Baba and Amir’s relationship in the kite runner is significant as it is a very important factor in Amir’s life as it shapes his emotional development making him the first person narrator we grow to trust, and believe the judgments he makes. His father Baba is an imposing man in every way. ‘What sort of father would I make, I wondered. I wanted to be just like Baba and I wanted to be nothing like him.’ This shows the struggle Amir has within his relationship with his father as he looks up to the powerful man he is in society but constantly feels that he is not good enough for him, and craves his attention Amir however is very much alike Baba as they both betrayed their best friends. Baba betrayed Ali by having relations with his wife, and Amir betrayed Hassan by not standing up for him while getting assaulted. Then they both try to redeem themselves with doing other good deeds. Baba, running an orphanage, and Amir going back to Kabul to save Sohrab, Hassan's son.
In beginning of the novel, Amir willingly cut his fingers to impress his father with a kite-fighting victory, however at the end he cuts his fingers flying a kite to revive his spiritually wounded nephew from a profound depression, of which he feels somewhat guilty for because of his past relationship with Hassan.
Amir and Hassan’s relationship is one of the most important in the novel Amir betrays Hassan but he redeems himself with love “From Hassan. From the past that had come calling. And from this one last chance at redemption”. Their relationship shows how loyalty and trust are crucial to a real brotherly bond. Hassan shows absolute loyalty to Amir and he never wavers in his love for him however Amir sometimes feels superior to Hassan and he is jealous of him at times, “When it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile.” Amir feels the need to ridicule Hassan he is jealous of him, he later on redeems his relationship with Hassan by saving his son Sohrab. The boy’s relationship can only ever truly be open and honest when they are at the pomegranate tree, the tree has important significance to their relationship as it is the only place they can ever truly be equal, when they are at the tree, the social hierarchy is abandoned and they are free to play together without judgment, however when their relationship dies so does the tree.
Amir’s relationship with Kabul, is strained just as his relationship with his father, as he realises once told by Farid "You've always been a tourist here. You just didn't know it." His relationship with Kabul is strained because unlike America he does not have the opportunities that he want, for in his country being a writer is seen as a more feminine occupation, therefore put more strain on his relationship with Baba as he is not the athletic strong son he wants, when Farid exclaims this to Amir he realises that the country he once thought was his own was all built on false views, as he only seen the wealthy side to the country, just as Daisy only wants to see the wealthy side of easy egg in The Great Gatsby, therefore he realises that he never truly new his own country as he was sheltered from all the bad because of his wealthy background.
Although Amir has a good relationship with America because he can forget the past as there is “No ghost no memories and no sins” there for him meaning he can try and forget about his mistakes he made in Kabul as America gives him the chance to start again as he views it as “a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past”, Baba has the opposite relationship with America as Amir tells us that “It was living in America that gave him an ulcer.” Baba feels that America is having a bad affect on him as whereas in Kabul he was seen of high status and importance, he is not in America making it a humiliating experience for him.
In the poem Porphyria’s lover Robert Browning shows the shift of power in a relationship, as the initially passive Lover suddenly strangles Porphyria with her own hair so that "her darling one wish would be heard", the relationship at the beginning of the poem seems sinister because of the pathetic fallacy used to show how the lover feels, “sullen wind” reflecting his anger that she is not there beside him, so the reader already feels on edge with the possibly biased first person narration, however when Porphyria does arrive, she instantly creates a positive image for the reader as she “warms” the cottage, and suddenly becomes powerful almost a force of nature within the relationship and takes control, but when she states that she loves him, the power within the relationship shifts, and he becomes obsessive and wants to freeze the relationship in time to preserve her and the moment, "That moment she was mine, mine." So that she may love him forever.
Browning also uses first person narration in My Last Duchess to show a controlling relationship, as the dukes narration is fast paced and uses personal pronouns throughout showing his sense of power, and the urgency he has to talk about himself, therefore the reader feels that he must be the reason that his wife is dead. The Duke seems to have a stronger relationship with the portrait than he ever did with his wife, as he is able to control who sees it, “The curtain I have drawn” indicating that he feels he should be able to treat women as objects within his relationships. Also the way she is called “My Last Duchess” “Last” indicating that she was not the first person he has been in a relationship with, that he has not approved of other duchesses thus setting a sinister tone for the reader to assume he has had other duchess’s that he has not approved of killed before.
The relationship the Duke has with himself, is the most poignant in the poem as, he constantly refers to his wealth and power, for example his “nine hundred years old name” showing just how much he believes that his own importance is above anything else, also the way he uses repetition to show his wealth that “Fra Pandolf” has painted this portrait, reinforcing that he wants people to know that he is to be looked upon as important and feels he should be put on a pedestal, and anyone that may get in his way will pay the consequences, just as the quote “As if alive” indicates. He does not need a real relationship, as he is far to self indulged with his relationship with himself.
