The Kite Runner: Chapter 5 - 10

Another day, another five chapters. My honest opinion so far is that it's a good book, but kind of slow at times. I feel that there are too many details and descriptions. I understand this might be necessary to fulfill the story, but at times I think it gets a bit dull. Except from this I like the book and there are a lot of exciting happenings in the story.

I haven't written much about what happens in the book, and how the different relationships between people are. So here it goes:

Amir and Baba

The story takes us back to Afghanistan in the 1970's where two boys, Amir and Hassan, grew up in what in the 1970's was a stabile and idyllic Afghanistan. Early in the book you get an insight of the different relationships between the characters. Amir and his father, Baba, share a difficult relationship due to the death of Amir's mother. Since Amir's mother died after giving birth to him, he feels that Baba blames him for her death. Throughout Amir's childhood Amir struggles for attention and affection from his father, but instead of giving this to his son, Baba's business partners and servants receives it instead. One of my favorite happenings in this book within Amir and Baba's relationship is when they talk about sin (page 16). Baba tells his son that there is only one sin, and that is theft. And from there he explains to his son:

"When you kill a man, you steal a life," Baba said. "You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."'

The reason why I like this happening is because of Baba's saying, and that while he's talking Amir is sitting on his lap, which he probably didn't do often. Even though it isn't the most special moment a father and son could have, it shows that Baba want's Amir to learn about life, that he wants to help him learn. You may consider this as a way to show attention and affection towards your son. Also, when Baba says this, I can't help but wonder if there is something more behind it. Is he trying to get Amir to understand that Amir has sinned? Amir's mother died after giving birth to Amir, this can be seen (in Baba's point of view) as Amir stole Baba's rights to live with his wife for the rest of his life. Ergo, a sin. Of course, now I’m just assuming that there was a problem with Amir that caused his mother's death, but by all means, it could have been something wrong with the mother.  So maybe Amir and Baba share a tense relationship not because of Baba is blaming his son for his wife's death, but that Amir stole something away from him. He sinned. 

Amir and Hassan

Another relationship we are shown in the book is the relationship between Amir and their servant's son, Hassan. In the 1970's it wasn't normal to treat a servant like your equal, but even this couldn't stop Amir and Hassan becoming best friends. There are a few times in the book we are told that Amir doesn't play with Hassan among other. It might seem as he is ashamed of Hassan, but we know that he isn't. It's amazing how strong bond they have to one another even though it might appear that Hassan cares more for Amir, then Amir does for Hassan. After all, Hassan does say: "For you, a thousand times over". But would Amir do the same?

Pictures taken from HERE and HERE