In life, there are many natural tragedies that can strike a person and completely change their lives. Then there are people who are the cause of said tragedies and these people are often inflicted upon by a conflicting emotion; guilt. Guilt is an internal struggle that can lead to serious medical conditions such as depression or becoming suicidal. In both the Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, and the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the main characters all face situations in which a great amount of guilt is put upon them. In order to deal with the guilt, Amir, from the Kite Runner and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from Macbeth, have diverse initial reactions, similar coping mechanisms and opposite approaches to the final submission. It is …show more content…
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
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.
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,
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,
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
Choices a character makes leads to both conflict and growth, as shown in Catcher in the Rye and Macbeth. In Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is expected to be reasonably successful at a prestigious prep school and move on to the Ivy League. Holden can't see himself in that role, seeking an escape, but his plans are spontaneous fantasies that cannot work. In Macbeth, it becomes apparent that Macbeth's poor choices and lack of character combined with his ambition can have tragic consequences. While the motivating factors behind each character’s choices may differ, each made decisions, which had a significant impact on their lives.
The beginning of Amir’s journey causes him to feel guilty enough that he causes a chain reaction where he inflicts more cruelty upon himself and others. Amir and Hassan used to live a simple life with the biggest negative in Amir’s life being the fact that his father liked Hassan more. Right after a kite tournament that Amir won, Hassan goes to run the kite for Amir, and Amir finds him being abused by Assef in an alley. Amir decides to do nothing and feels guilty about it for most of his life. Although the initial cruelty is inflicted upon Hassan, it is Amir who is hurt the most. His guilt causes him to inflict cruelty upon Hassan in order to cause Hassan to “give [Amir] the punishment [he] craved, so maybe [he]’d finally sleep at night” (92). Amir’s cruelty leads Hassan and his father to walk out of Amir’s life, leaving Amir and his father, Baba,
Since Amir's mother was dead of giving birth to him, Baba, his dad, blame him for losing her. This affect Amir to have a bad childhood, which caused him to do a lot of the things that he later regard in the story. 2. How does Hassan view Amir in the novel? And how does (young)
After learning that Amir had no interests in his own interests, Baba had simply given up on trying to immerse Amir in his world. Baba could hardly believe Amir was his child. “‘If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son’” (23). Consequently, when Amir had witnessed Hassan get raped, Amir locked away his emotions and let them affect him and his relationships negatively .
Amir seems to have always been in competition with Hassan for Baba’s love. Although Hassan is oblivious to this, Baba wants Amir to be more like Hassan in many ways than just one. The type of reaction we get from Amir leans more towards him doing anything and everything he can to receive Baba's approval, even if that means getting rid of his best friend, Hassan. Amir seeks his one and only open opportunity to Baba's love through the kite tournament. This was everything to Amir, there was no way he could lose. After his victory, he needed one thing, the fallen kite, his trophy. Hassan realizes how important this meant to Amir so he did everything he could to get that kite for Amir. After that night nothing was the same. Amir had done something so wrong that could never be forgiven. Guilt begins to eat Amir up, he can’t live with himself, yet his cowardness stops him from doing anything about it. All he can do is try to forget it about what he saw and to avoid Hassan at all
Hassan was cornered alone by Assef and the neighborhood bullies, and was distastefully held down and sodomized by these boys in the dirty ally right after the kite fight. It was this moment the ultimate betrayal came to pass. This incidence decayed the boy’s relationship in a way Amir never imagined. This guilt followed him all throughout his adulthood. His fathers words constantly kicked him back down to that very same dirty ally where he could not stand up for his dearest friend - for his brother. It was the fear of seeing Hassan in a position where he needed someone to stand up for him because Amir was used to seeing Hassan as being strong and always standing up for himself. So when it came to the point where Hassan needed him the most, he didn’t know what to do, simply because he was the one always needing Hassan - not the other way around. This fear traveled with Amir for years and even after moving away he could not over come and bury these “skeletons.” After this incident, the relationship between Amir and Hassan
When Amir becomes selfish and greedy for Baba’s attention, he becomes amenable to do anything to get what he wants, he ends up betraying his best friend,Hassan,to do so. After the kite tournament , a paramount game to all Afghani children, Hassan goes running for Amir’s kite. Eventually , Amir goes looking for Hassan and witnesses him in an alleyway getting raped by Assef, at that moment, he makes a perceiving decision that “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan
While living in Afghanistan, Amir yearned for the attention of his father and sought after his approval. Growing up, Baba never understood his son, resulting in a distant relationship. They hardly ever spent time together, and when they did, Rahim Khan or Hassan were usually around. It wasn’t until Amir won the kite fight when they both obtained the relationship they had always wished for. Their seemingly perfect relationship did not last as long as they both had hoped.
Amir, a young taken care of his father named Baba, was raised in Kabul, Afghanistan with his father and servants. The plot begins Amir and the servant Ali, son, Hassan, as what appears to be a friendship; the boys attended kite competitions and won, when Hassan fetches the kite he gets raped as Amir secretly watches, their friendship goes down hill from there. Amir distances himself War had broken out in Afghanistan and people were fleeing the country, once Baba and Amir get to Northern California and make a living off of their low income jobs and flea markets; Amir finds the love of his life, Soraya, and becomes newly weds. Baba was very ill and required treatment, but refuses, so Soraya takes care of him till Baba eventually passes. The
Amir stumbles upon an alley. In the alley, he sees the Hassan trap by three boys named Assef, Kamal, and Wali. All they asked of Hassan is to give up the blue kite. However, Hassan’s loyalty and friendship toward Amir prevented Hassan to give up the kite. As the tension built, Assef lets Hassan have the kite, but in-return he does unthinkable. Assef rapes Hassan as Amir watched unnoticeably from the alley (Hosseini 62-66). This was Amir’s chance to prove his true friendship by stepping in to save Hassan. Instead, Amir ran “because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he could do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt. That’s what I told myself as I turned my back to the alley, to Hassan” (Hosseini 68). According to Amir, “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (Hosseini 68). “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 68).
Amir’s betrayal of Hassan burdens him with a guilty conscience for much of his life. After he wins the kite running contest, Amir gains Baba’s affection. He begins to push away Hassan not only because he knows it will allow himself to become closer to Baba, but because he cannot bear to be with the person he wronged in such a way. He starts to feel the effects of his guilt, and starts to believe that “it shouldn’t [feel] this way. Baba and [Amir are] finally friends… [Amir] finally [has] what [he has] wanted all [these] years. Except now that [he has] it, [he feels] as empty as this unkempt pool [he’s] dangling [his] legs into” (85). Amir is unable to enjoy his