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Shaikh, Safiya 5/8/2008 1 "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." This quote by Emmanuel Kant sums up his idea of categorical imperative. He believes that one should act the way that if the whole world acted the way he did, it would be the correct solution. These ideas differ greatly from what Dostoevsky considers to be true. He feels that human desire cannot be limited by society. There is no limit to free will and not all lengths of human desires can be explained by reason. Amir, character from the kite runner by Khaled Hosseini follows Dostoevsky's way of thinking (no reference). Amir, the protagonist and the narrator of the kite runner is guilt ridden for what happened to his Hazara friend many years ago. On the day of the Kite festival in Afghanistan in the year 1975 Amir sees Hassan run a kite for the last time. Amir has always been craving for his father's love. His Baba who is very proud of himself and his ancestors does not feel the same way about his son Amir. That is because he feels that Amir is weak and never stands up for himself {"A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything." "Sometimes I look out this window .... I see how they push him around ...And, you know, he never fights back. Never. He just... drops his head and..." "...Hassan steps in and fends them off. I've seen it with my own eyes." "If I hadn't seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I'd never believe he's my son." (These quotations are to help explain Baba's feelings towards both Amir and Hassan). The kite Festival is Amir's golden chance to be Shaikh, Safiya 5/8/2008 2 the ideal son his dad wanted. His dad was a great kite runner back in his day, so Amir feels that if he can win the competition that year then he could finally get his dad's undivided attention and love. Hassan who is always willing to help Amir is going to help him run the kite so that Amir could take the kite back to his father. { "Hassan!" I called. "Come back with it!". "For you a thousand times over!" he said. Then he smiled his Hassan smile and disappeared around the corner.(This shows how willing Hassan was to help Amir bring the winning "trophy" back)}. When Hassan doesn't show up for a while with the kite, Amir decides to go looking for Hassan. That is when he comes across (watches silently from a corner)Assef threatening Hassan for the kite. When Hassan refused to give him the kite. Assef decided to rape Hassan and Amir stood in the dark alley watching. He did not even try to Help Hassan. {I crept close to the mouth of the alley. Held my breath. Peeked around the corner. "Because today, it's only going to cost you that blue kite." "Amir agha won the tournament and I ran this kite for him. I ran it fairly. This is his kite." I ran. ... Assef and what he would do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt. (These quotations and narrations are to help understand the setting and the situation where Amir made the decision that changed his life.)} Amir follows Dostoevsky because he makes a decision which can only be justified by his desire for his father's love and not by rationalism. He chooses to run away from the alley because he is "afraid" of what Assef might do to him, but deep inside of him he knows he wants the blue kite in the worst way. His Shaikh, Safiya 5/8/2008 3 action can only be justified by his desire. Some may say that his actions can be justified by rationalism because he is just a 12 year old boy. What do you expect a 12 year old boy to do in such a situation? Dostoevsky opposes utopia and rationalism because he believes that it underestimates the human desire for free will. He argues that humans value the ability to exert their own will--even if it runs contrary to their best interests--more than they value reason. This is the picture that Amir sketches for us in the kite runner . The only thing standing between him and his father was the blue kite. He knew that if he brought home that blue Kite his father would be exceptionally proud of him. It was the moment he had been waiting for most of his life. The Underground Man's irrationalism, even his insistence that man ought to act irrationally on purpose to prove himself free, can be seen to stem logically from an honest attempt to understand his own irrational behavior, sixteen years earlier, in Part Two. But his conclusions seem consistent even if one interprets them as rationalizations of his past reprehensible actions, that is, as an attempt of a thoroughgoing rationalist to pass himself off as an irrationalist in order to exonerate himself of responsibility in his own eyes and the eyes of the reader for the "crime" he committed against the innocent and defenseless Liza .He was bound to act as he did because man is by nature irrational and thus he cannot help but act against his own interest or that he was bound to act against his own interest because only by doing so could he really prove to himself that he was free. Shaikh, Safiya 5/8/2008 4 Similarly Amir acts in such an absurd way for his own selfish reasons. This proves that he follows Dostoevsky's way of rationalizing his actions. Kant perceives the solution to the problem differently. He considers that one should act the way that if the whole world acted that way it would be okay. What if everybody did what Amir did? Let some one rape his friend and not tell anybody or try to help his friend. If so, then the whole world would be a dangerous place for children and like "Disney Land" for those who prey on children. Imagine the world where nobody took action against crimes like rape. There would be people especially those who have been victim living inconstant fear. This would then really depreciate their moral and emotional values. Life would be like being controlled by the Taliban. Because those who are in power are the ones that should be confined behind bars. If Amir had followed Kant's path towards his decision he could have saved Hassan from what happened to him in the alley. What he could have done was that he, as soon as he knew what was coming (whether it be a beating with the brass knuckles or rape) he went and got an adult to better control the situation. Someone who could have authority over Assef and his actions (even the market seller, because he is an elder Assef would have obeyed) could stop Assef from what he was about to do and maybe punish him so that Assef thinks twice before doing such a despicable act. Amir could have even stepped in himself and said to Assef that if he didn't back off he would tell his dad (then Baba could have controlled the situation) If Amir had indeed followed Kant then maybe Hassan would not have been raped. Shaikh, Safiya 5/8/2008 5 That day would not have been Hassan's last smile (that Amir had seen other than the one in the Polaroid picture of Hassan) Ali and Hassan wouldn't have had to move out, Maybe when Amir and his father fled to America , Hassan and Ali also came. Sohorab wouldn't have been a victim of Assef's pedophile actions, and maybe just maybe Hassan would have known who is real father was. Same situation, two different approach, and two very different solutions and endings. Amir followed Dostoevsky's idea of individualism, we know how that story ends. Had he taken the different approach who knows how the story could have ended. Bibliography o Hosseini, Khaled. The kite runner . 21 Apr. 2008 <http://www.scribd.com/doc/2519308/THE-KITE-RUNNER>. o "Categorical Imperative." Wikipedia. 24 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative>. o "RATIONALISM, MOTIVATION, AND TIME IN DOSTOEVSKY's "NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND"" University of Toronto. 27 Apr. 2008 <http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/DS/03/087.shtml>. Shaikh, Safiya 5/8/2008 6 I pledge that I have not received nor given any unauthorized aid on this assignment. Shaikh, Safiya 5/8/2008 7

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