Girardian Reading of Khaled Hosseini's The

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MIMETIC DESIRE AND SCAPEGOATING:

GIRARDIAN READING OF KHALED HOSSEINI’S THE KITE RUNNER,

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS AND AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement to Obtain the

Magister Humaniora (M.Hum.) Degree in English Language Studies

Ismiati

166332029

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2020

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MIMETIC DESIRE AND SCAPEGOATING:

GIRARDIAN READING OF KHALED HOSSEINI’S THE KITE RUNNER,

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS AND AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

A THESIS

by Ismiati 166332029

Approved by

Paulus Sarwoto, Ph.D.

Advisor Yogyakarta, 25 February 2020

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MIMETIC DESIRE AND SCAPEGOATING:

GIRARDIAN READING OF KHALED HOSSEINI’S THE KITE RUNNER,

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS AND AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

A THESIS

by Ismiati 166332029

Defended before the Thesis Committee

And Declared Acceptable

THESIS COMMITTEE

Chairperson : Dra. Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A.(Hons.), Ph. D. ______

Secretary : Paulus Sarwoto, Ph.D. ______

Member : Dr. Tatang Iskarna ______

Member : Dra. A.B. Sri Mulyani, M.A., Ph.D. ______

Yogyakarta, 2020

The Graduate Program Director

Sanata Dharma University

Dr. G. Budi Subanar, S.J.

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STATEMENT OF WORK ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare this thesis which I have written does not contain the phrases, sentences, or parts of the other people’s work except those cited in the quotations and references as a scientific paper should. I understand the full consequences including the degree cancellation if I took the other people’s work.

Yogyakarta, 25 February 2020

Ismiati

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswi Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Ismiati

Nomor Mahasiswa : 166332029

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah yang berjudul

MIMETIC DESIRE AND SCAPEGOATING: GIRARDIAN READING OF KHALED HOSSEINI’S THE KITE RUNNER, A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS AND AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan. Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain yang untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal 25 Pebruari 2020

Yang menyatakan,

Ismiati

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank Allah SWT for guiding me to finish this thesis. I owe my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor, Paulus Sarwoto, Ph.D., for his insights, helps and corrections during the writing of this thesis. I would also like to express my greatest appreciation to Dra. Novita Dewi, M.S.,

M.A.(Hons), Ph.D. for her insights, attention and encouragement. I am very grateful for the chance to meet Dr. Tatang Iskarna and Sri Mulyani, Ph.D. in my defense exam, thank you for all the ideas and insights for the betterment of my thesis draft. To my lecturers in English Language Studies, Dr. J. Bismoko, Prof.

Dr. Soepomo Poedjosoedarmo, F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D., Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko, M.A., and Dr. J. Haryatmoko, S.J. I would like to thank you all for the inspiring and fruitful discussions. Next, I am also very grateful for the helps given by the academic staffs during my study.

The next expression of gratitude is presented to all my family, my mom, my (late) dad, my mom inlaw, my brothers, and my inlaws. I would also like to thank my dearest husband, Jemmy F.M., my children: Hamim Bumi and Harum.

Thank you for your endless support and love. I would like to express my gratefulness to my institutional family, STBA LIA Yogyakarta. Last but not least, to my ELS friends, Desca, Dino, Vincent, Dee, Mike thank you very much.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ...... i

APPROVAL PAGE ...... ii

DEFENSE APPROVAL PAGE ...... iii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY...... iv

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI...... v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... vii

ABSTRACT ...... x

ABSTRAK ...... xi

CHAPTER 1 ...... 1

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

1.1. Desire in Rene Girard’s Theory and Khaled Hosseini’s Novels ...... 1

1.2. Problem Formulation ...... 7

1.3. Chapter Outline ...... 8

CHAPTER 2 ...... 10

LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 10

2.1. Review of Related Studies...... 10

2.2. Review of Related Theories ...... 14

2.2.1. Mimetic Desire ...... 15

2.2.2. Scapegoating ...... 23

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CHAPTER 3 ...... 29

MIMETIC DESIRE IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S NOVELS ...... 29

3.1. Desiring Other’s Desire ...... 30

3.1.1. Between Master’s Desire and Slave’s Desire in The Kite Runner .. 30

3.1.2. Daughter’s Desire and Mother’s Desire in A Thousand Splendid

Suns ...... 36

3.1.3. Father’s Desire and Sibling’s Desire in And the Mountains Echoed

...... 41

3.2. The Metamorphosis of the Mimetic Desire ...... 54

3.2.1. Happiness is for Others ...... 55

3.2.2. Emptiness is Another Word for Unhappiness ...... 57

3.2.3. Regret Always Comes Late ...... 62

CHAPTER 4 ...... 70

GIRARDIAN READING ON HOSSEINI’S SCAPEGOATING ...... 70

4.1. The Scapegoatings ...... 71

4.1.1. Brother’s Betrayal ...... 71

4.1.2. For the Sake of Father’s Good Name ...... 76

4.1.3. My Twin, My Enemy ...... 78

4.2. The Victims’ Acceptance ...... 80

4.2.1. Self-Sacrifice of the Victim ...... 80

4.2.2. The Victim’s Resistance ...... 84

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4.2.3. Shared Suffering ...... 91

4.3. The Transformation of a Sinner into a Hero ...... 94

CHAPTER 5 ...... 105

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ...... 105

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ABSTRACT

Ismiati. 2020. Mimetic Desire and Scapegoating: Girardian Reading of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed. Yogyakarta: The Graduate Program in English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University.

This thesis aims at analyzing the characters’ relationships in Khaled Hosseini’s novels to see the origin of the desires which lead to violence. The theory used for the analysis is Rene Girard’s mimetic desire and scapegoating which is of structuralism based. This thesis applies Girardian reading to Khaled Hosseini, a contemporary writer. There are three novels to be studied: The Kite Runner (2003), A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) and And the Mountains Echoed (2013). The reading towards Hosseini’s novels results in the following findings. First, in the relationships between the characters, the mimetic desire has been the main factor that develops the stories. Interestingly, the mimetic desire has been identified in both hateful and loving relationships. In The Kite Runner, Amir has been under the mediation of Baba and Hassan. It is the one under Hassan that mainly develops the story. In One Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam has been directed by her mother, Nana, in her understanding of the world. Mariam also learns from Laila the desire to be a good mother. In And The Mountains Echoed, Abdullah has surrendered to his sister all his life. Applying Girardian scapegoating theory to the novels results in the following findings. The scapegoatings signify brother’s betrayal, father’s ignorance, and twin’s enemy. For the victims, they are situated to accept their being scapegoated. Hassan’s self sacrifice represents his loyalty toward Amir’s family. Mariam gives her resistance toward the violences by changing her perspectives. Abdullah shares his suffering with his daughter, Pari. For the scapegoaters, they learn from their victims and have their redemptions. Amir saves Sohrab (Hassan’s son). Jalil’s money for Mariam has helped Laila to run a school and an orphanage in Kabul. Nabi tells the truth to his nephew and has used his wealth for good deed. The scapegoaters learn from their victims and find their conversions.

Keywords: mimetic desire, character, relationship, victim, scapegoater

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ABSTRAK

Ismiati. 2020. Mimetic Desire and Scapegoating: Girardian Reading of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed. Yogyakarta: Program Pasca Sarjana, Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Tesis ini bertujuan menganalisa hubungan antar karakter dalam novel- novel Khaled Hosseini untuk mengkaji asal hasrat yang berujung pada kekerasan. Teori yang digunakan untuk analisis adalah teori Rene Girard ‘hasrat mimetik dan kambing hitam’ yang berbasis strukturalisme. Tesis ini mengkaji karya dari penulis kontemporer, Khaled Hosseini. Tiga novel yang diteliti yaitu: The Kite Runner (2003), A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) dan And the Mountains Echoed (2013). Pengkambing-hitaman di ketiga novel dikaji dinamika dan maknanya bagi korbannya dan pelaku pengkambinghitaman. Penelitian terhadap novel-novel Hosseini tersebut menghasilkan beberapa temuan berikut. Pertama, di dalam hubungan antar karakter, hasrat mimetik menjadi faktor utama yang membangun cerita-cerita tersebut. Hasrat mimetik ditemukan pada hubungan yang dilandasi kebencian dan cinta. Dalam novel pertamanya The Kite Runner, Amir menempatkan dirinya di bawah mediasi Baba dan Hassan. Namun, mediasi di bawah Hassanlah yang membangun alur cerita. Di One Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam di bawah mediasi ibunya, Nana, dalam memahami dunia. Mariam juga belajar dari Laila hasrat menjadi ibu yang baik. Di novel And The Mountains Echoed, Pari meniru kerinduan Abdullah akan adik wanitanya. Pengkajian peristiwa pengkambing-hitaman berdasarkan teori kambing hitam Girard menghasilkan temuan berikut. Tindakan pengkambinghitaman menunjukkan pengkhianatan saudara laki-laki, ketidakpedulian ayah, dan musuh saudara kembar. Bagi para korban, mereka dihadapkan pada situasi untuk menerima pengkambinghitaman mereka. Hassan memberikan pengorbanan demi kesetiaannya kepada keluarga Amir. Mariam memberikan resistansi terhadap kekerasan yang dialaminya. Abdullah berbagi penderiataan dengan Pari, anaknya. Bagi pelaku kambing hitam, beberapa mendapatkan kesempatan melakukan kebaikan. Amir menyelamatkan Sohrab, anak Hassan. Warisan yang ditinggalkan Jalil untuk Mariam dimanfaatkan untuk mendirikan sekolah dan rumah yatim piatu di Kabul. Nabi mengungkapkan kebenaran dan menggunakan kekayaannya untuk tujuan baik. Para pelaku belajar hasrat dari korban mereka dan menemukan titik balik mereka.

Kata kunci: hasrat mimetik, karakter, hubungan, pelaku (pengkambing-hitaman), korban

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Desire in Rene Girard’s Theory and Khaled Hosseini’s Novels

Desire is life. Without desire there is no life. Hinduism has named desire as life force, but also as ‘the great symbol of sin’ and ‘destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.’ Budhism uses the term ‘lust’ to replace this word. In

Christianity, the seven deadly sins directly and indirectly involve desire. In

Islamic teaching, the desire should be fulfilled in the allowed area. From its etymology, desire originates from the Latin desiderare means ‘to long or wish for,’ which is the derivation of de sidere means ‘from the stars’ informing that the original sense of the word in Latin is ‘to await what the stars will bring.’ It is desire that moves us, and therefore gives our life direction and meaning. Desire has determined one’s actions. Yet desire is hidden and hard to recognize. Even the very individual whose desire is studied mostly unaware of the process on how the desire is his/hers.

Studying the origin of desire has been done by an outstanding French scholar namely Rene Girard who had dedicated his life on this matter. As James

Burton Fulmer (2006) stated, “Girard is by no means the first thinker to place great emphasis on the role of imitation in human development and education.” (2).

Rene Girard himself was born in Avignon on December 25, 1923, and studied medieval handwriting (paleography) at the Ecole des Chartes in Paris from 1943 to 1947. When he finally received a teaching offer in US in 1947, he was facing a

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situation in which he was forced to teach literature particularly on these literary masterpieces. He wanted to share with his students a different way to study literature. In his effort, he recognized an underlying pattern in the system of human relation. He explains the concept of this pattern (later termed as mimetic desire) in his first book, Mensonge Romantique et Vérité Romanesque (1961) or

Deceit, Desire and the Novels (1965 English translation). Later, from literature, he expands his theory in the field of religion, anthropology and culture. In his writings, people can learn his arguments stating that the mimetic desire leads to violence, the scapegoating, which he suspects as the foundation of human society.

The discussion of the concept of scapegoating can particularly be found in some of Girard’s books, like The Scapegoat (1986) and I See Satan Fall Like

Lightning (2001). The mimetic desire as the seed of violence in society level is claimed as contagious desire. A group of people can easily imitate other’s desire which then leads to rivalries. Using Greek tragedies, Sophocles’ Oedipus the

King and Euripides’ The Bacchae, Girard found the connection between mimetic desire, violence, and the development of legal and judicial systems. Based on these two tragedies and the ethnological data, he demonstrates that the sacred

(religion) is based on what he terms as the scapegoat mechanism. This scapegoat concept conveys that the mimetic desire in the dimension of a society has the social consequences of a war of all against all. To reduce the war or violence, the scapegoat mechanism has been adapted into our legal and judicial systems. The mechanism works by snowballing of all or the dominant society against one person, a victim. After the death of the victim, the violated person is seen by the

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society as god and evil at once. The victim is the one believed as the cause of the crisis and therefore to send him to death will rescue the society from chaos and crisis.

Not only has Girard’s theory influenced literary, historical, anthropological fields but it has also influenced other fields, such as psychology, neuroscience, sociology, philosophy, economics, cultural studies, etc. In psychology for example, Scott R. Garrel has suggested some intriguing correlations of Girard’s theory with the recent study of human neurons. He states:

What makes Girard’s insight so remarkable is that he not only discovered and developed the primordial role of psychological mimesis (...) during a time when imitation was quite out of fashion, but he did so through investigation in literature, cultural anthropology, history, and ultimately returning to religious texts for further evidence of mimetic phenomena. The parallels between Girard’s insights and the only recent conclusions made by empirical reseachers concerning imitation (in both development and the evolution of species) are extraordinary.... (2009: 68)

In the study of human neurons, there is a convergent evidence of mimetic theory based on the work of human mirror neurons. These neurons are called mirror neurons as they work by mirroring other neurons. Combined with the developmental psychology, Girard’s mimetic theory can be seen working in these neurons and the interpersonal behavior. It claims that what guides and scaffolds human development from the beginning of life are the mirrored neural activity and reciprocal interpersonal behavior. In other fields, the theory has also illuminated the previous not-yet-explainable phenomena.

The mimetic desire does not always lead to negative attitudes like rivalry or contagious violence, but it can also lead to good things. Williams writes:

Mimetic desire, even when bad, is intrinsically good, in the sense that far

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from being merely imitative in a small sense, it’s the opening out of oneself... Extreme openness. It is everything. It can be murderous, it is rivalrous, but it is also the basis of heroism, and devotion to others. (1996: 64)

Mimetic desire can be used to accomplish something good and also something bad. Although, of course the things that absorb everyone’s attention is its role in violence. From Girard’s exposition, this mimetic desire can roll on to rivalry and scapegoating.

Studying those classic literatures, Girard has claimed that only great writers can learn and recapture the pattern. “Only the great writers succeed in painting these mechanism faithfully, without falsifying them: we have here a system of relationships that paradoxically, or rather not paradoxically at all, has less variability the greater a writer is.”(1965: 34). Shifting from Girard’s choice of classic literature, I am interested in finding the mimetic desire and scapegoating concepts in the contemporary novels of Khaled Hosseini. Acknowledged as one of today’s bestseller authors, I am curious to learn whether Hosseini, who is commonly acknowledged as not a great writer, has captured the mimetic desire concept and pour it into his writings. Although Girard has clearly stated that only those great writers (such as Proust, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky etc.) who can portray this human-relationship-design in their writings, I challenge myself to apply the theory to read Hosseini’s novels. Khaled Hosseini as today’s contemporary writer still has a long way to go before he can get the claim as a great writer. Until now, he has produced these three novels which are well-read. Therefore, this study includes all of Hosseini’s works: The Kite Runner (2003), A Thousand Splendid

Suns (2007) and And the Mountains Echoed (2013).

