The Kite Runner - How Does the Environment Shape the Characters?
The Kite Runner is a film based on the first novel of Khaled Hosseini, which was published in 2003 and became a bestseller, thus was translated to many different languages and spread around the world, becoming a discussion topic for quite a while. One of the reasons why this book is so rich and attractive is the variety of characters, which are all born in Afghanistan and spent at least most of their childhood there, but at the same time have different views, virtues and experience. And those characters, depending on the generation they belong to, are shaped by particular circumstances, political and historical events.
To begin with, there could be 3 different generations outlined in the film and the two representatives of the “oldest” generation could be Baba, the father of the main character Amir, and Baba’s most loyal friend Rahim Khan. The way I see it, the first couple of years of one’s life are the most influential to what he is going to become. Meaning that the biggest part of one’s personality is shaped during his childhood and depends on the parents and the environment that one lives in.
In this case, the members of the oldest generation were born in approximately the 30’s. In the result, Baba and Rahim Khan had the opportunity to enjoy their childhood during the most stable period of Afghanistan’s 20-th century having in mind the political situation. The country was independent, thus creating an environment with less obstacles and boundaries and with more opportunities for self realization. Consequently, Amir’s father had turned into an adult, for whom the most important things in life are his motherland, his family and his honor. Those strong patriotic feelings are well illustrated in the scene, where Baba takes some soil of his motherland just before leaving the country due to the fear of soviet repressions. While the fact that up to his dying day Baba kept in secret his affair with the Hazara servant woman and the real relations between his 2 sons
To begin with, there could be 3 different generations outlined in the film and the two representatives of the “oldest” generation could be Baba, the father of the main character Amir, and Baba’s most loyal friend Rahim Khan. The way I see it, the first couple of years of one’s life are the most influential to what he is going to become. Meaning that the biggest part of one’s personality is shaped during his childhood and depends on the parents and the environment that one lives in.
In this case, the members of the oldest generation were born in approximately the 30’s. In the result, Baba and Rahim Khan had the opportunity to enjoy their childhood during the most stable period of Afghanistan’s 20-th century having in mind the political situation. The country was independent, thus creating an environment with less obstacles and boundaries and with more opportunities for self realization. Consequently, Amir’s father had turned into an adult, for whom the most important things in life are his motherland, his family and his honor. Those strong patriotic feelings are well illustrated in the scene, where Baba takes some soil of his motherland just before leaving the country due to the fear of soviet repressions. While the fact that up to his dying day Baba kept in secret his affair with the Hazara servant woman and the real relations between his 2 sons