Comparitive Essay on Japanese and Western European Feudalism Essay

?Amir continues to try to enlarge his ego. Teasing Hassan makes him feel better about himself. Amir does not feel like he is getting the one thing he wants in his life. He wants acceptance from Baba. Baba seems to favor Hassan, so Amir must establish that he is better than Hassan constantly. Baba says that he feels like he connects with Hassan better when he was talking to Rahim Khan. This is where most of Amir’s jealousy is derived from. Baba expresses his disapproval for Amir when he says, â€Å"If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son† (Kite Runner 23). Baba also says, â€Å"There is something missing in that boy† (Kite Runner 22). The other source of tension in Amir’s life is his relationship with Baba, his hard-driving and demanding father. Desperate to win his father’s affection and respect, Amir turns to the sport of kite flying, and at the age of 12, with the assistance of Hassan, he wins the annual tournament in Kabul. Amir’s victory soon is tarnished when he witnesses a vicious assault against his friend, who raced through the streets of Kabul to retrieve the last kite, Amir had sliced from the sky, and fails to come to his aid. Amir’s cowardness is compounded by a later act of betrayal that causes Ali and Hassan to leave their home, and he now faces the nightmare, bearing the burden of his poor choices for the rest of his life. Amir was haunted with demons from his childhood for his whole life. The one demon that stuck with him the most was the fact that he stood by and watched as his best friend and servant, Hassan, was raped by a boy named Assef. Hassan and Amir had known each other since birth and, â€Å"A kinship exists between people who’ve fed from the same breast† (pg.320). Even the major fact of Russia invading Afghanistan could not get his mind off the horror that he stood by and watched happen. Even him living in America for the remainder of his life did not distract him from knowing that he was the reason his best friend was sexually abused. He is haunted until the very end of the book when he goes back to Afghanistan to face †¦ Amir is clearly an emotionally unstable person, but his resentment towards Hassan is increased because of his own haunting guilt. This guilt that seems to be terrorizing Amir is caused by his experience of watching the rape of Hassan in the alley. Amir is so guilty that he can no longer be close to Hassan. Amir says, â€Å"I’d hear Hassan shuffling around the kitchen in the morning, hear the clinking of silverware, the whistle of the teapot. I’d wait to hear the door shut and only then I would walk down to eat† (Kite Runner 87). Amir has trouble facing his guilt. Amir’s guilt shows that he knows what he did was wrong. Amir refuses to renew his friendship with Hassan. Amir knows that he has done wrong because he says, â€Å"There was a monster in the lake. It had grabbed Hassan by the ankles, dragged him to the murky bottom. I was that monster† (Kite Runner 86). Amir eventually proceeds to the point where he can no longer deal with his everlasting guilt. Hassan is a clear representation of his guilt. Amir attempts to free himself from the guilt by getting the main representation out of his house. This is why he frames Hassan of stealing his watch; although this plan ultimately backfires and causes Amir even more personal anguish, it proves that he is an unstable and resentful person. Hassan was loyal to Amir through everything because that is the personality he was born with, because he grew up with Amir and looked up to him as a brother and a friend, not because he was born a Hazara and not simply because he was Amir’s servant. Amir never asked Hassan to do anything like that for him. This accentuated Hassan’s love and loyalty for Amir out of his own free will. When discovering that Hassan was Baba’s son, everything became clear to Amir: Baba’s affections for Hassan, Hassan’s undying love for his half-brother, Amir’s sibling rivalry and jealousy of Hassan, Amir’s betrayal of Hassan his own flesh and blood. It all just hit at once. The choices made by Amir and Hassan defined who they were and who they would become; Amir allows his original thoughts about Hassan to be tainted because he is a weak person. Although Amir and Hassan carved their names into a tree, Amir’s character complicates their ability to be best friends and their bond consists of a lopsided friendship. Both people associated in a friendship must act equally towards each other and they must hold love, loyalty, and trust for each other. Hassan was the beholder of all of these strong qualities that are necessary for the â€Å"best friend† relationship. Unfortunately Amir did not possess any of these qualities, and he did not realize all of his issues until he was informed that he was Hassan’s brother Rahim Khan called Amir back to Pakistan and told him that there was indeed â€Å"a way to be good again†(192). He gives Amir the opportunity to redeem himself by asking him to save Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Amir refuses at first and attempts to come up with excuses for himself to be able to turn Rahim down with out adding to his guilt. To convince himself that he wasn’t obligated to save Sohrab, he told himself that he had to be back home with his family and his job, but again the line that Rahim said played through Amir’s head. â€Å"There’s a way to be good again. † Amir knew that this was his last chance to earn his redemption and end his guilt (226). Amir had taken his guilt out on the very people that he had betrayed and then tried to run away from it all. To forget it. He realizes this and asks himself â€Å"what had I ever done to right things† (303). As Rahim says â€Å"Redemption comes when guilt leads to good. † You can may never fully get rid of the guilt or make right what has been wronged, but it is this guilt that motivates you to try. We see in his thought process just how motivated he is by guilt. As much as he doesn’t want to help Sohrab, he is drawn by the need for redemption, and the need to remove his guilt. This line running through his head over and over again shows just how much that guilt has driven him to yearn for things to be right and for himself to be good again. We don’t get to see Amir reach his point of redemption and we don’t get to watch him be completely relieved of his heavy laden of guilt. However the ending does leave us hopeful. Although nothing has been made right it was the beginning and leaves us with hope and the assurance that Amir is on his way to finding his redemption. Amir describes Sohrab’s lopsided smile at him being like the first snowflake melting in the spring, the first bit of good that had come out of his quest (371). Just the start of his slow process to redemption. What is the worst thing you have done to a friend or family member? Have you lied to them? Stolen from them? After the dreadful deed, did they forgive you? More importantly, did you forgive yourself? Regret and redemption are very important themes in the book The Kite Runner. Having regret for something can affect your whole life, as seen with the character, Amir. Through the development of Amir and his childhood friend, Hassan, Amir has to live with his regret and hope for redemption for the rest of his life.