...The Kite Runner Psychoanalytic criticism was first founded and developed by Sigmund Freud. Freud’s theories were mainly sexual deriving from the libido which is a colloquial term for the sex drive. Freud has many theories which are based on sexuality. One of his many theories includes the theory subconscious mind. This theory states that the ego is divided into three sections, the id, the ego and the superego. The id is the mind’s more primitive and impulsive part of the ego, where are the super ego is where all of our morals and values are placed. The ego is the part of the subconscious mind which mediates between the two. When making decisions we make them based on these two parts of our subconscious mind. Freud believed that the subconscious sexual drives were the bases for all human behavior, and that dreams were an important indicator for understanding human behavior. The kite runner is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini, which first takes place in the city of Kabul located in Afghanistan. It’s a story about a man who is named Amir who reflects on his past as a child in Afghanistan. Amir lived with his father, and his servants, ali and Hassan During that time period was a caste system in Afghanistan which was in place. Amir and his father were Pashtu, which is considered “pure” afghan. They were placed much higher than their servants Ali and Hassan who were Hazara. After a kite flying competition that Amir and Hassan attended together, Amir saw Hassan getting...
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...Comparative Literature 153: “International Cultures: Film and Literature” Dr. Thomas Jay Lynn * Penn State Berks * Fall 2015 * MWF 12:00-12:50 Franco 101 * Office Meeting Period MWF 1:15-2:15 (For an office meeting during this or a different time, please e-mail, phone, or speak to me in advance, if possible.) Office: 117 Franco * Office Phone: (610) 396-6298 * E-mail: TJL7@PSU.EDU Please note: This syllabus and various other course documents (including essay guidelines) will be posted online at our ANGEL course site. “I am proud of my humanity when I can acknowledge the poets and artists of other countries as my own. Let me feel with unalloyed gladness that all the great glories of man are mine.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore Course Overview Official Penn State description of CMLIT 153: “Comparison of narrative techniques employed by literature and film in portraying different cultures, topics may vary each semester.” This Fall 2015 offering of CMLIT 153, “International Cultures: Film and Literature,” focuses on cultural tensions in varied parts of the world. Among the tensions that these films and novels explore are ones that arise in relation to poverty and wealth (class tensions); changing female and male gender roles; concepts of love and marriage; family dynamics; traditional and modern identities; work and education; and shifting political realities. In your approach to the works considered in this course, moreover, please consider how such tensions...
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...Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the author gives many examples of father and son relationships that help prepare a boy to understand right from wrong. The emotional bond be-tween a father and son demonstrate the necessity of a fatherly figure. The relationships between Baba and Amir, Hassan and Sohrab, and Amir and Sohrab in The Kite Runner are examples of the emotional bonds that demonstrate the need for a father. To begin, Amir and Baba, the protagonist and his father, are a prime example of the fa-therly figure needed in one’s life. Baba and Amir are nowhere close to the expression “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Amir is nothing like his father, and this causes Baba to not be the great fatherly figure that Amir needs because he does not understand why Amir is so different from him. Baba has little emotional attachment to his son because of their differences, and he tells Rahim Khan, his friend and business partner, “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son.” Despite...
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...“Redemption” The Kite Runner Kati Hernandez 3/3/15 AP English 12 Period 1 Three Questions 1. Why do you think Baba refuses to refer to Ali as his friend? Is it the divide between servant and master? 2. Does a character like Assef even choose between good and evil? Could Assef be innocent in ways Amir is not? 3. Why doesn't Amir admire Rahim Khan as much as he admires his father? What does this tell us about admiration? Literary Criticism New historicism criticism insists that to understand a literary piece, readers need to understand the author's biography and social background. Every human action is actually the effect of a network of material practices. Every act of unmasking, critique and opposition uses the tools it condemns and risks falling prey to the practice it exposes. No discourse, imaginative, scientific, or archival, gives access to unchanging truths, nor expresses inalterable human nature. A critical method and a language adequate to describe culture under capitalism participate in the economy they describe. What makes a legend, is it someone who is a hero or someone who is infallible from making mistakes? In the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the character described as a legend is Baba. Seen as the most perfect figure to be looked at for its bravery, generosity and caring for others. His actions describe him better than words can, as he always defends others in time of need and stays loyal to his home and country...
