In the middle of the twentieth century the women of Iceland took a day off. They stopped working, they stopped cooking, and they stopped taking care of their kids. Just for one day, and the country went berserk. Men, who never attended to their children for more than a few hours a day, had to suddenly find a way to keep them entertained for a day. Men, who never needed to cook for a family, suddenly had to find a way to fill bellies. Things got so grave, that the entire country of Iceland ran out of sausages, because cooking it was effortless, men flocked to stores to buy as much of it as possible. Stores were shut down, and women fought in the streets for their rights. For one day in Iceland, decades ago, women showed that if they stopped working, everything around them stopped working as well. If this logic was applied to Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, if women were taken out of the story, The Kite Runner would too stop working. Meaning, the …show more content…
Khala Jamila and Soraya Taheri entered Amir’s life at the same time, so it is adequate to assume that they both play a key role in Amir becoming a man. Soraya helped Amir grow, while Khala Jamila helped their relationship blossom, “I actually liked it when Khanum Taheri was there, and not just because of her amiable ways; Soraya was more relaxed, more talkative with her mother around” (Hosseini 150). Their paired presence helped Amir flourish. Soraya also helped Amir and Baba’s relationship grow at the end of Baba’s life. With the two finally married, Baba’s only task left was to be killed by his cancer. Soraya added on to the task list by getting Baba to finally read Amir’s work. On the last night of his life, Baba spent it around Soraya, her family, and Amir. He never felt anymore pain after the start of that party, “‘Not tonight,’ he said. ‘There is no pain tonight’” (Hosseini 173). Soraya plays a key part in their father-son
Baba also gave Amir a car that night to show Amir that he was proud of his success; Baba wanted to reward him for what he had accomplished. On Amir’s wedding day, although Baba was deathly ill, Baba exclaimed, “It’s the happiest day of my life, Amir,” (Khaled Hosseini, p.175). Baba made a speech at Amir and Soraya’s wedding. He openly shared that Amir fulfilled his expectations by saying that above all else, “Amir jan is my only son...my only child, and he has been a good son to me,” (Khaled Hosseini, p.177). Although it didn’t seem obvious at first, Baba truly loved Amir. The Kite Runner and The Crucible both have two fathers with strong paternal loves for their sons.
Sohrab- is the child of Hassan and Farzana. Sohrab resembles Hassan. When Amir finally meets Sohrab, he says "[t]he resemblance [to Hassan] was breathtaking" (22.49). Sohrab also seems to have Hassan's innate goodness. It turns out Sohrab is as deadly with a slingshot as Hassan was.
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
10. Compare and contrast the relationships of Soraya and Amir and their fathers. How have their upbringings contributed to these relationships?
Readers must examine Amir’s redemption to Baba. Amir feels guilty of his mother’s death, his first sin to Baba. Longing for Baba’s love, Amir knows that Baba “hated me a little… After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I?” (Hosseini 19). Amir’s day of birth starts his betrayal to Baba since his birth causes Baba’s wife to die. Furthermore, Amir continues
Amir’s misadventures begin as a boy living in an affluent Afghanistan world. On the day of his birth, his mother hemorrhages to death. Robbed of any feminine influence or comfort, he goes to his overshadowing Baba for love and acceptance. His father denies his only son the tenderness he desires, leading Amir to believe his father despises him. After all, Amir’s
Sohrab’s attempt of suicide shows that Amir still does not understand what Sohrab has been going through. In other words, he can’t see things from Sohrab’s perspective. Moreover, what happened to Sohrab shows that Amir has difficulty understanding how young and vulnerable Sohrab is. Every child has something in his or her mind that they are really afraid of, such as monsters or ghost, and Sohrab faced them all when he enslaved or watch her parents got murdered. He was a victim. When Amir broke his promise he gave to Sohrab, it made Sohrab feel insecure. Overall, being abandoned again was too much for Sohrab to take.
This quote also connects Amir to the theme of coming of age because he gained maturity after getting married. Furthermore, an event that inflicts happiness occurs during hard times, the way that Amir experiences his hard times; Baba having a terminal illness, would inflict responsibility on to Amir and influence a change in character, giving Amir a wake-up call. After Amir’s marriage to Soraya, he began acting on a new found sense of maturity. “watched Soraya and me lacing our fingers together, watched me push back a loose curl of her hair” (Hosseini 173). In this quote, Amir had been a cowardly person, but after his marriage he began growing over his new found sense of maturity he received once he got married.
Soraya's father is very similar to Baba in his traditional culture ways, and believes that having a family, a blood family, is very important. “‘I’ll say one more thing’ he said. I could tell he was getting revved up; we were about to get one of the general’s little speeches. ‘Take Amir jan, here. We all knew his father, I know who his grandfather was in Kabul and his Great-grandfather before him, I could sit here and trace generations of his ancestors for you if you asked. That’s why when his father— God give him peace — came khastegari, I didn't hesitate. And believe me, his father wouldn't have agreed to ask for your hand if he didn’t know whose descendant you were. Blood is a powerful thin, sachem, and when you adopt, you don't know whose blood your bringing into your house.” This part of the culture makes it hard for Amir to come to grips with the thought of adoption and this divides him and his wife because they both want a child but to get one they would go against the cultural ideals of themselves and their parents. This connects back to his struggle for masculinity because in the eyes of himself and his culture a man should be able to raise his own family, and he doesn't see adopting a kid as his own until after he meets Hassans
Two main themes in the novel The Kite Runner are that of social class and gender roles. Everywhere that Amir, the main protagonist, turns, society is divided. From his earliest childhood memories to living in America, there always seems to be some sort of invisible line drawn between his people. There is separation between the Pashtuns and the Hazaras, between Americans and Afghans, between men and women, and between the Talibs and the people of Afghanistan.
Baba’s influence on Amir can be described in two words, tough love. Baba desperately wants Amir to resemble him in everything he does and do things how he would, but Amir struggles to meet these standards. Baba is reminded by Rahim that he does not get to choose the man that Amir will become, “‘Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with favorite colors”’ (21). It hurts Amir that he does not get Baba’s compassion and love but he stays true to himself and does not change for him. Even though Amir stayed true to himself he would still do what he could to earn Baba’s love. When he won the kite flying tournament Baba shows Amir that love because he did something they can both relate to, sports. It seemed Amir would do anything to be recognized by Baba but Baba did not care about Amir’s thoughts on himself. Baba even said to Rahim “If [he] hadn’t seen the doctor pull [Amir] out of [his] wife with [his] own eyes, [he’d] never believe [Amir’s his] son” (23). This obviously would be heart wrenching to hear and hurt Amir deeply, but he did not let that make him stop trying. The two clearly had a rocky relationship.