Secrets In The Kite Runner

After losing his wife while she was in labor, he was burdened until the end of his life. Even his own son could not bring him joy due to the fact that he was not athletic nor could he stick up for himself. He as well as society looked down upon Amir for his lack of manliness. Baba was constantly dealing with his own self conscience yet did good deeds to cover them up and hide them from society so they also would not see how broken he was. He later on died with cancer but was happy for his son. He did not feel dishonored, he was proud of Amir. Like Rahim Khan said “ Children are not coloring books. You can’t fill them with your favorite colors.” This really spoke to Baba before his passing and made him realize that Amir was doing what he wanted to do, taking his own path. Baba found peace in himself with his son and therefore died with no regrets. Some parents passed with grief for their

Although Amir thinks his father, Baba, is angry at him for not living up to his family’s beliefs, Baba does not hate Amir. Baba just wants Amir to be a proud man, so Baba can relate to him and further extend their relationship, but Amir does not live up to his father’s specific expectations. When Baba sees that Amir is not growing up like he did he becomes disappointed in Amir. Baba does not agree with Amir’s love and passion for reading poetry and writing stories, because he believes it shows a lack of courage and this does help their relationship. Amir simply wants to make his father happy and try and live in his footsteps. In the book I believe this relationship is part of the reason why Amir didn’t help Hassan when he was being raped, because he wanted to please his father with the victory kite of the contest. If he were to help Hassan the kite would be taken by Assef, but in actual fact I believe Baba would be happier if he stood up for his friend rather than winning the tournament. Amir could have also left Hassan because he is jealous of his father and Hassan friendship.

The world does not have to know your business, some things are better left unsaid. Every person has their secret, sometimes these secrets come out. At other times, they are taken to the grave. Secrecy has a great effect on the plot of a story, one of such stories is “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. Amir finds out years after his father dies that he has a half-brother, who is none other than his childhood friend, his Hazara servant, Hassan. The story takes a major turn once this secret is revealed. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel “The Kite Runner,” the secret that Amir and Hassan are brothers is hidden from not just them, but from all of Afghanistan by Baba, Ali, and Rahim Khan, to protect Baba’s honor and Ali’s pride.

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,

In Amir's desperate attempt to get out from under feelings of crushing guilt, he planted his birthday present of a watch and some money under Hassan's mattress and told Baba. "I knocked on Baba's door and told what I hoped would be the last in a long line of shameful lies." (pg.104) But when Hassan replied "yes" to stealing, Amir "flinched, like I'd been slapped. My heart sank and I almost blurted out the truth. Then I understood: This was Hassan's final sacrifice for me." (pg. 105) Amir said he loved Hassan in that moment, more than he ever loved anyone but he didn't tell the truth. He remained silent hoping that the stealing would get them fired and he could "move on, forget, start with a clean slate...be able to breathe again." (pg. 106) However, Baba forgave Hassan for stealing, to Amir's complete shock, but Ali insisted they leave anyway and that broke Baba's heart.

Throughout the book deception is the driving force because it makes one of the major plot points of the story, Amir and Hassan are brothers. Without the use of deception Baba could not have lied to Amir, and Baba might have not been as successful as he was in the book. People might of seen him as untrustworthy so that would've hurt his career of being an businessman. He had to protect his integrity and so he deceives Amir and Hassan. Another example is when Amir witnesses what happens to Hassan and does nothing about it, he ruins his and Hassan’s relationship. He could not tell anyone or he would of been seen as

In the novel, by Khaled Hosseini, the reader learns that both Amir and Baba have betrayed the people closest to them: Amir betrayed Hassan and Baba betrayed Ali. Both characters felt guilt and shame after their actions; consequently, they wished they could redeem themselves from their behavior. The author of the article, The Difference Between Guilt and Shame, explains that “guilt

