On the reasons of the Moral Degeneration of Amir in The Kite Runner

摘 要：《追風筝的人》是由美国裔阿富汗作家卡勒德·胡赛因于2003年发表的第一部小说。阿米尔少时因人性之弱点犯下大错，成年后的阿米尔始终无法原谅自己当年对哈桑的背叛。本文试分析阿米尔逐步走向道德堕落的过程及原因。

关键词：阿米尔；道德堕落；原因

Abstract：The Kite Runner is the first novel of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini which published in 2003. Amir made a huge mistake under the control of human weakness in the childhood and he cannot forgive himself even when he was an adult. This paper attempts to discuss the process and the reasons of Amirs moral degeneration.

Key words： Amir； moral degeneration； reasons

一、The Influence of the Social Background

Afghan is a multi-ethnic country， mainly are Muslims who believe in Islam， which divided into the Sunnite and the Shiite. Pashtun is the largest ethnic in this country called orthodoxy， occupying the main position in politics， economy and culture. The most important reason is the total opposition of two denominations. Pushtuns account for 42% of the population， the largest ethnic group of the country， while the Hazara is less than 10% instead. The Hazara， with Mongolian descent， is less than one third of the population of ethnic in Afghanistan， having been discriminated by Pashtun for a long time and under appreciated by central government， too. The Pushtuns often are seen as the upper middle class while the Hazaras are lower（Fu Xiaoqiang， 2002）. Afghanistan is a special country which is integrated with politics and religion. Religion is an important source for the occurrence and development of social civilization. Hence， in this theocratic country， the fate of Hazaras can be imagined.

Once Amir obtains the information from a book that he gets， ‘the book said that my people had killed the Hazaras， driven them from their lands， burned their Homes， and sold their women（Lucien Young，2007）. The book said part of the reasons that Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras was because Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims， while Hazaras were Shiite. This detail shows the historical origin of race discrimination. This inequality of class and the nation is eventually led to the deep reason of betrayal. "I must kill the lamb"， Amir says. Hassan， an object of sacrifice， becomes the lamb of Amir， the Pushtun.

二、Amirs Wounded Pride

Amir， in some ways， is a very miserable person. Being not like his own father， young Amir has a weak personality and this very characteristic makes Amir can not get enough love from his father. Amirs mother dead of the delivery and the father blamed it all on Amir of losing his lovely wife. To the father， poor Amirs birth means the huge pain of loss. Amir knows everything while there is nothing that he can do. He tries his best to cheer his father up. For example， Amir is very fond of writing， he read his own novel to his father， hoping that the father could say some nice words to praise him. But it seems like that the father prefers to Amir playing football rather than writing a novel.

三、The Father's Favoritism to Hassan

Hassan is an illegitimate child and the father feels indebted him too much. In order to keep his reputation， the father tries to cover up his fault and he tells this secret to no one. On the other side， having inheriting half of the pure noble quality of the father， perhaps， he regard Hassan， who has all these wonderful virtues， as his real son deeply inside. On the contrary， Amir to some extent do let father down. The father once talk about Amir with his old friend， Rahim Khan. He mentions that "if I have not seen the delivery of Amir by my own eyes， how can I believe that he is my son. He is just not like me at all.（Khaled Hosseini，2003）" Worry， fear， self-distrust bows the heart and spring back to dust（Mashael Al-Sdeary，2009）. This distortion bursts out on the kite festival at the age of 12 and it also let little Amir commits an unforgivable mistake.

四、Hassan s Forgiveness

Young Amir， because of cowardice， watching Hassan is raped， but Hassan forgives him and continues to be whole lot nicer to Amir as always. Hassan is just like a mirror that can reflect the despicable side of human nature. From this mirror， Amir has recognized so clearly， never feeling the mirror is deceptive. Then he start to stun Hassan， stop to playing with Hassan and reading his newly written novel any more in order to escape the remorse inside. Being tortured by the guilty deep down inside， he drove this poor servant away mercilessly by lying to his father that Hassan stole his watch and money in order to escape the torturing of conscience.

五、Conclusion

Through this tear-provoking story， the paper tries to have a specific analysis on the protagonists character and combine the reasons with it at the same time. This paper discusses the four specific reasons of Amirs final moral degeneration in order that the readers can acknowledge Amir better.

Bibliography：

[1] Khaled， Hosseini. The Kite Runner[M]. New York：Riverhead Book Press， 2003.

[2] Mashael， Al-Sdeary. "Power Relation in The Kite Runner： A New Historicist Reading"[J]. Arab Journal for the Humanities， 2009（12）： 206-231.

[3] Young， Lucien. Despair in Kabul[M]. UK CO. Press， 2007.

[4] 傅小強.《中国周边民族宗教概况》专题之六——《阿富汗民族宗教概况》[J].国际资料信息，2002（6）： 136-142.

作者简介：熊晨曦，女，汉族，河南新乡人，云南师范大外国语学院2016级研究生，研究方向：英语笔译。