论文总字数：43928字

摘 要

卡勒德·胡赛尼是世界上最受读者欢迎和喜爱的小说家之一，其作品《追风筝的人》和《灿烂千阳》在美国的销售量超过一千万册，在全球七十多个国家销售超过三千八八万册。2003年，《追风筝的人》一经出版就受到了文艺批评界的广泛关注。迄今为止，该书已在四十多个国家出版并成为国际畅销书。本文从佛洛依德的人格结构理论角度分析《追风筝的人》中主人公阿米尔的心路历程。本文还讨论了阿米尔内心的人格斗争和自我防御机制，这些最终导致了阿米尔内心的强烈焦虑，也最终促成了阿米尔的重生。

阿米尔人格中的本我和超我相互冲突，对父爱的缺乏导致了他对父爱的极度渴望，也最终导致了阿米尔对哈桑对友情的背叛。本文试图用弗洛伊德的三重人格结构理论对小说主人公的人格发展进行剖析，进而探求促使小说主人公人格从迷失到升华的原因。

关键词: 人格结构 内心斗争 焦虑 重生

Introduction

1.1 About the author—Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini was born on March 4, 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan as the oldest of five children. His father worked for the Afghan Foreign Consul and his mother was a teacher at a high school in Kabul. In 1976, his family moved to Paris, France, where his father was a diplomat at the Afghan Embassy. They returned home to Afghanistan in 1980 when the Russians invaded his country. His father was recalled home after the invasion, but decided to ask for political asylum in the United States and made their residence in San Jose, California. In America, Hosseini graduated from high school in 1984 and subsequently enrolled at Santa Clara University where he earned a biology degree in 1988. The following year, he entered the University of California San Diego’s School of Medicine, where he earned his Medical Degree in 1993. He completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles in 1996.

During the period of his medical practice, Hosseini began writing his first novel. In 2003, The Kite Runner was published and received much attention from book critics. Up until now, the book has been published in 48 countries and becomes an international bestseller. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns which was published on May 22, 2007, focuses on the tumultuous lives of two Afghan women and their life intersection, spanning from the 1960s to 2003, and it also received favorable remarks from the critics.

1.2 About the novel—The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, Hosseini’s first novel, tells a story of a young boy, Amir, struggling to establish a closer rapport with his father and coping with memories of a haunting childhood event. The novel is set in Afghanistan from the fall of the monarchy until the collapse of the Taliban regime, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically in Fremont, California. Its many themes include ethnic tensions between the Hazaras and the Pashtuns in Afghanistan, and the immigrant experiences of Amir and his father in the United States. The Kite Runner has been adapted into a film of the same name released in December 2007. Hosseini makes a cameo appearance towards the end of the movie as a bystander when Amir buys a kite which he later flies with Sohrab.

1.3 About the setting of the novel—Afghanistan

As the setting of the novel, Afghanistan is the hometown of the author Hosseini and the story protagonist. Since Hosseini and Amir both grows up in the 1960s in Afghanistan, Afghanistan surely contains many profound symbolic meanings. Besides, this country soon becomes the focus of the world since the 911 event. With the publication of this novel, people, especially people from America, have begun to focus their eyes on this mysterious and strange country once again.

Afghanistan, a typical landlocked country, is located in the central and western Eurasia. It is bordered by Pakista in the south and the east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast. Over 99% of the Afghan population is Muslim. In the novel, Amir is a Pashtun while Hassan is a Hazara. And there are always conflicts between Pashtuns and Hazaras. As a dominant group in Afghanistan, the Pashtuns constitute the majority of the population. Pashtuns regard themselves as the true Afghans and are superior to other minorities. They are Sunni Muslims who used to rule the country. On the contrary, the Hazaras are one of many minority ethnic groups. In Afghanistan, the social class of Hazaras is relatively low, and they are often persecuted and oppressed by Pashtuns.

1.4 Need for the study

Literarily, The Kite Runner is undoubtedly a popular novel. Since its publication, it gains numerous favorable public comments and catches the eyeball of the whole world. The immediate success of the novel also makes its author rise to fame overnight. All humane scientific researches are based on an understanding of the current basis. Therefore, the study of Hosseini’s works is particularly important in this field. Judging from the domestic and foreign reviews on The Kite Runner, it is clear that Khaled Hosseini and his works have received the full recognition of literary critics and readers all around the world. A large number of newspapers and magazines have commented on the novel.

