The historical fiction novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini portrays a young Amir, who Throughout the story, faces many internal problems. He goes through a "tough love" relationship with his father, he faces problematic relationship with his best friend, Hassan,(and his guilt), he faces his fathers death, and he, in the end, faces all the problems that he ran away from in the past.
Amir, first of all, faces his father, who seems to show more fatherly love to Hassan than to Amir. He does not show much affection to Amir who yearns for his love and works hard to it. For example, he tries and wins the kite running tournament because his father shows a hint of encouragement that he might twin this year's contest. While competing, he sees his father standing on top of a roof, pumping his fists, rooting for him. He had finally saw proof of his father's love and he is happy. He avoided ever facing his father. He went on through life, taking his advice and sometimes neglect. California changed things. His father, with the absence of Hassan, began to bond with Amir and treat him more as a close son. Amir likes this, and never really had to confront his problem, America fixed it. This is so because in America, Baba didn't really have the pressure of being the great man everyone saw him as; he could go through life being like a normal citizen because in California, all the Afghans started out the same: In america, Amir suggested going back to Afghanistan to his father,
"'You were happier there, Baba. It was more like home,' I said
'Peshawar was good for me. Not good for you.'" (page 129)He shows that he will sacrifice for his son, and suffer in order to give Amir what is best for him.
His relationship with Hassan started as any normal friendship would be. Amir struggles through a complicated friendship with his servant’s son, Hassan. Their relationship starts off like normal one; they play and make mischief together all the time, but, strangely, Hassan always takes the blame for all the troubles they cause together. It seems like Hassan knows his place as Amir’s servant, but doesn’t let it come in their friendship’s way. On the other hand, as Amir grows older, he begins to realize the differences between him and his best friend. They come from two different races, they come from different ends of the social ladder, and have different traits (Hassan is athletic and Amir is educated). After Hassan's rape, Amir begins to feel guilty that he hadn't done anything to help his best friend out. He has an internal conflict overtime he hangs out with his best friend because he is constantly reminded of what he did not do. He tries to get Hassan to pelt him with pomegranates, as if he was getting his revenge, but that does not work. After Hassan proves himself unable to inflict any physical harm to him, Amir feels as though it is hopeless to get Hassan to take revenge on him, and he won’t let go, so He finally figures that being away from Hassan, running away from his problems, would solve it. And so Amir sends him off by framing him for stealing his watch. His whole life is lived in the shadow of the mistakes of not helping Hassan, throwing pomegranates at him, and expelling him from his life.
He then faces his father's death. His father, although he didn't show it often, loved him very much. He said that Amir lets others fight for him, and even Amir, himself, admits this. He leans on Baba throughout his whole life, and is not ready to let go. He recalls that in the ambulance, he felt powerless, unable to do anything to help his father. He had no idea what to do. His father survived that visit to the hospital but he was diagnosed with cancer. Baba went on living, getting weaker little by little, continuing to treat Amir well, and soon past. After his father dies, he is unsure of how he would survive on his own. Luckily, he married Soraya before his father died. She was always there to help Amir through life, taking the place of Baba.
Throughout his whole life, Amir avoids actually facing his problems. He expels Hassan from his life, running away from his troubles. He flees Afghanistan, leaving his home country in it's time of need (according to the people who stayed), when the wars became worsened. And later, when his father dies, he doesn't face living alone, or overcoming his loneliness, Baba is replaced by his wife, Soraya, who, like Baba, gives him advice and love.
Finally, once he finally returns to Afghanistan, he is flooded with the many problems he has left behind. The most obvious was the problem with Hassan's son. Since he feels as though he is in debt to Hassan, he has an urge to do what his heart tells him to do, but his heart tells him not to. He finally faces his problem after many, many years, and goes to save Hassan's son, Sorhab, and feels better. Once he faces his conflict within himself, he instantly feels better, after all the years of guilt that he bubbles up inside of him. He also do this by admitting his whole story to Soraya, a story he never admitted to anyone. He is also faced with his childhood towns and life turned to rubble. He grew up living in these towns, playing in these towns, and eating in these towns, but when he returns, his once beautiful, great childhood environment completely destroyed and all the culture left crushed. The incident of overcoming his internal conflict made him stronger, and he was able to endure this, the destruction of his childhood country, as well as the beating he received from Assef:
"I don't at what point I started laughing, but i did. It hurt to laugh... But i was laughing and laughing."(page 289)Amir laughed because he was finally free from his burden on guilt. He freed himself through standing up for himself, and fighting his battles, not running away, or having someone else fight them for him. Facing his own problems welcomed Amir into manly-hood.
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