Let’s say someone, who has a fear of public speaking, have to give a big speech to a stadium full of people. If this person gathers up their courage and goes out there they could either feel prideful for conquering their fear or humiliated that they messed up on a couple of words. This is similar to Amir from The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini shows how Amir’s behavior and thoughts on his culture change drastically as he grows older. In Afghanistan Pashtunwali, a code that many Afghans follow, is something that is ingrained in the the people of Afghanistan that they even expect their children to follow it. Amir is revealed to a population of people who are filled with courage and pride. Through Amir, Hosseini shows how children are constantly surrounded by other courageous and prideful people, which subtly teaches them how to be courageous and prideful. Although as a child Amir has been put down for the lack of courage, it is possible for a child like Amir to gain courage as they grow older. Courage, or the strength to confront one’s fear, is a supported by many people of Afghanistan. For instance, when Amir was little, Baba told Rahim that “‘there’s something missing in [... Amir]’” (Hosseini 22), that Amir wouldn’t “‘stand up for himself’”(Hosseini 22). Baba even stated that “‘[Baba] wasn’t like that at all’” (Hosseini 22) when Baba was little, this shows how parents try to ingrain in their children that they should stand up for
Humans have been known to take the majority of actions solely for their own personal gain, especially if the outcome allows them to receive praise and public recognition. In many different cultures, pride is a quality character trait because of the respect and honor that come with it. Amir, an Afghan boy in the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, is pressured by his society’s view on pride because of its importance in his culture. In addition, the high standards that his father has set by being a highly successful and idolized businessman add to the expectation that Amir must follow in his father’s footsteps to create a good life for himself. In his younger years, Amir’s views on pride were solely based off of others. His
In his critically acclaimed first novel, The Kite Runner, author Khaled Hosseini tells the story of a 12-year-old Afghan boy named Amir, who seeks his father’s love but is hindered by his own cowardice. Both Amir’s cowardice and his father’s lack of attention are compounded by the people and events surrounding Amir, until they feed into each other in a vicious, never-ending cycle.
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Amir was the son of a wealthy social worker. He was brought up with the son of his servant, and perhaps his only best friend, Hassan. Amir had a rocky relation with his father. At times, it seemed as his father loved him but those moments didn’t lasted forever. He thinks Baba (his father) wishes Amir were more like him, and that Baba holds him responsible for killing his mother, who died during his birth. Despite being best friends, Amir thinks that Hassan is beneath him because he belonged to an inferior cast. He used to mock him jokingly or tried to outsmart him. In all fairness, it was Amir’s cowardly nature that
Guilt is a strong emotion that haunts us all, others hide it deep within themselves, some try to fix the wrong, and few people do good from it. The Kite Runner is the story of a boy named Amir, he struggles to find his place in the world, reason being of the all of the traumatic childhood events. He sends most of his time and life just sulking in guilt about the decisions he has made. Khaled Hosseini has given the idea that guilt can make you do good things, but all relies on what you're guilty about. The way this is portrayed is through the novel is through rhetorical strategies and imagery.
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
As well there is Baba, who is another important character who shows courage by first taking in Ali and Hassan, who are part of the Hazara, a minority group, and letting them serve in his household as a servant, even though they are Hazaras: “Amir, Hassan, and their fathers live together in a well-off neighborhood of Kabul. The Hazaras act as servants to their Pashtun superiors, but are also part of the family, clashing with the social norm” (Spiegel 2007).This was a courageous act since the whole Pashtun community is against the Hazaras living in his household as it violated the normal rules and expectations of the Kabul community and it would have been considered a deviant act in a sense. This does not only show his act of courage but also
While on a truck, he defended the women. Willing to take the bullet without hesitation, he put his life on the line for the stranger, for his passion had been stronger than his fear of death. Baba acted out of bravery due to his grand stature, level head, and big heart, “when all six-foot-five of him thundered into the room, attention shifted to him like sunflowers turning to the sun” (13). Baba was well respected in Afghanistan, and he knew that his voice would be heard; therefore, he used his power as a way to defend the defenseless. He was willing to sacrifice himself even though his son disagreed with the idea. Amir thought only of himself and that he would be left as an orphan if Baba was shot; whereas Baba wanted to help the woman as long as he was only risking his own life. His heart reached out for anyone needing an extra hand. He loved and cared for so many people, he wanted to help all of them. Baba put in hard work to help the people around him, and they all looked up to him due to “the marks he had left on people’s lives” (174). Baba’s willingness to sacrifice himself for strangers shaped his reputation in Afghanistan.
