Baba further feels disappointment towards his son for the way he acts with his servant, Hassan. Amir gets into a fight with some bullies and once again runs, leaving his servant to fight for him. Baba is generally nicer to the servant, Hassan, than he is his own son. Amir sees this and I think feels a sort of animosity toward Hassan when they are together, even though Hassan is a devoted friend to him.
One thing that does bring all the people in Amir’s life sort of together in a positive and constructive way is with the sport of kite fighting. Amir excels in this and his father Baba is a fan and is proud of his son for one of the only instances. Also, Hassan is a kite runner, one that runs to catch the kites the fighter would cut down, for Amir and excels as that as well. They are all happy during this, which I feel helps Amir feel better and thus act better toward others. One instance, which I feel is one that is pinnacle to Amir’s growth. While competing in a kite flying “session”, Amir cuts down a kite from the sky and Hassan takes off to retrieve it. Amir goes to find him. Hassan, while retrieving the kite, is confronted by a bully who is often causing trouble with the two. The bullies go as far this time as to rape the servant Hassan. Amir is there to witness this but is once again too timid to face them to help his “friend” and flees. He acts like he did not know what had happened to Hassan but never knew if Hassan had seen him or not, this I believe haunted him. The guilt that he felt toward what happened to his friend and him not even attempting to help, when he is almost for certain that had it had been him Hassan would have tried to help. Maybe he would of failed but he would of tried to save his friend and master. Amir’s guilt is very clear in the book as right after the incident he shuts himself down. He stays in his room for days and avoids Hassan. He also tries to get him thrown out of the house because he can’t stand to be around Hassan. This further enhanced the idea that Amir was a coward that had been set into his mind by his father his whole life, the feelings inferiority and the guilt will stay with him for much of the book and more.
Some things occur later that revitalizes in away Amir’s self-image and his attitude toward himself and life. One day Amir reads a story to Hassan he had written as if it were a book, Hassan tells him that it is the best story he had ever heard. His uncle reiterates Amir’s good feelings by also telling him that he would be a great writer one day. Amir had not heard about his writing in this way before and it made him optimistic about his future.
The guilt left by the incident with Hassan follows Amir into adulthood and he often can not get the memory out of his mind and certainly never forgets. As an adult he lives in America and is an established writer but he never is able to shake the emotions and the disturbances left by his past whether it be his own cowardice or the feelings that his father showed for him. All of it shapes him into the adult with is truly sorry and becomes a better man, out of his troubled childhood and his new life.
In thinking about the character of Amir and looking back into how all these situations that a child could be in and how it affects his personality. It was as if Amir didn’t even want to be the way he was, he just had to and he just was. In the end he goes back and rescues Hassan’s son, which I think helps him to sort of let go and relieve some of that guilt that had once destroyed his self-esteem and self-image.
I can get how Amir’s father had been responsible for a lot of how Amir was as a child. When you constantly demean a young boy, 11 or 12, that sticks with him. A child begins to believe what the father figure is saying to him, if Amir thought that his father saw him as weak then Amir believed that he was weak. His guilt for not being able to help Hassan is right but even if he had tried to there was no way he could of done anything. It’s a hard thing to sort out, while Hassan would of tried he would of failed too and Amir knew he would fail. But the fact Hassan would at least attempt it, is what makes Amir feel so bad I think. A question I had is: Is it that Hassan was so much more willing to help his friend whether he could or not? Or was it that his emotions would have just taken over, blocking out his logical thought of “there is nothing you can do” while Amir’s thought of that got through to him? I think Amir didn’t think of it like that, and it tore him up that he did not reciprocate the strength of the bond between Hassan and him.
Overall a lot of Amir’s issues stem from circumstances that were not in his control. This reminded me a lot of Frankenstein and the way the same sort of psychology applies to the monster. They both are forced into life choices they would not normally want.