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As for Girard, the literary work, if these three novels can represent it, is regarded as windows to the psyche, society, culture and history. Paul Ricoeur states, “Literature is a vast laboratory in which we experiment with estimations, evaluations, and judgements of approval and condemnation through which narrativity serves as a propaedeutic to ethics” (Ricoeur, 1992: 115). Another reason is that all of these three novels work on the theme of violence. The violence depicted in the novels has relation to the turmoil war situation in

Afghanistan. With his Afghanistan blood, Hosseini states to have dedicated his writings to those suffer from the endless war in Afghanistan. Applying Girardian reading, this thesis seeks the answer whether the mimetic desire has role in the violence between the characters in Hosseini’s novels.

Khaled Hosseini has been marked as an American author with Afghanistan setting. He was born as the oldest of five children in Kabul, Afghanistan, on

March 4, 1965 from a father who was a diplomat and a mother who taught Farsi and history. Because of the Russian invasion, the family was relocated by the

Foreign Ministry to Paris and ended up in California, United States. Hosseini earned a medical degree in 1993 from School of Medicine of University of

California and was practicing as an internist between 1996 and 2004.

Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner, was published in 2003 by Riverhead

Books. This novel has became an international bestseller and sold in at least seventy countries. The novel was even adapted into a movie in 2007, claimed a box office success, and selected as one of the nominated films for Golden Globe

Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007. The novel depicts a familial

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story, a theme Hosseini continues to use in his later works. The main character,

Amir, has been longing for his father’s affection and in the effort he scapegoates his servant boy, Hassan. Later Amir learns that Hassan is not only his faithful servant, he is actually Baba’s other son, his half-brother. Amir, who recently lives in US, comes back to save Hassan’s son. The writer wonders whether Girard’s theories can dig out more details in the study of the conflicts between Amir and his father, Baba, and the conflicts between Amir and Hassan. The redemption in which Amir tries to save Hassan’s son is another intriguing study.

If The Kite Runner pictures rivalries between father-and-son and brother- and-brother, interestingly, Hosseini’s second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, pictures mother-and-daughter rivalries. This familial rivalry seems very suitable to be analyzed with Girard’s mimetic desire. Published in 2007 by the same publisher, Riverhead Books, this second novel was a number one New York Times bestseller for fifteen weeks. During its first week, it was sold over one million copies. The main story places Mariam as the unfortunate girl from Herat who must marry at such a young age, and lives with an abussive husband. She tries to change the perspective she has been nurtured with. Her mother tells her that as an illegal daughter, she has no right of happiness. After her mother’s suicide, her father marries her with an old widower from Kabul. Her husband violates her and then marries another young girl. She kills her husband to save the second wife’s life. She ends the violence. The writer wonders whether the aplication of Girard’s mimetic desire in reading the novel can give new perspectives on the mother- daughter rivalries.

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Reading Hosseini’s third novel, And The Mountains Echoed, the writer finds that this imitative desire – rivalry concept has taken part in many of the stories in this novel. This third novel presents a different narrative technique compared to the previous two novels. While the first two novels focus on one character and one story, the third novel is a collection of several stories. Each chapter represents one story and has a different perspective. Interpreting the main stories and minor stories using Girard’s perspectives seems promising since the mimetic desire – rivalry – scapegoating is found in the novel.

From the early study on Hosseini’s novels, the writer finds that the stories in the novels present the formation of this mimetic desire. The struggling of the characters to know what they desire by learning others’ desires will be perfectly explored using Rene Girard’s concept. It is challenging therefore to see what the mimetic desire – scapegoating theory can offer in interpreting these three novels.

Accordingly, the next thing to present is the problem for this research to focus on.

1.2. Problem Formulation

Girard’s mimetic desire was conceptualized after he studies the world literary masterpieces. Instead of finding other world literary masterpieces, this thesis attempts at applying Girardian reading to a selection of contemporary novels, which are Khaled Hosseini’s, to learn the mimetic desire in the characters’ relationships and scapegoating. Therefore, the problems of this research are formulated as follows:

1. How do the desires of the characters originate and develop in Khaled

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Hosseini’s works: The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the

Mountains Echoed?

2. How does Girardian reading explain the dynamic and significance of

victimization and scapegoating in the novels?

1.3. Chapter Outline

To achieve a systematic and well-organized writing, the material in this thesis is presented into five chapters. The first chapter consists of the background of the study, the problem formulation and the chapter outline.

The second chapter includes the review of related studies and the theoretical review. The review of related studies is aimed at elaborating the underlying issues of the research and also to find the gap in the research fields into which this study aims to fill. The review of related theories is aimed at describing Girard’s theory of mimetic desire and violence as the tool to reveal the answers to the research questions.

The third chapter aims at analyzing the development of mimetic desires in the character relationships. The analysis explains the projection of Girard’s mimetic desire in the characters’ relationship. The metamorphosis of the desires explains what happens to the desire after the characters can finally have their desire. What the characters feel when they can finally have their desire are elaborated.

The fourth chapter explains how the scapegoatings are interpreted.

Applying Girard’s mimetic–desire - scapegoating - violence concept, the scapegoatings are analyzed from the perspectives of the process, the victims and

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the scapegoaters. The subchapters consist of the scapegoated victims acceptance and the transformation of a sinner into a hero. The fifth chapter is the conclusion of the thesis and the suggestion.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter attempts at explaining the related-studies and the related- theories on the disccussion of the application of Girard’s mimetic theory in reading contemporary novels. The first part goes with the related studies which is presented orderly, started with a review on the previous studies in the fields of researches upon Hosseini’s novels and upon Girard’s theory. In the review of related theories, the focus is on the theory of Girard covering the mimetic desire and the scapegoating concepts.

2.1. Review of Related Studies

Reading the three novels of Khaled Hosseini, at first, the very first similarity is the violence theme. Given the backgound of Afghanistan never ending war, the novels range from the father-son, mother-daughter and father-children stories.

There have been quite many undergraduate and graduate theses on Hosseini’s novels. Hosseini’s novels are considered to be easy-to-read novels. Yet, the stories presented seem real, natural, and heart-breaking. Most of the theses work with only one of Hosseini’s novels. As the first novel, The Kite Runner has gained its fame. In an M.A. thesis from Selcuk University, this novel has been compared with Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Mohammad Saber Wahedi studies the main characters’ quest for freedom and compares between Huck-and-

Amir and Jim-and-Hassan (2012). The result shows that the quest of freedom

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between the characters is different based on the time, place, and people’s mentality. In America, there has been the slavery and racial issues, while in

Afghanistan there has been no such issue. Hassan, although works for Amir, is free.

Another common theme that has been explored is the depiction of Afghan women as found in the following M.A. theses. Abdul Wali Yawari discusses the similarities of the women characters in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid

Suns and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (2011). Despite the different origins of the authors, Hosseini as Afghan writer living in US and Walker as African writer,

Yawari finds that the female characters were oppressed by difficult situations, yet they succeeded to face their difficulties and found their life objectives. Mariam

(in Hosseini’s book) and Celie (in Walker’s book) both suffered from racism, sexim, and inequity, at the end managed to re-emerge as women with dignity and self-confidence.

Similar to this, another M.A. thesis, written by Azam Kazemiyan from

University of Ottawa, also analyzes the women character in Hosseini’s A

Thousand Splendid Suns (2012). Azam Kazemiyan focuses on finding the representation of Afghan women which after the 911 attack has been an interest for Western media (2012). In her research, Kazemiyan found that the novel offers a similar representation of Western media, that Afghan women were passive victims of war and violence and at the end of the story, she was liberated only by the Western help. Another women character study was written by Alexandra

Andrews in her thesis. She uses Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and Asne

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Seierstad’s The Bookseller of Kabul”. In this thesis, Andrews finds the representation of the Afghan women characters who fight for their freedom

(2016). The bondage from the religion and patriarchal society can be overcome using traditional and untraditional methods. Correspondingly, Novita Dewi who studies the young married women in three Asian literary works: Pramudya Ananta

Toer’s “Inem”, Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and Razia Sultana

Khan’s “Seduction” finds that the child marriages based on family economy and honor are common and seen unproblematic (2018). The violence toward these child brides are considered normal. From these previous studies, it seems that the

Afghan women theme has been explored quite frequently. Therefore, this thesis tries to shift to a different theme that is the study of the desire and violence, and that the novels taken into account will be of Hosseini’s three early novels.

To analyze the desire and the violence in the novels, it is a must to use the most current and interesting theory of violence by Rene Girard. Through all his years, Girard focuses his studies to the mimetic desire and he claims that the mimetic desire is the origin of violence (1994; 2000). As he further studies more literary works, he finds that literature can be read as an allegory of how human society is based on violence (1986). The scapegoat mechanism has been used to understand the manifestation of a violence. Theresa Ann Pitts applies the

Girardian’s concept of violence in the field of political science (2011). In the 1994

Rwandan genocide, the executors were often neighbors, former friends, or relatives that the victims knew by name. There were 800,000 to one million persons killed mainly by machettes and bullets. The killers had been well-

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prepared for their roles through myth-building and reinforcement of old fears against the victims. The theory of Girard is applied to understand the motivations of these killers. Particularly of Girard’s conception of mimetic rivalry and scapegoating mechanism, according to Pitts, illuminates the 1994 violence resulted from political competition between factions in Rwandan society (2011).

The mimetic rivalry can be traced back in the political competition of the factions involved. As these factions compete against each other, the factions want to get rid of each other. They try to find a scapegoat. As Girard claims, the scapegoating needs an uncosciousness from the community in order to perform the violence without guilty feelings (1986). The Rwandan executors were

“brainwashed” or interpelated/hegemonized/doctrinized through myths and old fears against the scapegoated victims.

In the field of literature, the thesis of Simon De Keukelaere has applied

Girard theory in reading Virginia Woolf’s The Waves (2007). Woolf’s novel is considered as a difficult novel, a psychological novel. Influenced by her idol,

Marcel Proust, Woolf wrote a novel which people reviewed as her most Proustian novel. De Keukelaere’s main thesis is that Rene Girard’s mimetic theory is a helpful tool to isolate and clarify some crucial features of Virginia Woolf’s The

Waves that puzzle the critics or not yet given much attention to. Applying

Girardian concept, De Keukelaere interpretes the novel and finds some enlightments in understanding the most difficult parts of the novel. For instance, he relates the frequent occurence in the novel of words like: imitate, copy, follow to the paradoxical psychology of the voices (the main characters). The six voices

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are torn between self and other because they cannot help imitate one another even or especially if they want to be themselves. In his view, the finding of the study is that the novel is a means for Virginia Woolf’s existential question, to ask the meaning of life and destiny.

To sum up, the theses have shown us on what have been done and the interpretation of the theory as well as the practices. The woman-character has been the favorite theme in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and other masterpieces. Since there has been no thesis found studying the three of

Hosseini’s novels, it is time to select Hosseini’s three novels and study them as they came from one writer, Hosseini. In terms of the consideration for the theory, these early studies have convinced me that this particularlynew theory is the most interesting tool to use in the study of desire and violence. Although considered as a recent theory, the reactions and responses toward the theory have positioned this theory as one of the most influential theories in the field of literature and social sciences. Therefore, in this research, the three of Hosseini’s novels will be studied using the Girardian concept of mimetic desire and violence.

2.2. Review of Related Theories

This part of review of related theories is presented into two subtitles: the mimetic desire and the scapegoating. The arrangement is based on the nature of the concept in which the early phase is the mimetic possession of desire. After the desire is imitated, the manifestation can result in violence which has been commonly identified under the term scapegoating.

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2.2.1. Mimetic Desire

Rene Girard (1965) has proposed his concept on the origin of human desire, known as mimetic desire. In Girard’s concept, the troublesome desire has mostly been imitative, copied from a model or a mediator. In his first book

Mensonge Romantique et Vérité Romanesque (1961) which was translated by

Yvonne Precero into Deceit, Desire and the Novels (1965), he studied the world classic literature, particularly those of Stendhal, Marcel Proust, Fyodor

Dostoevsky, Miguel de Cervantes and Gustave Flaubert, and he found that in those classics, there are some similarities which direct him to the conceptualization of this troublesome human desire. Behind the different stories,

Girard can read the same pattern underlying the human relationship system. The desires that drive the characters’ actions are possessed after those characters copy them from others.

Previously these great literatures of Stendhal, Proust, Dostoevsky, Cervantes and Flaubert never have been thought of having similarity. Yet, in Girard’s study, these masterpieces present us the similar pattern on the origin of human desire.

The concept of mimetic desire is revealed. Girard also claims that this mimetic desire does not only exist in novelistic but also real-life human relationships.

Mimetic desire may take any form, from chivalry, vanity, snobbism, to bovaryism.

For Don Quixote, it is chivalry because he imitates the desire of Amadis de Gaul to be a great knight. In Madame Bovary, it is bovaryism for the character Emma

Bovary desires through the romantic heroines in the novels she read.

Girard (1965) names his fundamental concept of human desire as mimetic

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desire as it is learned or imitated from other humans and at the same time it also includes acquisitive drive to possess what the other has or to be what the other is.

He argues that it is the nature of desire to be mimetic, copied from others. Among many theories devoted to imitation, only few include the fact that humans also imitate other humans’ desires. Girard differentiates the term ‘imitation’ from

‘mimesis’ (2000). The first term is usually understood as the positive aspect of reproducing someone else’s behavior, whereas the second one usually implies the negative aspect of rivalry. Therefore, we can see Girard prefers to use the later term to refer to the deeper, instinctive response that humans have to each other.

From his study on the world classics such as Miguel de Cervantes’ Don

Quixote, Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Girard finds that the characters copy other characters’ desires. “The disciple pursues objects which are determined for him, or at least seem to be determined for him, by the model of all chivalry. We shall call this model the mediator of desire.” (Girard, 1965: 2).The process of imitating the desire of other’s is termed as mediation. This process involves the model or the mediator, the disciple or the imitator, and the desired object. The model is the person who has the earlier desire. The disciple is the person who copies the model’s desire. The desired object is the object that is pursued after by the disciple. In some cases, it does not have to be a concrete object. It can be a position or a status or other things.

From Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, Girard (1965) shows that what drives Don Quixote in many of his adventures is the desire he copied from his favorite idol, Amadis de Gaul. It is the model/mediator, Amadis de Gaul, who

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chooses the objects for Don Quixote. Under the mediation, Don Quixote seems to be very foolish for mistakenly seeing some objects for another objects. At one particular event, he mistakenly sees the windmill as the giant a knight should fight with. At other occasion, he sees the inn owner as a king and the inn as a castle.

Don Quixote kneels down and asks to be knighted. All those mistakes are not mistakes, for Don Quixote is living in his chivalric world. He is very persistent and focused in all of his actions. He has given himself to his mediator, Amadis de

Gaul.

In other classics, this mediation can also be found. From Gustave

Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, the heroine of the novel, Emma Bovary, imitates the desire of the characters in the romantic novels she read when she was a teenager.

In Stendhal’s work, Mathilde de la Mole finds her models in the history of her family, and Julien Sorel follows Napoleon etc. In Marcel Proust’s novel, the snob is a slave to what is fashionable. In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Eternal Husband, Pavel

Pavlovitch has made Veltchaninov his expected rival in loving a woman.