Theoretically, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory provides a sound theoretical foundation for the interpretation of The Kite Runner. Up until now, few researches have combined Freud’s psychoanalytic theory with this book. Therefore, this thesis will help us better understand the protagonist Amir’s personality growth and his mentality development from a new perspective.

Literature Review

2.1 Freud’s Theory of Personality Structure

Freud was born to Galician Jewish parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg, in the Austrian Empire. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna. Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902. Freud lived and worked in Vienna, having set up his clinical practice there in 1886. In 1938 Freud left Austria to escape from the Nazis. He died in exile in the United Kingdom in 1939. Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.

In creating psychoanalysis, Freud developed therapeutic techniques. His analysis of dreams as wish-fulfillments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the underlying mechanisms of repression. On this basis Freud elaborated his theory of the unconscious, psychosexual stages, anxiety and defense mechanisms and went on to develop a model of psychic structure comprising id, ego and super-ego.

Freud proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts: Id, ego and super-ego. Freud discussed this model in the essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), and fully elaborated upon it in The Ego and the Id (1923), in which he developed it as an alternative to his previous topographic schema (i.e., conscious, unconscious and preconscious).

Id is the part of the unconscious that seeks pleasure. His idea of the id explains why people act out in certain ways, when it is not in line with the ego or superego. The id is the part of the mind, which holds all of human’s most basic and primal instincts. It is the impulsive, unconscious part of the mind that is based on desire to seek immediate satisfaction. The id does not have a grasp on any form of reality or consequence.

Ego is responsible for creating balance between pleasure and pain. It is impossible for all desires of the id to be met and the ego realizes this but continues to seek pleasure and satisfaction. Although the ego does not know the difference between right and wrong, it is aware that not all drives can be met at a given time. The reality principle is what the ego operates by in order to help satisfy the id’s demands as well as compromising according to reality. The ego is a person’s “self” composed of unconscious desires. The ego takes into account ethical and cultural ideals in order to balance out the desires originating in the id. Although both the id and the ego are unconscious, the ego has close contact with the perceptual system. The ego has the function of self-preservation, which is why it has the ability to control the instinctual demands from the id.

The superego, which develops around age four or five, incorporates the morals of society. Freud believed that the superego is what allows the mind to control its impulses that are looked down upon morally. The superego can be considered to be the conscience of the mind because it has the ability to distinguish between reality as well as what is right or wrong. Without the superego Freud believed people would act out with aggression and other immoral behaviors because the mind would have no way of understanding the difference between right and wrong. The superego is considered to be the “consciousness” of a person’s personality and can override the drives from the id. Freud separates the superego into two separate categories; the ideal self and the conscious. The conscious contains ideals and morals that exist within society that prevent people from acting out based on their internal desires. The ideal self contains images of how people ought to behave according to societies ideals.

Freud acknowledged that his use of the term id derives from the writings of Georg Groddeck. The super-ego is the moral component of the psyche, which takes into account no special circumstances in which the morally right thing may not be right for a given situation. The rational ego attempts to exact a balance between the impractical hedonism of the id and the equally impractical moralism of the super-ego; it is the part of the psyche that is usually reflected most directly in a person’s actions. When overburdened or threatened by its tasks, it may employ defense mechanisms including denial, repression, undoing, rationalization, and displacement. This concept is usually represented by the “Iceberg Model”. This model represents the roles the Id, Ego, and Super Ego play in relation to conscious and unconscious thought.

Freud compared the relationship between the ego and the id to that between a charioteer and his horses: the horses provide the energy and drive, while the charioteer provides direction.

The psychoanalytic theory analyzes human’s mental activity model not only from the depth of human nature, but also from the essence of human nature, since the day of its naissance, it has already been favored and admired by the people of all ages in literary and art circles. This theory can be used in the literary criticism to analyze the characters in the text or the symbolic image in which the three elements of the personality are represented, so as to help readers to re-understand and interpret literary works from a new perspective. Therefore, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory may also help us better understand the protagonist Amir’s personality growth and his mentality development from a new perspective.

