The Kite Runner: Role Of Fathers
The Kite Runner: Role of fathers
The relationship between Baba and Amir is a complex one as Baba reveals his role as a father, friend, and foe. Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner explores this rollercoaster between Baba and his son Amir. As the novel unfolds, the lives of the characters unravel –as do their relationships and their sense of identity. Baba serves as an important link that connects each of the characters and also bridges the uncertain with the certain, lie with truth, pain with pleasure, servant with master, dark with light and then ultimately death with life. Each of these connections triggers strong emotions in Amir about feelings towards his father and how he feels about himself. This mixture of negative and positive …show more content…
This came about when Baba’s darkest secret was revealed by Rahim Khan. The secret was that Baba had slept with Ali’s wife Sanaubar and impregnated her, making Hassan his child. Amir went through a series of mixed emotions at this revelation. Initially the news made Amir furious. He thought of his father as a hypocrite due to all of the lessons he had thought him in his past. Baba once told Amir, ‘There is only one sin – ‘and that is theft…When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.’ (Pg.225) Due to this lesson, Amir couldn’t help but think that Baba’s theft was the worst kind of stealing, since “the things he’d stolen had been sacred: from me the right to know I had a brother, from Hassan his identity, and from Ali his honor.” (Pg.225). As Amir reflected on his father’s deception and betrayal, he started to see himself in a similar way. Amir realized that his father was more like him than he ever knew and this is when their relationship made the final shift. He saw how much they were one and the same. His feelings towards his father finally changed. “Baba and I were more alike than I’d ever known. We had both betrayed the people who would have given their lives for us.”(Pg.226). Amir finally realizes that Baba was a man who also made mistakes and lived with regret. He recognized that the negative behaviors he had witnessed from his father, came from the struggles he had while trying to deal with the guilt and failures of the past. In the same way Amir had also suffered from the terrible things he had done. The big difference is at the end of the day Baba was a better man than Amir was, but Amir knew he had time to change this. From here on, Amir took on the task of redeeming both his and Baba’s mistakes. He agreed to go on the search for Hassan’s orphaned son Sohrab and to take care of him and raise him like he was his
The relationship between Baba and Amir is a complex one as Baba reveals his role as a father, friend, and foe. Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner explores this rollercoaster between Baba and his son Amir. As the novel unfolds, the lives of the characters unravel –as do their relationships and their sense of identity. Baba serves as an important link that connects each of the characters and also bridges the uncertain with the certain, lie with truth, pain with pleasure, servant with master, dark with light and then ultimately death with life. Each of these connections triggers strong emotions in Amir about feelings towards his father and how he feels about himself. This mixture of negative and positive …show more content…
This came about when Baba’s darkest secret was revealed by Rahim Khan. The secret was that Baba had slept with Ali’s wife Sanaubar and impregnated her, making Hassan his child. Amir went through a series of mixed emotions at this revelation. Initially the news made Amir furious. He thought of his father as a hypocrite due to all of the lessons he had thought him in his past. Baba once told Amir, ‘There is only one sin – ‘and that is theft…When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.’ (Pg.225) Due to this lesson, Amir couldn’t help but think that Baba’s theft was the worst kind of stealing, since “the things he’d stolen had been sacred: from me the right to know I had a brother, from Hassan his identity, and from Ali his honor.” (Pg.225). As Amir reflected on his father’s deception and betrayal, he started to see himself in a similar way. Amir realized that his father was more like him than he ever knew and this is when their relationship made the final shift. He saw how much they were one and the same. His feelings towards his father finally changed. “Baba and I were more alike than I’d ever known. We had both betrayed the people who would have given their lives for us.”(Pg.226). Amir finally realizes that Baba was a man who also made mistakes and lived with regret. He recognized that the negative behaviors he had witnessed from his father, came from the struggles he had while trying to deal with the guilt and failures of the past. In the same way Amir had also suffered from the terrible things he had done. The big difference is at the end of the day Baba was a better man than Amir was, but Amir knew he had time to change this. From here on, Amir took on the task of redeeming both his and Baba’s mistakes. He agreed to go on the search for Hassan’s orphaned son Sohrab and to take care of him and raise him like he was his