Societal Expectations In The Kite Runner

Extenuating circumstances are things people do not fully have control over. For example, medical issues, the death of a loved one, etc. They can influence how a person acts and reacts to future events. Family and society have a huge impact on life situations and how people react to them. In that, Societal and familial expectations do influence who a person becomes. Societal expectations affect humans in many different ways. In the case of The Kite Runner, this can be seen when Amir doesn’t step into the alley for Hassan. He goes as far as to say, “He was just a Hazara wasn’t he” (Hosseini 77). Society has pushed this idea that Hazaras are considered less than human so prevalently, that Amir starts to believe it’s true. The thought slipping

The guilt of his false societal expectations affects him later on by fighting for Hassan’s son, Sohrab, another Hazara, when he was going to get raped by the same man. This reveals Amir acknowledging and believing that Hazara is just as human as he is, and deserves dignity in the same way he does. Sticking with societal expectations, in “Marriage is a Private Affair”, Nneameka tries to explain to Okeke, his father, how Nene is the perfect woman for him to Marry. Okeke doesn’t approve of her because she doesn’t fit his societal standards of keeping quiet, staying at home, and being a good Christian wife. We know this when he says, “Teacher did you say? If you consider that a qualification for a good wife I should like to point out to you, Emeka, that no Christian woman should teach… women

In “Marriage is a Private Affair,” Okeke doesn't accept Nene and since Nneameka went ahead and married her, Okeke didn't visit his family or kept in any contact with them for the past eight years. Nene finally reaches out to him herself, telling him he has two grandkids that truly want to meet him. She also tells Okeke that she will stay in Lagos so he doesn't have to meet her. Reading this, he instantly regrets his decisions and thinks, “ How could [I] shut [my] door against them... That night [I] hardly slept from remorse — and a vague fear that [I] might die without making it up to them” (Achebe 334). He realizes that his cultural beliefs caused him to push away his only son. In the end, he feels immense regret that he may never make it up to his son and won’t meet his daughter-in-law and grandkids. Another example of an extenuating familial circumstance can be seen in The Kite Runner when Amir doesn’t step in to save Hassan from being raped because he wanted to give the kite to Baba to show his victory. Amir explains, “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (Hosseini 77) Since Baba never approved of Amir, Amir felt the need and pressure to watch/ stand by this horrible act to feel loved by Baba. He did end up getting his approval from Baba, but that moment only lasted for a short time before it was back to before. In the long run,