Sunday, September 9, 2012

Does Amir have internal scars?

Amir has significant internal scars that haunt him as an adult. They stem from his traumatic childhood experiences and damaged relationships. As a child, Amir longs to have a loving relationship with his father, Baba. Amir wishes more than anything to gain his father's respect and earn his attention as a young boy. Tragically, Amir is not the masculine, athletic child his father always wanted, and Baba continually ignores Amir as a child. Baba constantly overlooks his son and seems to always favor Hassan over Amir, which negatively affects Amir's self-esteem and confidence. As a result of his father's callous nature and lack of admiration, Amir begins developing feelings of jealousy and envy toward his close friend, Hassan. Amir even begins teasing and tricking Hassan as a way to boost his self-esteem but always feels guilty afterward.
On the day of the kite-fighting tournament, Amir and Hassan take first place, and Hassan races to retrieve the enemy's blue kite. After a while, Amir searches for Hassan and sees him surrounded by Assef and his friends in a dead-end alley. Instead of intervening and defending Hassan, Amir watches at a distance as Assef rapes his friend. Following Hassan's rape, Amir cannot live with the guilt, and he even attempts to get Baba to kick Hassan out of the home by planting his toys in Hassan's bed. Unfortunately, Ali and Hassan decide to leave Baba's estate, and Amir eventually travels to America.
As an adult with a successful career, Amir begins losing sleep and is still haunted by his overwhelming guilt. Amir is interally scarred from passively watching Hassan get raped by Assef and then making Hassan leave his home under false pretenses. Fortunately, Amir gets a chance at redemption after receiving a call from Rahim Khan. Amir ends up traveling to Pakistan where he discovers that Hassan was his half-brother, which is astonishing news. Amir then agrees to travel to Kabul to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, in order to redeem himself for his past transgressions as a child. Amir ends up finding Sohrab, nearly loses his life in a brutal fight with Assef, and struggles to keep Sohrab alive in order to take him to America. By the end of the novel, Amir ends up healing his internal scars and atoning for his sins by sacrificing his life to save Sohrab.

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