had control over. Amir saw himself as superior to Hassan because Pashtuns were seen as superior to Hazaras. This belief led to the various different responses to the Taliban’s takeover of
Amir has several intrapersonal conflicts throughout The Kite Runner. Amir has mixed feelings in his relationship with Hassan, due to Hassan’s lesser social status as a Hazara. He likes Hassan because they get along very well and they know each other better than anyone else does. Assef points out the first social conflict when he asks Amir how he can call Hassan his friend and Amir thinks, “But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant!” (41). The response that Assef evoked from him highlights the inner dispute Amir has in his childhood. Hassan also played a role in Amir’s development since he always looked out for Amir. Amir did not need to stand up for himself because Hassan always did it for him such as when Assef was about to beat both of them up. This likely contributed to Amir’s cowardice throughout his life of not standing up for Hassan and leaving his problems behind him and choosing not to tell Soraya of his past earlier. In addition to his problems with Hassan, Baba’s unrealistic expectations of Amir challenges him greatly. From the time Amir was little, he always expressed less masculine traits. He did not enjoy watching soccer as most other boys would, and he enjoyed reading and learning from his mother’s old books. This created
It seems like everywhere, Amir, the protagonist, looks society seems into two parts. From his childhood in Kabul ,Afghanistan, to living in America, there has been an invisible border restricting two parties from establishing into one. The disparity between social classes is evident in The Kite Runner between Amir and Hassan. Amir is a Pashtun, with a higher status and his servant , Hassan, is a Hazara. Hazaras are looked down upon due to their differences in appearance and beliefs. They are racially and socially inferior. If there was a Hazara residing in Kabul, the rumour was that he was either a beggar, servant or even both. The dreadful social division between the two groups led to the Pashtuns gaining higher social rankings than the Hazaras and were able to receive
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,
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,
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
The Kite Runner is a powerful book contrasting selfishness and selflessness. The book follows the life of Amir, a character who experiences guilt and tragedy throughout his life. While growing up in Kabul, Amir witnesses the imperfect and prejudice society in his country. Within an imperfect society, there are many who are self-invested, and among those, there are those who are selfless. Characters Amir and Hassan possess selfish and selfless traits. The traits that these characters possess are influenced by fear, victimization, and loyalty, ultimately leading them to inaction and action.
Amir's internal conscience attacks him after he fails to stand up for Hassan and forces him to leave.
It is reasonably hard to watch this struggle as Amir’s desire to feel appreciated and loved becomes the most projecting thing to his attention, and as a consequence, he neglects other dealings. This is seen when Amir discovers Hassan being struck in an alley. Hassan was always admired by Baba. Hassan has a substantial role in the novel, he generates childlike behavior from Amir causing in emotions of distrust and weakness. Additionally Amir’s wariness is revealed in the phrase “even put his arm around his shoulder” highlighting
Amir is scared that he will get hurt and is willing to risk Hassan. He betrays his “friend,” because he does not want himself to be hurt, although Hassan constantly puts Amir before himself ensuring he is safe. The passage also relates to the social standards because Amir’s justification to not save Hassan is that he is just a Hazara. While the pomegranate tree is a symbol of their fallen friendship, Amir says:
In the novel The Kite Runner, the protagonist, Amir, is a young boy growing up in a well off family in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir’s closest friend is Hassan, the son of his family’s beloved servant. Amir’s self image at the beginning of the novel is one in which he views himself as a coward, worthless and selfish.
"From a young age, I was rubbing elbows with a very different kind of person and social class, and I felt a lot of tension and conflict in my identity because of that." David Lindsay-Abaire relates to Amir in this Kahled Hosseini novel, The Kite Runner, not only because of his identity crisis, but as well as not getting along with a different social class. Amir, as a young child in Afghanistan, is in the privileged class, thanks to his father, Baba for all his hard work. In Afghan the privileged class had servants, known as the working class. Amir and Baba's servants, Hassan and Ali, were close to them, like family. Except, as Amir and Hassan grew older numerous issues rose due to their different classes. The privileged narrator, Amir, blames
The kite runner explores the idea of social hierarchy and how is causes discrimination to those surrounded by it. Social hierarchy is organized through a social structure called the caste system that separates the different social classes. The caste system plays a very important role in the kite runner. The book illustrates how the discrimination of the Hazaras is accepted and practiced by the Pashtuns. Their differences have led to the Pashtuns being the majority group and the Hazaras as the minority group. This discrimination has become built into society and effects everyday life. As Pashtuns, Amir and Baba have the opportunities to receive an education and start their own business. While the Hazaras, Hassan and Ali, may only work as servants. This discrimination
Wayne Dyer, an American philosopher, once said, “Problems in relationships occur because each person is concentrating on what is missing in the other person.” This is the protagonist's main source of conflict in the book, the Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. Amir and Hassan appeared to have a brotherly friendship. Even though they grew up together, it was intriguing how Hassan develops a brotherly bond with Amir while Amir does not reciprocate the love. By concentrating on what is missing in Hassan, it causes Amir to become separated from the relationship because Amir values social class over his friendship with Hassan, and stems from his jealousy that comes from an idea that Baba favors Hassan.
The expression "riddled with guilt" is a good way to describe the main character's life, Amir, in the book The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner is a story about an Afghan boy, Amir, who has many hardships throughout his life as he grows from a boy living in war-torn Afghanistan, to a successful writer living in America. Amir experiences many events that caused him to carry a great amount of guilt throughout his life. So much guilt that it even turned him into an insomniac. He needed to find a way to make amends which would allow him to forgive himself and hopefully, one day, be able to sleep soundly again.