Girard underlines that this mimetic desire has a triangular characteristic

(1965). As the mediator chooses the objects for the mediator, their relationship takes a triangle form. The mediator takes the apex point, while the subject and the object take the base points. “The mediator is there, above the line, radiating toward both the subject and the object.” (Girard, 1965: 2). The triangular projection of each example from Deceits, Desire and the Novels is different. In

Cervantes, the mediator or Amadis de Gaul, the fictional hero, is positioned in imaginary world and transmits to his faithful follower, Don Quixote. In Stendhal

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and Dostoevsky’s, the mediators are the other characters. The triangular image can vary in the distance between the mediator and the subject. In Cervante’s Don

Quixote, the distance is shorter. While for Stendhal’s character, the distance is longer. The distance between the mediator and the disciple is not of physical space but rather spiritual.

Based on the model-object distance, Girard distinguishes the mediation into two types, external mediation and internal mediation. External mediation refers to the process of mediation in which the mediator and the disciple lives in two different worlds, such as imaginary and factual worlds. Internal mediation refers to the process of mediation in which the mediator and the disciple share the same factual world. Each of these mediations has its own characteristics. The following passages discuss the characteristics of external mediation first and followed by the internal mediation.

The first characteristic of external mediation is openness. The mediation which is easily recognized because of the proclamation from the imitator. The hero proclaims that he/she imitates the desire from a model. In Cervante’s Don

Quixote, he states that it is Amadis de Gaul whom he worships and follows.

Mme. Bovary and Leon admit the truth about their desire in their lyric confessions, that they borrow it from the characters of the romantic novels.

Statements of admiration can be found openly.

The next characteristic of external mediation is the absentia of the rivalry stage. In Girard’sbook Deceit, Desire and the Novel, Girard explains that in the case of the mediation which involves Don Quixote and Amadis de Gaul, the

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mediation is external. From Cervantes’ masterpiece Don Quixote, the main character, Don Quixote wants to become a knight, after he reads a lot about

Amadis de Gaul. The triangular mediation identifies Don Quixote as the imitator who imitates Amadis de Gaula, the mediator, as a knight, the object. Because

Amadis is only a character in chivalric romances, therefore it is impossible for

Don Quixote and Amadis to compete, or to become rivals.

The absentia of rivalry is related to the third characteristic of external mediation which is the separated environment or world. Girard explains, “We shall speak of external mediation when the distance is sufficient to eliminate any contact between the two spheres.” (Girard, 1965: 9). The mediator and the disciple are not on the same path. Don Quixote will never be an obstacle in

Sancho’s attempts to fulfill his desires. In the other part, Sancho will never be an obstacle in Don Quixote’s attempt to be a knight. Don Quixote is a very complex man, Sancho is simple in extreme. Don Quixote has influenced Sancho to dream to be a governor of an island. Don Quixote is the leader and Sancho is the faithfull follower. Sancho never thinks of Don Quixote as his rival. Sancho has always placed himself at the lower level than Don Quixote. The relationship between them has placed them as if they are two people of different worlds. The mediator and the mediated disciple will never compete.

In contrast, the internal mediation has the following characteristics: the closeness, the same world, and the rivalry. The first characteristic, the closeness, means that the mediation is hidden and denied. This internal mediation commonly

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seems absurd first. This is because the imitation refers to a model who is near and that the hero will not boast his efforts to copy the desire, he even carefully hides it. This hero convinces himself that he is thoroughly original, that his desire is original. The hero denies that he imitates the desire. This denial is related to the hero’s pride. The hero thinks of himself to be higher than his mediator.

The next characteristic is the same world. The desire imitation can only work out if the mediator and the disciple share the same world, the same environment. Sharing the same place, the disciple can learn the desire and the object. The same place also provides the media for intensive interaction between the disciple and the mediator. It enables the disciple to watch and to study the meaning of the object for the mediator and the efforts that the mediator produces to have the object.

The third characteristic is the rivalry. After a period of imitating the desire, the disciple wants to be the mediator. The disciple will convince himself that he has been as good as the mediator. He considers himself better than the mediator. The disciple then views the mediator as his rival. On the other side, the

‘mediator’ at a particular time will be aware of the threat the disciple creates in imitating the ‘mediator’s desire’. Seeing the desire of the disciple, the mediator even desires it more and more. Now, the mediator thinks of the disciple as a rival.

They become rivals.

An interesting example of internal mediation is the Dostoyevsky’s The

Eternal Husband. In the story, the eternal husband refers to Pavel Pavlovitch.

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Pavel is seeking after a man who had had a love affair with Pavel’s late wife.

After the death of his wife, Pavel approaches Veltchaninov. Pavel wants to be

Veltchaninov’s friend. When Pavel reconsiders a second marriage, he asks

Veltchaninov to accompany him to the girl’s house. What happens in the girl’s house is that the girl and the family prefer Veltchaninov more than Pavel. Yet this situation is the expected situation for Pavel since he cannot love a woman without the knowledge that another man is also in love with her.

There is nothing constant in the desire of a hero. The desire towards the object can sometimes get stronger or weaker.

....nothing is constant in the desire of a hero of a novel. Even its intensity is variable. It depends on the degree of ‘metaphysical virtue’ possessed by the object. And this virtue, in turn, depends on the distance between the object and the mediator (Girard, 1965: 83). What makes it stronger or weaker depends on what is called as the metaphysical virtue of an object. This results from the distance of the object with the model.

Yet, it does not refer to physical distance. The distance here means the closeness of the relationship between the object and the mediator. The virtue of this closeness determines the meaning of the object for the disciple.

The metaphysical virtue is projected by the subject who is the disciple of the mediator. For a person who worships a saint, for example, s/he will find a relic of her/his saint. This person will have stronger attachment with the object that has closer relationship with the mediator. If the relics to be considered are a medal and a rosary, the rosary is more valuable. The rosary used by a saint is higher in its virtue compared to a medal which is only touched or blessed. The rosary is part of the saint’s image. It is also used by the saint in his main

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activities. Last but not least, it has longer and closer intimacy with the saint.

Therefore, the saint’s imitator will desire the rosary more than the medal.

Whether the imitative desire can or cannot be accomplished, it leads to the dissapointment which is also metaphysical. The greater the virtue had by the object, the greater the dissapointment is. When the subject finds that possession of the object has not changed his being, he directs his dissapointment to the mediator. The object never had the value he attributes to it. The value converts elsewhere, on another object, on a new desire. The hero can therefore jump fom one desire to one desire, from one mediator to another mediator. The decision is based on the metaphysical virtue that is determined by the distance of the mediator and the subject.

In the process of imitating his mediator, a disciple can go further into desiring to be his model. The desire for an object is now a part of a larger desire, the desire to be his mediator. When a person imitates an artist, he will consider that some objects used by the artist as pursuable artefacts. The most valued object would be the one that has been always involved in the mediator’s daily activities.

For example, a cheaper object attached daily to the mediator is more prefered rather than a new costly gift given the mediator. As the object is seen as part of the mediator’s being, the disciple gives more values to the daily-attached-object.

The disciple develops his desire to be the mediator. During this process, the disciple even feels that now he is better than the mediator. At some point, the disciple develops his dislikeness toward the mediator and wants to get rid of him.

The combination of the dissatisfaction within himself and the dislikeness have

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resulted in the blaming of the mediator and very likely ended up in the effort to eliminate the mediator. If the mediator is too powerful, the hatred and the blaming go to someone else, a scapegoat.

2.2.2. Scapegoating

The word scapegoat in Girard’s The Scapegoat (1986) refers to a person who is blamed, as a result of a spontaneous psychological mechanism, for the mistakes or sins of others (1986: 39). Girard also emphasizes on the innocence of the victim, “scapegoat indicates both the innocence of the victim and the collective polarization in opposition to them, and the collective end result of that polarization” (1986: 39). In the process of scapegoating, the person who does the scapegoating is called as scapegoater and the person who is being scapegoated is named as the victim. This thesis uses these two terms for the analysis.

A scapegoating is usually hidden. A scapegoater will never admit his action. “No one tries to indict scapegoaters on the basis of what they say about their own scapegoats. They cannot be expected to beat their breasts and proclaim loudly: “Our victim is only a scapegoat.””(1986: 119). A scapegoater who consciously does a scapegoating will not admit his action. While for others, particularly in communal scapegoating, they do not realize that they have scapegoated someone. This also goes with the victim, he often does not realize that he is being scapegoated. For the victim who knows that he is scapegoated, this person will most likely unable to fight or to escape from the action. The main factor is the gap of power between the scapegoater and the victim. The

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scapegoater is most likely to be more powerful than the victim.

Later Girard expands this concept with the concept on the origin of culture. In the old days, there was what Girard identifies as scapegoat mechanism in the society. The main function of this mechanism is to restore order. The community which members have copied one another desires has developed their mimetic desire into rivalries. Everyone wants to be the others and thinks others as rivals. In competition, this rivalry easily develops into a fight or war. This disharmonious situation is overcome when the community together find a victim to be blamed. This situation is called the scapegoat mechanism which later becomes myths and part of religions.

The scapegoat mechanism is the development of the mimetic desire concept.

In individual level, scapegoating operates at the level of finding identity. In understanding one’s identity, the individual needs to construct it against someone or something else. I am a mother, not a father. I am a believer not an atheist. I am a woman, not a man, etc. In the case of scapegoating mechanism, I am a good one, not a bad one. Therefore, there should be another person or group to be indentified as bad person or group to justify that a person or a group can claim as a good one.

What began as an individual battle may worsen into a battle of all against all, threatening the cohesion and peace of an entire community. This is what can be understood of scapegoating mechanism in communal level. The mimetic rivalries are transformed into a sickness that can spread through the community like a plague. As Girard previously claims, the mimetic desire can result in

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rivalries (1994). When rivals become more and more fascinated with each other, friends and colleagues may be mimetically drawn into the conflict as rival coalitions form. This threatens the social order. The direct consequence of social crisis is the outbreak of reciprocal violence that can lead to the self-annihilation of the community. The natural and social catastrophes are seen alike and linked to one another. In the myth, natural disasters often function as metaphors for socially induced crisis.

To overcome this kind of crisis, the scapegoat mechanism serves as the possible resolution. Studying cultures and religions, Girard argues that the human culture was developed from a founding murder, the scapegoat mechanism. The mechanism has been induced to overcome to prevent the collapse of a society as a struggle of all against all. The mechanism develops also from the mimesis. It is believed to carry the potential to resolve the crisis. This antagonistic mimesis can overcome this conflict and reunite the conflicting factions.

Each member’s hostility, caused by clashing against others becomes converted from an individual feeling to a communal force unanimously directed against a single individual. The slightest hint, the most groundless accusation, can circulate with vertiginous speed and is transformed into irrefutable proof. The corporate sense of convictions snowballs, each member taking confidence from his neighbor by a rapid process of mimesis (Girard, 1989: 79).

The chaotic violence of all against all snowballs into the violence of all against one. Now the one victim is against the whole community. The community believe that by killing or banishing the victim, they will be freed from some unfortunate events. The will of banishing the victim is copied rapidly from one member to the others. A violence takes form.

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To overcome this violence which is in another word called a crisis, the scapegoating mechanism is driven. The crisis can only be overcome if the members of the group are unaware that they are transferring their own guilt and responsibility onto the victim. They have a strong belief that the victim is responsible for the plague or crises. This belief is nurtured in a form of prohibition, myth and rite. These prohibitions, myths and rites aim at camouflaging the violence and creating peace which is often seen as magical god’s gift. Prohibitions were created to forbid the imitative behaviors that can result to conflicts. Myths emerged as stories to tell us on how we became as the result of a visitation from the gods. Rituals consist of well controlled mime of the violence against a victim (originally human, later animal). This mechanism of controlling violence with violence can be found in the forms of persecution.

According to Girard, persecution, as an act of violence, has four stereotypes.

The first stereotype is crisis.

We can then speak of a stereotype of crisis which is to be recognized, logically and chronologically, as the first stereotype of persecution. Culture is somehow eclipsed as it becomes less differentiated. Once this is understood it is easier to understand the coherence of the process of persecution and the sort of logic that links all the stereotypes of which it is composed (Girard 1986: 14)

Crisis is placed as the first stereotype since from it we can be aware of the other stereotypes. The form of the crisis can be of a plague or disaster. The level of the crisis is very extreme that drives the society to go to the moral causes rather than the natural causes. During the process, human relations disintegrate. People then blame either society as a whole, or other people who possess identifiable reasons.

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‘Culture is somehow eclipsed as it becomes less differentiated’ means that the members of the society will find that the differences are threats. Therefore they will be easily put the blame to the different one.

The second stereotype of persecution is accusation. The persecutors trace the crisis of non-differentiation back to crimes that abolish differences within the community. They commonly blame a man for the crisis. The blame for the crisis is attributed to acts of violence (regicide, patricide), sexual crimes (rape, incest, bestiality), and various forms of sacrilege (host desecration, ritual murder).

The third stereotype is the selection of the victims or the sign of victims.

In the course of history, some group of people have been persecuted more frequently than others. Some characteristics that seem to predestine these people to their role as scapegoat. Girard calls these the symbols of victimization. It represents a difference outside the cultural system that relativizes difference within the community and engenders fear among its members. Typical characteristics of victims can be in the form of religious or cultural differences

(ethnic or religious minorities, or foreigners), physical attributes (handicaps, abnormalities, deviation from the norm), gender (women), lack of protection

(children), and prominent social positions (king, royalty, other forms of power).

The fourth and final stereotype of persecution is the violence. This is the most elementary and readily understandable of the four stereotypes. At the climax of the social crisis, the members of the community commit acts of violence against the victims they view as responsible for its outbreak. They believe that the

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violence is ‘right’ because the society members agree. The victim is the one who causes the crisis. If they get rid of him, they believe that crisis will end.

Girard summarizes the accepted interpretation of persecution in the following way: The juxtaposition of more than one stereotype within a single document indicates persecution. Not all the stereotypes must be present: three are enough and often even two. Their existence convinces us that 1) the acts of violence are real; 2) the crisis is real; 3) the victims are chosen not for the crimes they are accused of but for the victim’s signs that they bear, for everything that suggests their guilty relationship with the crisis; and 4) the import of the operation is to lay the responsibility for the crisis on the victims and to exert an influence on it by destroying these victims or at least by banishing them from the community they ‘pollute’ (1986: 24). After the death of the scapegoated man, the society feels that they have gotten peace and reconciliation. They are made to believe that only after they scapegoat the very man they have better and happier life.

Studying Hosseini’s novels using the mimetic desire and the scapegoating theories is expected to result in new interpretation. Inspired by Girard’s studies this thesis is aimed at studying the desire in Hosseini’s characters. The violence that is portrayed in Hosseini’s stories interestingly happens among Afghanistan society, something significantly different from Girard’s European society.

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CHAPTER 3

MIMETIC DESIRE IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S NOVELS

After the reason for the selection of the novels and the concept of Girard’s mimetic desire have been explained in the earlier chapters, this chapter aims at finding the answer for the first research question which focuses on the origin and development of the character’s desire. The descriptive analysis focuses on the desire resulted in the conflictual relationships of the characters which lead to violence.

