Father Son Relationship

Amir’s relationship with his father is a complex one. On a hand, Amir admires his father and is proud to have as his father. On another hand, he hates his father because he feels like he is incapable of amounting to (meeting up with/ rising to/ fulfilling) his father’s expectations. Amir said: “Most days, I worship Baba with an intensity approaching the religious. Butright then, I wished I could open my veins and drain his cursed blood from my body.” (Hosseini, 2003, p. 32). Thus, the turmoil Amir has with himself and his father during his childhood and up until his adulthood is due to this love-hate relation with his father.

Identifying this relationship of Amir and Baba can be approached by a few psychological aspects. For instance, the acronym

As Freud (1921:34) claimed that the father has a significant role in establishing the son’s gender identity. Pease (2000:56) stated that the son’s personal and social behavior is influenced by the father’s physical and emotional insufficiency. Another expert, Steve Biddulph, a child psychologist, also believes that sons need their fathers as their role models. He states that “to become a good man, you have to know good men” (Jardine, 2010). Therefore, the father failure to be a good role model compromises the son’s personality and

In Recreating Men, Pease (2000) addresses issues of patriarchal expectations of father-son relationships, and violence, fear and oppression in father son relationships (Pease, 2000). If the son goes through any of these conditions in his relationship with his father, the relationship may have high chances of becoming strained. In fact, the father sets negative emotions like fear, anger and resentment to the son while trying to make his son a better man. This immensely influences the son’s morality and his quest for his identity as a