At this point in your assigned reading you are halfway through the plot of The Kite Runner. We haven't yet reached the climax of the story, so the conflict is still developing. I'd like to know what you consider the main conflict of this story. What two forces are at odds? Support/explain your answer with textual evidence.
*If you've already finished the book or are close to finishing, you can still answer this question, just try not to reveal support that exists beyond page 189 OR write "Spoiler Alert" in all caps at the beginning of your post so that other classmates know what they're getting into before they read your post.
Right now, I think the main conflict of the story is within Amir himself. I think the conflict is whether or not Amir can push away his past and move on with his life without settling his past with Hassan. Throughout the entire book so far, I feel like everything is connected to Hassan. As we have stated before, Amir is telling this story as an older man which could affect some of his statements, but I still think the entire conflict is within Amir about his past. For example, Amir brings up the saying, "For you, a thousand times over" (2). Hassan said these words right before he went to chase the kite and got raped. I think this is a constant reminder for Amir that his past still haunts him. Amir also thinks of Hassan once grown up and in the United States. He does not seem to mention Hassan's name as much, but when he goes through a big event, his mind wonders to where Hassan is at that point in time. For example, Amir states, "And I remember wondering if Hassan too had married." (171). Before Amir said he did not remember much of the wedding night, but he does remember thinking of Hassan which shows he is still connected and haunted by the past. Lastly, Amir thinks he is being punished when him and his wife cannot produce a child. Amir states, "someone, somewhere, had decided to deny me fatherhood for the things I had done." (188). Amir believes that his past has caused many events to go bad in his life because he does not deserve to be happy. Through many statements and actions, I believe Amir shows he is struggling with his past and whether he should let go or face what he has tried to hide all these years.
ReplyDeleteI think the main conflict is that Amir is constantly trying to redeem himself for what he did, but doesn't know how to handle the guilt that he feels. Hassan was always loyal to Amir, while Amir was only Hassan's friend when it was convenient for him. Hassan was such a genuinely good person, yet he had awful things happen to him, while Amir wasn't a great person a he was spoiled by a rich life. I think the fact that Amir betrayed who admired him so much is what made it hard for Amir to forgive himself.
ReplyDeleteI believe the conflict of the story is whether Amir will be able to move on in his life or be forced to live in his past. I think Amir wants to forget his past, but I don't think it is possible for him. I think what he did will always haunt him in some way. When Soraya decided to tell Amir she had been with another man, Amir had the chance to tell her about his past also. He kept it inside him and said, "I envied her. Her secret was out" (165). He kept his secret buried inside him which probably only makes things worse for him. I think being in America and staying busy helps Hassan stay distracted, but he mentions Hassan's name several times, showing that he wil probably never be able to forget what he did. On page 136, for example, he says "Sitting in the dark next to Hassan, I had always wondered if it was true what I'd read..." I think the big question is whether Amir will be able to forgive himself for what he did or if he will live his whole life feeling guilty.
ReplyDeleteI think the conflict is Amir's internal conflict to deal with his guilt. He says his decision not to stand up for Hassan “made me what I am today” (2), and he spends the rest of the book trying to make amends. Throughout his adult life, he continues to think about Hassan and what happened to him, and it continues to be very emotional and painful for him – for instance, Amir once says “A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan's name” (134). When he goes back to Afghanistan, he had this sense that he's trying to make up for what happened and says he's trying “to atone not just for my sins but for Baba's as well” (226). Which brings up an interesting point – there's also conflict between Baba and Amir woven into the story. Amir is always trying to impress Baba, but he never feels like he's really living up to his father's expectations. Even his decision not to step in and help Hassan was related to his relationship with his father – he wanted the kite so badly that he was unwilling to try to save his friend. And even though Baba's happy when he dies and it seems like that's been solved, Amir finds out about Baba's adultery, and now there's more conflict because Amir isn't sure how to reconcile this new information with his previous view of Baba. And since he's trying to atone for both of their sins, I feel like whatever ends up happening may resolve both conflicts, since they're so closely related. Anyway, I'm not really sure what the conflict is, but those are just my thoughts so far.
ReplyDeleteI believe the conflict is Amir's own internal struggle. To go along with what we have been discussing in class, Amir is probably being harder on himself now that he has had time to reflect than how bad it actually was in real life. At this point in Amir's life he has a good life with a family in America with a wife and successful job yet there is still this 'conflict'. Ever since the night when he say Hassan get raped and didn't do anything about it his life within his mind has been a living hell. Granted, the distraction America has offered him has numbed some of the guilt and allowed Amir to forget some but in the back of his mind, the guilt he feels for failing Hassan will always be there. I feel like the conflict will not be resolved until he makes some kind of amends with Hassan.
