Kite Runner
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Kite Runner, a powerful and haunting novel by Khaled Hosseini, is an intimate account of family, friendship, betrayal and salvation. It tells the story of a boy who goes through many life-changing accounts and who does not have the courage to fix them. The main character, Amir, worries a great deal about living up to his father’s expectations. The grueling fact that his father hated him and thinks he’s a coward hurts him in many ways .He is constantly reminded about the differences between them, which in the end become similarities, making this book an experience like no other.
Baba (Amir’s father) and Amir were different in many ways. For one, Baba was an athletic person. He played soccer and was an amazing wrestler. Rumor has it that he once wrestled a black bear with his bare hands (12). He attempted teaching Amir but it was obvious that he had not inherited a shred of athletic ability. He eventually tried making Amir a passionate spectator. It was soon clear that he had no interest for the sport, or any other sport. Baba believed that boys should be athletic, that they should like sports, but that was not the case with Amir. Amir would rather stay inside reading books than run around outside chasing a ball. He liked his books (19).
Baba worried about Amir. In the conversation between him and Rahim, it was obvious that Baba thought Amir was not an average kid. Baba stated that as a kid, he was not like that, and he did not know any other kids that were like that either, reading books and sitting indoors
a lot of the time. “He’s always buried in those books or shuffling around the house like he’s in some dream,” Baba would say (21). In addition, when Amir did go outdoors, his friends pushed him around and he had no intention in defending himself. He would just allow them to bother
him. “A boy who could not stand up for himself becomes a man that can’t stand up to anything,” Baba would say. This was what Baba was worried about the most, Amir becoming a man with no courage. (21-22)
Baba was ashamed of having a son like Amir, a son that spent allowance on books and would rather burry their face in poetry rather than do manly things. Amir knew this. He knew that Baba was ashamed of him and even maybe hated him a little bit. Real men did not read poetry like him, they hunted and played soccer.
The first time Amir feels that Baba and he were finally connecting was when Amir had won the Kite Flying tournament. “That right there was the greatest single moment of my twelve years of life, seeing Baba on that roof, proud of me at last,” Amir would say (66). His father became very proud of him. He finally received the admiration and love that he had been longing for all these years from his father. Baba finally sees something in Amir. Something he had wished to see so many years ago but could not. Amir felt that he was finally living up to his father, making him proud. This did not last long. After the tournament when Hassan went to go fetch the last kite, he was about to be raped by Assef and Amir having the opportunity to stop it did not. (77) After this, everything had changed. He was still proud that he had won the game but in his heart, he knew that he was a coward. Maybe Hassan was the price of winning Baba. He knew that he had lost something greater than what he had achieved.
Unlike Amir, Baba was a courageous man that was not afraid to stand