The Gift of Guilt Friedrich Nietzche stated, “What was silent in the father speaks in the son, and often I found in the son, the unveiled secret of the father”. Baba kept a secret from everyone and this ended up causing Amir to treat Hassan differently. By reflecting Baba’s actions, Baba’s secret was unveiled through Amir. Amir tried to get his father’s approval and tried to be more like his Baba, but he thought he never would. The truth is that Amir is more like Baba than he knew.
Throughout the early chapter of the book we learn that Amir has “always felt that Baba hatted [him] a little.” He has always longed for his father’s approval, acceptance and admiration, as he feels responsible for the death of his mother. “After all, had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I?” As a result, he tries desperately not to “disappoint him” by “faking interest” in soccer and doing things that Baba expected of boys his age. As Amir is
The only thing is his father, Moses, still looks at him like he is a boy. Everything Adam does Moses corrects him on or says something negative to discourage him. At one point in the movie Adam doesn’t even think his dad loves him, but later we find out Moses just didn’t know how to tell him he did. When the war started Adam went to enlist and his dad let him. This was his first real step to manhood.
The story is about a boy whose only tie to his father was taken away from him towards the end of the story because of the effects of modernization. Previous family traditions are lost because of the technology shifts, generation gap and communication breakdown. The technology shift in this story is represented by the camera crew and the technicians who only wanted to witness the fathers’ gift for their movie. The camera crew, technicians and farmer did not have any personal ties to this gift. The gift that the father passed on to his son, the narrator, was meant to be a bond shared between only father and son.
Amir’s relentless search for gratification from Baba leads him to sacrifice his childhood friend and in doing so destroy a part of his childhood. Springing forth from this conflict arises the self-imposed banishment of Ali and Hassan from Baba’s household. By adhering to the social standards of the time, both Ali and Hassan kept their servant status
In East of Eden, Steinbeck makes Cal the main victim of the struggle between good and evil by emphasizing thou mayest. In East of Eden, The struggle of good and evil is seen constantly throughout the novel in a variety of characters. Cathy, symbolizing Satan, looks for the evil in each person and tries to draw it out and exploit it. Steinbeck says,
But perhaps you didn't notice that I’m the one holding the slingshots." *Hassan is defending himself and Amir to bullies who want to beat them up and are threatening them. "I treated Hassan... like a brother...But...why, when Baba's friends came to visit with their kids, didn't I ever include Hassan in our games? *Amir was ashamed to have Hassan involved with him when he was with others. "Inshallah...that was the thing with Hassan.
These impressions quickly placed stereotypes among them; Andy being the jock, Claire the popular princess, Bender the thief, Alison the psychopath, and the “Brian” being the genius. After spending the day with all these different personalities, Andy reminisces a time he beat up another guy to make himself feel bigger and tougher amongst his friends. He soon realized what a mistake it had been, understanding how difficult it would be for him to go home and face his father. Andy has been through the torment of never being good enough in his father’s eyes and he
Happy has lived in the shadow of Biff his whole life, he feels that to get the attention he deserves he must strive to be more successful than his brother. When Willy was talking about Biff, Happy kept hinting that he was losing weight, but Willy seems to ignore him. “He is a marked-down version of his father, with not even a grand dream to cover his grossness. His only redeeming aspect is an easy-going fondness for his family” (Koon pg.37). Happy shows
This lack of fatherhood is also shown in both Victor and Clerval’s father’s objection to learning. However Victor’s father had a different approach, he stated that the science used in victor’s books had been disapproved long ago and that they were ‘sad trash’. Freudian analysts claim that all sons feel they are in competition with their father and often feel in a battle against the father. This is shown when the rejection and lack of explanation and knowledge from victor’s father leads him to find out for himself, and it is in this task that his passion for science unfolded. Victor discovered ‘the elixir of life’ and that he was capable of ‘bestowing animation upon lifeless matter’ as his knowledge increased.