The Kite Runner Hero

In the story The Kite Runner, based on his personality traits and actions towards Amir baba is the victim. He is very pressuring, unsympathetic and hypocritical towards his son Amir, and his actions cause Amir to make horrible decisions. Throughout the story Amir is pressured to be like Baba when he was a kid. The problem arises that he is not athletic like Baba was and would rather read and write. Baba doesn’t understand how Amir could be this way and doesn’t approve of his interests. In this scene it shows how Baba would share his frustration with his friend Rahim Khan. “He’s always buried in those books or shuffling around the house…. I wasn’t like that he said angrily almost frustrated”(21). Baba is also very un-sympathetic towards Amir. Amir tries his very best to please Baba and Baba won’t even give him anything in return. Amir writes a short story that he is very proud of. He goes to show it to Baba and he doesn’t even look at it. “I clear my throat and told him I’d written a story…. Baba gave a thin smile that conveyed no more than feigned interest ‘that’s good’ he said… then nothing more, he just looked at me”(31). This really hurt Amir because all he wanted was a little praise from his father. Baba’s little to no interest in Amir makes him do crazy things to fight for his love. For instance Amir went to the extreme when he sacrificed his best friend, Hassan’s health for a little praise from baba. “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba”(77). Amir would have most likely never done this if baba just gave him some respect. Other then Baba's lack of being sympathetic towards Amir, the biggest reason Baba is the villain in the story is because he is a hypocrite. For all of Amir’s life he wanted to be like Baba. He wanted to get praise from Baba, do what Baba does, and be who Baba is. Although what Amir finds out is that Baba isn’t as perfect as he thought. Turns out Baba had been keeping a secret from Amir his entire life. Baba had lied to Amir and never told him about his bad past and some of the bad things he did. Amir found out Baba had cheated on Amir’s mother with his best friends wife. Which what soon lead to finding out that Amir’s best friend, the boy he let get raped for Baba’s love was really his brother. When Amir finds out about this he is so angry and wants to take back all he had done for Baba. “How could he hide this from me?..... I’m thirty-eight years old and my whole life has been a lie”(223). After all those years he thought Baba made himself look so great when in reality he had been lying to him and had a dark past hidden. Generally baba is a bad guy. He mistreats his own son and by doing this it makes Amir react negatively. Most times in life bad kids come from bad parents, and in this case that is very true for Amir and Baba.