Baba and Me

Blair Kelly

Professor Tielke

Composition I

12-6-2012

In this short story named Baba and Me written by Khaled Hiosseni, a main focus is on a

relationship between a father and son. Baba is a rich merchant in Kabul, Afghanistan, before the

soviet invasion. Amir adores his father Baba, but doesn't feel that his love is reciprocated. He

constantly tried to gain his fathers affection, but his father sees him as weak for never defending

himself from other neighborhood boys. Amir also blames that for the fact that Baba's beloved wife

died while giving birth to him. Amir is hurt by how much his father Baba seems to like the servant's

son Hassan,who Amir betrays terribly in the story in order to gain access to the kite which would gain

his father's love. Amir sees his friend Hassan as a slaughter-sheep that must be sacrificed in order for

him to gain his father's love.

This story was really written for entertaing purposes. Truthfully behind the story there is a

whole moral, its trying to relay a message of insecurities throughout a hurt young man. Though the

book the story is for entertaing purposes, you really get more out of the story than just entertainment. It

make you analyze things more and look into the real reasons behind actions. The relationship between

Baba and Amir is a common thing that goes on in real life; in other words the story seem more realistic

than its betraying to be.

Most young people wouldn’t read this story I don’t believe, but the intended audience is for

general interested readers. Reading this story, you can find that the story could be shared with a variety

of readers, not just one particular group. This short story can be interesting and touching to any types of

readers if you ask me.
Early on in the story it mentioned that story time period was based before the soviet invasion.

You can tell its not a modern day novel because the language that is used throughout the whole story.

The story obviously isn’t to old by the things they accomplish through this story, such as Amir

attending community college and moving from country to country. The time frame seems to be the

early 19oo's, but it could be earlier.

The author was very clear about the message he was sending in this story. He did betray exactly

what he was trying to, by using emotions, the text and describing exactly how Amir was feeling. In this

story you can see each character had reasoning behind there actions and feelings. By the end of the

story you will be in reality with each characters motivations behind why they acted the way they did.

Techniques weren't really used throughout this story, I believe this was more of a personal story

and the author used personal experiences in the story. It could be fictional, but I believe its a story that

is meant leave you thinking about how Amir really felt. The author somewhat used a technique of

putting you in the particular setting, sort of like its happening right before your eyes. When reading

you can tell that the story is powerful and touching.