The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini: The Figure Of Father Baba
Most parents have parenting styles and techniques that differ from each other. Despite this, parents have one thing in common; their profound love for their children. With a love such as this, a parent only wants the best for their child and sometimes neglects the emotional aspect of their relationship in order to provide for their children. For instance, in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, Baba, a wealthy businessman in Afghanistan demonstrates his love to his son Amir by working hard to make sure he has everything he needs to live a middle-class life. Even so, Amir still isn’t satisfied with his relationship with his Baba. In The Kite Runner, the character of Baba is a failure as a father, reminding us that parenting must go beyond simply providing materialistic goods, and must be rooted in emotional support.
One of the most important characteristics of a good father is supportiveness. Without this, a child can become discouraged and unmotivated to achieve great success. Throughout Khaled’s story, it is evident that Baba is not a very supportive father. He is described in the novel as brave, tough and very masculine, it was also rumoured that he wrestled a bear and survived. Amir definitely is not a very tough, athletic boy like his father, yet he is very passionate about literature and is quite literate himself. This makes it hard for Baba to relate to his son, “He’s always buried in those books or shuffling around the house like he’s lost in some dream…I wasn’t like that. ’ Baba sounded frustrated, almost angry”. This shows that Baba is not a very supportive father and is very unimpressed with Amir. Baba should not ruin his relationship with his son over something that is not controlled by Amir, he should be supportive even if he is nothing like the other kids. Baba also disagrees with Kassam 3Amir’s decision to follow his dreams of becoming a writer and studying literature, rather than studying law or medicine. The fact that Baba is frustrated by Amir following his dreams to be happy demonstrates that he does not really care for Amir’s interests because he does not see a reflection of himself in Amir. Baba is unsupportive of the fact that his son wants to pursue his passion for writing by majoring in English, “ ‘Wah wah! So, if I understand, you'll study several years to earn a degree, then you'll get a chatti job like mine, one you could just as easily land today, on the small chance that your degree might someday help you get. . . discovered. ’ He took a deep breath and sipped his tea. Grunted something about medical school, law school, and ‘real work”. This shows that due to the fact that Baba is not satisfied with Amir’s goals and Amir wants to be like his father, this will eventually lead to many obstacles in Amir’s journey to success as a writer.
Being a successful parent requires giving your children the affection necessary, otherwise it will affect their character in the future mentally, emotionally and physically. Baba may have work to do to provide for Amir, but being there with him and loving him like a father is just as important, if not more beneficial than working to pay for maids and servants. If his father had shown more affection, Amir would not have acted out in order to attract more attention from his father. It has been detailed very clearly that Amir is nothing like his father, which is the reasoning behind their dull relationship. In contrast, Baba is interested in Amir’s servant Hassan, which could be expected considering how much Baba shows his affection towards Hassan. For one, taking Hassan to surgery to fix his cleft lip is not cheap, “‘Oh, ’ Hassan said. He looked from Dr. Kumar to Baba to Ali. His hand touched his upper lip. ‘Oh, ’ he said again. ‘It’s an unusual present, I know, ’ Baba said. ‘And probably Kassam 4not what you had in mind, but this present will last you forever”. This connection between Hassan and Baba causes Amir to be jealous which then leads to him making poor decisions. He has always wanted the relationship that Hassan has with Baba, and even though Hassan is not purposely bonding with Baba, Amir takes it out on him. Amir may have not done anything to Hassan but it is what he didn’t do that left Hassan in danger, “I was afraid of getting hurt. That’s what I told myself as I turned my back to the alley to Hassan. That’s what I made myself believe. 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”. This shows that because Baba ignored Amir and was more interested in Hassan, Amir's character changed negatively when it came to making decisions. Because of Amir’s jealousy, him and Hassan's relationship began to fall apart. This determines that if children lack affection, their personality will modify itself depending on their environmental circumstances causing them to act irrationally.
Parents often feel pressured to set a good example for their children, since kids are influenced by their parents’ character and actions. In Amir’s case, he only has one parent to look up to. Amir tries really hard to be like his Baba, but fails because they do not share similar interests. Baba is not exactly the best role model to Amir and throughout the novel he has proven to be a hypocrite. Mainly, it is not very fair to be upset at your child for not being perfect when you are not perfect yourself. Baba gives a speech to Amir about sin, “There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft… When you kill a man, you steal a life, ‘Baba said. ‘You steal his wife’s right to her husband, his Kassam 5children’s right to a father. When you tell a lie you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness… There is no act more wretched than stealing!”. This implies that Baba is trying to tell Amir that lying is the worst sin of all, ignoring the fact that he was stealing Amir’s right to a brother. Being a hypocrite is a great fault as a father because when Amir found out I’m sure he lost much of his respect that he held for his Baba. In this way, Baba has disappointed Amir by lying to him after teaching him that lying is the worst sin of all, which causes Amir to question his virtue, hence, Baba being a failure as a father.
In conclusion, Baba has proven throughout the novel to be a poor father figure towards Amir. He is not loving to his son but rather to his sons best friend. He is unsupportive of his own sons dreams and also omits information that could be life altering to Amir. These characteristics show that good parenting goes beyond providing materialistic goods and must be rooted in emotional support.
