Assignment 1: Amir and Baba

The relationship between Amir and Baba is definitely not a healthy one and does not conform to society’s ideal father-son bond. In actual fact their relationship seems to be more of a formality.
Amir is craving his fathers attention but he seems to continuously fail in his attempts. A very good example of this is on page 31 when Amir walked into his fathers smoking room to excitedly tell him about the story he had written. Baba never offered to read it and brushed it off like it was insignificant to his life. Amir escaped from this form of rejection by burying himself in his mother’s books and with words in general. He was not passionate about soccer even though Baba pressured him to be, but he was passionate about poetry and literature. Amir was influenced by Baba to believe that he was not a real man because he was not a man with love for sports and hunting like him.
The two of them definitely did not have anything in common but a good father would have no restrictions to the way he cared for his own son. He seemed to long for the connection he would have had with his mother if she had not passed. She would have accepted his passion for poetry because she possessed it too.
Baba had more respect for Hassan because he showed signs of the qualities he desired Amir to have. On page 22 Baba is not only complaining about Amir’s personality traits but he is clearly also making a comparison between him and Hassan. He does not understand his own son and just because he is different to himself he comes to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with him. He even goes to the extreme of saying that if he did not see the doctor pull him out of his wife with his own eyes, he would not believe it was his son on page 23.
In the book Amir is listening to all his father’s negative comments through the smoking room’s door. What can these words do to a young child? A child who is in desperate need for his own father’s acceptance; but is finding it impossible to obtain? Should a child really have to change who they are to fit their parents model of their perfect child?
Rahim Khan is more of a father figure to Amir than is biological father ever could be. We saw multiple instances in the text where he is defending Amir’s honor and stepping into the loving father role. He is interested in the story he had written and offers to read it. He addressed Amir with the term of endearment ‘jan’ which Baba hardly ever used towards him. He even says he wishes Rahim was is own father on page 32.
Because of all the points we can gather in the text it is clear to me as the reader that their relationship is very unhealthy and detrimental to Amir as a young boy.
Just him having the impression that every father should hate his son says it all.