Baba is a giving man; he will try to help friends and poor beggars. Baba’s guilt comes from the fact that he cannot show the same affection to Hassan that he shows Amir. He cannot be a father to Hassan because of the affair he had with Sanubar, she is a Hazara making Hassan a Hazara. If others knew of Baba’s affair then it would ruin his reputation. As said in Rahim Khan’s letter to Amir: “But your father was a man torn between two halves, Amir jan: you and Hassan. He loved you both, but he could not love Hassan the way he longed to, openly, and as a father” (Housseini 301). The inevitable fact that Baba

Baba never really confronted his mistakes, yet he seemed to live a fairly full and whole life. Amir and his father, Baba have a very distant relationship, they seem to be two very different people. “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?”(Pg. 18) In this quote Amir talks about his relationship with his father and how difficult it is. Although, he doesn’t know that the distance between them was because of Hassan, not the death of

Firstly, this event displays irony as Baba hid this from him even though he saw lying as a sin, as stealing someone’s right to know the truth. This event furthermore shows irony as Amir never saw Hassan as a brother, barely as a friend. Amir’s thoughts mostly display this as he thinks to himself during Hassan’s rape, “he was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” Amir treating Hassan as a Hazara and servant affects how their relation develops, as he takes advantage of him, whilst Hassan remains a loyal ‘friend’. Amir treating Hassan as nothing more than a Hazara reinforces the guilt he has, the guilt of treating his brother as a servant. Hassan's death puts further emphasis on his guilt because Amir can never live a brotherhood with Hassan. The knowledge of his hidden brotherhood, affects Amir’s decision to go find Sohrab, as he feels the need to rescue his nephew in order to revendicate himself for Hassan. It furthermore affects Amir and Sohrab’s relationship, as Amir starts to treat him in a fraternal manner, displaying his conversion into Hassan, therefore becoming more loyal and

Secrets are things that are suppose to be kept hidden from society. While some may hide them well, they not only take a toll on the person holding them, but the people around them too. In the book Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir has his life turned upside down when one of the biggest secrets in the book get out. As we look at Freud’s Theory, it is clear that people in this book keep secrets because of their egos. While many characters are affected by these secrets, if shows the most through Amir. He has to live with the guilt from past decisions and feels the need to redeem himself throughout the book.

Or I could run. In the end, I ran”(Pg.77, Hosseini). Amir never stood up for Hassan like a brother would do for another brother. If he only knew they had a close relation maybe he could have saved Hassan instead of thinking he’s just a Hazara. Because of Baba’s past he also never really opened up to people, and that really hurt the father-son relationship Amir was longing for.

Amir had great influences on him as a child; Baba was a brave person, generous to everyone, and should’ve influenced Amir to be the same. On the contrary, Amir was selfish and chose not to stand up for his friend, even when the situation desperately needs it. This is not because of how he grew up, of his environment. Amir’s genetics made him to be fearful and mean, as shown throughout the book. “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.” (Hosseini 54). Even though Amir had great influences growing up, Hassan took the brunt of his attacks and neglect. Near the beginning of the book, Hassan is raped in the alleys running a kite for Amir. Going after Hassan, Amir finds Hassan while this is going on but does not stop the rapist or stand up for his friend. Instead, Amir ran away and proceeded to abandon Hassan emotionally after the event. Baba was a brave man and would’ve stood up for Hassan, regardless of the danger to him, but Amir was not influenced nearly as much by his positive environment rather than his negative cowardice, or

Amir's guilt was built in his childhood when he chose not to help Hassan in a critical situation, and through the years that guilt has stayed with him. Amir betrayed Hassan and it isn't until later in the novel that we find out Baba has betrayed Ali, Hassan, and Amir as well. Everything that Amir knew about his father was

Q: How do secrets affect the lives of characters in the novel The Kite Runner? Ans: Secrets among the characters affected them to maintain their relationship throughout the novel. Firstly the secret of Baba not only affected Hassan’s life but also Amir too. Baba couldn’t speak out his secrets though he was a man who stood for what is right.