For example, when Assef, the village bully, tries to set Amir straight for socializing with a Hazara boy named Hassan, (Amir’s best friend, housekeeper, and brother), Hassan comes to Amir’s rescue with his slingshot and threatens to shoot Assef with his slingshot if he hurts Amir. Preventing Assef from hurting Amir caused Assef to later seek revenge for Hassan’s courageous act. This is when the entire chain of violence is created in “The Kite Runner.” Revenge is another very important aspect of the story’s purpose. Without revenge, the violence would either occur once and end, or not occur at all. Assef’s revenge took place in front of Amir’s eyes as he “…unzipped his jeans, dropped his underwear.
In the novel ‘Ransom’ written by David Malouf, it shows the strength, bravery and also the frailty of Priam on his journey to bring home his son Hectors body from his killer Achilles. As a reader we come to see the importance of relationships and how much they can impact vengeance and wrath. Achilles learns to deal and overcome loss and mortality. There is continually an underlying presence of war and masculinity and storytelling throughout Ransom. Achilles loss of his brother affects his sanity and enrages him to an inhumane vengeance on Hectors body.
Sohrab's scars (both mental and physical) are a representation of the country of Afghanistan. During most of Amir's life, Afghanistan was constantly in a war with itself, repeatedly being ruled and reruled, the country was slowly falling apart. This is exactly what happens to Sohrab. Bad things keep happening to him until eventually he breaks down and tries to commit suicide. Sohrab is the living representation of the fact that a country (or a person) can only handle so much brutality and
Violence Even though Hosseini has stated that he wanted to remind people of a peaceful Afghanistan, he also does the service of revealing the suffering the nation has experienced in a quarter century of conflict. Violence pervades the novel, even in the seemingly innocuous activity of kite fighting. Not only is kite fighting violent because it is a kind of battle, but boys injure their hands when they participate. This fact suggests that Afghanistan has become a place where joy cannot exist separately from pain; Afghans' memories of their homeland are tainted with suffering. The entire novel centers around a single act of violence, Hassan's rape, and the sin Amir commits by pretending that violence did not occur.
The connections between Amir, Hassan and Sohrab are significant examples. Hassan risks his life to protect Amir when Assef picks up on him for playing with a Hazara, and later on, Sohrab also saves Amir’s live when they encounter Assef again. However, Amir doesn’t have the courage to stand up for Hassan when he was assault sexually by Assef. Amir’s guilt for letting that happens has led to his redemption for Hassan by trying to save Sohrab, Hassan’s son. Like father like son, Baba also falls on the same track of sin towards Ali, whom he sees as his brother.
This could be because Amir is a coward or because he sees Hassan as merely a servant. Nonetheless, he deceives a great friend. In addition to not helping Hassan during the rape, Amir also frames Hassan later on in the story by “lift[ing] Hassan’s mattress and placing [his] new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it” (Hosseini, Page 110). He does this because he wants to get rid of Hassan and, ultimately, the feelings of guilt that he brings with him. However, in doing so, he is deceiving someone who, under the same circumstances, would never do anything so hurtful.
It was Amir’s betrayal rather than the rape itself which destroys the relationship between Amir and Hassan and ultimately forces him to leave the home he grew up in. The betrayal of Amir ensured him (the adult Amir) to never forget Hassan's great loyalty and never stopped feeling guilty, which have him a strong reasons to repay the debt. Hassan’s loyalty is so great that it gives Amir the courage to stand up to Assef and endures the beating from him in order to save Hassan’s son. The quote on page 326 “I had played a cruel game with Hassan that day…I deserved it” said by Amir after rescuing
Pg 40 from; ‘It’s war. They’ve attacked’ to the end of the chapter. Comment on the importance of this extract and its relationship to the novel as a whole. Confusing and shocking, to the reader as much as the characters, this extract from ‘The Siege’ by Helen Dunmore is essential to the structure and development of the novel and also the novel as a whole. In this extract, Dunmore introduces war into the novel.
CONFLICTS * Najaf, the protagonist of the story is in conflict throughout the novel. He faces conflict in the war torn setting of Afghanistan, where violence is seemingly a way of life. He also faces conflict in the detention centre in Woomera amongst all refugees, partly in his fear of being sent home, and also in the trauma of being incarcerated. There is also personal conflict observed as he is separated from his family. Najaf’s personal journey also highlights a conflict between a nations global and humanitarian obligations against the need for border security and protection, and the need to preserve that countries own interests.
I ran it fairly” (P.77) and later got raped. Despite the consequences that Hassan was going to go through he believed that risking his life to satisfy Amir was worth giving up for than disappointing him. Near the ending of the book, Amir tries to redeem the broken bond between him and Sohrab. Amir used the kite in order to gain redemption, he flew the kite and used it in a battle against a local kid and won with the help of Sohrab. Right after Amir offered to run catch the kite for Sohrab and repeated the same quote that Hassan had said once, “For you, a thousand times over” (P.391).