ReplyDeleteI believe the conflict exists within Amir. He feels guilt throughout the story. He witnesses the rape of his best friend (76) and does nothing to help his friend. Not only does he witness the rape and not intervene, he watches and lets the rape happen. He not only acts like nothing happened, he lies to Ali when Ali asks if anything is wrong with Hassan. Amir also goes the extra mile to throw fruit at him (96) in order for Hassan to respond out of anger and hurt him back. Hassan is too loyal for that. He not only doesn't throw fruit back, he smashes fruit in his own face. Hassan is too loyal of a friend for Amir. Amir is an awful friend in my opinion. Hassan would have his back in anything, like when Hassan scares off Assef with his slingshot. Amir would never risk anything for Hassan. That's why I hate Amir.
ReplyDeleteI believe the conflict is whether Amir will be able to move on from his past or live in it. Amir struggles to deal with his guilt. Throughout the story he references Hassan which is a big part of his guilt. Hassan is generally a good person and has really bad things happen to him as for Amir it's like the opposite. Now that Amir is living in America he is still living a good life and yet he has to live with his guilt and think of what life could have been if Hassan was there.
ReplyDeleteThe main conflict in this story is Amir's internal conlfict. Throughout the novel he continually struggles with the fact that he feels guilty because he didn't do anything to stop Assef from raping Hassan. He tries to find ways to get over his guilt like keeping his distance from Hassan (88), focusing on school (91), and trying to have Hassan throw pomegranates at him (92). Eventually Amir feels he has no other choice than to completely cut Hassan out of his life by framing him for stealing his things. Even this doesn't help though; years later his guilt is still affecting his life.
ReplyDeleteThe main conflict at this point in the story is one within Amir himself. It is whether or not he is going to get past his guilt about what happened with Hassan and learn to live with it. The story is told as him looking back on all of these events, when he is now in California and working on a family, etc. At this point we don't know if he'll ever get over it or accept it. He makes it out to be huge and "made him what he is today" (2), which makes sense and he has a right to let him affect him but there comes a point where acceptance is needed or at least focus more on the present instead of his past all the time.
ReplyDeleteI think the main conflict of the story at this point is whether or not Amir will be able to move on from his past or have it stay with him forever. Basically the entire book he reminisces on his past and the day that he witnessed Hassan being raped and didn't help him. From that point on things just got worse such as Amir ignoring Hassan and pretty much forcing Hassan and Ali to leave. He reflects back on that moment so many times throughout the rest of his life like when that one boy was raped and ends up dying on the journey to Pakistan.Then much later on he believes the reason he can't have kids is because he doesn't deserve them after what happened. He gets a little bit of relief, however, when he moves to America with Baba because he isn't constantly reminded of his old life and has a chance to forget what he did for a while. I didn't think he would be able to forgive himself until he made ammends with Hassan somehow but after reading the whole story i see that never happens in the way that I thought it would. However, I think taking in Sohrab and all the things he had to go through to get there is a bigger relief than apologizing to Hassan would have ever been.
ReplyDeleteThe conflict is Amir trying to atone for his past by rescuing Sohrab. Hassan is dead now, and so Sohrab is the only way that Amir can make up for his past. The antagonistic forces are the adoption system (to a certain extent) and the Taliban. The adoption system requires proof of Sohrab's parents' death, but in a war-torn country, that's nearly impossible to prove. The Taliban in general and Assef in particular are also obstacles. The Taliban make even going into Kabul a challenge and Assef's grudge against Amir proves to be quite a problem as well.
ReplyDeleteThe main conflict throughout the story is the fact that Amir deals with guilt and may never be able to overcome that. The entire book, Amir looks back on his life and reminices on the guilt he holds within himself. He believes that his mothers death was his fault and thats why he thinks his father does not love him, which in turn makes him only try harder to make him proud. He also witnessed his best friend get raped and never told anyone about it. And then lied in order to get Hassan in trouble and have to leave the house. He lives with so much guilt that even when he gets away and starts a good life of his own in America, the guilt follows him. I think that is a big factor of why Amir goes through all the trouble to get Hassan's son. He wants to make up for all the bad he has done in his life and relieve some of the guilt within him.
ReplyDeleteThe main conflict was definitely within himself. He thought so many things that werent really even true. Hassan didn't probably know that Amir knew but he had so much guilt that it didn't matter. Amir thinking it was good enough for him. The Baba problem, was a real thing I think. I think that Baba really did favor Hassan more than he favored Amir. Only because he could relate more with Hassan. Overall though, I believe that the main conflict was between Amir & himself. It was all in his mind. What he needed to do was apologize to Hassan. Tell him he knew what happened & that he was very sorry. I think that would have helped Hassan & Amir in the long run.
ReplyDeleteThe main conflict was definitely within himself. He thought so many things that werent really even true. Hassan didn't probably know that Amir knew but he had so much guilt that it didn't matter. Amir thinking it was good enough for him. The Baba problem, was a real thing I think. I think that Baba really did favor Hassan more than he favored Amir. Only because he could relate more with Hassan. Overall though, I believe that the main conflict was between Amir & himself. It was all in his mind. What he needed to do was apologize to Hassan. Tell him he knew what happened & that he was very sorry. I think that would have helped Hassan & Amir in the long run.
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