摘 要

《追风筝的人》是美籍阿富汗裔作家卡勒德·胡赛尼的第一部小说，也是第一部由阿富汗裔作家创作的英文小说。故事以阿富汗的动荡时局为背景，讲述了发生在阿富汗少年阿米尔和他的仆人兼密友哈桑之间的故事。本文先简要介绍了作家胡赛尼及其作品《追风筝的人》，继而试图论述主人公阿米尔由软弱、背叛、觉醒直至成熟的成长历程。通过对主人公性格变化以及导致其成长变化的主客观因素的分析，本文得出结论：人的本性终究会归宿于善良，人的真善美终归会战胜假恶丑。

关键词：《追风筝的人》；阿米尔；软弱；背叛；觉醒；成熟

Contents

1. Introduction...............................................................................................................1
2. Demonstration...........................................................................................................2
   2.1 Amir’ s process of changes......................................................................................2

2.1.1 Cowardice.............................................................................................................2

2.1.2 Betrayal.................................................................................................................3

2.1.3 Awakening............................................................................................................4

2.1.4 Maturity................................................................................................................5

2.2. Objective and subjective influences on Amir’ s growth process...........................6

2.2.1 Objective influences.............................................................................................6

2.2.1.1 Family influence................................................................................................6

2.2.1.2 Social influence.................................................................................................8

2.2.2 Subjective influences............................................................................................9

2.2.2.1 Influence of conscious mental activities............................................................9

2.2.2.2 Influence of unconscious mental activities........................................................9

3. Conclusion................................................................................................................10

Works Cited..................................................................................................................11

Bibliography.................................................................................................................12

An Analysis of Growth Process of Amir in The Kite Runner

1. Introduction

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965, and then escaped to America with his father. He once attended the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, and started his career in California. He aimed to help the average people of Afghanistan to build a peaceful environment and show the fear of the people to the world. The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Mountains Echoed are all his works. The Kite Runner, the first novel written by Khaled Hosseini, once earned United Nations Humanitarian Award, John Steinbeck Prize for Literature and other prizes. Khaled Hosseini was also invited to be the Goodwill Ambassador of UNHCR. Isabella Allende, a famous writer, said, "this novel is so shocking that I think everything I read was discolored for a long time. All the important themes of literature and life are written into this classic work: love, fear, and guilt” (Ann 38). According to San Francisco Chronicle, The Kite Runner is “a marvelous first novel...the story of two young boys who are friends in Afghanistan, and an incredible story of the culture. It’s an old-fashioned kind of novel that really sweeps you away”. The Kite Runner tells a story about the rich young master Amir of Kabul and his servant Hasan. Amir, who was 12 years old, and his servant Hasan have a brotherly love. Everything changed after a kite match. Amir felt so greatly self-condemned and miserable for his own cowardice that he has forced Hasan to leave. Before long, he escaped to America with his father. However, when Amir grew up, he still could not forget this thing that he betrayed his friend Hasan. He returned to his hometown he left twenty years ago in order to save himself from guilt. He would like to do something for his poor friend. The two young Afghan kids had gone through friendship, cowardice, betrayal, awakening and maturity. The novel was against the war and reflected the problems between race and religions in Afghanistan. The novel had got much support and also brought about lots of controversies in this country.

The character Amir was a complex character who had human innocence and kindness, and he also had human selfishness and cowardice. When facing the evil forces, he sought for self-protection; when facing the injustice, he decided to fight. In his childhood, he was always eager for his father’s love. It can be said that the first half of Amir’s life was connected with his father’s love, which resulted in a series of events of betraying Hasan, accusing Hasan and driving Hasan out of the door. In Amir’ s world, the conflict existed between friendship and his father’s love. He chose to betray friendship for his own interests. However, in his later life, he chose to follow his heart and tried to be a good person through many acts of salvation. In general, Amir's life was a hard process where a selfish and cowardly little boy was changed into an upright and brave man. The paper, divided into three parts, is an attempt to analyze the growth of the protagonist Amir in The Kite Runner. The first part makes a brief introduction to the author, the background of the times, the novel, and the character Amir; the second part is the specific analysis of the role, firstly, describing Amir's characteristics in different stages of the growth, and then make a list of the factors which lead to it; the third part concludes that the author aims to demonstrate that human nature will eventually return to kindness, and the true, the good and the beautiful will eventually defeat the false, the evil and the ugly through the characterization of Amir.

1. Demonstration
   1. Amir’ s process of changes

Amir, whose mother died when he was born, was extremely eager for his father’s love. However, no matter what he did, he still could not get what he hoped for, and his father’s special concern for his servant Hasan made him even more desperate for paternal love. The conflict between friendship and jealousy filled his heart with contradictions, which was chiefly responsible for his change from cowardice, betrayal, awakening to maturity.