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The movie Kite Runner Review Paperprimomate.com/the-movie-kite-runner-review-paper

Introduction of The movie Kite Runner

For the entire development cycle; changes occur, both internal and external to an

individual’s life that shapes the mental and physical attitude and approach to life. During

the early stages of life, a child struggles in this kite runner movie, to understand the life

within him and his environment. As a result, both Erickson and Ainsworth have

developed different but related theories regarding development stages from childhood to

adult stages of life. During these stages, various defining moments are discussed by the

two approaches.

The movie is a depiction of racial discrimination of the highest order. The movies

emphasis on the social evil and how various characters struggle to cope. One of the

lessons of the movie is that one must be informed about the signs, effects, and

manifestations of this vice in society to overcome it. Racism is typical man-made and

requires the efforts of every race to overcome. It is experienced globally in workplaces,

learning institutions, law courts and healthcare centers to mention a few; as is depicted in

various captions of the movie “the kite runner.” The film captures essential traits of

determination, strength, and survival through its characters who eventually emerge as

heroes and heroines in the face of this vice, through their encounters and development of

survival tactics. Abandonment and betrayal are the two central themes of the movies and

forms key lessons learned based on how the characters featured face and turn the same to

their advantage.

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Erikson’s psychosocial development theory

Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust (0–1 years)

Within the movie, the development of both Amir and Hassan has different nature because

of the different nature of childhood treatment which Amir and Hassan received. In reality,

for example, after the birth of Amir, his mother died and the father started blaming Amir

for the death of his beloved wife. After the death of Amir’s wife, he did not ever receive

any kindness and love from his father. Therefore, Amir developed over the notion of

mistrust throughout his life, because he never gained support and affection from his

father. While, on the other hand, Hassan developed differently, as he received love and

affection of Amir’s father due to which Hassan developed over the trust of Amir’s father.

In short, at early stages of the development of both Amir and Hassan, Amir failed to

develop hope within his personality, whereas Hassan developed over the hope with his

relationship with Amir’s father.

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (early childhood, 2–3 years)

After watching the movie, ‘The Kite Runner,’ it becomes clearer that Amir never gained

autonomy of his personality, during early stages of his life, as Amir always received

highest level of criticism and limitations over different matters of his life, and somewhere

in his heart and mind, he always felt doubt and shame because of the lack of affection and

love from his father. While, on the other side, the personality of Hassan developed over

his autonomy that father of Amir always granted to Hassan, whereas offering him the

freedom to do whatever he desires for his life. For instance, the father of Amir never

offered Amir blue kite, as a sign of honor, but Hassan, as father of Amir always regarded

Hassan as a person with honor. Therefore, Amir failed to develop over his personal will, at

early stages of his childhood, but Hassan.

Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt (3 – 5 years)

At this stage, as Erik also explained within his theory, a child tends to seek, knowledge

whereas interacting with other people of different ages. Also, at this stage, a child also

learns about the way to use his interpersonal skills, especially those which are linked with

the personality of a person at early stages of his life. For example, within the movie, Amir

always found guilt over his personality because of the lack of skills to promote his

personality among others like he fails to fly kite in a proper manner so that he can win the

kite flying fight. However, Hassan developed at this stage as he identifies his

interpersonal skills whereas interacting with other children of the town and that he has

personal skill to fly kite in an effective manner. In short, it would not be wrong to say that

the whole display of the movie shows the fact that Amir failed to have any purpose in life,

but Hassan who always knew about the purpose to live among others.

Stage 4 : Industry vs. Inferiority ( 6 –12 years)

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Erickson’s 4 stage discusses the feelings inferiority complex versus competition. As I

watch the movies, this stage comes to mind as I see the struggle between inferiority and

industry in the lives of Amir. He is not in a position for self-defense and resorts to using

his friend Hassan as a defender before others. By baba making, comparison of him to

Hassan in most situations creates a feeling of inferiority in the movie. This affects his

development stages; at adulthood when he received a beating by Asef in the film.

Stage 5 : Identity vs. role Confusion ( 12-18)

At this stage, a child is faced with changes with leaves him confused over his identity and

self-concept about his personality. In relating this to the movie “ the kite runner,” Amir is

faced with the challenge of confusion regarding role identity. This period is usually

characterized by dilemma and a poor attitude towards problems and relating positively to

their environment becomes a challenge. There is a struggle to assert oneself to be

accepted and affirmed. The inability of Amir to reconcile himself with the context in

which he lives is a recipe for disastrous lifestyles through the lifespan. This is one of the

significant issues addressed by Erickson in his eight stages of life theory. The inter-

dependability on of these stages cannot be ignored since failure to develop in one entirely

affects an individual in the next step. Erickson outlines the symptoms and the action plan

regarding intervention at each stage in life which is critical to Amir’s in the movie.

To fully develop this reflection paper further, two psychological development theories are

of crucial importance (1). Erickson’s opinion which is one of the highly regarded

principles in the psychology of life stages development. The fact that life presents

humanity with critical lessons and challenges in the growth process is reason enough to

initiate a fact-finding mission to unravel the mysteries behind these challenges; this is the

primary factor which led to the development of the Erickson’s theory. Erickson

categorizes human development into eight stages with a title “the eight stages of man.”

