10 Sep The Kite Runner contains many families that suffer in their own unique way.

 The Kite Runner contains many families that suffer in their own unique way. Two different fathers in the novel both are overbearing in their own way, which leads to their families falling apart. The author uses these families to dimistrait the theme of how overbearing parents will cause their kids to resent their family.  The main character Amir’s family’s major source of unhappiness was Baba’s decision to father an illegitimate child with the servant’s son. This created an unhealthy dynamic between The legitimate and illegitimate son where the legitimate son constantly had to fight for and earn his father’s affection from the illegitimate son. It got so bad that Amir, the legitimate child, forced the two families to separate. Ironically, Baba showing his son too much affection is what separated them in the end.  Amir’s wife Soraya has a broken family of her own. Her father was a famous General back in Afghanistan, but now does nothing but run a resale store as a hobby and cash in welfare checks. He sees himself as above the rest of his countrymen and too important to work labor. While he does nothing to improve his standard of living, he expects his daughter to not only be successful in school but pursue a high-paying job to his specification. This pressure makes Soray act out and rebel, leading her to compromise her Purity Within  The Afghani community. This sacrifices her chance at marrying, one of the major ways his family could have moved up socially and economically. Both of these fathers put unrealistic expectations on their children leading to broken families in a different way. Baba’s unrealistic expectations led Amir into destroying the family he loved while Sayora’s father’s overbearingness led her to ruin his family’s pride which he valued over everything.