Practice Essay 2 Gurjot Singh
The Kite Runner, By Khaled Hosseini explores the relationships between family and friends during difficult times. It tells the story of Amir, a young boy living in Afghanistan in the time period shortly before the Russian invasion and takeover. It stresses his friendship with Hassan, a Hazara boy, and his longing for a less dysfunctional relationship with his father.

The Love and Tension between Fathers and Sons. Amir has a very complex relationship with Baba, and as much as Amir loves Baba, he rarely feels Baba fully loves him back. Amir’s desire to win Baba’s love consequently motivates him not to stop Hassan’s rape. Baba has his own difficulty connecting with Amir. He feels guilty treating Amir well when he can’t acknowledge Hassan as his son. As a result, he is hard on Amir, and he can only show his love for Hassan indirectly, by bringing Hassan along when he takes Amir out, for instance, or paying for Hassan’s lip surgery. In contrast with this, the most loving relationship between father and son we see is that of Hassan and Sohrab. Hassan, however, is killed, and toward the end of the novel we watch Amir trying to become a substitute father to Sohrab. Their relationship experiences its own strains as Sohrab, who is recovering from the loss of his parents and the abuse he suffered, has trouble opening up to Amir.

Amir and Baba, his father have a rather discounted relationship with one another. Amir finds himself constantly struggling to capture baba’s attention, and all of his attempts get constantly blocked out. Baba who’d rather have some adult time with Rahim khan, from Kabul. On the opposite side, we find Hassan and Ali, who take great care of each other, and share with one another all of their secrets. Hassan seems to have more of Baba’s attention than Amir himself does, which makes Amir slightly jealous of Hassan. Rahim Khan is kind of a midway point between the two adults for both of the boys. Neither of the two boys grew up with any sort of motherly figure in their lives. This lack of material love in a time when they both needed it clearly trouble the two. Amir is left with Baba when his mother died during childhood.

Baba is a rocky man who sees the world in black and write, and doesn’t do much to fill that void left by his wife. Hassan’s mother, Sanular ran away with a band of gypsies often she gave birth to him. Not only is she messing from Hassan’s life, she causes him and Ali much grief, as reputation is a very big thing in the Middle East, and as such around her suffers teasing, as we see when the soldiers tame Hassan near the cinema. This kind of situation remains between the boys, and the adults never find out about it,