Camille Kelleher
After the scene when Amir watches Hassan get raped by Assef
and his friends, my opinion of Amir has become increasingly more distasteful.
During the initial few pages of the book, the author described a brotherhood
between Amir and Hassan that would last an eternity, or so it seemed. I started
to dislike Amir when he didn’t protect Hassan when Hassan said, “For you a
thousand times over” before he ran for Amir’s winning prize, the blue kite. My
disappointment in Amir grew larger when Amir avoided Hassan, especially during
a time that Amir should have been taking care of Hassan and helping him
recover. I couldn’t believe that Amir wouldn’t even play with Hassan anymore,
especially when Hassan somewhat recovered. Near the end of chapter 8, I
couldn’t even tolerate Amir when he constantly feels bad for himself about not
standing up for Hassan. Then, he doesn’t apologize and take action when Assef
and Wali bully Hassan during Amir’s birthday fireworks. I hate Amir because his
character, personality, and decisions are all motivated by his pursuit to
achieve Baba’s attention and acceptance. I believe that Baba is the antagonist
in this story.
Amir is
constantly worried about proving himself as worthy to Baba. Amir’s motivation
in life is concentrated on Baba, and he gives up his “brotherhood” with Amir
for that fault. Baba’s role as an antagonist became clear when he referred to
Assef in the same terms as he does with his son Amir. This moment is
heartbreaking for Amir because Assef seems like the perfect child to Baba and
even resembles the younger version of Baba, however; Assef’s cruelty is
undisputable as he compares himself to Hitler. Amir has lost to a boy who is
the epitome of evil. This will only push Amir even further to win over Baba,
its like Baba controls Amir’s perception of the world.
Amir has an
insightful conversation with Rahim Khan about his relationship with a girl that
he almost married except Rahim lost her to societal conventions. To Amir, the
world separates the Hazaras and the wealthy and therefore he doesn’t have to do
anything to save Hassan. Amir has given into the unfair and unequal world. I
don’t think that this is different from the Holocaust. Hitler distinguished
between the Jewish and everyone else and tried to free the world of Jews. This
is how Assef feels about the Hazaras and Amir has given into that perspective
when he doesn’t stand up for Hassan. Amir isn’t aware of this because he is too
focused on winning over Baba that he gives up his friendship with Hassan and
even hurts him while doing so.
I agree with Camille that Baba is the antagonist. After reading her post, I realized that as good of a man as Baba is portrayed as, he is the root of Amir’s actions, decisions, and thoughts. All he ever thinks about is Baba and how he will react, or how much attention he will give Amir, and this is because Baba has always resented Amir for his imperfections. Amir also becomes increasingly odious to me, and I hate the decisions he makes regarding his situation with Hassan. I guess the reason he avoids Hassan is because he can barely look him in the eye after betraying him, and because Hassan is just a reminder of how much of a shitty person Amir is. Nevertheless, that is not an excuse for the way Amir treats Hassan, who has always done nothing but be a loyal friend to him.
ReplyDeleteAmir is just a weak, unintelligent person despite all of the knowledge he has on physics and math and so on. His way of making sense out of things is childish and as Camille says, he gives into this illogical and corrupt way of life. By betraying Hassan he shows that his personality leans more towards that of Assef’s rather than Hassan’s, and we understand that Amir accepts this separation of people for unjust reasons simply because it is easier than to fight against it.