The Kite Runner (Blog 2)

By: Khaled Hosseini

When they moved to America, Baba and Amir had to use their visas to register as US citizens.  Their eligibility officer was a heavyset African American woman named Mrs. Dobbins.  Mrs. Dobbins gave Baba a stack of food stamps.  Baba refuses to take them.  "'Thank you, but I don't want,' Baba said.  'I work always.  In Afghanistan I work, in America I work.  Thank you very much, Mrs. Dobbins, but I don't like it free money'" (Hosseini, 130).  I found this quote to serve as an example of characterization about Baba.  Many of the Afghan people seem to be very serious about keeping honor and dignity.  Baba definitely isn't an exception to this.  He wants to maintain a respectable persona, and he feels that he can keep this by always working hard.  In Kabul, he worked so hard and was very wealthy.  Many people were envious of him and his extravagant possessions.  I think that this made Baba proud of himself.  He would not want to live a life of having things handed to him after all of his hard work.  He was already working at a gas station.  Baba didn't want people to view him as lazy if he was on food stamps.  Also, I think that he didn't want his son to be disappointed in him.  As a father, it seems like Baba always wanted to come off as a strong and respectable man.