In the three Khaled Hosseini’s novels under discussion, it is violence that has characterised the three stories. In the first novel, The Kite Runner, the violence commited by the main character Amir towards Hassan (his servant boy who is actually his half brother), is the core of the story. In the second novel, A

Thousand Splendid Suns, the major violence that develops the story is the violence against women particularly in patriarchal society of Afghanistan. The violated women are Nana, Mariam, and Laila. They are violated by their own family. In the third novel, And the Mountains Echoed, the story is based on the violence towards children. As the novel presented using the stories-within-stories technique, the daughter-selling-theme has served as the main framework for the novel. The siblings of Abdullah and Pari have been separated because the father and the uncle sell Pari to Mr. Suleiman Wahdati and Nila Wahdati, the childless couple from Kabul, Afghanistan. The children are victimized by the adults around them.

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Applying Girardian theory, in this particular chapter, the discussion is presented on the following organization. The first is the origin of the character’s desire in the novels, then followed by the development of the characters’ desires.

The origin of the mimetic desire is entitled “Desiring Other’s Desire” to reflect the main finding that the desires of the characters are originated from other characters. The next subchapter describing what happen to the desires is presented under the title “The Metamorphosis of the Desire.”

3.1. Desiring Other’s Desire

In its origin, human desire can be categorized into two: the spontaneus desire and the imitated desire. In contrast to the spontaneus desire which only involves two elements, the subject and the object, the mimetic desire involves three: the subject, who gets the desire, the object that is desired, and the model or the mediator whose desire is imitated. As Girard explained in books and interviews, the mimetic desire is marked with the triangular pattern of desire

(1965, 1994). Therefore, the following discussion starts with the discussion of the triangular desires from the first novel, the second novel and the third novel.

3.1.1. Between Master’s Desire and Slave’s Desire in The Kite Runner

The story of The Kite Runner (TKR) introduces two main characters,

Amir, and Hasan. Amir is the son of the rich businessman, Baba. Hassan is the son of Baba’s servant, Ali. Interestingly, from the beginning of the story, an obvious fact that these two main characters imitate others’ desires is presented.

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Amir imitates his father’s desire and Hasan imitates Amir’s desire. When later the conflicts get twisted around, Amir imitates Hasan’s desire.

Amir develops his desire based on his father’s desire. He has placed

Baba, his father, as his model. In the story, the narrator, who is Amir, himself, has declared this mediation from the very beginning. Father is chosen as a model from the day Amir is able to utter his first word.

Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words. Mine was Baba. His was Amir. My name. Looking back on it now, I think the foundation for what happened in the winter of 1975 – and all that followed – was already laid in those first words. (Hosseini, 2007: 10-11)

Using the first person point of view, the “I” in the quotation above refers to Amir.

From the sentence “Mine was Baba,” the readers can learn Amir’s open statement that symbolizes his will to be what Baba wants him to be. Amir imitates Baba’s desire. Amir develops his desires based on Baba’s desires. This mediation fits into Girard’s external mediation in which the hero proclaims aloud the true nature of his desire. He worships his model openly and declares himself his disciple

(Girard, 1965: 10).

Amir’s acknowledgement upon Baba’s greatness can be found frequently.

One of them is in the following passage.

My father was a force of nature, a towering Pashtun specimen with a thick beard, a wayward crop of curly brown hair as unruly as the man himself, hands that looked capable of uprooting a willow tree, and a black glare that would“drop the devil to his knees begging for mercy,” as Rahim Khan used to say. (Hosseini, 2007: 17)

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Amir’s open acknowledgment of Baba greatness can be traced in the selection of vocabularies such as a force of nature, a towering Pashtun specimen, hands that looked capable of uprooting a willow tree, and a black glare that would “drop the devil to his knees begging for mercy,” Baba’s figure in Amirs eyes has already shown for being distinguished than others.

Baba is a force of nature means that his father represents the unstoppable power of nature. Baba is also described as a towering Pashtun specimen. This means that as a person, Baba is very tall, like a tower. If the readers find out more about Pashtun people, they will know that compared with other people,

Pashtun peole are gifted with their tallness. Baba is like a tower among the commonly tall Pashtun people. Not only taller, he is also stronger. By looking at his hands, people can imagine how strong he is, a person who is ‘capable of uprooting a willow tree.’ And the most intimidating one is that Baba has this black glare that its power can force the devil to drop down on his knees begging for his mercy.

If he compares himself with Baba, Amir finds that nothing can show that he is similar to Baba. In terms of physical image, Amir does not have Baba’s physical qualities. He is not tall. He is not strong. And he does not have the intimidating black glare that can make the devil begs for mercy. Often in many situations in which Amir has been expected to act like Baba, Amir has shown the contrast ones. This situation is very distressing for Amir. In Girard’s theory,

Amir has learned that the more he wants to be like Baba, the deeper his disappointment he has toward himself.

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In his effort to be his father ideal’s son, Amir finds that Hassan, his servant’s son, seems to fit into this Baba’s image of ideal son. Hassan, despite his mongoloid physical traits, has proven to have the manhood that Baba wants from a son. Hassan bravely stands for Amir to face some older and taller Pashtun boys.

Hassan is an excellent runner. Hassan is very skillful with his slingshot. Hassan is better in playing skimming stone. Amir admires Hassan and therefore sets

Hassan as his other mediator. Hosseini has portrayed Girard’s mimetic desire between brothers.

In contrast with Baba’s mediation, Hassan’s mediation develops into jealousy and rivalry. Amir learns that he wants to have Hassan’s manly characters. Yet, he does not succeed in copying these characters. He does not have the bravery and the courage to stand for his own sake, moreover, for his friend or dear one. This weak character of Amir, of not fighting for his own can be learnt from Baba’s conversation with Baba’s best friend Rahim Khan. Baba shares his worries with Rahim Khan.

Sometimes I look out this window and I see him playing on the street with the neighborhood boys. I see how they push him around, take his toys from him, give him a shove here, a whack there. And, you know, he never fights back. Never. He just . . . drops his head and . . .(Hosseini, 2007: 22)

Baba has seen Amir’s unexpectedly weak reaction against the bad boys from the nieghborhood. Baba expects Amir to fight back but Amir just drops his head, never fight.

Amir learns Baba’s disappointment and his own disappointment too. This disappointment meets his finding that Hassan fits the son figure in Baba’s dreams.

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Amir gets very jealous of Hassan. Amir has set Hassan as his rival. Baba would love to have a manly son who would enjoy hunting and playing football rather than reading and writing poetry. Amir realizes his weaknesss,

Of course, marrying a poet was one thing, but fathering a son who preferred burying his face in poetry books to hunting . . . well, that wasn’t how Baba had envisioned it, I suppose. Real men didn’t read poetry—and God forbid they should ever write it! Real men—real boys—played soccer just as Baba had when he had been young. (Hosseini, 2007: 20)

Amir thinks of Baba’s feeling over his ‘not being a real boy.’ When Baba gets disappointed, Amir also gets even more disappointed. When the disciple learns the value of the object from the model, in this case Amir learns that Baba really expects his manhood, or in Girard’s words: the disciple desires the object more than the model.

Amir’s dissapointment combines with his jealousy toward Hassan. Amir wants Baba for himself. He does not

It took three years to build the orphanage. I was eight by then. I remember the day before the orphanage opened, Baba took me to Ghargha Lake,a few miles north of Kabul. He asked me to fetch Hassan too, but I lied and told him Hassan had the runs. I wanted Baba all to myself. (Hosseini, 2007: 13)

Amir wants to get rid of Hassan and spends time with Baba all by himself. He doesn’t want to share Baba with Hassan. Girard’s brothers’ rivalry takes form.

He hates to see that Baba also wants Hassan to go with them.

Amir learns that Hassan has the characters that Baba expects from a son.

Hassan is a brave boy. Despite his small figure, Hassan courageously fight for

Amir. Hassan bravely stands against bigger boys and fights for Amir. Hassan

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uses his slingshot as his main weapon. Amir learns that in some situations he cannot compete with Hassan.

... one time at Ghargha Lake, Hassan and I were skimming stones and Hassan made his stone skip eight times. The most I managed was five. Baba was there, watching, and he patted Hassan on the back. Even put his arm around his shoulder (Hosseini, 2007: 14).

Amir feels jealous seeing that Baba seems to be proud of Hassan, appreciating

Hassan’s skill in skimming stone. As Amir realizes his weakness, at the same time, he realizes Hassan’s strengths.

The situation changes as Amir has now put Hassan as his mediator. The rivalry begins. At some points, being so depressed, Amir has tried several efforts to get rid of Hassan. He lies to prevent Hassan from meeting Baba. He tries to hurt Hassan. He even sets up a situation to show to Baba that Hassan has done the unforgivable sin, stealing. Amir wants Baba to quit caring about Hassan. Amir does not want to share Baba with Hassan.

The next mimetic desire is positioning Hassan as the subject. Hassan has surrendered to Amir. He has placed Amir as his model. In contrast to the previous mimetic desire which places Amir under Baba’s mediation and Hassan’s mediation, Hassan’s view toward Amir is similar to Girard’s study on Sancho’s view toward Don Quixote, a slave toward his master. Hassan will never place himself at or above Amir. Hassan always situates himself under Amir’s world.

The previous quotation, “His was Amir. My name,” (Hosseini, 2007: 10-

11) can be interpreted that Amir is Hassan’s model. ‘His was Amir’ is the story of Hassan’s first word as a baby. When litle Hassan wants to utter his first word,

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his word is ‘Amir’. Hassan desires what Amir chooses for him. Hassan has dedicated his life to Amir. And this particular relationship relatively permanent through out the story. Hassan has not only made Amir as his model, he worships him. It never occurs for Hassan to compete with Amir. Hassan will never thinks of Amir as his rival. Hassan will do everything for Amir. He even risks his life for Amir. Throughout the story, Hassan has always put the needs of Amir’s family first before his own needs. The triangular mimetic desire which positions Hassan under the mediation of Amir will never transform into rivalry. This in Girard’s term is the slave-master desire. Meanwhile, Amir’s consideration of Hassan as his rival fits into Girard’s brothers rivalry. A similar pattern of mimetic desire which results in rivalry can be found in the second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns

(ATSS).

3.1.2. Daughter’s Desire and Mother’s Desire in A Thousand Splendid Suns

In ATSS, the main character is Mariam, a little girl who lives with her mother, Nana. In the beginning of her life, Mariam has imitated the desire of her mother. This is because little Mariam lives mostly alone with her mother, Nana.

It is common for a daughter to imitate her mother’s desire, like the previous discussion in which a son imitates the desire of his father.

Mariam and her mother live in a small hut at the outskirt of the city. The father has built a small kholba (hut) for them. The hut consists of only one room in which they do the sleeping, the cooking and all the inhouse activities. The father visits the place once in a week in an hour or so. As the mother and the only

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closest companion, Nana has hold the position as the mediator in the triangular desire in which Mariam is the subject. Unlike the father-son mediation in The

Kite Runner, the mother-daughter mediation is not too obvious. It is resulted from the figure of the mother who is portrayed as an unfortunate and ill-tempered person. Secondly, this portrayal seems also to represent the patriarchal society,

Nana is described as a maid who formerly works at the house of Jalil, a rich man who has three wives. Unfortunately, Jalil seduces her and results in her pregnancy. Jalil wives get very angry and furious. Nana is kicked out of the house. Jalil blames her as the one who is responsible for the affair. For Jalil’s good name, Nana then is placed in a small hut in a remote place in the outskirt of the city, far from everywhere. Nana, who is motherless at the age of two, is also neglected by her own father. Her father leaves her on her own.

As Mariam recalls, Nana has always been rude to her. Nana often uses the word harami to address her. Harami which means the unwanted illegitimate child has shaped Mariam’s way of thinking from childhood to a grown-up woman. In the Afghanistan society, the illegitimate child has been associated with illegitimate life with no right on love, family, home, acceptance etc. In the triangular desire in which Nana as the mediator and Mariam as the subject, Nana has directed Mariam to accept her destiny as the unfortunate ones, for both being an illegitimate child and a woman. Thus she reminds Mariam not to trust the father in her dream to be acknowledged as one of Jalil’s legitimate daughters. Nana has also reminded

Mariam never to trust men, for they will always be the right ones and will blame women as the faulty ones.

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As Mariam is getting older and knows other people, particularly, Jalil, her father, she is no longer preoccupied by the mother. She does not believe in her mother anymore. She thinks her mother is jealous of her, that she has Jalil, a loving father, who does not consider her as ‘harami.’ This jealousy, in Girard’s concept, is the phase in which the subject (Mariam) develops her self esteem and believes that she is at the same position as the model (her mother, Nana). She does not surrender to Nana’s mediation anymore. Now she considers Nana as the rivals. She wants to prove that despite her being a woman and an illegitimate child, she can have the happiness her mother cannot have. This fits into Girard’s rivalry phase. After Mariam imitates her mother’s desire, she now considers herself as better than her mother.

Mariam is shifting her mediation toward her father, Jalil. In her understanding, his father is a good person, not a bad person the way Nana described. Jalil has never treated Mariam as a harami. Jalil treats Mariam lovingly, just like the way a father treat his children. She is very sure of her own judgment. Until one day, she decides to leave Nana and the kholba (the hut) to head for Jalil’s house. When she finally arrives there, she finds a bitter realization of her dreams, that Nana’s words are true.

Nana, the mother has reminded her of the fact. Nana often speaks of bad things that Mariam finds in contrast with what she understands and feels from her time with her father. She can feel sure that her father loves her. She suspects that

Nana is just afraid of her being happy. Nana is jealous of her. The daughter, the

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only family that Nana has, has chosen to live with the father and leave the mother desperate and alone.

You’re afraid, Nana, she might have said. You’re afraid that I might find the happiness you never had. And you don’t want me to be happy. You don’t want a good life for me. You’re the one with the wretched heart (Hosseini, 2009: 31) Mariam accusses her mother as a bad person because of preventing her to be happy. She gives herself her version of reason that she is a good person. To make it more convincing, a contrast is needed, someone has to be a bad person. As a result, her mother is the bad person. This contrastive reassuring is needed in the struggle of Mariam to be a new self. Mariam needs to contrast with her mother to strengthen this new desire, to be Jalil’s real daughter.

When Mariam tries to pursue her desire of becoming Jalil’s acknowledged daughter, she finds that the reality is not as sweet as she pictures it. Jalil does not want to see her. She has to wait outside the big house, in front of the gate. She even has to spend her night there. Jalil is said to be out of the city. When she finds that actually Jalil is inside the house, she is shocked and distressed. Mariam learns that Nana’s words are true. Mariam gets back to her mother’s mediation, although now her mother is dead.

One other significant mimetic desire happens to Mariam when she knows

Laila and her (illegitimate) daughter, Aziza. Mariam learns from Laila her love and dedication to be a good mother. Mariam who happens to be childless falls in love to Laila’s daughter. She wants to do something for Aziza because she considers that Aziza is the same origin as hers, an illegitimate daughter. When

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Mariam witnesses the sacrifices Laila make for her second child, Mariam becomes more motherhood. She imitates Laila’s desire to be a good mother. She admires what Mariam can endure to be a good mother. In one occasion, when

Laila needs to deliver her second child in the middle of difficult situation with very limited medicine and medical staff, Mariam realizes a new lesson.

Mariam saw now the sacrifices a mother made. Decency was but one. She thought ruefully of Nana, of the sacrifices that she had made. Nana, who could have given her away, or tossed her in a ditch somewhere and run. But she hadn’t. Instead, Nana had endured the shame of bearing a harami, had shaped her life around the thankless task of raising Mariam and, in her own way, of loving her. And, in the end, Mariam had chosen Jalil over her. As she fought her way with impudent resolve to the front of the melee, Mariam wished she had been a better daughter to Nana. She wished she’d understood then what she understood now about motherhood. (Hosseini, 2009: 171) With this new perception on the understanding of motherhood, Mariam imitates

Laila’s desire as a mother. Another similar admiration is when Laila decides to go through a caesarian operation without anesthetics. “Mariam would always admire

Laila for how much time passed before she screamed.” (Hosseini, 2009: 174).

In the passage that narrates what is in Mariam’s mind on her final day, the mimetic desire that gives Mariam happiness is the desire of being a mother.

Mariam feels the happiness after she knows that she has been loved as a mother.

She feels at peace because she can do something for Laila and Azizah.

Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, a regrettable accient. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad.

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This a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings. (Hosseini, 2009: 219) The contrast of the analogy of her past and present situations, a weed versus a mother, strengthens her dream of becoming a mother. Her start as a weed, an unwanted thing, now transforms into a respectable figure, a mother. She does not regret her action and decision. She learns from Laila that to die for the loved ones can only be done by a mother.

This mimetic desire of Mariam to be a mother shows something different from what Girard has always presented, the mimetic desire that leads to rivalry, hatefulness and violence. In this case, Mariam’s desire to be a mother is based on loving and caring feelings. The mimetic desire can also work on positive feelings.

This finding reminds that the mimetic desire besides its conflictual potentials has also its non-conflictual potentials. This positive potential can be worked out to reduce the conflictual potential.

3.1.3. Father’s Desire and Sibling’s Desire in And the Mountains Echoed

Previously, I have discussed master-slave, father-daughter and mother- daughter relationships. In And the Mountains Echoed (ATME), similarly the story is still of familial story. The main story is about a poor father who trades his daughter for money. There are other six stories which somehow crosses with the main story. In this novel of many stories, the mimetic desire has also been the one developing many of the conflicts.

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In the main story, Saboor has imitated Baba Ayub’s desire, a character from a story he tells to Abdullah and Pari. Saboor, who is a father to Abdullah and Pari, is a poor man. No matter how hard he works, he cannot provide enough money for his family. Saboor has married to another woman after the death of his wife, the mother of Abdullah and Pari. With this second wife, he has another child. Because of poverty and extreme weather, Saboor then loses his baby.

During bad winter, in which he could not provide enough food, clothes, and medicine, his baby gets sick and died. Feeling frustrated with his difficult situation, he agrees to sell his daughter, Pari, to a rich couple at Kabul. Saboor’s difficult decision is similar to a father’s decision from the story he previously told to his children.

It is a story of Baba Ayub, a farmer, a father of five wonderful children.

Among these five children, he loves the youngest most. This father works from morning till evening but hardly manages to provide a good life or the family. One day, a div (giant) comes to the place and asks for a child. Having no choice, the parents give the youngest one to the div. Later, the heart-broken father decides to find the div to get the son back. He walks a very very long way through forests and mountains till he reaches the div’s place. At the div’s place he makes a deal for the div to let him see the son. He is granted to see the son but then has to decide to take the son or to let the son stay. Considering his inability to earn sufficient money to provide a good life for the son, the farmer lets the son stay as he believes that in the div’s place his son has better life and future.

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Saboor has surrendered to his fictional mediator, the farmer, Baba Ayub.

Saboor decides to follow the character’s decision to let go his child so that the child and the family would have a better future. This is the triangular desire which projects Saboor as the subject and Baba Ayub as the mediator. He agrees to his brother-inlaw to sell his daughter to the rich couple from Kabul. He convinces himself that his daughter would have a happier and better life with these rich couple. Behind his decision Saboor also learns his failure as a father who cannot protect his child. He admits his weakness. The difference between Saboor and

Baba Ayub is that Baba Ayub has been gifted with the forgetting potion while

Saboor has to face and to endure his memories.

As the technique applied by Khaled Hossini in the third novel is using many narrators, the main story then can be seen from various angles. This particular technique also results in many stories within one story. At the beginning, the readers learn the story from a father’s perspective, Saboor in the family’s trip with his two children. As a father, he is in a very difficult situation that drives him to sell one of his children, the three-year-old daughter to a rich couple in Kabul, the Wahdatis.

This many-narrators story has also portrayed other triangular desire models. After Saboor, it is Abdullah who comes next as the narrator. Abdullah, after the death of his mother, has taken care of his baby sister. He is very much preoccupied with his sister. He has put his sister as the source of his happiness.

Abdullah has given his life to her. He will do everything he can to make his sister smile. One of the things that little Pari likes very much is a feather. She will be

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very happy to see a feather. Abdullah has provided her an old tin box so that Pari can collect her feathers in.

In one particular situation, Abdullah has given up his most valuable things, his only shoes, to be traded with a beautiful peacock feather previously owned by a boy from another village.

This last was a gift Abdullah had given her two months earlier. He had heard of a boy from another village whose family owned a peacock. One day when Father was away digging ditches in atown south of Shadbagh, Abdullah walked to this other village, found the boy, and asked him for a feather from the bird. Negotiation ensued, at the end of which Abdullah agreed to trade his shoes for the feather. By the time he returned to Shadbagh, peacock feather tucked in the waist of his trousers beneath his shirt, his heels had split open and left bloody smudges on the ground. Thorns and splinters had burrowed into the skin of his soles. Every step sent barbs of pain shooting through his feet. (Hosseini, 2013: 16)

Abdullah has to endure his painful feet to get his sister the peacock feather. He also takes the risk to make his parents very angry for trading his only shoes with the feather. But, when he sees the smile on his sister’s face after seeing the feather, those pains and worries have evaporated.

But when he knelt beside Pari, gently shook her awake from a nap, and produced the feather from behindhis back like a magician, it was all worth it—worth it for the way her face broke open with surprise first, then delight; for the way she stamped his cheeks with kisses; for how she cackled when he tickled her chin with the soft end of the feather—and suddenly his feet didn’t hurt at all. (Hosseini, 2013: 17)

This brother and sister’s relationship is getting stronger as their mother died on giving birth to this little sister. Because their father has always been too exhausted from working and their step mother has been busy with daily chores and her own baby, Abdullah acts like a mother rather than a brother to his sister.

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Abdullah has surrendered his life toward his sister. The loss of his sister has made Abdullah under his sister’s mediation for all his life. When Abdullah marries, his wife knows this misery. Then Abdullah has a daughter. He names her with his sister’s name, Pari. He has shared with his daughter his longing for his sister. This daughter even imagines to have Pari Saboor as her twin sister. The triangular pattern has placed Pari Saboor as the model and Abdullah as the disciple. This triangular has been regenerated to Abdullahs daughter with the same model, that is Pari Saboor. Pari Saboor who is adopted by the Wahdatis has never met Abdullah. She has lived with Nila Wahdati in Paris.

In a related story, which is of Abdullah’s step mother, Parwana, an obvious triangular mimetic desire pattern places the twin-sister Masooma as the model,

Parwana as the disciple, and some objects of desire. Interestingly, this Parwana-

Masooma mediation has developed into jealousy and rivalry, even ends up into violence. In this twin sister relationship, it is clearly shown that the violence is the result of envy and jealousy.

As twins, Parwana and Masooma are not identical twins. In terms of physical appearance, Masooma is the prettier, while Parwana is the ugly one. The different beauties between the twin sisters can be said as very contrastive.

Masooma is the beautiful one, and Parwana is the ugly one. Masooma has been the center of attention. “She interrupted conversations midsentence, smokers mid- drag. She was the trembler of knees, the spiller of teacups.” (Hosseini, 2013: 34)

In contrast with beautiful Masooma, Parwana has flat chest and sallow

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complexion. Her hair is frizzy rounding her heavy mournful face. Her wrists are thick and her shoulders are masculine.

Parwana has tried to deny this hurting fact. The following quotation is one of Parwana’s effort to ignore the envious difference between her and Masooma.

All her life, Parwana had made sure to avoid standing in front of mirror with her sister. It robbed her of hope to see her face beside Masoma’s, to see so plainly what she had been denied. But in public, every stranger’s eye was a mirror. There was no escape. (Hosseini, 2013: 28)

Parwana cannot but see people’s contrastive acceptances toward her and

Masooma. Even from early childhood, people around them has treated them differently. Baby Masooma is merrily passed around, while Parwana is ignored.

No one cares for her, except their mother. The more Parwana wants to deny the fact, the clearer the fact presented in front of her. Parwana desires the same acceptance from the people, but it is futile.

Another important object that both being desired by Parwana and

Masooma is a boy named Saboor. Since the twins were teenagers, both have been in love with this neighborhood boy Saboor. While Parwana is too shy to show her love, Masooma is not. Masooma has succeeded to make Saboor love her. One of the things that arouse Parwana’s jealousy deals with a notebook. Parwana, impressed by Saboor’s talent as story-teller, hardly finds him a beautiful notebook. She secretly steals it in a market visit with her mother. Parwana has secretly hidden the notebook for six months within which each night hoping to have the courage to give it to Saboor the next morning. Shockingly the notebook has been found and given to Saboor by Masooma. Parwana, deep down in her heart, cannot accept it. This fuels her hatred toward Masooma even more.

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In the triangular mimetic desire of Parwana and Masooma, the hatred develops into rivalry. Parwana, who has already been very disappointed with the notebook problem, gets more furious after hearing that Masooma and Saboor will soon get married. Parwana is very angry and jealous. The place and the time are just perfect for Parwana to do her bad will. These twin sisters are sitting on a tree branch, way high above the ground. When she gets the chance she shakes the tree branch.

While her sister was facing away, searching her pocket, Parwana planted the heels of her hands on the branch, lifted her bottom, and let it drop. The branch shook. Masooma gasped and lost her balance. Her arms flailed wildly. She tipped forward. (Hosseini, 2013: 40)

Parwana raises her bottom and drops it soon afterward. This causes the tree branch to shake and eventually makes Masooma falls.

Masooma fell from the tree. It seemed to take forever, the fall. Her torso slamming into branches on the way down, startling birds and shaking leaves free, her body spinning, bouncing, snapping smaller branches, until a low, thick branch, the one from which the swing was suspended, caught her lower back with a sick, audible crunch. She folded backward, nearly in half. (Hosseini, 2013: 40)

The terrible fall makes Masooma paralyzed. Parwana, being responsible and situated, is the one who has to take care of Masooma as their parents pass away.

The next triangular mimetic desire involves Nabi as the subject and Nila

Wahdati as the model. In this triangle, Nabi does things that he thinks will bring him closer to Nila Wahdati. Nabi, hearing Nila’s story that it is impossible for her to conceive a baby for she does not have a womb anymore, talks to Saboor and persuades Saboor to let Pari, the baby daughter, to be adopted by Nila Wahdati.

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Finally Saboor agrees to sell his daughter but what happens next is not what Nabi expects it. The arrival of Pari as the adopted daughter has preoccupied Nila. Nila has rarely spent time with Nabi anymore.

When Mr. Suleiman gets sick and Nila decides to move to Paris, Nabi learns that Mr. Suleiman loves him. Now he understands what Nila has said that it has always been him that stands between Nila and Mr. Suleiman. Years after

Nila’s leaving, he still hopes to get a letter from Nila.

Sooner or later, I would find my thoughts drifting to Nila, who was an entire continent away fromme now. I would picture the soft sheen of her hair, the way she bounced her foot, the sandal slappingher heel to the crackle of a burning cigarette. I thought of the curve of her back and the swell of her chest. I longed to be near her again, to be engulfed in her smell, to feel the old familiar flutter of the heart when she touched my hand. She had promised to write me, and though years had passed and in all likelihood she had forgotten me, I cannot lie now and claim I did not still feel an upsurge of anticipation each time we received correspondence at the house. (Hosseini, 2013: 68)

Nabi pictures what Nila looks like, his favourite figure,. He also imagines his reaction if he physically gets in touch with Nila. He keeps his hope.

In the next story, the triangular mimetic desire pattern frames Idris as the disciple and Timur as the model. Idris is Timur’s cousin. Their family once was the neighbor of Wahdati in Kabul. Idris’ father is a brother to Timur’s father.

Timur’s character has been in contrast to Idris’ character. Timur is very easy going, while Idris is always serious. Timur has been successful in terms of making money. Timur is a generous and helpful. For Idris, who has no brother,

Timur is like a brother for him. There is a situation in which Timur has taken most of the responsibility. It is the time when Idris’ father passes away. As the

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only son, Idris is too timid and can be said having no capability to handle the matters. Timur has taken care of everything, the announcement, the funeral, the money etc.

Timur never left his side. He helped Idris answer phone calls. He greeted the waves of people who came to pay respects. He ordered rice and lamb from Abe’s Kabob House, ... Timur parked cars for elderly guests when it started to rain. He called a buddy of his at one of the local Afghan TVstations. Unlike Idris, Timur was well connected in the Afghan community; ... Early that afternoon, Timur drove Idris to the funeral home in Hayward. (Hosseini, 2013: 75)

Timur seems capable of handling everything. He is also very generous to Idris.

He provides the fund for the funeral.

At some point, Idris acknowledges Timur’s superiority. However, there are times too for Idris to judge Timur’s bad conducts. Idris is jealous with

Timur’s success. The one that Idris criticizes is that Timur likes to show to people his generosity. One of the examples is the present that Timur gave at the time

Idris’ wedding. Timur gives him a car. The way he presents the gift by announcing it to all of the guests makes Idris uneasy and embarrassed.

And at the wedding, Timur had the singer stop the music, make an announcement, and the key to the Explorer had been offered to Idris and Nahil with great ceremony—on a tray, no less—before an attentive audience. Cameras had flashed. This was what Idris had misgivings about, the fanfare, the flaunting, the unabashed showmanship, the bravado. He didn’t like thinking this of hiscousin, who was the closest thing Idris had to a brother, but it seemed to him that Timur was a man who wrote his own press kit, and his generosity, Idris suspected, was a calculated piece of an intricately constructed character. (Hosseini, 2013: 76)

Idris thinks that Timur’s generosity is not something genuine. Timur does it to get the people’s attention. Timur really enjoys such attentive moment. Idris becomes jealous of him.

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A contrastive feeling towards Timur is a phase in which Idris as the disciple is raising his position. After Idris acknowledges Timur’s excellence, he tries to find Timur’s flaw. It means Idris has adjusted his position from an admirer into a critic. By now, Idris convinces himself that he is better than Timur.

Idris both resents and envies his cousin forthis ability. He has always found Timur coarse, lacking in imagination and nuance. He knows that Timur cheats on both his wife and his taxes. Back in the States, Timur owns a real-estate mortgage company, and Idris is all but certain that he is waist-deep in some kind of mortgage fraud. But Timur is wildly sociable, his faults forever absolved by good humor, a determined friendliness, and a beguiling air of innocence that endears him to people he meets. The good looks don’t hurt, either—the muscular body, the green eyes, the dimpled grin. Timur, Idris thinks, is a grown man enjoying the privileges of a child. (Hosseini, 2013: 73)

The subject, Idris, has no longer put Timur as his model. Idris has considered himself as someone equal. He has lowered Timur in order to rise his position.

He thinks of himself higher now. He is the one who is better. When they meets the wounded Roshi, Idris feels the chance to be a hero, like Timur who has been a hero for him. He wants to show Timur that doing good deeds should never be exposed. He makes promises to bring Roshi to US for her medical treatments.

Yet, when Idris is back in the US, he forgets his promises. He feels uneasy actually, yet he keeps convincing himself that it is not his fault.

It is common for children to place their parents as their models. It is so for

Pari who has been raised by Nila Wahdati. Pari has seen her mother as the her model. Little Pari sees her mother as a perfect model. Her mother is a smart independent beautiful woman. However, as Pari is geting more mature, she starts to compare herself with her mother. She wonders why in physical appearance, she

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is not like her mother nor her father. She has questioned her thoughts but never gets any answer. Nila has cleverly conceals the truth.

As adult, Pari and Nila’s relationship cannot be considered as a good relationship. Nila seems to blame Pari for her unhappiness. Even after her effort to raise Pari like her own daughter, Nila thinks that Pari does not behave as a good daughter. In an interview close to the time of Nila’s suicide, Nila tells her sadness over Pari.

NW: Everything I’ve done, Monsieur Boustouler, I’ve done for my daughter. Not that she understands, or appreciates, the full measure of what I’ve done for her. She can be breathtakingly thoughtless, my daughter. If she knew the life she would have had to endure, if not for me … EB : Is your daughter a disappointment to you? NW: Monsieur Boustouler, I’ve come to believe she’s my punishment. (Hosseini, 2103: 116)

Nila feels that as a daughter Pari has disappointed her. According to Nila, Pari does not care about her feeling. Pari has done things that dissapoints and hurts her. When Nila is unhappy, she drinks and ends up in some careless accidents. It is often for Pari to get calls from hospital after her mother’s injuries. Not long after the interview, Nila kills herself.

Nila has been mostly hurt by the union of Pari with Julien, Nila’s former lover. For Nila, Pari-and-Julien’s relationship means that Pari has bertrayed and defeated her. Nila is used to think that Pari is way behind her. In terms of the ability to get a lover, Nila is much better. Nila has very womanly body and sexy gesture. She is also romantic and good in writing poems. She loves music and other art forms. Nila is very confident and outgoing. In contrast, Pari has flat body and timid character. Pari does not have any interest in art. Pari studies Math

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in university. Nila has considered that the choice of the study is also also something she considers as a rebellion.

This means there has been a change in the mimetic desire triangle involving Pari as the subject and Nila as the mediator. In a phone conversation,

Pari has told her mother that she has been living with Julien, Nila’s ex-lover. The conversation ends up with Nila’s statement.

“I look at you sometimes and I don’t see me in you. Of course I don’t. I suppose that isn’t unexpected, after all. I don’t know what sort of person you are, Pari. I don’t know who you are, what you’re capable of, in your blood. You’re a stranger to me.”(Hosseini, 2013: 111)

This statement has made Pari confused as she has no knowledge that she was adopted. Hearing this statement, Pari is getting more curious on her origin. She has suspected that she needs to clarify something, a missing part in her life. While for Nila, she is in desperate situation. As a mother, Nila wants to see some of hers in Pari, like the way mother and daughter have. When she compares herself with

Pari, she is brought back to the hidden truth that Pari is not her biological daughter. Pari doesn’t have her blood. In this phase, as Girard calls it is the rivalry phase. The disciple is not as imitator anymore. She and the model are now at the same level. For some diciples, they even think that they are better than their models.

When Abdullah has a daughter he names his daughter after his sister.

Abdullah has shared his unbearable feeling of losing his little sister with the daughter. Later on his daughter has created imaginary twin sister whom she creates from his father’s longing sister. The daughter has imitated the father’s

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desire of having a sister. Pari, who turns out to be the only child of the family, has more urge of having this imaginary sister.

And so Baba’s little sister, Pari, was my secret companion, invisible to everyone but me. She was my sister, the one I’d always wished my parents had given me. I saw her in the bathroom mirror when we brushed our teeth side by side in the morning. We dressed together. She followed me to school and sat close to me in class.... No one knew about my games with Pari. Not even my father. She was my secret. (Hosseini, 2013: 183)

Pari has imitated her father’s desire of having this little sister figure. She imagines father’s Pari as her twin sister. They are always together, in the bathroom, in the classroom, in the playground, everywhere. They share the shame favorites: color, food, TV show. They wish the same dream: to be an artist when they grow up. For Pari, her father’s sister, old Pari, is hers.

Her closeness with her father brings her closeness with the old Pari. The old Pari is part of her. The stories of old Pari has been as familiar as the stories of the Prophet. Pulled by its gravity, each night Pari would ask the story of old Pari as her bedtime story. She senses some ties that bond them together. “I (young

Pari) felt certain that if I listened closely enough to her story, I would discover something revealed about my self.” (Hosseini, 2013: 183) She has surrendered to her father’s loss. She has projected that her life wish is to find this father’s Pari.

As this search is the search of herself. If she finds something on this old Pari, she learns something about herself, the things she does not know earlier.

The desire is very contagious. In Girard’s explanation, “Metaphysical desire is always contagious. It becomes even more so as the mediator draw nearer to the hero.” (1965: 99) In the ATME, the proximity between father and daughter

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has been a perfect atmosphere for the desire to be imitated. If in TKR, the imitation of other’s desire can be read in the Amir’s admiration of the great figure of Baba, in ATME, the imitation can be read in the daughter’s emphaty of the father’s loss. Meanwhile, in ATSS the imitation can be seen in the development of motherhood in Mariam. Mariam who cannot have a child, learns the motherhood from Laila. For these imitations of desires are not possible unless the disciple and the model are close to each other.

The closeness of the disciple and the model has been explained in the findings of the relationships beween the disciple and the model. In TKR, the main triangular mimetic desires have son-father and master-slave relationships. In

ATSS, the triangle involves mother-daughter, and father-daughter relationships.

Similarly, in ATME, the father-children, brother-brother and sister-sister relationships have been parts of the triangular mimetic desire. The disciple, having copied the model’s desire, pursues the object more intensively than the model. The disciple believes that his happiness is based on the fulfillment of this desire. It is interesting therefore to find out what happens to this desire and the disciple who pursues this desire. The following discussion is entitled the metamorphosis of the mimetic desire.

3.2.The Metamorphosis of the Mimetic Desire

Every hero of a novel expects his being to be radicallly changed by the act of possesion (Girard, 1965: 53). This part discusses the results of the possession of the object or the fulfilment of the desire. What happens to the desire? What does the heroes feel after they can have what they want? Is their prediction true?

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Will they be the happiest people on earth? Does the desire that the character has tried to fulfill with all his/her efforts stay?

3.2.1. Happiness is for Others

To be the winner of the kite competition is Amir’s desire to get the position to be Baba’s ideal son. It is interesting to study why Amir does not feel happy when he finally succeeds to be the winner of the kite tournament complete with the the success of bringing home the runner-up kite. Amir learns that his winning is not a clean winning, it is a bloody winning. The winning is possible because of Hassan’s suffering. To help Amir to be the winner of the kite tournament, Hassan surrenders to let himself being raped by the Pashtun boys.

Amir is witnessing this rape.

Assef knelt behind Hassan, put his hands on Hassan’s hips and lifted his bare buttocks. He kept one hand on Hassan’s back and undid his own belt buckle with his free hand. He unzipped his jeans. Dropped his underwear. He positioned himself behind Hassan. Hassan didn’t struggle. Didn’t even whimper. He moved his head slightly and I caught a glimpse of his face. Saw the resignation in it. It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb. (Hosseini, 2007: 48-49)

In Amir’s interpretation, Hassan has given the look of a resignation face. Amir interpretes that Hassan has learnt that his suffering is needed for a bigger cause.

Amir tries very hard to convince himself that this bigger cause is his struggle to be

Baba’s ideal son.

Many times has Amir tried to console himself that Hassan’s suffering is needed for a bigger purpose. That it is common for a slave to help his master.

Yet, this self-reassurement does not work well. Amir suffers from Hassan’s

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presence and absentia. He cannot sleep. He starts his new suffering, being an insomniac. “That was the night I became an insomniac.”(Hosseini, 2007: 54)

Amir still has had this insomniac problem eventhough he has left Afghanistan and lived in United States, and even until he becomes an adult, a married man.

Amir does not succeed in convincing himself, as a result he cannot find the happiness after winning the kite competition. He is tortured by Hassan. No, the fact is that Amir is tortured by his own mind.

HASSAN MILLED ABOUT the periphery of my life after that. I made sure our paths crossed as little as possible, planned my day that way. Because when he was around, the oxygen seeped out of the room. My chest tightened and I couldn’t draw enough air; I’d stand there, gasping in my own little airless bubble of atmosphere. But even when he wasn’t around, he was. He was there in the ironed clothes on the cane-seat chair, in the warm slippers left outside my door, in the wood already burning in the stove when I came down for breakfast. Everywhere I turned, I saw signs of his loyalty, his goddamn unwavering loyalty.(55)

Amir finds that his happiness and peacefulness have dissapeared. He has felt

Hassan’s presence even Hassan is not present.

When Amir gets what he wants, which is to be the winner of a kite competition, something else happens. Although Amir knows that he has not done the right things, he reasons his own thought that it is necessary for the victory, for a bigger purpose. To win the kite competition is the way to get to Baba. But when Amir comes to the winning point, he feels differently.

It shouldn’t have felt this way. Baba and I were finally friends. We’d gone to the zoo a few days before, seen Marjan the lion, and I had hurled a pebble at the bear when no one was watching. We’d gone to Dadkhoda’s Kabob House afterward, across from Cinema Park, had lamb kabob with freshly baked naan from the tandoor. Baba told me stories of his travels to India and Russia, the people he had met, like the armless, legless couple in Bombay who’d been married forty-seven years and raised eleven children.

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That should have been fun, spending a day like that with Baba, hearing his stories. I finally had what I’d wanted all those years. Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into. (Hosseini, 2007: 53)

Amir has all of Baba’s attention. They spend times together. Baba has shown also his warm affection. It seems that Amir has become the perfect figure of

Baba’s son and Baba is very proud of him. But in his surprise, the winning is not as sweet as it is expected. Something inside him is missing. He feels empty, as empty as unkempt pool. Later, this emptiness is similar to the hollowness that

Nila Wahdati feels in ATME.

3.2.2. Emptiness is Another Word for Unhappiness

Nila Wahdati has always tried to fulfill her desires. Yet, when she gets what she wants, she never feels the happiness. All through her life, Nila has been suffering to this emptiness, unhappiness. When she tries to adopt Pari as her daughter, she expects her to fill this emptiness. Pari shares her feeling on her mother, Nila Wahdati, with her niece, Abdullah’s Pari. She describes Nila as a very talented and demanding person, “but she (Nila) had also very deep sadness.

All my (Pari) life, she (Nila) gave to me a shovel and said, “Fill these holes inside of me, Pari.”” (Hosseini, 2013: 201) The sadness that results in an emptiness in

Nila, has driven Nila to find things to fill this emptiness. One of those things is men. Nila has used her charm over men. She can easily start a relationship, but she also easily breaks the relationship. Nila has made Nabi to be the main player in carrying out the idea of adopting Pari. Nabi has persuaded Saboor and Parwana to give their daughter to the Wahdati’s family. Nabi uses the difficult situation

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that the family face because of their poverty. No matter how hard Saboor works, he cannot earn enough money for his family. Being traumatized with the death of their little one, Saboor and Parwana decide to accept Nabi’s offer. They sell three- year-old Pari to the Wahdatis. Nila Wahdati has a daughter to whom she can be a mother. Yet, she cannot fill in this emptiness.

In And the Mountains Echoed (ATME), the relationship between two unidentical twins, Parwana and Masooma is colored with envy and jealousy.

Masooma who is the pretty one is the mediator to whom Parwana, the ugly twin sister is the subject. As a pretty girl, Masooma, has attracted the boys. One day, as they walk home, one boy gives them a letter. In the letter, the boy cites Rumi’s poem and wrote “I want to marry you. I’ve got a cousin for your sister. He’s a perfect match. They can graze my uncle’s field together.” Parwana is not really upset with the writings, but it is her sister’s response that hurts her. Masooma says, “Don’t mind them, Parwana,” she said. “They’re imbeciles.” For Parwana the response, although reflects the fact, she cannot accept it. Parwana has been confronted with the fact that makes her sick.

The boy hadn’t explicitly addressed his note to either one of them, but Masooma had casually assumed that he’d intended the poem for her and the cousin for Parwana. Forthe first time, Parwana saw herself through her sister’s eyes. She saw how her sister viewed her. Which was the same as how the rest of them did. It left her gutted, what Masooma said. It flattened her. (Hosseini, 2013: 36)

Parwana cannot accept that Masooma sees her just like everybody else. Through her reflection in the eyes of her sister Masooma, Parwana learns that Masooma has placed herself above Parwana. Parwana sees herself as of the same level.

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According to Parwana, it is wrong for most people and also for Masooma to consider her as the discredited one. In the case of this boy’s love letter, Parwana cannot accept that the boys and Masooma finalize the reference of the proposed girl as Masooma and the other girl-for-cousin as Parwana.

This recognition of how her twin sister sees her has been the big reason for

Parwana to grow her hatred. It is not fair for Masooma to think of Parwana like the boys. As twin sister, Masooma should see Parwana the way Parwana wants it.

Masooma should never position Parwana as someone who is not equal, someone who is lower. Masooma is her twin sister, her other half. Masooma is Parwana, and Parwana is Masooma. It is the way twin sisters should be. Masooma should never view Parwana as someone lower than her. Parwana is at the same position as Masooma’s.

Another big reason for Parwana’s hatred that rolls on to a violence is the rivalry between the twin sisters to get Saboor. Parwana has her likeness toward

Saboor. Yet, she has no courage to express her feeling toward Saboor. She hardly has a notebook with leather cover to give to Saboor. She steals it from a seller at the market because she has no money to buy it. Even if she asked her mother, the mother would never give her the money since they are struggling with their basic needs. This gift is a perfect gift for Saboor’s great talent in telling stories. Saboor has been famous of his great stories.

One day, Parwana finds that her notebook is given to Saboor, by

Masooma. Yes, Masooma has found and taken it to Saboor. Masooma thinks the same as Parwana, that the notebook will be such a great gift for Saboor.

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Masooma asks for Parwana’s permission, but after the gift is presented to Saboor.

Parwana can do nothing but to let it be. This desire of presenting a well-thought present has actually been the desire to show Saboor the care, the attention of a lover. This is not just a mere notebook, but it is a bridge to reach Parwana’s dream to become Saboor’s wife.

Parwana gets more irritated as one day, Masooma tells her that Saboor’s family is going to ask Masooma to marry Saboor. At that time, Masooma and

Parwana are sitting up high on the branch of the oak tree. On a crucial moment,

Parwana does thing that ends up in Masooma’s fall. From that day on, Masooma gets paralyzed, unable to move her body and legs. She becomes the burden for the family. After the death of the parents, the responsibility to take care of

Masooma goes to her brother, Nabi, and her sister, Parwana. Nabi finds a way to escape the responsibility, he finds a job in the city. Now, it is only Parwana who takes care of Masooma. Parwana has been responsible as she keeps this “one unshakeable truth: This is her own handiwork, this mess. Nothing that has befallen her is unjust or undue. This is what she deserves.” (Hosseini, 2013: 32)

Parwana has acknowledged her crime in her own thought. She is willingly paying for her crime. There is no such indication that Masooma knows this secret.

