Foibles in The Kite Runner Characters

Life is full of mistakes People make them all the time, and when an author is writing a book, they have to take that into account to make their characters more realistic and relatable to their audience In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini does a great job of giving a foible to each of his characters, including the teller of the story, Amir. Amir makes a lot of mistakes throughout this book, but two in particular that affect his life forevert The most obvious mistake that Amir makes is both not stopping Hassan’s rape and not telling anyone about it His reaction for not stopping it doesn‘t happen until his adult life, but his reaction to not telling anyone happens almost instantly Amir bottles it all up causing him to get sick and feel uncomfortable around Hassan every time he sees him.

In the beginning, right after it happened, it doesn’t seem Amir regrets not stopping it that much.

He more regrets seeing it happen than anything. He is getting the attention from Baba that he always wanted because he won the kite tournament But as we get into his adult life he really does start to regret it happening at alL One of the very first things he says in this book is, “That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I‘ve learned, about how you can bury it.

Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.

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”, It shows how much of a slave he has been to the idea of not stopping what happened to his closest childhood friend, and in the end, his brothert He finds it within himself to go try to save Hassan’s child and he ends up laughing at his beating because he really does think that’s what he deserves He says, “My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn‘t find out until laterfibut I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.” It shows a total shift from when it originally happened because Amir feared any punishment at all when he was a child, and now all he needed was the punishment to feel this healingr. That really does help to show how much Amir changed after Baba died, which leads us to the second mistake that the author weaves into this story: Amir thirsting for Baba‘s approval. Amir really does live his childhood trying to impress his father not ever knowing that he can’t fully impress him at all. He doesn‘t invite Hassan to go with him and Baba to the beach even though Baba said he should because it was Amir’s one chance to really get alone time with his father.

Amir also doesn‘t mention witnessing Hassan’s rape because he knows Baba would think he was a coward who can’t stand up for anything because “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.”(pg, 22) and at the time Baba for the first time was so proud of Amir for winning the kite tournament and Amir really didn‘t want to risk itt He really did lose his only friend in his crazy attempt to please his father, The last mistake the author slipped isn’t Amir or Hassan’s mistake, it’s actually the noble Baba himself, As was said before, Amir was thirsting for a relationship and a certain approval from Baba he didn‘t know he was never going to gett Why? Because Baba was so deep in his regret and shame about Hassan being his own child that he could never focus the energy towards his other child, Amir. Baba saw Hassan as the child he always wanted. Someone who was loyal to his friends and someone who stood up for himself and what he believed it. Someone who would do anything for the people he loved. Baba was so ashamed that he couldn’t publically show.

Hassan off as his own so he took it out on Amir because Amir didn’t have those same qualities Hassan had, he was a cowardice child, something Baba couldn‘t stand, Baba was blind to the fact that Amir loved him more than anything and spent his adult life regretting the child that was but couldn’t be called his own. In this way it made Baba what he so passionately disliked in a man It made Baba a coward There are plenty more small mistakes that the author dashed in throughout the pages of The Kite Runner but these three really do stick out and make the novel what it is. It shows that mistakes really are the universal truth to man That they are all lessons and that certain mistakes can become your lifestyle, as we see in Baba‘s case and in Amir’s will to only please his father. This novel if nothing is a wonderful presentation of how mistakes shape us, and how owning up to them can almost always do more good than had