2.2 Previous studies on The Kite Runner

Since it was published in 2003, The Kite Runner has attracted much attention of the critics, then it climbed steadily up the list of the bestseller. However, few abroad researchers has conducted researches on Hosseini and his work, maybe this is because he is a new writer and has a few works until now. So far, To be good (again): The Kite Runner as allegory of global ethics by Jefferess (2009) is one of the most important research articles about this novel in Journal of Postcolonial Writing. By using the analysis of the distinction between the “good Muslim” and the “bad Muslim”，David Jefferess argues that The Kite Runner reflects a shift from the supremacy of race and nation to the primary markers of political community and identifies the idea of “modern” as the framework to determining “human”. Therefore, he views the novel as an allegory of global ethics.

Compared with the literary study abroad, the researchers in China mainly concentrate on the following aspects: characterization of Amir and Hassan, religious disputes, racial discrimination, betrayal and redemption, the symbolic images of “kite” and the thematic study of growth. Most scholars intend to make research into the novel from the aspect of theme. Some concentrate on the subject of betrayal and redemption. Li (2017) shares the view that the novel is a story about sin and redemption and only by redemption can the protagonist get rid of his sin which tortures him badly and get peace finally. Some scholars focus on the growth and initiation theme of the novel. Zhang and Chen (2007) hold the opinion that the novel tells a story concerning about the initiation journey of the protagonist. He won’t grow up both physically and mentally until he makes up for the sin he has committed. And some scholars combine the redemption theme and the initiation theme together. Mo (2016) thinks that the protagonist has learned of self-redemption in the process of his growth, and he has grown up in redemption.

Although many scholars pay their attention to the theme of The Kite Runner, there are many other scholars who interpret it from different point of views. Some intend to study the novel from the aspect of the image“kite”and its symbolic meanings. Take Peng Lei’s (2017) thesis as an example, he thinks the kite image as a vital role in constructing the theme of the novel in his thesis An Analysis of the Kite Image in The Kite Runner from the Perspective of Growth. In Huang Luna’s essay An Analysis of Amir’s Identity in The Kite Runner, the author expresses her idea that redemption is based on the kite image and human nature return.

There are other articles concerning history of Afghanistan and its political situation. In Li Ying’s (2017) thesis A Psycholoanalysis of Khaled Hosseini from the Perspective of Culture and Religious in The Kite Runner the author makes a discussion about the inevitableness of Hassan’s miserable destiny from both religious and political aspects. She thinks it is the sins of Hassan’s biological parents and the racial discrimination in Afghanistan that determine Hassan’s fate. In addition, Li Lu holds the idea that only if all the nations united as one to resist violence, can Afghanistan get rid of religious prejudice, persecution and racial discrimination and has a better future.

The researches mentioned above are of great academic value and they are very helpful to the present study.

2.3 Deficiency in previous studies

Up until now, many researchers has done researches on The Kite Runner. Some of them concentrate on characterization of Amir and Hassan, religious disputes, racial discrimination, the symbolic images of “kite” and the thematic study of growth. Most scholars intend to make research into the novel from the aspect of theme. Some focus on the subject of betrayal and redemption. They share the same point of view that the novel is a story about sin and redemption and only by redemption can the protagonist get rid of his sin which tortures him badly and get peace finally.

There are also many scholars pay their attention to the theme of The Kite Runner and the history of Afghanistan and its political situation. All these previous studies give the author a big inspiration to write this thesis. But few of them have combined Freud’s psychoanalytic theory with the novel, and studied Amir’s mentality development. There is still a broad space to conduct further research on Hosseini and his works. This thesis focuses on the psychoanalysis of Amir in The Kite Runner from the perspective of Freud’s Theory of Personality Structure. It is hoped that the paper and the study conducted can provide some insight into the research of the psychoanalysis of Amir in The Kite Runner and make contributions to the combination of The Kite Runner with Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.