Stage 6 : Intimacy vs. Isolation ( 19 – 30 )

While continuing to watch the movie, I notice that the sixth stage of Erickson’s

development theory is also brought up in Amir when he seeks a wife. (After watching the

movie, it would not be wrong to say that Hassan married with the mother of Sohrab, wife

to Amir, and the name of the wife of Hassan is Farzana who appeared for some moments

within the display of the movie and she showed extreme love not only for Hassan and his

son, Sohrab, but for others like neighborhood.)This stage discusses isolation versus

intimacy; he decides to settle with a wife who had past questionable issues. (The nature of

the relationship between Amir and father, Baba, showed extreme level of isolation

between them, as Baba always considered Amir the reason behind the death of his

beloved wife. Therefore, Baba never showed love and affection for Amir, but Hassan, due

to which Amir also showed the isolation from his father, lacking love from Baba)

Stage 7 : Generativity vs. Stagnation ( 30 – 50 )

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(At this stage, the idea of generativity developed within the character of Amir, as he

desired to fully establish his family structure, whereas treating Sohrab like Baba treated

Hassan during his early childhood. For instance, at a point, Amir realized that he cannot

have a baby with his wife and he decided to have Sohrab as a way to recover his guilt and

his immoral conduct with Hassan that he conducted within the childhood time with

Hassan, like observing him being raped.)

I also describe Amir’s act as he saves his nephew as one of a person at the average level, a

stage referred to by Erickson as system morality because his act surprised many who did

not believe in his ability. The development of the selfish man at a younger age when he

wanted to have Hassan thrown out of the family to a selfless man able to save his nephew

at adult age.

The developmental challenges evidenced in Amir’s behavior:

The movies show them start an intimate relationship with a lady who has seriously

questionable past; this was an indication that he was undergoing hormonal developments

triggering the desire for opposite sex. He also developed tendencies to push back what is

necessary such as in favor of less important

Hassan- There isn’t much development seen in Hassan since during his entire growth

stage; he remained loyal to baba and kept his friendship with Amir intact. He portrayed a

more stable development compared to Amir who was relatively unpredictable through the

same process. His character stability is further shown by how he reacts to the rape by

Assef; despite this heinous act, he stayed intact. Majority of those who have undergone

rape cases always experience trauma and disorders, however; he decided to stay indoors

as if he was just sick, after which he went about his duties as though nothing had

happened. Maybe this is due to his cultural background; the Hazaras being a minority

group are used to such mistreatments. The movie shows the vast difference between the

privileged families where Amir comes from the poor where Hassan is from, the stages of

development are affected by these factors as portrayed in the movie by the two actors.

Ainsworth theory

State 4 types of attachment:

1\ secure attachment

Secure attachment is the attachment style over which a child develops a sense of being

attached and that a child’s needs are secure over the attachment nature. In this regard,

within the movie, Amir did not show this attachment, as he remained detach from his

father. Whereas, Hassan shows the secure attachment style as he developed over the firm

support of Amir’s father.

2\ Avoidant attachment

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Over this attachment style, a child show emotional and physical isolation from

attachment figure. In this regard, within the movie, Amir shows the avoidant attachment

in terms of his both emotional and physical attachment with his father. For example,

when a kite flying event occurred at one moment of the movie, Amir shows emotional

avoidant attachment towards his father as his father only talk s about the kite flying talent

of Hassan.

3\ Ambivalent attachment

This style of attachment talks about the way through which a child shows dependent

conduct towards attachment figure, but avoid the attachment figure within real

interaction. For instance, within the movie, Amir at various point tries to show Hassan

that he is dependent on his father and that his father loves him, but in reality, whenever

Amir’s father approached both Amir and Hassan, Amir never tried to be attached with his

father, whereas avoiding him.

4\ Disorganized attachment

Over this style of attachment a child shows high level of distress because of

the attachment figure. For example, within the movie, Amir developed over

this style, as he always showed distress towards his father especially

whenever he go out and found his father waiting for him in his new car,

whereas Hassan always shows happiness towards the father of Amir.

Conclusion

I have learned from both Erickson and Ainsworth development stages theories are

practically applicable to the main protagonists in the movies as the movie develops, are

the developments stages in these characters exposed. The only main point relevant to

Ainsworth theory of development to the movies is the separation anxiety and reunion

behavior. The friendship between Hassan and Amir Causes mixed reactions of anxiety

and fear in equal measures. Their friendship develops actively as they grew up. The fear of

Hassan being considered a standard of perfection by baba on Amir is a perfect example of

anxiety and fear themes in the movie. The concern of reunion between Hassan and Aimer

after the rape case is another excellent example of how the development relates to

Ainsworth theory.

The evidence that an adolescent is struggling by not meeting the milestones of Erickson’s

theory of adolescent development. For example when Amir begins to exhibit signs such as

rebellion and isolation which was a sign that something wasn’t working right in his life

regarding required developments associated with this age and therefore an intervention

needed to be initiated. In a nutshell, this movie has impressed me greatly. It exposes the

value of life and love. After I watched this renowned movie, I realized that friendship is so

precious, and also we need to appreciate our rosy lives.

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