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...Kite Runner vs. Poetry Key quotes: “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything” – Baba says this to Rahim Khan as a comment on the behaviour of Amir. Through this he identifies Amir’s greatest flaw: cowardice. It is this trait that leaves him desperately craving Baba’s love, and ultimately leads to be letting Assef rape Hassan. It also foreshadows Amir’s return to Kabul in search of Sohrab; the test of Amir’s character also tests whether Baba’s statement is true. “Huddled together in the dining room and waiting for the sun to rise, none of us had any notion that a way of life had ended” – This sentence appears towards the start of chapter five and indicates the fall of the monarchy and the descent of Kabul (and indeed Afghanistan) into political instability. The peaceful world Amir knows, made possible by Baba’s wealth, turns into one full of violence and uncertainty. It ultimately leads to Baba and Amir fleeing the country. “There is a way to be good again” – Rahim Khan says this to Amir over the phone when trying to encourage him to come to Pakistan and in the dialogue this appears like an afterthought. It reveals that Rahim Khan knows the truth about what Amir did to Hassan. It also ties into the theme of redemption, allowing the reader to believe that by returning to the Middle East, Amir will be given the opportunity to break the cycle of guilt he is trapped in. “My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but...
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...In one second, a life could change. One could make a decision- not thinking about consequences and living in the moment- and that decision could stay with them for a lifetime. These decisions can lead to guilt. Through the situations of Amir, Soraya, and Baba, in Khaled Hosseini’s, The Kite Runner, guilt is deemed to be associated with the past and can be challenging to overcome. Amir is a carrier of guilt in the novel and it is seen to be an obstacle. This weight on his shoulders keeps him from progressing forward. His guilt stems from when he was a young boy and witnessed Hassan’s rape and did not tell an adult. This stays with his for the rest of his life. First, Amir believes: “It’s wrong what they say about the past, […] how you can burry 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” (Hosseini 1). Guilt...
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...mental and emotional concepts. In correlation, scarring is defined as an infliction on the body that leaves an imprint on the physical and psychological on a person’s well-being. Throughout The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, the author displays the distress and strain on a few of the characters through various ways, counting physical, mental, and emotional agony. Ali, a notable character in the novel, suffers from physical deformities that Hosseini developed for his character. Ali, a Hazaran servant in house of Amir, suffers with congenital paralysis of his lower face. In fact, the story states “…Ali had a congenital paralysis of his lower facial muscles, a condition that rendered him unable to smile and left him...
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...George Schenkel Paper 4 Dr. Kenneth Hall Baba and the narrator live in Kabul. As he grows up, Amir is frustrated with his father's lack of attention. Rahim Khan is Baba's best friend and business partner. Amir mentions a picture of Baba, Rahim, and himself as a baby, his fingers curled around Khan's pinky and not his father's. Baba's servants, Ali and Hassan, live in a little hut near the main house. Ali suffers from paralysis of his lower facial muscles, and polio left him with a twisted right leg. Amir’s mom dies during childbirth- Hassan loses his mom a week after his birth (she leaves her son and husband). Hassan is born a year after Amir, and Baba arranges for the same nurse who fed his son to nurse Hassan. One of the many things that Baba becomes known for is building an orphanage. Amir shares that his relationship with his father is a combination of love and fear, mixed with a little bit of hate. Amir also shares with the reader what little information he has about his mother. One day, Amir and Hassan take a shortcut through the military barracks. A soldier insults Hassan because of his ethnicity. The difference between Shi'a Muslim and Sunni Muslims is explained at this time. The Shi'a Muslims are the Hazaras, the lower class, the servants. Ali and Hassan are Shi'a Muslims. The Pashtuns, the people of Amir and his father, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. Amir comforts Hassan after being insulted by the soldiers, but only when they are not in public. This...
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...Nothing Gold Can Stay Guilt. Cancerous almost, spreading through your body, manipulating your thoughts, working as a deterrent against any type of long term vivacity. As seen in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner one of the main themes is seeking redemption. Hosseini uses the motif of selflessness to show that in order to seek redemption and earn it, you must have the self-motivation deeper than other people pushing you (illustrated by Rahim Khan motivating Amir with his phone call). For most of the book, Amir has little self-confidence to achieve redeeming himself. It was an incredibly afflictive situation for Amir or any person to go through. Selflessness does not have a determined end or beginning; it happens when you’ve given your best...
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...In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the main character, Amir, is in a constant struggle between morality and immorality. The relationship between Amir and Hassan shows dominance on Amir’s part, which is obvious when Amir constantly puts blame on Hassan, when he left his friend to be abused by other men, and when he delivers the harshest blow by attempting to frame both Hassan and his father for stealing in order to get rid of Hassan. This obvious mistreatment towards his friend indicates both his lack of ethics and his selfishness, therefore causing ill feelings towards him. Whereas characters with similar personalities as Amir would become instantly disliked by all, his intense desire to win his father’s affection and approval evoke a sense of both sympathy and understanding. Furthermore, later in the novel, Amir’s apparent guilt and attempts at atonement make up, to a certain extent, for all of the wrongs he did in the past. The novel opens with the introduction of the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Right from the very beginning, Amir’s establishes the class distinction between them by stating that both Hassan and his father are the servants of Baba, Amir’s father; thus, Hassan is automatically ranked “below” Amir. Further showing his believed superiority, Amir refers to Hassan as a “Hazara,” though he doesn’t mean in a derogatory way until later in the novel. However, Amir does not really use that against him, as he seems his as more of a brother or friend...