Psychoanalysis of Amir in The Kite Runner

3.1 Amir’s personality structure

Soon after Freud found that the topographic model was far from enough to describe human personality, he came up with his structural model, according to which the personality is divided into three parts: the id, the ego and the superego. According to Freud, the id is completely unconscious and contains instinctive drives and impulses, acting upon the pleasure principle. The ego is responsible for dealing with the reality, mediating between the id and the superego. It operates according to the reality principle. And the superego is all our moral standards and ideas, acquired from parental authorities and the society. It acts upon the idealistic principle, trying to perfect our behaviors. In Amir’s case, his id is always tend to be selfish, cowardly and disloyal. His ego acts as vacillating, evasive and ambivalent. His superego acts as courageous, responsible and genuine.

3.1.1 Amir’s id—selfish, cowardly, disloyal, mendacious

According to Freud’s Theory of Personality Structure, the id is the personality component made of unconscious urges, needs, and desires. In Freud’s own words, id is the part of the unconscious that seeks pleasure. Freud’s idea of the id explains why people act out in certain ways, when it is not in line with the ego or superego. The id is the part of the mind, which holds all of human’s most basic and primal instincts. It is the impulsive, unconscious part of the mind that is based on desire to seek immediate satisfaction. The id does not have a grasp on any form of reality or consequence.

In Amir’s case, his id is clearly reflected in the first half of the novel. Amir was born in a wealthy family in Afghanistan, his mother died of excessive loss of blood when giving birth to Amir. Perhaps it is because the birth of Amir bringing away his wife's life, Amir’s father is pretty harsh to Amir, which in turn causes Amir’s lacking of

parental love and severe anxiety. As a result, Amir is always under the situation of longing for fatherly love. At this time, the id of Amir is always trying to let him make efforts to gain his father’s love by all means. He rebels at all the people and things which occupy his father’s time. Young Amir is the embodiment of his id, self-centered and self-interested. Facing the hard time, he is always tending to protect himself and do good to himself. Hassan, a low social status Hazara, acting as a servant at the Amir’s, is born to be ineligible for school, his only learning opportunity is to listen to Amir’s reading story. But when the selfish Amir finds Hassan’s strong desire to learn, he deliberately picks some simple stories to read to Hassan, sometimes he even read the wrong words on purpose. In order to satisfy his selfish thoughts, Amir deliberately taunts Hassan, depriving him of the only chance to gain knowledge. The characteristic of the id’s acting upon the pleasure principle is vividly reflected in the juvenile Amir. To win his father’s approval, Amir decided to take part in the kite competition with the encouragement of Hassan’s. However, in the process of Hassan’s running for the kite, Hassan was bullied by Assef, and Amir witnesses the whole thing, but dares not do anything, he chooses to escape. In order to win back the blue kite which could open his father’s heart, Amir finally leaves Hassan alone and betrays Hassan. Driven by his id, Amir makes his ultimate choice: to sacrifice Hassan and win back his father’s love.

3.1.2 Amir’s ego—vacillating, evasive, ambivalent

According to Freud, the ego is the largely unconscious part of personality that mediates the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego prevents us from acting on our basic urges of the id, but also works to achieve a balance with the superego. The ego operates on the reality principle, which works to satisfy the id's desires in a manner that is realistic and social appropriate.

Ego is responsible for creating balance between pleasure and pain. It is impossible for all desires of the id to be met and the ego realizes this but continues to seek pleasure and satisfaction. Although the ego does not know the difference between right and wrong, it is aware that not all drives can be met at a given time. The reality principle is what the ego operates by in order to help satisfy the id’s demands as well as compromising according to reality. The ego is a person’s “self” composed of unconscious desires. The ego takes into account ethical and cultural ideals in order to balance out the desires originating in the id. Although both the id and the ego are unconscious, the ego has close contact with the perceptual system. The ego has the function of self-preservation, which is why it has the ability to control the instinctual demands from the id.

A healthy personality should be dominated by a strong ego. During the period of the formation of Amir’s superego, Amir’s ego plays a significant role in the transformation. His ego acts upon the reality principle, which works to satisfy the id’s desires in a manner that is realistic and social appropriate. The process of Amir’s backing to Afghanistan to makes up for his fault is the whole course of his self-control. Amir, who has been influenced by the racism of his father and Afghanistan, facing the persecution to Hassan and Hazara, he is very miserable and lose himself for a moment. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Amir and his father are forced to leave their home and live in exile in the United States. In the new environment, Amir gradually begins to control his own destiny. He chooses the direction of his career as a writer. In life, he is gradually appreciated by his father and becomes a good son in the eyes of his father. However, Hassan’s figure never disappears from the bottom of his heart. Instead, his figure becomes clear as time goes by. As he himself said: “many years have passed, people say that old things can be buried, but I finally understand that it is wrong, for the past will come up on its own.” (Hosseini 17) When he sees the sea, he immediately wants to come and play with Hassan on the beach. When he publishes his first work, he remembers what Hassan has said, “someday you'll be a great writer, and people all over the world will read your stories.” (Hosseini 743). He realizes that although the youth goes by in a hurry, he also gets married as most people do, but the evil things buried deep in heart makes him unable to breathe, he still can't get away from cowardice and remorse. Hassan, the person that makes Amir feel guilty most, makes his heart eternally repentant and uneasy, and feels that he is not worthy of the good and happy things in life.

Twenty-six years later, a phone call from my dad’s friend Rahim Khan gives him hope. In order to find “the way to be good again”, Amir finds Rahim Khan in Pakistan, only knows that Hassan has died, left the infant son alone in Kabul orphanage stranger. When knowing this, it seems as if he has returned to 26 years ago, a person who is selfish, cowardly, unwilling to take responsibility, his first thought is his wife, house, family, career, he doesn’t want to go to a war-torn city for an adventure. But when Rahim Khan tells him: Hassan is his half-brother, the astonishing news wiped out Ami’s experiences and memories of his childhood, he finds that he and his father have both betrayed the person who is willing to pay for their life for friends. In repeated struggles and contradictions, Amir gradually wakes up. In fact, it is not only himself has a dishonorable past, his father, a high-minded man, also betrays his servants and friend Ali, and makes Ali’s wife pregnant with his child. Amir’s also has a painful past. The difference is that they don’t repress the guilty in their hearts like Amir and torments themselves with impunity. His fiancee tells him that she has come out of the past. While his father, who did not public Hassan’s identity before his death, demonstrates his deep love with Hassan with his own actions. They all choose to be brave enough to face the terrible events of the past. After his struggle, he decides not to escape anymore, because he finds that the more he escape, the heavier his guilt is. Guilt is not somewhere else, it is just in his heart. At this point, a firm belief has been planted in Amir's heart, he wants to end this cycle of tragedy. With great courage, Amir risks his life to return to Kabul, to steps on the road to find his superego.

3.1.3 Amir’s superego—courageous, responsible, genuine

Freud’s theory implies that the superego is a symbolic internalization of the father figure and cultural regulations. The superego tends to stand in opposition to the desires of the id because of their conflicting objectives, and its aggressiveness towards the ego. The superego acts as the conscience, maintaining our sense of morality. The superego functions as the justice system inside and the judge to tell right from wrong.

The superego, which develops around age four or five, incorporates the morals of society. Freud believed that the superego is what allows the mind to control its impulses that are looked down upon morally. The superego can be considered to be the conscience of the mind because it has the ability to distinguish between reality as well as what is right or wrong. Without the superego Freud believed people would act out with aggression and other immoral behaviors because the mind would have no way of understanding the difference between right and wrong. The superego is considered to be the “consciousness” of a person’s personality and can override the drives from the id. Freud separates the superego into two separate categories; the ideal self and the conscious. The conscious contains ideals and morals that exist within society that prevent people from acting out based on their internal desires. The ideal self contains images of how people ought to behave according to societies ideals.

Superego is an internalized social moral constraint. In Freud’s view, superego mainly comes from the influence of parents and teachers. The factors that influence Amir’s superego in the novel are externalized into the following: firstly, Amir’s father. His mother died when Amir was born, his father surely becomes the most important person who could influence his personality. In fact, Amir’s father is the perfect superego in the novel, in Afghanistan, he is a tall Pashtun, a man who could fight a black bear with his bare hands. He is also a kind- hearted man who builds orphanages for homeless children and pays for all the costs and he also hates the theft in society and strives for justice. It is the near-perfect image of Amir’s father that creates invisible moral pressure on young Amir. The juvenile Amir seems never to reach his father’s expectations, and this makes him feel lacking of father’s love. While Hassan has always received his fathers praise because of his courageous and resolute. In order to win back his father’s love, Amir chooses to frame Hassan to get rid of him. The perfect superego imagine of his father haunts Amir over and over again, resulting in the imbalance of his personality. which finally makes him go further and further on the lost path to be a cowardly person.

