Character Development

Describe in detail the THREE most important things which happen to Amir which cause him to change his attitude to life. Find quotation and detail from the text to support your argument. I think that the three most important events in the book that effect Amir’s character is.. 1) When he watches Assef rape Hassan. This while it does not effect Amirs’s character in a positive way, still has a profound effect on him. He is wracked with guilt that haunts him though his life. It is a ‘metaphorical demon’ that he must face. After allowing Hassan to be raped, Amir is not any happier. On the contrary, his guilt is relentless, and he recognizes his selfishness cost him his happiness rather than increasing it. â€Å"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. † To the reader, the quotation functions as a teaser. It piques the reader’s interest without revealing exactly what Amir is talking about, and from the time period Amir mentions, twenty-six years, the reader gets an idea of just how important this moment was. As the story unfolds, we realize that the deserted alley Amir refers to is where Hassan was raped, and that this event has largely defined the course of Amir’s life since. This is what Amir means when he says that the past continues to claw its way out. Try as he might to bury it, he was unable to because his feelings of guilt kept arising. As a result, he figuratively continues peeking into the alley where Assef raped Hassan, literally meaning that he keeps going over the event in his mind. â€Å"I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. † When Amir says this, toward the end of Chapter 7, he has just watched Assef rape Hassan,and rather than intervene, he ran away. Amir says he aspired to cowardice because, in his estimation, what he did was worse than cowardice. If fear of being hurt by Assef were the main reason he ran, Amir suggests that at least would have been more justified. Instead, he allowed the rape to happen because he wanted the blue kite, which he thought would prove to Baba that he was a winner like him, earning him Baba’s love and approval. The price of the kite, as Amir says, was Hassan, and this is why Amir calls Hassan the lamb he had to slay. He draws a comparison between Hassan and the lamb sacrificed during the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha to commemorate Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son to God. In this context, Hassan was the sacrifice Amir had to make to get the kite and ultimately to gain Baba’s affection. 2) the discovery of Sohrab. Once Amir has married and established a career, only two things prevent his complete happiness: his guilt and his inability to have a child with Soraya. Sohrab, who acts as a substitute for Hassan to Amir, actually becomes a solution to both problems. Amir describes Sohrab as ‘looking like a sacrificial lamb’during his confrontation with Assef, but it is actually himself that Amir courageously sacrifices. In doing this, as Hassan once did for him, Amir redeems himself, which is why he feels relief even as Assef beats him. Amir also comes to see Sohrab as a substitute for the child he and Soraya cannot have, and as a self-sacrificing father figure to Sohrab, Amir assumes the roles of Baba and Hassan. 3)The confintation with Assef. My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed. † This quotation occurs during Amir’s meeting with Assef as he tries to find Sohrab in Chapter 22. Assef beats Amir with brass knuckles, snapping Amir’s ribs, splitting his lip and busting his jaw, and breaking the bone beneath his left eye, but because Amir feels he deserves this, he feels relief. He thinks he should have accepted the beating from Assef years ago, when he was given the choice of saving Hassan—and likely getting physically hurt—or letting Assef rape Hassan. Since that time, Amir has struggled with his guilt, which was only made worse by the fact that he was never punished for his actions. He had even gone looking for punishment in the past, as when he tried to get Hassan to hit him with the pomegranates, because he felt then there would at least be some justice for the way he treated Hassan. But Amir’s guilt lingered until his confrontation with Assef, which despite the physical pain, made him feel psychologically healed. Thus, while Assef beat him, he began to laugh. For each of these ‘life lessons’, describe how Amir changes /what he learns. (How is Amir different at the end of the novel)? 1)The rape, at first,does not have a positive outcome to Amir’s personality. But it was a cross road. The rape made Amir wake up to the true world. Because he chose not to help the guilt haunts him. This guilt is the metaphorical demon of Amir. If it wasn’t for this guilt Amir would have never found the motivation to help Sohrab. The book is about redemption, redemption of this guilt. But because he feels guilt about the rape, and how it has troubled him for the past 26 year shows how deeply he actually cared about Hassan. The raep motivates him though out the book to try and find a way to redeem himself to face down his demon. 2)The discovery of Sohrab gives Amir away to redeem himself for his past sins. He is to Amir â€Å"a sacrificial lamb† Because of this he becomes truly determined and dedicated to Sohrab. And the man he becomes through helping him is a man to be admired. 3)His confintation with Assef is to AMire a way to pay for his sins. Completely get ride of them. A way to ‘heal’ himself. This is where the man at the end of the book, a good man, comes into being. What do you think about Amir? Do you admire him or not? Explain why you feel like this? The central character of the story as well as its narrator, Amir has a privileged upbringing. His father, Baba, is rich by Afghan standards, and as a result, Amir grows up accustomed to having what he wants. The only thing he feels deprived of is a deep emotional connection with Baba, which he blames on himself. He thinks Baba wishes Amir were more like him, and that Baba holds him responsible for killing his mother, who died during his birth. Amir, consequently, behaves jealously toward anyone receiving Baba’s affection. His relationship with Hassan only exacerbates this. Though Hassan is Amir’s best friend, Amir feels that Hassan, a Hazara servant, is beneath him. When Hassan receives Baba’s attention, Amir tries to assert himself by passive-aggressively attacking Hassan. He mocks Hassan’s ignorance, for instance, or plays tricks on him. At the same time, Amir never learns to assert himself against anyone else because Hassan always defends him. All of these factors play into his cowardice in sacrificing Hassan, his only competition for Baba’s love, in order to get the blue kite, which he thinks will bring him Baba’s approval. The change in Amir’s character we see in the novel centers on his growth from a selfish child to a selfless adult. After allowing Hassan to be raped, Amir is not any happier. On the contrary, his guilt is relentless, and he recognizes his selfishness cost him his happiness rather than increasing it. Once Amir has married and established a career, only two things prevent his complete happiness: his guilt and his inability to have a child with Soraya. Sohrab, who acts as a substitute for Hassan to Amir, actually becomes a solution to both problems. Amir describes Sohrab as looking like a sacrificial lamb during his confrontation with Assef, but it is actually himself that Amir courageously sacrifices. In doing this, as Hassan once did for him, Amir redeems himself, which is why he feels relief even as Assef beats him. Amir also comes to see Sohrab as a substitute for the child he and Soraya cannot have, and as a self-sacrificing father figure to Sohrab, Amir assumes the roles of Baba and Hassan. So in conclusion I did not like Amir’s character at the bigining but I could understand it. On His path to redemption I admire him for just how much he did to achive his goal. His character at the end I truly admire,here is a man who made him self suffer for years and after reliving himself of that guilt is a truly better man. One that I am sure Baba would be proud of.