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...The new reality in a survival situation is usually unbelievable and seems unapproachable to those within it, however, those willing to adapt and accept the new reality are the ones that survive and help the others in the end. Once again the book The Kite Runner shows the ability from the main character who finally accepts that his best friend, Hassan, was raped as a child and he did not help. This is a very slow process for Amir and the final acceptance happens in a very unlikely circumstance. When Amir goes to get Sohrab, after Hassan is dead, he has to get him from the Taliban and more specifically Assef, who ironically was the person who raped Hassan in their youth. This situation takes a turn for the worst rather quickly and Assef with his famous brass knuckles begins to beat up Amir, but Amir, even close to death, begins to laugh and thinks, “...for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even...
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...good again. Khaled Hussein’s The Kite runner the main character Amir guilt turns him into a better person. Amir transformed from someone who never stood up for anything one to some who does. In the beginning of the novel, Amir never treated his friend Hassan right. Amir watches his friend get rape. He never did anything about it. Amir was only thinking about himself. He tried to make his guilt go always by setting up Hassan and Ali. “I went downstairs, crossed the yard, and entered Ali and Hassan’s living quartes by the loquat tree. I lifted Hassan mattress and planted my new watch and handful of Afghani bills under it.”( Hosseini 102) Amir thought if he could get ready of Hassan his problem would have go away. Amir attempts to deal with his guilt by avoiding it. But doing this clearly does nothing toward redeeming himself, and thus his guilt endures. Even though t Amir knows he was wrong and was hurting everyone around him....
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...One person can affect the life of others. Who do you think is a legend? Is it someone who is a hero or exhibit super powers? Or is it someone who is infallible from making mistakes? Well, the character that was described earlier in the novel as a legend was Baba. He was seen as the most perfect figure to be looked at for its bravery, generosity and caring for others. His actions best describe him than words, as he always defended others in time of need and stayed loyal to his home and country when he migrated to America and he seemed as well to be the best father that anyone could have. But no one is perfect isn’t it? Not even legends? Therefore, I think that Baba in the end has made a lot of mistakes which contributed to many complications in the novel and so he turned out to be just like you and me, a human being. Baba was a physically imposing man, with a thick beard and unruly brown hair. He was strong and “capable of uprooting a willow tree” (Hosseini 12) and his black glare would “drop the devil to his knees begging for mercy” (Hosseini 12). One of the wealthiest men in Kabul, Baba loved throwing parties and hosting friends in his study the ‘smoking room.’ During his days in Kabul, he was a philanthropist, building an orphanage which he designed...
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...The Influence of the Past The past will forever be a part of the present, it affects who we become and how we live our lives. Depending on a specific past, future lives can be affected positively or negatively. In the novel The Kite Runner Baba, Amir and Hassan all had violent pasts which negatively impacted their future and how they viewed themselves and their lives. There was a point in each of their lives where their childhood ended with just one event. Amir watched his friend/brother get raped for the wellbeing of himself, Hassan’s mother left him when he was born mainly because of his appearance, and Baba and Amir lost a wife and mother at the time Amir was born. All these events attributed to a problematic childhood and future. Having a difficult past can limit how you perceive yourself, how you perceive others and how you look at life as a whole. In these following paragraphs I will discuss in detail about Hassan, Baba’s and Amir’s lives including specifics as to how their lives are different due to their intense emotional pasts. Facing rejection can be hard enough as is, however when the rejection comes from the one woman who brought you into this world, that’s when the real damage sets in. Hassan was merely a newborn boy when his mother rejected him the first time, for something so small, and for something he couldn’t control. After Sanaubar had given birth, she took “one glance at the baby in Ali's arms, [saw] the cleft lip, and barked a bitter laughter. [...]. She...
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...THE KITE RUNNER by KHALED HOSSEINI Published 2003 Afghan Mellat Online Library www.afghan-‐mellat.org.uk _December 2001_ I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. 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. One day last summer, my friend Rahim Khan called from Pakistan. He asked me to come see him. Standing in the kitchen with the receiver to my ear, I knew it wasn't just Rahim Khan on...
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