Conversely, Amir grows up to be a man who achieves holistic atonement. As a child in Kabul, he overheard his father tell Rahim Khan, “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything” (Hosseini 22); however Amir
In the book the Kite Runner by Hosseini, the main character, Amir, grows up in Afghanistan, and the strong culture affects his moral character while he lives their and after he moves away. He is unable to fit in with the cultural expectations his father puts on him, the religious racism divides him and his half brother Hassan, and the traditional family values cause tension between him and his wife, this all leads back to the theme of Amirs struggle to fulfill his ideals of masculinity.
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.
Social conditions are what shape a country. Over the years, people, not only in Afghanistan, but around the world create norms that define people’s roles in life, their future, and how they should be treated based on their gender and beliefs. Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner, comments on the social conditions of Afghanistan through telling a story about the lives of two Muslim boys; a privileged Sunni Pashtun, Amir, and his long-time friend and servant, Hassan, a loyal but disadvantaged Shia Hazara. Hosseini expresses Amir’s uncertain feelings toward Hassan which form the decisions he makes throughout the book. These choices result in Amir destroying his relationship with Hassan. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini is a commentary on the social conditions in Afghanistan as shown through the roles of women and men in society and the ideals of Afghan culture. Unfortunately, these problems are still active in most of Afghanistan.
In Runner, Robert Newton conveys that Charlie the protagonist is bound to mature early to make completely selfless choices. When his father dies, Charlie is contrived to fill his father’s boots, meaning he had to take up his father’s role of being the financial provider of his family. Additionally, Charlie makes an altruistic choice by running for squizzy Taylor. Lastly, Charlie makes the self-sacrificing decision by gambling his large saving from Squizzy on the Ballarat Mile. In summary, Newton demonstrates that Charlie is forced into adulthood early through necessity and make self-denying decisions due to his family's desperate circumstances.
Khaled Hosseini’s, “The Kite Runner”, uses an abundance of diction and tone, to convey a centralized motif. Hosseini, uses three specific symbols throughout the story, the cleft lip; kites; the lamb. The central symbols, tie into what the overall theme is of the story, the search of redemption, tension and love between father and son. Hosseini expressed his centralized motif of irony and regressing in time by using symbolism and figurative language to make his point more clear “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.”
His selfish bias making it impossible for Amir to begin earning redemption. This is again proven when he returns to Pakistan to visit Rahim Khan. Rahim Khan pleads with him to try and get Amir to rescue Sohrab, his nephew, from Kabul, but Amir refuses: “‘you know,’ Rahim Khan said, “one time, when you weren’t around, your father and I were talking. And you know how he always worried about you in those days. I remember he said to me, ‘Rahim, a boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man you can’t stand up to anything’ I wonder, is that what you’ve become?’ I dropped my eyes. […] Finally, I settled for this: ‘Maybe Baba was right’” (Hosseini, 221). When given the choice to defend his honour and go rescue a young boy, or insult himself and look at the world through a negative lense, Amir chooses to adopt an incredibly negative persona, as per his past. He chooses to refuse the opportunity to experience empathy and relate to Rahim Khan’s desperation and pain, and instead drives a wedge between their relationship. Pushing himself further away from the redemption he craves so desperately. As a fear of empathy inhibits one’s ability to find redemption and uphold healthy relationships.
In his novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini depicts his homeland Afghanistan as a host to many different cultures and classes, such as Pashtun and Hazara, Sunni and Shiite, with this dichotomy of beliefs and attributes being powerful enough to shape diverse, sometimes negative relationships amongst the characters of the novel and their behavior to each other, as well as establish that individual’s identity. Each person interprets the impact of the role of belief and social status differently, while all living in the same setting, adding to their complexity and depth as a character in the novel with many different figures tied together by the same geographical and cultural conditions.