Character Essay

Comparing and Contrasting Two Young Narrators

In comparing and contrasting the narrators in both Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and The Kite Runner, Michael Shannon’s quote, “Everybody’s constantly being destroyed and rebuilding themselves, some more drastically than others” (qtd. in Guarneri, 146) sets up the way in which we can compare and contrast the changes that the narrators go through. The unnamed narrator from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Ma, and the narrator of The Kite Runner, Amir, are both in a culture that is changing drastically while being immersed in self-doubt where they must go through challenging obstacles, such as, jealousy and the need for validation in order to achieve an awareness of themselves and do what is “right”, and the way in which Ma and Amir reach this “lightness” is through different actions according to the novels and similar actions in the films, with varying degrees of transcendence.

The culture given in any novel is imperative to understanding the characters and the reasoning for their actions, or lack thereof. This is especially true in regards to having a novel written in first person, because we are only given what the narrator thinks, feels, and perceives about the world around them. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and The Kite Runner are both written from the first person point of view, and their story only exists within the cultural context of the novels. As the context of this paper progresses to create a connection between these two seemingly unrelated novels, the importance of cultural context will become more apparent and allow the reader to understand the narrators and their actions in greater depth.

Both narrators, Ma and Amir, face self-doubt, but have very different scenarios in which this self-doubt arises. Amir’s is caused heavily by his cultural surroundings, while Ma’s causation for self-doubt is much more centered on his jealousy of Luo.

In the very first chapter of The Kite Runner the reader is acutely aware of the reservations that the narrator, Amir, has about his past, and the blatant feeling of guilt that is characterized by his evaluation of what Rahim Khan has said to him, “There is a way to be good again (Hosseini, 2).” The event that Amir feels guilt and responsibility for can be accounted for by his young age of 12 years and the society of Afghanistan at the time. Hassan is Amir’s childhood friend/brother, but there is a gray area caused by societal normalities of shunning Hazaras, and because of this Amir battles himself on which course of action is right. The surrounding cultural context is that Amir is known as a Sunni Muslim, meaning that he is an accepted Afghan citizen and at a higher class level than that of Hassan, who is a Shiite Muslim or Hazara, meaning that he is viewed as a lesser being and servant in society. This long time “blood feud” between Sunni and Shiite Muslims remains today, and was a crucial piece in the ascension of power by the Taliban in the 90’s (Gohari, 99). In short, Amir’s feeling of responsibility is a self-conflict where he feels that morally he should have helped his friend escape a frightful situation, but the culture in which he lives doesn’t regard Hazaras like Hassan as equal human beings. The self-conflict of Amir attributes to his intense feeling of guiltiness, and self-doubt.

Contrasting to the straightforwardness that Amir has in telling the reader his emotions in The Kite Runner, Ma is a much less revealing narrator. It is difficult to fully understand the feelings of self-doubt that he experiences, although it is apparent that there is a competitive-like relationship between Ma and his closest friend, Luo, especially when it comes to the winning of the Little Seamstress’s heart. The first inclination of any self-doubt that Ma might have is given to the reader in the beginning of the novel during the scene in which the villagers are inspecting the violin, and Luo suggests that his friend (Ma) is a “fine musician,” which Ma refutes by saying, “Forgive me, comrade. . . but I’m not that good” (Sijie, 5). As the novel goes on the self-doubt that Ma has about his talents and abilities only grows more apparent. During the first retelling of the film that Ma and Luo journey to see, Ma is overcome with stage fright and he talks of “Luo’s genius for storytelling”(Sijie, 19). Another account of Ma’s lack of talent to tell stories occurs when he attempts to tell a story to the sorceresses, who are taking care of Luo, and it doesn’t end the way that he believed it should have. Although when Luo goes back over the story for them, he succeeds in eliciting an emotional response that Ma could not (Sijie, 39-40). The self-doubt that Ma has about his talents, quickly progresses into a jealousy towards Luo and his ability to woo the Little Seamstress.

As demonstrated above both Amir and Ma face challenges of self-doubt, but in very different forms, that affect their lives in distinctive ways. The ways in which these narrators transcend their self-doubt varies though, as they transcend by different means in their respective novels, but similar means in their respective films.

Amir overcomes his guilt and self-doubt in both the novel and film, by traveling back to Kabul, learning of Hassan’s actual relationship to himself, and saving Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from none other than the perpetuator of the horrid crime done unto Hassan as a boy, Assef. The main proponent for Amir being able to redeem himself, or forgive himself for his past actions, is his confrontation with Assef, who is now a Taliban member, in which he firstly, discusses “ethnic cleansing” and secondly Amir has a physical confrontation with Assef in which Amir is severely injured (Hosseini, 284-8). Another key factor in Amir’s redemption, or forgiving of himself, is when Rahim Khan reveals to Amir that Hassan is Amir’s half-brother (Hosseini, 222). This revelation allows for Amir to understand that everyone makes mistakes of which they are ashamed and scared, even his beloved father, Baba. Throughout Amir’s return to Afghanistan, a lot of healing occurs, but the moment that the reader can really feel and see that forgiveness of one’s self is at the end of the novel when Amir and Sohrab have returned to America and two things happen. First, when Amir stands up to General Sahib, and tells him to never again refer to Sohrab as “that Hazara boy” (Hoseinni, 361), and second, when Amir runs a kite for Sohrab in the park saying, “For you, a thousand times over” (Hoseinni, 371). At this point the reader finally sees that Amir is able to forgive himself and reach this lightness through right action, and the reader is able to forgive him as well.

In Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Ma must overcome the inherent jealousy that he feels toward the relationship that Luo has with the Little Seamstress, caused by his self-doubt of his own talents and ability to woo the Little Seamstress. In the novel by Dai Sijie, there isn’t much of a transcendence for Ma. He helps the Little Seamstress get an abortion by giving away Ursule Mirouet and Jean Christophe (172-3), and this can be seen as an act of overcoming the jealousy he has held and realization that he could still have a chance with the Little Seamstress, until she leaves of course. Although, in the film directed by Sijie, Ma comes to terms with his self-consciousness in a much clearer way. At the end of the film we see Ma and Luo reunite and spend the evening reflecting on their current lives and their lives when they were sent off for re-education. The, now men, watch the footage of film that Ma recorded while revisiting Phoenix Mountain and the village where they had met the Little Seamstress. The reflection that Ma gives upon returning to Phoenix Mountain and the interesting way in which the boys weren’t re-educated in the sense that Mao, and most young intellectuals intended, which was supposed to be a purging of young, school-aged children, to the rural areas to be educated on the “proletariat”, or working class (Fan, 185). The revolution of China in the 60’s through the 70’s affected the situation of Ma and Luo by forcing them to leave their homes, but helped them in a way to experience love, or infatuation with a feeling of urgency and the loss of love for the first time. The time that Ma and Luo spend that evening reliving this time in their lives, gives a much stronger feeling of resolution, transcendence, and the light for the narrator.

In conclusion, the narrators in both The Kite Runner and Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, face many challenges both culturally and mentally, and must get through those dark times in order to finally reach the light. While Amir and Ma both deal with psychological effects from the hardships that they are working through, I find Amir to go through a much more traumatic experience than Ma, with much longer and worse effects on his psyche.

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