How Does Amir Create Tension In The Kite Runner

Guilt, fear and anxiety flow through the pages of The Kite Runner smoothly, tainting every word and phrase as they cascade down the pages. This essay explores these three ideas personified through Amir or his immediate surroundings, as they are all both linked and widely represented in the static character, that he represents, since before the novel even began. Ever tormented and unable to break free, Amir personifies the conflict that is between all on earth. Good and bad, black and white, beauty and crudeness. Beginning and end can both be found in what Amir first says. “Baba.” The fear, the anxiety and the guilt all resonate through two syllables at different frequencies, sometimes seeming to be but one and then being found at opposite

“The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either.”, Amir does not see Hassan as his equal, which makes Babas admiration for Hassan infinitely worse. Jealousy is fear at its most powerful standing over you like Babas metaphorical bear. Endlessly it nags away at Amir making him more cruel and more infantile by the day, as it starts to smash his head against the wall of his fathers constant dismay, gazing upon nothing but Hassan ascending that same wall with ease and grace. Earning smiles, content looks and fond gazes by the almighty Baba. “If I changed my mind and asked for a bigger fancier kite, Baba would buy it for me - but then he’d buy it for Hassan too. Sometimes I’d wished he wouldn’t do that. Wish’d he’d let me be the favourite.”, yearning for superiority, when knowing that he doesn’t deserve it only fattens the bear that he fights. Jealousy is Amirs god given peril, for that he might never be as good as his Hazara servant. Granted, Amir never admits openly to being at ease with his self loathing, yet being granted redemption, even after centuries have passed, would strip Amir of his essence. Hosseini made Amir personify the angst that comes with human life, he breathed life into everything that makes humans twist and turn at night, and stripped him of everything else. He is not happy, nor content, never thinking about anything other but himself, Amir might be fear