In contrast, the situation has made Masooma feels guilty of being a burden to her twin sister. For years has Parwana taken care of her, bathing her, providing all her needs. Parwana has said nothing of the oak tree accident. Parwana’s quietness has created a uneasy guilty thought on Masooma. Until one day, Masooma decides to put an end to her life. What is narrated is that Masooma insists on

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Parwana to lead her to the desert on the way to Kabul and orders Parwana to leave her alone. Of course this means to let her die, for the temperature during the night is very low. This is the moment in which Parwana, who actually has the power to prevent this from happening, does nothing and let it happen. Parwana lets

Masooma die so that Parwana can be free and can marry Saboor. And Parwana finally marries Saboor.

After marrying Saboor, Parwana is still far from from happiness. She faces another difficult situation. As parents, together with Saboor, they have to decide to sell their little daughter to Nabi’s employer. This victimizing situation is meant to save the family from the difficult time. Although Saboor has worked hard, he cannot fulfill the required money for the family: he, Abdullah, Pari,

Parwana and her baby. In one bad winter, the family loses Parwana’s first baby.

The selling of Pari to the Wahdatis has been chosen as the way out for the family to save the others. In Parwana’s words, it is “It has to be her. I am sorry,

Abdullah. She had to be the one. The finger cut to save the hand.” (Hosseini,

2013: 30)

The selling of the little daughter has not made the household gets better.

On the contrary, the unhappiness takes over. It is true that the house is warmer and comforter, but the luxury does not guarantee the happiness. The father, although has tried so hard to hide his sadness, seems to change into a different person. He becomes a very quiet person and loses his muse. His body is there but not his mind.

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It is difficult for the father to actually carry on the plan. As he lives in a patriarchal society, his decision to send away his female child is the right decision according to the society. A son is more preferable and valueable than a daughter.

Therefore, it is acceptable for the society to understand the father’s decision. But as an individual, the father, Saboor, has actually been unable to do this action.

Saboor becomes indifferent person after the adoption.

Sometimes, in unguarded moments, he caught Father’s face clouding over, drawn into confusing shades of emotion. Father looked diminished to him now, stripped of something essential. He loped sluggishly about the house or else sat in the heat of their big new cast-iron stove, little Iqbal on hislap, and stared unseeingly into the flames. His voice dragged now in a way that Abdullah did not remember, as though something weighed on each word he spoke. He shrank into long silences, his face closed off. He didn’t tell stories anymore, had not told one since he and Abdullah had returned from Kabul. Maybe, Abdullah thought, Father had sold the Wahdatis his muse as well. (Hosseini, 2013: 30) Abdullah describes what he sees after the trade. Unlike the figure in the tale,

Baba Ayub, Saboor does not have the luxury of forgeting Pari and her being adopted. Saboor finds that the new situation, a warmer and comforter house, cannot erase the guilt of selling his daughter to the Wahdatis.

3.2.3. Regret Always Comes Late

Father’s sadness of betraying his daughter’s love is similarly found in

Hosseini’s second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. Jalil has chosen his good name after his daughter, Mariam. For Jalil his reputation is more valuable than his daughter. Therefore it seems acceptable and normal for him to put his good name over Nana and Mariam’s well beings. First, when his three legal wives finds out

Nana’s pregnancy, Jalil defends himself and blames Nana as the one who starts

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the affair. Therefore he is innocent. Nana is sent out of the big house. Jalil builds her a small hut on a remote area, outside the city. Then Mariam was born.

In front of Mariam, Jalil has been an ideal loving father, at least when nobody is around. Jalil talks to her nicely, brings her some gifts, and plays with her. But, it is only on every Thursday, once in a week. Little Mariam loves her father very much. She hates when her mother tells something bad about her father. Until she decides to go to the city, to Jalil’s big house, she finally learns the fact. Jalil is a different person in his big house in Herat. He is no longer a loving father. Mariam learns that she is really a harami. Jalil is ashamed of her.

When Nana died, Jalil has to take care of Mariam. He, supported by his three wives, finds a plan to send Mariam out of the big house. They plan to marry her with Jalil’s friend, an old widower. Mariam, who is only fifteen, has no other option but to follow the family’s plan. She cannot believe that Jalil can do such thing. Jalil is very afraid that Mariam’s stay in the big house will ruin his good name. He does not want people to know her and to talk about his bad conduct.

So, before people realize it and talk about it, he arranges Mariam’s wedding as soon as possible.

“You have a suitor,” Khadija said. Mariam’s stomach fell. “A what?” she said through suddenly numb lips. “A khastegar. A suitor. His name is Rasheed,” Khadija went on. “He is a friend of a business acquaintance of your father’s. ... Now he is a little older than you,” Afsoon chimed in. “But he can’t be more than . . . forty. Forty-five at the most. ” (Hosseini, 2009: 37)

Khadijah, the oldest of Jalil’s three wives speaks the plan. Mariam, at fifteen, marries Rasheed of forty five. Jalil keeps silent and lets Mariam on her own.

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Mariam cannot refuse but accept the wedding. She marries Rasheed and lives with him, in Kabul, 816 km away from Herat.

It take some years for Jalil to realize his being mean and unfair toward

Mariam. It is too late when Jalil finally understands his mistakes. In a letter, Jalil writes his regret.

You were a good daughter, Mariam jo, and I cannot ever think of you without feeling shame and regret. Regret . . . When it comes to you, Mariam jo, I have oceans of it. I regret that I did not see you the day you came to Herat. I regret that I did not open the door and take you in. I regret that I did not make you a daughter to me, that I let you live in that place for all those years. (Hosseini, 2009: 237)

This letter has never been read by Mariam. This comes to be found by Laila who has tried to trace Mariam’s past. Jalil has realized his mistake. Yet his regret comes late. Jalil learns that his decision to prefer his good name after Mariam is a regretful decision.

And for what? Fear of losing face? Of staining my so-called good name? How little those things matter to me now after all the loss, all the terrible things I have seen in this cursed war. But now, of course, it is too late. Perhaps this is just punishment for those who have been heartless, to understand only when nothing can be undone. (Hosseini, 2009: 237)

The good name which was once so priceless, has become meaningless. Even after

Jalil successfully sends Mariam to Kabul, his good name does not give him his happiness.

For Mariam, who seeks after the acceptance from Jalil’s big family, also learn that when she tries to fulfill her desire, which is to be accepted like Jalil’s other children, she finds dissapointment. Jalil is no longer a loving father. He has become a denying father. Jalil even makes her to marry an old widower.

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While for Abdullah in And the Mountains Echoed, the loss has made him very vulnerable. Everything around him has reminded him of his little sister, Pari.

When he cannot stand it, and as soon as he feels he is old enough to live on his own, he decides to leave the village. He travels far to Peshawar, and ends up in

United States. The loss has never left. For Abdullah, it takes a life time. When

Abdullah has a daughter, he even names his daughter after his sister’s name, Pari.

Nabi is the one who is responsible for bringing the idea of selling little

Pari to the Wahdatis. Nabi has desired his master’s wife. After hearing Nila’s confession that it is impossible for her to conceive a child, Nabi speaks to

Saboor’s family on the idea of leting the little Pari to be adopted. For Nabi, the little girl selling is expected to bring him closer to Nila Wahdati. The fact is the contrary. Nila is preoccupied with her adopted daughter. She has no time with

Nabi. Nabi finds that his desire toward Nila has never been weakened. He tries to find a way to get closer to Nila. Nila doesn’t know this. She has been preoccupied with Pari. Later on, the charm of Pari has drawn Mr. Wahdati as well. He spends time with Pari, drawing on the wall, walking around, and playing. When Mr. Wahdati gets sick, Nabi takes the responsibility as the caregiver. A stroke has made Mr Wahdati stays in his bed. Nila decides to go to

Paris with Pari.

Nabi takes all the responsibilities of taking care the sick Mr. Wahdati.

There are times that he tries to find someone else to replace his position, but none of the applicants meets his requirements. He does all the chores. In his taking care of Mr. Wahdati Nabi finds out that he is actually the one loved by Mr.

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Wahdati. Mr. Wahdati has never loved Nila. There is this love triangle in which

Mr. Wahdati loves Nabi, Nabi loves Nila, and Nila loves Mr. Wahdati. In his duty,

Nabi has neglected the opportunity to have his own family. Nabi considers his attachment to Mr. Wahdati as his punishment for escaping the similar burden which is to take care of his invalid sister. “I had run once before from someone who needed me, and the remorse I still feel I will take with me to the grave. I could not do it again.” (Hosseini, 2013: 66)

Nila Wahdati has always been in unhappy situations. Although she was born in a rich and respected family, she finds that she feels incomplete. As a daughter, she is a rebellious daughter. Having an aristocratic patriarch father who is also very strict, she makes herself in troublesome love relationships. With her beauty, it is not difficult actually for her to get the right man. But she always falls in love with the wrong men. Things she does consciously, on purpose, which is to agitate her father. When she was nineteen years old, Nila got a very serious illness. At that time, she and her father were in India. She was very close to death.

For medical reason, she lost her womb. This means that she will not be able to have kids on her own.

With the loss of her womb, Nila has then developed what it was a physical hollowness into mentally hollowness. For the rest of her life, she would always feel something incomplete. By adopting Pari, she hopes Pari can fill in her hollowness. Pari tells her version upon her mother’s emptiness.

Maman was elegant and talented. She read books and had many strong opinions and always she was telling them to people. But she had also very

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deep sadness. All my life, she gave to me a shovel and said, “Fill these holes inside of me, Pari.(Hosseini, 2013: 201)

Maman here refers to Nila. The emptiness in Nila represents that Nila cannot find her identity, her own happiness.

To sum up the discussion,the following findings can be retrieved from the analysis. The desires have been copied from other characters which its relations form the triangular mimetic desire. Pursuing different objects, most of the characters’ relationships are developed on mimetic desires. The main triangle in

TKR involves Amir as the disciple and his father, Baba, as the model. The next triangle places Amir under the mediation of Hassan. The last triangular mimetic desire places Hassan under the mediation of Amir.

In ATSS, some of the triangular mimetic desires can be reviewed as follows. The first triangular mimetic desire places Mariam as the disciple who has imitated the desire of his mother. The second triangular desire positions

Mariam who is under the mediation of his father. The next triangular mimetic desire places Jalil who is the mediation of a perfect public figure. Another triangular mimetic desire places Mariam who is under the mediation of Laila.

Mariam copies Laila’s desire to be a good mother for her children.

In the third novel, ATME, the desire of Parwana has been copied from her twin sister, Masooma. In the next triangular desire, Saboor has copied the desire from Baba Ayub. These desires have been intensified based on the incrising value of the object given by the model. The disciples develop stronger desire after seeing that the models are also desiring the same objects.

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The disciples’ desires get bigger after learning the same desires from others. The disciples often hope too much from the fulfillment of their desires.

They expect that if they can make their desire into realization, they will find happiness and satisfaction. The next summing up presents what happens to these desires, the metamorphosis of the desires.

Amir, Jalil, and Nila have their desires fulfilled, yet they find no happiness. Although Amir finally can have his father’s love, he suffers from his guilt to Hassan. He knows that he has been unfair to Hassan. He has convinced himself that what he did to Hassan is the price for his father’s affection. Yet,

Amir cannot make peace with the situation. For Jalil, the good name he has sought for means nothing. When Jalil finally understands the meaning of having a daughter, a loved one, a family, yet it is too late. For Nila, the accomplishment of her desires brings nothing. She never finds her fulfillment. During her lifetime, she always feel the hollowness inside her. The realization of these characters’ desires have given unexpected situation. Their desires have transformed into other desires. They think that they would find happiness, but the happiness has moved farther away.

This realization of the transformation of the desire comes after the disciple does some acts of violence. The disciple has tried to do whatever it takes to accomplish their desire, mostly in the forms of violence. The part in which the mimetic desires transform into violence by scapegoating the rivals or the victims is presented in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER 4

GIRARDIAN READING ON HOSSEINI’S SCAPEGOATING

Applying Girard’s concept of scapegoating offers new interpretation of

Hosseini’s novels since the scapegoating theme has marked Hosseini’s novels. In the first novel, TKR, the individual scapegoating happens toward Hassan, a

Hazara boy. The scapegoater is the main character Amir. Interestingly, this scapegoating also represents communal scapegoating which places the powerless

Hazara society for being scapegoated by the powerful Pashtun society. The scapegoating has become an easy bewitching way for the powerful party to get rid of the powerless one.

In the second novel, the scapegoating victimizes women. The first one is

Nana who has been scapegoated by her employers, Jalil and his wives. Following is the daughter, Mariam, who has been scapegoated by many parties. As a child,

Mariam, has always been blamed by the mother, Nana. As a young adult, Mariam is scapegoated by her father and the wives. As a wife, her husband has abused her for her inability to conceive a baby.

The third novel consists of several stories. In the main stories, the violated ones are children, poor people, and women. In the main story, the violence happens to the motherless siblings, 7 year old Abdullah and 3 year old Pari. The siblings are separated as Pari is sold to a rich couple to save the family from

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poverty. The selling is formulated by the parents and the uncle. Another violence happens between twin sisters.

Reading Hosseini’s novels using Girard’s spectacles results in the following findings. They are: first, the scapegoatings, the victim’s acceptance; and the transformation of a sinner into a hero. The rivalries discuss the conflict between brothers, between daughter-mother, and between twins. The victim’s acceptance explains the situation in which the victim has no other choice other than receiving the violence. The transformation of a sinner into a hero represents the process of the person who does the violence corrects his wrong doing and turns himself into a hero. This sinner has learnt the acceptance of the victim and copied the victim’s desire that inspires him to correct his mistakes.

4.1.The Scapegoatings

The dynamics of the scapegoatings are portrayed differently between the first novel, the second novel and the third novel. In The Kite Runner (TKR), the scapegoating is originated from brothers rivalry. In A Thousand Splendid Suns

(ATSS), the scapegoating develops from daughters rivalry, and in And the

Mountains Echoed (ATME), the scapegoating is coming from the twin-sisters rivalry. The following discussions are following these novels order of appearance.

4.1.1. Brother’s Betrayal

In The Kite Runner, Amir does two scapegoatings toward Hassan. The first scapegoatng is the time in which Amir pursues to be the winner of the kite tournament, and secondly, it is the scene in which Amir does the thieving trick to

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Hassan. Amir is the main character who happens to be the narrator of the story also. The events are described through his point of view. Interestingly, Khaled

Hosseini has given an insight that it is the character of Hassan that becomes the core of the story. From the title, The Kite Runner, this phrase refers to Hassan, who, in the kite competition that these two boys take part, plays role as the kite runner, while Amir is the kite winner. Through Amir’ story, the readers then learn that Hassan has directed Amir through all his life.

