Thursday 21 April 2016

Chapters 1-10: How I Feel About Amir's Character

        In The Kite Runner so far, I have seen Amir's character develop, negatively, because of his lack of morality, hurting the people around him, as the book proceeds. In his destructive path, he has teased Hassan's intelligence, stood by while Hassan got raped by Assef, and even tried to set Hassan up when his guilt consumed him.
        The first time I questioned Amir's morality and character was when he was reading to Hassan, and he teased him about his limited vocabulary. While reading, Hassan asked what the word 'imbecile' meant, so Amir, knowing the meaning of the word, says, "When it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile" (Hosseini 31). Amir makes the word 'imbecile' seem like a good thing, manipulating him. He doesn't care about actually teaching Hassan the meaning of words, he doesn't know, because he enjoys having the upper hand, lying to him, and exposing Hassan's ignorance for his own amusement. This shows me that he has no ethics, he doesn't care that he is mean or that he is taking advantage of the boy he considers a brother, he just wants to have a few minutes of fun.
        Later on in the novel, after winning the kite tournament, Hassan goes to catch the blue kite for Amir. Then he started looking for Hassan, since he was gone for a long time, and then to his shock, he witnessed Hassan being tormented by Assef, the neighborhood bully. He stood there and watched until Assef started raping Hassan, and Amir "had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who [he] was going to be. [He] could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan--the way he'd stood up for [him] all those times in the past--and accept whatever would happen to [him]. Or [he] could run. In the end, [he] ran. [He] ran because [he] was a coward" (82). This moment shows me he is a coward and he doesn't value Hassan enough, as a person, to help him in a time he really needed help. I understand he was in a very dangerous situation, but he could've at least got help and/or told someone. He did neither, he watched and ran, and didn't tell a single soul. His lack of morality, in this case, changed Hassan's life, negatively, forever.
        Continuing onto Amir's destructive path, after witnessing Hassan's rape, he was consumed with guilt, but never did anything about it. He lied to Ali and Baba about what happened to Hassan, he started avoiding Hassan, and even developed sleeping problems. Then he decided that Hassan had to leave since he wouldn't be able to move on from his horrible choice, if he would keep seeing him. He hatched a plan that he would set Hassan up to make it look like he stole from him, so he "lifted Hassan's mattress and planted [his] new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it" (110). This act, all the lying, manipulating, and pain Amir caused, shows me that Amir is unethical and a horrible person. He ruined a brotherhood because of his bad choices and morality, and the only thing he is worried about is the fact that he isn't getting punished. He doesn't care about Hassan's broken life, he just wants to stop feeling guilt.
        In conclusion, I have bad feelings towards Amir's character and choices that he has made, so far, throughout the book. His lack of morality has caused pain to Hassan, Ali, and even Baba. In a sense I hope he never gets punished for the bad things he has done, so the guilt can eat at him, but at the same time I hope that Baba finds out so he can see what a horrible person his son truly is.
       

2 comments:

  1. I agree that Amir has made many mistakes which as a result, lead us to believe he is a bad person. However, sometimes we have to take into consideration that he is, in fact, a child and may not know any better. At only 12, he is confronted with a situation that a child probably wouldn't be exposed to at his age, so I feel like he was so overwhelmed with it that he didn't know what to make of the situation in that moment in time.

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