Short Essays And Rants Of A Personal View

Baby Don't Hurt Me

Love is thought to be the most powerful force upon earth. It is what draws and unites people together, breaks people apart and plays games with their minds. Love is finding perfection, fighting for our lives and sacrificing ourselves for those we love. The significance of love can be expressed like this: "I heard them say, love is the way, love is the answer, that's what they say." (K'naan March 18, 2009 ) This quote, from the song Wavin' Flag (K'naan) is important because it tells how how love revolves around every choice made. Love is the hardest and deepest desire within us that controls our inner - most subconscious thoughts. In the novel, The Kite Runner - the bond between brothers; Amir and Hassan, affects them their entire lives through affection, jealousy and sacrifice.

Amir and Hassan grew up together; from the moment they met, their bond was formed. Amir was born in a higher class than Hassan but that did nothing to change their friendship. Amir's affectionate relationship with Hassan is caused by not receiving the love he needed throughout his childhood from Baba. Amir's friendship with Hassan began by growing up together and developed into doing everything together. Hassan's loyalty comes from being treated as an equal by Amir's family and being able to understand Amir. "If I was going to toy with him and challenge his loyalty, then he'd toy with me, test my integrity." (Khaled Hosseini, 58) This quote is important because it tells us of how Amir and Hassan think separately. Amir does not believe that anyone could believe or be so utterly loyal to him. So, Amir constantly tests Hassan because he cannot comprehend Hassan's thoughts. Hassan, meanwhile puts Amir above all things and Hassan believes in everything Amir is and does. This is mostly shown in this quote,"'Some day, Inshallah, you will be a great writer,' Hassan said. 'And people all over the world will read your stories.'" (Hosseini, 36) Hassan completely believes in Amir and the fact that Amir went to Hassan at dawn just to read the story to him which tells us how much Amir trusts Hassan. Love comes hand in hand with trust; love is what bonds people together and trust is the absolute belief in all the abilities and everything of another person.

Jealousy is the result of feeling loved, then feeling neglected. Jealousy is a powerful feeling of too little love or being given attention and suddenly attention is elsewhere. Amir is not given the love he needs to grow as a child from Baba so he seeks love from Hassan. Hassan acts as a friend, teacher and brother who is able to provide Amir with life lessons and the push that Amir needs to be his own self. Unfortunately Baba, does not see the good traits of Amir and he unintentionally deprives Amir of much needed fatherly and supportive love. When Baba gives Hassan attention, this causes Amir to become jealous and do mean things to Hassan, such as making fun of him when he does not know certain words. Amir is also driven to jealousy when he watches Hassan being raped and fear also plays a part because Amir is selfish, he cared more about himself and the kite than Hassan. The reason Amir's future is haunted by his past is because he didn't look at other people, he wanted what he thought was best for himself, he craved the love and attention that he thought Baba would only give to Amir if Amir got the last kite in the kite tournament. Amir's past actions were influenced by jealousy which has caused a rift between his friendship with Hassan.

Sacrifice is the deepest kind of love. Amir's sacrifice was trying to give up his original self to be the person Baba wants him to be. Amir's own sacrifice was to Sohrab, the son of Hassan. Amir risked his life for Sohrab to have a fight to the death with Assef, who Amir encounters again in the future. Amir believes that he finally got what he deserved, by letting Assef beat him, he felt he was finally becoming free of his sins. Amir cared deeply for Hassan and Amir believed he was saving Hassan from further pain by casting him away from him home. For Hassan, his sacrifice for Amir was risking his life to stand up for Amir every time Amir was bullied. His final sacrifice, was lying for Amir. Hassan trusted Amir more than anything and he did it to help Amir grow up and learn his final life lesson. "If he'd said no, Baba would have believed him because we all knew Hassan never lied." (Hosseini, 111) This quote is significant because Hassan never lied and when he did tell his lie, he was saving Amir from Baba's wrath and himself. This shows that no matter what Amir has done, he is the best thing that has ever happened to Hassan and Amir is more important than the truth.

The bond between two brothers was broken apart through jealousy and brought closer than ever through memories, new friendships and rediscovering what it means to love and be loved. Love gave Amir the courage to do what he needed and guided Amir to his own path. Love can cause the most beautiful bloomings or the most violent destructions. Love drives all emotions;, it is deep within the heart but requires perfect balance between too little or too much love. Love, in all aspects, is the most powerful force on earth. 

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This was written for my 11th grade essay for the novel: "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini.