Blog #1 (First Impressions of Amir)

In the novel, Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, we early on learn much about our main character Amir. Amir starts us off with a flashback, but without giving us any full details he shows us that he is hiding something, something from his past. He has been trying to hide this from himself and everyone else for the last 26 years. He gives us no more information than this, foreshadowing that we will later find out. Jumping back even further, we begin to learn about his childhood in Afghanistan. The way Amir talks seems to be reflective of where he has grown up, showing a certain prejudice against those who are not of Pashtun descent. Amir is very selective with his relationships it seems, because he tends to neglect his best friend many times. His best friend Hassan, also his servant, is a young boy that Amir had grown up with all his life, and they have come to be very close. Hassan would do anything for Amir, yet Amir appears not to be fulfilling his half of the friendship. Although they have know each other for their entire lives, Amir somehow still sees Hassan as an “illiterate Hazara” (Hosseini, 37) and the voice inside his head tells him that he is nothing but a filthy peasant who will never become more than that. This prejudice must come from the hours listening to his father, a man who feels great distaste for most of the country. Amir describes his Baba as a towering figure with tree trunk legs, and constantly talks of the great things he has done such as building the orphanage. At the same time, he feels neglect. When he has a talk alone with his father, sitting on his lap he admits that “it wasn't often Baba talked to [him], let alone on his lap-and [he'd] been a fool to waste it” (Hosseini, 19). It's as if Amir is struggling to live in the shadow of such a great man as his father, being much smaller and apparently much less intelligent than he. Amir is somewhat lost, and needs to find a way to his own happiness rather than trying to imitate that of his Baba's. I think Amir needs to get his priorities straight, stop neglecting his friend and become his own person. If his father chooses not to talk to him or make him feel important, than he he should do the same back. If Amir doesn't do something about this soon, I feel as if something bad is going to happen to Hassan, the event implied in the flashback, and it might just be at his fault or choosing.