This is a great question. It is absolutely clear, that, as
            for all of us, Amir's childhood relationship with his father greatly impacts him in his
            adult years. One central aspect that you have to focus on is how Amir is presented as
            being so incredibly different to Baba. Note that this is something that causes Baba
            himself to doubt his own paternity of Amir:
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"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."
Throughout his life,
            Baba is described as a strong character who is eager to stand up and fight against
            injustice to protect the weak. And yet note how Amir reacts to a number of key
            situations: he is scared of Assef, and crucially does nothing to help Hassan and prevent
            his rape. Likewise, when Baba and Amir flee Afghanistan, Amir tries to dissuade his
            father from challenging the Russian soldier who wants to rape one of the women
            travelling with them. Amir is constantly aware of how he does not measure up when
            compared with his father, and this is something that Rahim Khan uses when Amir is an
            adult to convince him to go back to Kabul and rescue
            Sohrab:
"You
know," Rahim Khan said, "one time, when you weren't around, your father and I were
talking. And you know how he always worried about you in those days. I remember he said
to me, 'Rahim, a boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to
anything.' I wonder, is that what you've
become?"
It is crucially this
            haunting recognition of how Amir has not lived up to Baba's larger than life personality
            that drives him to recognise and accept this part of his legacy and to face Assef and
            his fears by going to Kabul to rescue Sohrab, and thus dispel the ghosts from his own
            past.
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