In the novel The Kite Runner, there are many people in Amir’s life have helped to shape his character. Throughout his life, I think that Baba and Rahim Khan have shaped Amir’s growth an acted as his mentors. Even though Baba is Amir’s biological father, Amir thinks that Rahim Khan has the idealistic fatherly figure that he has longed for. I believe that father, is a very important role in the life of a child. A father is a person whose viewpoint is valued and respected. In many cases, father, is the one that a child will look up to. In this essay, I will write about how these two characters, Baba and Rahim Khan significantly influence and shape Amir’s attitudes, beliefs and values.
In the story, we can see that Rahim Khan is the one provides Amir with the foundation and encouragement that he needs from his father. During his childhood time, Amir looked up to Rahim Khan as the perfect father figure because Rahim Khan is always interested in Amir’s love for writing and encouraged him in whatever he does. It is from Rahim Khan’s love and compassion that we can see Amir thrive and grow as a person. We can see in the novel, Rahim Khan defends Amir relentlessly against the degrading remarks and desires of Baba for another child. For this reason, Amir recognizes this and is thankful that someone is on his side, he was delighted to be around the positivity and praise of Rahim Khan, compensating for his father’s lack of love and focus towards him. This can be seen in the scene where Rahim Khan offers to read Amir’s story when Baba rejected it. “As always, it was Rahim Khan who rescued me. He held out his hand and favored me with a smile that had nothing feigned about it.” (Pg. 34) The word “rescued” here gives insight into the feelings and emotions that Rahim Khan makes him feel and from the gesture of “holding his hand out” symbolizes that Rahim Khan is always there for Amir.
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Another example is where Rahim Khan asks for the book, “May I have it, Amir Jan? I would very much like to read it.’ Baba hardly ever used the term of endearment ‘jan’ when he addressed me.” (Pg. 34) This particular scene shows the affection of Rahim Khan for Amir by using the word ‘jan’ as well as his loving, fatherly disposition in taking interest in and celebrating Amir’s success, telling him he will be a great writer with great talent. The loving nature of Rahim Khan enables Amir to grow up being loved and accepted. It also gave him enough conviction that he was good enough to have something in life and to strive for it. Therefore, to the audience, this scene shows Baba lacks love and compassion, thus making Rahim Khan Amir the fatherly idealistic character in the story. Thus, I think that Rahim Khan is a prime example of a character who influenced Amir’s early life outlook as he shows support by respecting, defending, praising and encouraging in Amir’s interest and promoted him with perseverance and change in his life.
Unlike the method of raising Amir by Rahim Khan, Baba’s technique is way much harsher and bitter. To me, a father-son relationship creates a strong emotional connection that shapes all personalities. In a son’s eyes, a father is a role model, a prodigy. Amir’s relationship with his father, Baba, influenced Amir’s perceptions significantly and shaped his beliefs and morals because of the ideas and feelings he instilled in Amir. This contrast leads Amir continually strive to assimilate the character of his father. It destroys Amir’s view of himself and dramatically reduces his self-esteem and confidence. In the novel, Baba’s negligence causes Amir to take away from his dear friend Hassan his disappointment and resentment. At the beginning of the novel, Amir describes an event from his past, saying “I wanted Baba all to myself…one time at Ghargha Lake, Hassan and I were skimming stones and Hassan made his stone skip eight times.
The most I managed was five. Baba was there, watching, and he patted Hassan on the back. Even put his arm around his shoulder.” (Pg. 15) The insecurity and selfishness of Amir if evident in the quotation “I wanted Baba all to myself”, the use of “wanted all to myself” suggests that Amir longed for his undivided attention. It also suggests that Amir views Hassan as a threat and shows how immature and selfish Amir is in the story. Furthermore, because of their completely different personalities and interests, the distance Baba created in their relationship led Amir to feel inadequate as his son, thus affecting the way Amir treated others around him. There is a scene where Baba expresses to Rahim Khan his disbelief that Amir is his own son: “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.” (Pg. 25) The word “if” and the phrase “pull him out of my wife” show Baba’s concerns about his biological relationship with his son. Moreover, the word “never” depicts the unbelief of Baba, illustrating a disassociation and lack of connection.
However, Amir’s need to feel respected and loved by his father led him to ignore those close to him, particularly Hassan. This can be seen as Amir sees Hassan being attacked in an alleyway; however, his main concern was not to save Hassan, but to caption the kite to gain the approval of his father: “But there were two things amid the garbage that I couldn’t stop looking at: One was the blue kite resting against the wall, close to the cast-iron stove; the other was Hassan’s brown corduroy pants thrown on a heap of eroded bricks.”(Pg. 82) The internal dialogue, instead of helping his loyal friend out, emphasizes his priorities, that his most important thing is to please his father. “Resting kite” and “throwing pants” here show and symbolize the two different choices Amir had to make; which is a decision between being a coward or a hard yet right thing to do. It is therefore clear that the distance created by Baba in his relationship with Amir influenced his attitudes, beliefs and values, and also the way he treated others, thereby affecting his behaviour and treatment of others.
Although both characters affected the early development of Amir in two completely different ways, they were able to influence the manner in which Amir turned out to be an adult. Baba is a man who has high expectations of his son compared to Rahim Khan who is very compassionate and always positive and encouraging Amir to aspire for his best despite he is not Amir’s father. Therefore, it is obvious that the values and beliefs of Amir are formed by both Baba and Rahim Khan, but in different ways. Amir knows that his father is constantly disappointed by his interests and nature, which makes him believe he is worthless whereas for Rahim Khan who makes Amir feel driven and motivated, for he is kind and supportive to Amir.
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