A Pawn of Life and Love Relationships are like a game of chess, sacrificing, but requires thinking before acting. Chess teaches how certain actions can lead to complete annihilation or victory. The altruistic pawns of action are like the compromises of the game of life. These compromises include: learning to give and take, how to share, and how to negotiate; these are only a few of the life lessons that parents strive to teach their children. However, some parent-child relationships are not correctly played, therefore, the child becomes a pawn in the parent’s game of life. Similarly, Hosseini’s The Kite Runner shows the player-pawn relationship between Baba and Amir that parallels the relationship between my father and I. Although
…show more content…
To exemplify this point in The Kite Runner, Hosseini illustrates the theme that Amir and I were under the impression of: we, the pawns, needed to willingly sacrifice of ourselves to receive the attention and love from our fathers, the players. Throughout most of the book until Baba and Amir moved to America, Amir strived to please Baba with every breath he took. He believed that pleasing Baba was the only goal worth having; even if Amir knew what consequences his actions would reap, he would still sacrifice everything for him. To make those sacrifices for Baba, Amir would take of himself and of others. Likewise, Amir surrendered everything he had, even his valuable friendship with his half-brother, Hassan, to win Baba’s heart: “Behind him, sitting on piles of scrap and rubble, was the blue kite. My key to Baba’s heart…” (Hosseini 71). This quote shows Amir’s priority list, with Baba first, and the safety and health of his best friend second. If it had not been for Amir’s decision to let Assef rape Hassan to save the blue kite, Amir would have never had gotten that amount of attention and that kind of reaction from Baba. Baba responded to the blue kite with joy and through Amir a large and elaborate party. Even though the party was in …show more content…
Therefore, when Amir confessed to his father that he did not want to be a lawyer or a doctor, but a writer, Baba had no choice but to consent to Amir’s wishes despite his attitude towards writing: “But I would stand my ground, I decided. I didn’t want to sacrifice for Baba anymore. The last time I had done that, I damned myself…” (Hosseini 135). Because Amir stood up to Baba and went against his wishes, it shows that he realizes that he cannot keep pretending to be someone he is not nor sacrifice his life to please Baba anymore. Amir has to live his own life and make his own choices because in the relationship between him and Baba, Baba took too much and Amir gave too much. Consequently, the relationship, now balanced and healthy, becomes the father-son relationship that Amir had always dreamed of. Likewise, the relationship with my father improved greatly once I came clean with him about soccer and my passion for other things such as swimming. I, like Amir, was uncertain about the outcome of this event, but I am very glad I did. I finally stopped altruistically sacrificing to please my father, and he understood once I told him. However, unlike Baba, my father was not upset; he was only slightly disappointed
To exemplify this point in The Kite Runner, Hosseini illustrates the theme that Amir and I were under the impression of: we, the pawns, needed to willingly sacrifice of ourselves to receive the attention and love from our fathers, the players. Throughout most of the book until Baba and Amir moved to America, Amir strived to please Baba with every breath he took. He believed that pleasing Baba was the only goal worth having; even if Amir knew what consequences his actions would reap, he would still sacrifice everything for him. To make those sacrifices for Baba, Amir would take of himself and of others. Likewise, Amir surrendered everything he had, even his valuable friendship with his half-brother, Hassan, to win Baba’s heart: “Behind him, sitting on piles of scrap and rubble, was the blue kite. My key to Baba’s heart…” (Hosseini 71). This quote shows Amir’s priority list, with Baba first, and the safety and health of his best friend second. If it had not been for Amir’s decision to let Assef rape Hassan to save the blue kite, Amir would have never had gotten that amount of attention and that kind of reaction from Baba. Baba responded to the blue kite with joy and through Amir a large and elaborate party. Even though the party was in …show more content…
Therefore, when Amir confessed to his father that he did not want to be a lawyer or a doctor, but a writer, Baba had no choice but to consent to Amir’s wishes despite his attitude towards writing: “But I would stand my ground, I decided. I didn’t want to sacrifice for Baba anymore. The last time I had done that, I damned myself…” (Hosseini 135). Because Amir stood up to Baba and went against his wishes, it shows that he realizes that he cannot keep pretending to be someone he is not nor sacrifice his life to please Baba anymore. Amir has to live his own life and make his own choices because in the relationship between him and Baba, Baba took too much and Amir gave too much. Consequently, the relationship, now balanced and healthy, becomes the father-son relationship that Amir had always dreamed of. Likewise, the relationship with my father improved greatly once I came clean with him about soccer and my passion for other things such as swimming. I, like Amir, was uncertain about the outcome of this event, but I am very glad I did. I finally stopped altruistically sacrificing to please my father, and he understood once I told him. However, unlike Baba, my father was not upset; he was only slightly disappointed