Raoul Khouri’s Response to Ryan C.

Ryan I completely agree on Amir’s relationship with his father. I think one of the big details you missed about their relationship is that Amir blames himself for the death of his mother, Baba’s wife. And maybe Baba blames Amir also. On top of this guilt, Amir does not live up to his genetic expectation. Baba is alpha male (there are stories of him wrestling a bear and winning), but Amir is the opposite. While Baba enjoys sports and action, Amir enjoys writing and reading. I can see how Baba likes Hassan because he sees more of himself in Hassan than in Amir. I can also see how Amir would be jealous of Hassan for gaining Baba’s affection. It must be hard for Amir to consciously accept his jealousy towards his slave. Hassan seems to be better than Amir in every way, even in the mind. This must break Amir because in his mind he is thinking, “this shi’a, this slave is better than me”. I too was happy that Amir won the kite tournament. But, I found it sad that Amir consciously believes that winning the tournament was the only way to gain his fathers affection. I actually believe that the scene with Hassan and Assef was foreshadowed repetitively. For example, Amir said, “that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling.”(Pg. 47.) We new something was going to go wrong during the tournament, and we new that there was tension between Assef and Hassan because of the slingshot scene. I was also disappointed with Amir, when he did not rescue Hassan. But I am wondering if Amir’s jealousy towards Hassan affected his decision to not help.