Another person that affects Amir’s superego personality is his father’s friend Rahim Khan. When Amir receives his father’s disapproval on his writing and feels confused, Rahim Khan discovered the inner pain of Amir and patiently guides him and encourages him to do what he likes. At Amir’s birthday party, Amir, who receives many gifts, is not happy. Only Rahim Khan knows why he is upset. He gives Amir a notebook—a gift that Amir thinks is the most precious gift, which also becomes the motivation for Amir to continue writing. It is Rahim Khan’s encouragement that helps Amir to step on the way to be good again.

In Amir’s case in The Kite Runner, his id is mainly his desire for father’s love. Born in a wealthy family in Afghanistan, his mother died of excessive loss of blood when giving birth to him, which causes his father’s rigorous attitude towards him. At that time when he was young, there was no right moral code to restrain himself. On this basis, all his desires for father’s love transform into his selfishness, mendacious, disloyal and cowardice. While his superego is mainly his impulsion of redemption. Until when he returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan’s son, does he tries to face straight to what he had done in the past and redeems himself. When Assef humiliates Hassan's son just as what he has done to Hassan, Amir chooses a particular way to atone for his crime—to duel with Assf. This change and growth marks that Amir is more influenced by his superego. It also shows that Amir has admitted the power of id and ego, and he is willing to be overruled by his superego, which signifies that Amir is changing from a selfish, mendacious, disloyal and cowardly boy into a selfless, sincere, loyal and responsible man too. During the period of the formation of Amir’s superego, Amir’s ego plays a significant role in the transformation. His ego acts upon the reality principle, which works to satisfy the id’s desires in a manner that is realistic and social appropriate. The process of Amir’s backing to Afghanistan to makes up for his fault is the whole course of his self-control.

3.2 Amir’s internal battles—conflict between id and superego

According to Freud’s Theory of Personality Structure, the complex interaction among the id, the ego, and the superego is what determines human behavior. A healthy balance between the instinctual demands of the id and the moral demands of the superego, as negotiated by the ego, results in a healthy personality.

Like forces pulling at the corners to form a triangle, the desires of the id, ego, and superego complement and contradict one another. In the healthy individual, a strong ego does not allow the id or the superego control too much over the personality. However, the battle is never ending. In each of us, somewhere below our awareness, there exists an eternal state of tension between a desire for self-indulgence, a concern for reality, and the enforcement of a strict moral code. It is the same with Amir. In Amir’s case, in particular, he has a weak ego when he was young. Every time when he plays a trick on Hasssan, or after a practical joke, he always feel guilty and wants to do something to make up for it. After Amir forces Hassan away, the mental torture and guilty have always been there. Consequently, he is under the conflict between his id and superego.

Leaving the homeland and being in exile in the United States raises the new hope in Amir’s life. Middle-aged Amir has his own business and family in the United States. However, in the new environment, though there is no past events, the shame and guilty behind memory cannot be erased and is always haunted about him. This kind of feeling tortures Amir’s heart night after night and forces him to face what he had done. This is the conflict between Amir’s id and his superego. Until when he returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan’s son, does he tries to face up to what he had done in the past and redeems himself. When Assef humiliated Hassan’s son just as what he had done to Hassan, Amir chooses a particular way to atone for his crime—to duel with Assf. This change and growth marks that Amir is more influenced by his superego. It also shows that Amir has admitted the power of id and ego, and he is willing to be overruled by his superego. Only when he gives up the pursuit of superego and accepts the part of the id in mind, can his ego be relatively stable and durable.

3.3 Amir’s severe anxiety and rebirth

3.3.1 Amir’s severe anxiety—weakness of ego

According to Freud’s theory of personality structure, the ego deals with reality while coping with the conflicting demands of the id and the superego. And if the ego is unable to do so, anxiety will arise and the ego will develop some defense mechanisms to reduces it. However, defense mechanisms are temporary resistance and most of them prevents us from functioning normally. The overuse of them will only make the anxiety more and more severe.

As mentioned above, in consequence of the weakness of Amir’s ego in his juvenile, a balance could not be achieved between Amir’s id and superego, both of which overpower his ego. As a result Amir’s ego employs some defense mechanisms, thus denying or distorting the reality in order to reduce the anxiety. And the internal battles in Amir’s mind brings more anxiety to him.

When he witnesses Hassan’s being bullied by Assf but dare not to do anything, he is driven by his id. After that, in order to reduce his inner regret and guilty for Hassan, he even uses the racial differences to comfort himself.

Another example that shows Amir’s great anxiety is that when he is under the torture of his soul after the kite runner event, he finds a new way to release himself from the guilty. Thus he makes up a lie that Hassan has stolen his expensive watch. He just wants Hassan to disappear from his eyes, which he thinks may reduce his sense of shame. Though knowing everything, Hassan does not tear the mask of Amir.

Finally, Amir leaves his homeland and immigrants to the United States. From then on, it seems that the new environment raises the new hope for Amir. And middle-aged Amir has his own business and family in the United States. The fact is, in the new environment, though there is no past events, the shame and guilty behind memory are still there and always haunt about him. This kind of feeling tortures Amir’s heart night after night and forces him to face directly to what he had done.

3.3.2 Amir’s rebirth

As mentioned above, Amir is in anxiety and his ego develops some defense mechanisms to reduce it. Fortunately, these defense mechanisms help him avoid dealing with problems successfully, making Amir return back to the road to be good again.

Amir’s rebirth commences when he determines to return to Kabul to rescue Hassan’s son Sohrab. At that time, Hassan has died and Sohrab has also become Assf’s puppet. When seeing Assf humiliates Hassan’s son just as what he had done to Hassan, Amir chooses a special way to atone for his crime, casting off the cowardice and acting as a man to fight with Assf, not only for Hassan, but also for the redemption of the sin of the past. This marks that Amir has been more influenced by his superego. Though the end of the story is not so satisfactory, but Amir and Sohrab flies kite once again in the alien land. The kite makes Hassan lose his happiness, but bring back happiness to his son. At this time, the flying kite is like the return of thought and humanity. It also symbolizes that Amir has found the way to be good again.

Conclusion

Amir, the protagonist in The Kite Runner, is selfish and weak when he was a child, but he is brave and kind when he becomes a man. Though he does have done something wrong when he was young. In fact, Amir is not the only one who has scandalous past. But Amir is full of great courage. Amir encounters many obstacles, but he never wants to give up. The story begins with a kite, also ends with a kite. The kite that were flying by two boys, signifies the fragility of their friendship. In Amir’s childhood, his selfish and cowardice hurt Hassan. Amir also loses his part of his personality in the betrayal of friendship. Middle‑aged Amir chases the kite for Hassan's son, which marks his finally saving himself.

According to Freud’s Theory of Personality Structure, the complex interaction among the id, the ego, and the superego is what determines human behavior. A healthy balance between the instinctual demands of the id and the moral demands of the superego, as negotiated by allow the id or the superego too much control over the personality.

Through the Freud’s psychoanalysis of Amir’s personality, this thesis highlights the imbalance between Amir’s id and superego and his weak ego, which is unable to face the reality, result in his unhealthy personality at first. And because his personality is unable to develop naturally, Amir cannot come to terms with the reality. He choose to escape all the time until when he really find the way to be good again.

In Amir’s case in The Kite Runner, his id is mainly reflected by his desire for father's love. When he was young, there was no right moral code for him to restrain himself. Thus, all his desires for father’s love transform into his selfishness, mendacious, disloyal and cowardice. During the period of the formation of Amir’s superego, Amir’s ego plays a significant role in the progress. The process of Amir’s backing to Afghanistan to makes up for his fault is the whole course of his self-control. Amir’s superego is mainly his impulsion of redemption. The time when he returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan’s son, when he tries to face straight to what he had done to Hassan and redeems himself. Does he admit the power of id and ego, and is willing to be controlled by his superego, which signifies that Amir is changing from a selfish, mendacious, disloyal and cowardly boy into a selfless, sincere, loyal and responsible man too, which marks that Amir finally completes his final personality sublimation.

Works Cited

Freud, Sigmund. The Ego and The Id. London：L.＆Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, and the Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1927.

请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：43928字