The Kite Runner – Relationships Essay

The Kite Runner – Relationships Essay
How are relationships portrayed in The Kite Runner?
The theme of relationships runs throughout the novel, the four main relationships being Baba and Amir, Amir and Hassan, Amir and Sohrab and Baba and Hassan. Some relationships are parallel to each other and are reflective in many different chapters throughout the novel.

The father and son relationship between Baba and Amir is problematic from the start as Amir feels he is blamed in some way for his mother’s death, by his father. Amir believes that the only way to redeem himself and be forgiven by his father is to win the annual kite tournament. This way he would win his father’s forgiveness and love, “the blue kite. My key to Baba’s heart.” The kite is Amir’s “key to Baba’s heart” because with it he hoped to gain Baba’s attention and make him proud.

Amir’s fight for Baba’s attention left him with a need to ‘fake interest for as long as possible’ even if it meant pretending he was interested in the kind of sports his father was but even these attempts were deemed feeble by his father and surely pushed them apart even more than before. His attempts at closing the gap between them, pushing aside their differences in fact influenced the events that happened afterwards, such as his need for the kite, over saving his best friend, Hassan, in the alley.

When Amir finds out Hassan is his brother, he comes to the realisation that he is not that different from his father. ‘as it turned out, Baba and I were more alike than I’d ever know.’ Throughout his life everyone, including himself had thought Baba and Amir were nothing alike, but in the end it turned out that they were more alike than anyone knew and in the worst way, they had both betrayed the people who had always been the most loyal to them. It is ironic how Amir based his entire childhood on being more like his father and when he finally finds out what they have in common, it ends up being something he is ashamed of and not proud.

Amir always seems to use his intelligence and class against Hassan, he teases him about the meaning of the word ‘imbecile’ in chapter four but yet in chapter six he refers to his constant teasing of Hassan and he knows it is wrong, ‘there was something fascinating – albeit in a sick way – about teasing Hassan’. His feelings are split between being cruel, which he finds interesting and yet knowing this is wrong.

Amir has been brought up in a country that is split between two ethnic groups, Hazara’s and Pashtuns, because Hassan is a Hazara and Amir is a Pashtun, Amir, although he doesn’t agree, around people such as Assef he almost conforms to the rules of his society. ‘He is not my friend he is my servant’, although he does not say this out loud, the fact that the thought crossed his mind is surprising to the reader as so far in the novel, he has always been loyal to Hassan, yet when under pressure these thoughts come into his head. Had he of said this out loud it could have been detrimental to the friendship between him and Hassan.

Amir sacrifices his friend for the sake of himself in the alley. Instead of stepping in and stopping what was about to happen, he left his friend to the suffering and abuse he was to undergo. ‘I ran because I was a coward.’ Amir lives with this throughout his life, knowing he is a coward, knowing that he didn’t save his best friend, his one true loyal friend. He has always picked on Hassan for being weak and now his true colours have come through and he is being the weak one, running away instead of doing the right thing and standing up for his friend.

Amir’s relationship with Sohrab represents his relationship with Hassan and also Hassan’s relationship with his own father. Sohrab in Amir’s eyes is a substitute for Hassan, a chance to put things right. He saves sohrab from the orphanage as a way of redemption for leaving Hassan in the alley. Rahim Khan gave him this opportunity and told him that ‘there is a way to be good again’ in other words a way to repent his sins.

Amir cares for Sohrab as the son he can never have and in many ways tries to be the father that Sohrab will never get back. He will never be Hassan and all through his childhood he tried to be like his brother and best friend, he was always jealousy of the love and attention Hassan received from Baba, ‘I wished he wouldn’t do that. Wished he’d let me be the favourite.’ Hassan gets the attention from Baba that Amir always dreams of and until the story unfolds, throughout his childhood he never understood why this was and now he is reflecting this into his relationship with Sohrab. He is trying to give him everything Hassan never had.

Overall, relationships are important throughout this novel as they are parallel to one another. There is a reason behind every problem and it just takes time for the truth to come out. Hosseini shows the struggles two brothers have and the battle for affection from a father in Afghanistan at the time, a father of such power.