It could be said that he ‘stood up’ for his father in the conflict with the Nguyens, by resolving the problem diplomatically.Īnother example was when he ‘stood up for himself’ in relation to his own interests when he went against Baba’s hopes and expectations and chose to “make up stories” after graduating. Amir knows best about his own physical weaknesses, so his way of ‘standing up’ is not through violence. That, together with his quiet and studious nature that he probably inherited from his mother, gives him a more calm and systematic approach to solving problems. The novel that Amir is an intelligent person. ” Amir admits that he is afraid, but despite that he manages to talk back to Assef, as bravely as he possibly can, as it is the only thing he is capable of doing. On the first occasion when they had confronted Assef’s gang, Amir said that “Hassan retreated behind me as the three older boys closed in. In spite of his disapproving environment, his father’s disappointment, and his own criticism, a tiny flame burnt within him from childhood all the way to adulthood. Nevertheless, Amir had also had his corageous moments. Because of this, when put in difficult situations, he would tell himself that “Baba was right” and use it as his cliche excuse: “You’re gutless. This pitiful mentality seeped into Amir’s way of thinking in relation to “standing up for himself”, as he accepted and submitted to Baba’s judgement of himself: a weakling and a coward. Many a time Amir would compare himself to Baba “I hadn’t turned out like him”, or to Hassan “I wasn’t just slower than Hassan but clumsier too”, and in every case he would negate himself. ” Hosseini shows in his novel that Amir’s lack of experience in facing his own problems, in addition to his father’s negative view of himself, caused a rather serious inferiority complex within him, which continually reoccured in the course of his lifetime. ” Having grown up with such sturdy protection, it would be quite reasonable to say that Amir ‘can’t stand up for himself’, rather than “won’t stand up for himself. In each nasty little crisis that Amir lands in, from minor bullying to the more serious threats, Hassan “steps in and fends them off. In addition to that, he had Hassan backing him up in almost every other situation. The results are quite obvious – at school he was “spared the metal rod treatment”, and in Amir’s own words, it was also “the sole reason, I believe, Assef had mostly refrained from harassing me too much. He lived as a boy under the wing of his father’s fame and influence, gaining attention and respect as “Baba’s son”. In the course of his childhood, Amir had not been given many chances to ‘stand up for himself’. In spite of not being trained to do so, he had ‘stood up’ for himself, and for others, but in a more cautious and diplomatic way in contrast to Baba’s strong and heroic idea of ‘standing up’. However, through the course of the novel Hosseini reveals that Amir was not such a weakling as viewed by his father. ” Having heard that statement, Amir stamped himself as a coward, often using it as an excuse. When he was a child, Baba had said about him in relation to neighbourhood bullying, “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything. One of Baba’s main concerns in The Kite Runner is Amir’s attitude when facing crisis in his life.
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