In his boyhood, Amir who is a year older than Hassan, has lived in the same house with Hassan. He and Hassan were born there and both breastfed by the same woman. Although they are of different positions, Amir is the son of the master, an Hassan is the son of the servant. Yet, the brother’s intimacy can be found between these two boys. Amir enjoys Hassan’s company and Hassan always entails Amir. They are playing and laughing together.

When we were children, Hassan and I used to climb the poplar trees in the driveway of my father’s house and annoy our neighbors by reflecting sunlight into their homes with a shard of mirror. We would sit across from each other on a pair of high branches, our naked feet dangling, our trouser pockets filled with dried mulberries and walnuts. We took turns with the mirror as we ate mulberries, pelted each other with them, giggling, laughing. (Hosseini, 2007: 12)

Amir and Hassan will spend time around the house. While Hassan is good in physical things, Amir is good in telling stories. Hassan will asks Amir to tell him stories.

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Hassan, like other Hazaran people, does not have a chance to go to school.

Therefore Amir, who has the luxury of enrolling in school, will read Hassan stories from books.

There was a pomegranate tree near the entrance to the cemetery. One summer day, I used one of Ali’s kitchen knives to carve our names on it: “Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul.” Those words made it formal: the tree was ours. After school, Hassan and I climbed its branches and snatched its bloodred pomegranates. After we’d eaten the fruit and wiped our hands on the grass, I would read to Hassan. (Hosseini, 2007: 24)

Hassan really likes Amir’s readings. Hassan would ask Amir to read him their favorite story of Persian epics, Rostam and Sohrab.

Amir who is in struggle to get his father’s afection, finds that Hassan has shown the qualities that Baba seeks to find in a son. In some occassions, Amir learns his incapabilities.

That Hassan would grow up illiterate like Ali and most Hazaras had been decided the minute he had been born, perhaps even the moment he had been conceived in Sanaubar’s unwelcoming womb—after all, what use did a servant have for the written word? But despite his illiteracy, or maybe because of it, Hassan was drawn to the mystery of words, seduced by a secret world forbidden to him. I read him poems and stories, sometimes riddles—though I stopped reading those when I saw he was far better at solving them than I was. (Hosseini, 2007: 24)

Hassan, despite of his limitation, manages to show his brightness. Amir is jealous of this finding and does things to turn the situatin around. Amir makes fun of Hassan by giving him games in relation with new words. When Hassan is curious to know the meaning of the new word, Amir tricks him with the wrong meaning.

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In a kite competition, Amir really wants to be the winner of the competition, because Amir learns that Baba is really impressed with this one. In the course of time, Amir has succeeded to be the winner of this competition. To complete the perfect winning, Amir will need Hassan to catch the defeated kite, and lucky Amir, Hassan is determined to help Amir. For Hassan, it is a very bad experience. Hassan has to let himself raped by Assef. Witnessing this rape, Amir decides to run and pretends that he does not know the incident.

I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan— the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past—and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran. I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me. ...(but)... the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he? (Hosseini, 2007: 49)

Amir has decided that his main reason is that Hassan is the price Amir should pay to get his winning. Amir has scapegoated Hassan. In Amir’s point of view,

Hassan’s scapegoating is similar with the Eid Al’Adha sacrifice. In Girard’s writing, he differentiates a scapegoat in two ways. The scapegoated victim (as

Girard learns from the text of Guillaume de Machaut and the text of the Gospels) can be of two types, a guilty victim or an innocent victim.(1986: 118-119).

Hassan represents the innocent victim.

Hassan’s innocence has been reconfirmed in the next scapegoating. After the kite competition winning, Amir feels that he is restless because of the guilt.

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Even when Hassan is not around him, Amir can still sense Hassan’s presence.

When Amir cannot stand the situation, he decided to do something to kick Hassan out of the house. Amir sets a thieving trap. Amir places some money and a wrist watch under Hassan’s mattress while Hassan and Ali are away in the market.

Then Amir reports to Baba.

Baba came right out and asked. “Did you steal that money? Did you steal Amir’s watch, Hassan?” Hassan’s reply was a single word, delivered in a thin, raspy voice: “Yes.” I flinched, like I’d been slapped. My heart sank and I almost blurted out the truth. Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me. If he’d said no, Baba would have believed him because we all knew Hassan never lied. And if Baba believed him, then I’d be the accused; I would have to explain and I would be revealed for what I really was. Baba would never, ever forgive me. (Hosseini, 2007: 63-4)

Hassan has saved Amir one more time. For Hassan, he never considers Amir as his rival. But, for Amir, he has been thinking of Hassan as his rival to get close to

Baba and to be Baba’s ideal son. After a number of years, Amir knows the truth that actually Hassan is Baba’s other son. He then struggles to save Sohrab to redeem his past sins toward Hassan.

Hassan’s characters have never changed from the beginning of the story until the end. In Girard’s term, he is similar to the innocent victim in the Gospels.

Hassan has always dedicated his life for Baba and Amir. Even after, Baba and

Amir have escaped to the US, the readers can still see Hassan’s loyalty for the family. Hassan and his wife finally die while they are taking care of Baba’s house.

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4.1.2. For the Sake of Father’s Good Name

According to Hosseini, the title A Thousands Splendid Suns is taken from

Saeb-e-Tabrizi’s poem which refers to the beauty of Afghanistan lands. In this novel, the story is presented from a victim’s point of view, Mariam. The scapegoating that victimizes Mariam is done by the father, Jalil. As one of the most rich people of Herat, Jalil is very afraid of losing his good name. “He (Jalil) was one of Herat’s wealthiest men. He owned a cinema,... (Hosseini, 2009: 13)

Jalil is also descibed as a good friend of mayor and the governor.

In addition to the cinema, Jalil owned land in Karokh, land in Farah, three carpet stores, a clothing shop, and a black 1956 Buick Roadmaster. He was one of Herat’s best-connected men, friend of the mayor and the provincial governor. He had a cook, a driver, and three housekeepers. (Hosseini, 2009: 13)

Jalil has been very famous. People in Herat like to know everything concerning with Jalil.

Jalil has scapegoated Mariam’s mother (Nana) and Mariam. For Nana’s case, Jalil has scapegoated her by blaming her for the affair that is resulted in

Nana’s pregnancy. In front of his three wives, Jalil points at Mariam as the only responsible party in this affair. Nana tells her story to Mariam. “Nana had been one of the housekeepers. Until her belly began to swell. When that happened,

Nana said, the collective gasp of Jalil’s family sucked the air out of Herat. His inlaws swore blood would flow. The wives demanded that he throw her out.

(Hosseini, 2009: 14) Later on, Nana tells Mariam, “You know what he told his wives by way of defense? That I forced myself on him. That it was my fault.”

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(Hosseini, 2009: 14). Jalil follows what the three wives has directed him to sent

Nana out of the house. Jalil makes a litle hut for Nana at the outer skirt of the city.

When Mariam was born, this litle hut has become Mariam’s house too.

Jalil’s next victim is Mariam. When one day, Mariam who is in her teenage knows the story of Jalil’s other children, she demands to be acknowledged as one of Jalil’s children. Mariam goes to the city of Herat to find Jalil’s house. Because she does not know the address, Mariam asked a man.

After a while, she worked up the nerve to ask the elderly owner of a horse- drawn gari if he knew where Jalil, the cinema’s owner, lived. The old man had plump cheeks and wore a rainbow-striped chapan. “You’re not from Herat, are you?” he said companionably. “Everyone knows where Jalil Khan lives.” (Hosseini, 2009: 28)

At last, Mariam arrives at Jalil’s house but Jalil refuses to see her and sends her back to the village. Mariam unreluctanty goes home only to find that Nana hangs herself. With the death of Nana, Jalil is the only one responsible. Jalil, being urged by his three wives, marries Mariam to an old man who lives very far from

Herat. The aim is to send Mariam out and far from his house.

Jalil’s main reason is to keep his good name. This confession is put in a letter which he leaves for Mariam after his death.

For Jalil, his good name is the most important thing. As one of the most wealthiest men in Herat, Jalil has gained some reputation. People of Herat knows where he lives in his big house. People also know what happens to his family, his

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sons, his daughters. This is one of them, the news of Jalil’s daughter. When

Mariam is atill a litle girl, occasionally a visitor named Bibi jo comes to the hut.

Bibi Jo shares what people of Herat know. “The week before, Bibi jo had brought news that Jalil’s daughters Saideh and Naheed were going to the Mehri School for girls in Herat.” (Hosseini, 2009: 20) Jalil is afraid that people find out his mistakes and talk about them. Therefore, Nana and Mariam, as they are resulted from his misconducts, are kept hidden as Jalil’s bad secret. After a number of years, under the war situation, Jalil realizes his mistakes. In his old age and sick condition, hundreds of kilometres he travels from Herat to Kabul to see Mariam and to ask for her forgiveness. This time Mariam refuses to see him. Jalil learns his mistakes, yet it is too late to correct the damage in his relationship with

Mariam.

4.1.3. My Twin, My Enemy

In And The Mountains Echoed, there are many stories from many different narrators. This implies that there are also many scapegoatings found. As implied by the title, which is inspired by the line in William Blake’s “The Nurse’s Songs,” the theme is the children who are left by their irresponsible parents. The main scapegoating is the one victimized Abdullah and Pari. Yet, the following discussion is of the scapegoating that happens to one of the twin sisters, Parwana and Masooma.

Parwana and Masooma are twins but they are not identical. Masooma has pretty face, while Parwana has ugly face. This different beauty has resulted in the

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different acceptances from the people around them. Parwana is jealous of

Masooma. This jealousy has intensified until Parwana does the scapegoating toward her twin sister. The chance to do the scapegoating to Masooma comes after these twin sisters sit on a tree branch which is far high from the ground.

Massoma has just told Parwana that Saboor is going to marry her.

Parwana who also falls in love with Saboor is hurt and getting jealous and mad with Masooma. In a brief moment, Parwana does her scapegoating.

And then the part that Masooma knew nothing about. While her sister was facing away, searching her pocket, Parwana planted the heels of her hands on the branch, lifted her bottom, and let it drop. The branch shook. Masooma gasped and lost her balance. Her arms flailed wildly. She tipped forward. Parwana watched her own hands move. What they did was not really push, but there was contact between Masooma’s back and the pads of Parwana’s fingertips and there was a brief moment of subtle shoving. (Hosseini, 2013: 40)

Masooma falls from the high tree and gets paralyzed for the rest of her life.

Saboor marries another girl. Parwana keeps her secret, but she takes part of the responsibility which is to take care of Masooma. After the death of their parents, and their only brother leaves the house to work in the city, Parwana is the only one

Masooma can rely on. Parwana takes the caring for some number of years until they hear that Saboor is looking for a new wife because his first wife just died after giving birth to her second child.

At this time, Parwana again needs to do the second scapegoat, but the difference is that Masooma is willing to be scapegoated. Masooma asks Parwana to bring her to visit the city of Kabul. After two days journey, the twin sisters are

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still half-way in their travel to Kabul. While they are resting at night, Masooma asks Parwana to leave her in the desert surrounded by Afghanistan mountains.

Masooma wants to free her twin sister from the obligation of taking care of her being paralyzed.

Girard has stated that the mimetic conflict can easily be found between close relatives, brothers, or identical twins.(2000: 10) Like in the story of Joseph who is scapegoated by his brothers, Hassan’s scapegoating is based on the jealousy toward the father’s affection. Amir does not want to share Baba with

Hassan. In the Blibical stories, we have the similar story in which Joseph’s brothers lie to the father (Jacob) that Joseph is killed by an animal. The brothers hate that the father loves Joseph more than them. For Jalil’case, in which the violence of the daughter is done to keep his good name, it fits into Girard’s detail which explains that when the scapegoating is impossible to be done to a more powerful model, it will victimize a weaker close relatives, Mariam. As for

Parwana and Masooma, the violence is done after the long period of jealousy and hatred.

4.2.The Victims’ Acceptance

Hassan in TKR and Mariam in ATSS have something in common. Both are the victims of scapegoating mechanism. Hassan has been victimized by Amir, by Assef, and by the community. There are some situations in which Hassan does not have a choice but to accept his being victimized. While for Mariam, she has been victimized by the father, and the husband. The following paragraphs explain how the victims deal with their difficult situations.

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4.2.1. Self-Sacrifice of the Victim

One of the worst moments that Hassan needs to face from his being scapegoated is when he is raped by Assef. At that time, Hassan is pursuing the kite for Amir. Unfortunately Assef gets the kite first. Hassan who wants to get the kite for Amir refuses to leave without the kite. As a result he has to bear

Assef’s bad doings. Assef rapes him in exchange for the kite that completes

Amir’s winning. What happens during the raping can be learned from Amir’s narration. Amir describes that how Hassan deals with this horrible moment is similar to how the sacrificed lamb faces its death. Hassan’s look reminds Amir of the sacrificed lamb’s look during the Eid Al-Adha.

Assef knelt behind Hassan, put his hands on Hassan’s hips and lifted his bare buttocks. ... He positioned himself behind Hassan. Hassan didn’t struggle. Didn’t evenwhimper. He moved his head slightly and I caught a glimpse of his face. Saw the resignation in it. It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb. (Hosseini, 2007: 49)

Hassan has faced the rape like the lamb faced its slaughtering. He has shown the look of resignation, acceptance. The eyes, Hasan’s eyes, in Amir’s understanding have told Amir Hassan’s acceptance of this tragedy. Amir interpretes that Hassan has no other option but to accept this bad situation. Amir tries to make peace with this situation. He reasons that it is the acceptance of the needed sacrifice to reach for a higher purpose. Hasan has devoted himself to Amir’s. Despite the fact that

Hasan is Amir’s servant, Hasan views Amir as his best friend. The tragedy is the test for Hasan’s loyalty toward Amir.

TOMORROW IS THE TENTH DAY of Dhul-Hijjah, the last month of the Muslim calendar, and the first of three days of Eid Al-Adha, or Eid-e Qorban, as Afghans call it—a day to celebrate how the prophet Ibrahim

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almost sacrificed his own son for God. Baba has handpicked the sheep again this year, a powder white one with crooked black ears. ... The mullah finishes the prayer. Ameen. He picks up the kitchen knife with the long blade. ... Just a second before he slices the throat in one expert motion, I see the sheep’s eyes. It is a look that will haunt my dreams for weeks. I don’t know why I watch this yearly ritual in our backyard; my nightmares persist long after the bloodstains on the grass have faded. But I always watch. I watch because of that look of acceptance in the animal’s eyes. Absurdly, I imagine the animal understands. I imagine the animal sees that its imminent demise is for a higher purpose. This is the look . . .(Hosseini, 2007: 49)

Hassan, who has served Amir, has always put forward Amir’s need and well-being first. Hassan has a strong will and has been a man of great determination. In perceiving the bad situation, Hassan tries to overcome his being scared or his sadness by an understanding that it is needed for a purpose. Hassan has always loved Amir and Baba. He has been very loyal to them. When Amir is threatened by Assef, Hassan tries to protect Amir. In several occasions Hassan has used his slingshot to make Assef stop. Although Assef actually has his other two friends, he finally steps back to see Hassan seriousness. But Assef reminds

Amir and Hassan that he will never forget this incident. He swears that he will make Amir and Hassan pay for this one.

Hassan who is “true to his nature” and that “even at birth Hassan is incapable of hurting anyone” (Hosseini, 2007: 15). The good nature of Hassan is similar to the good nature of the most preferred sacrificial animal: the lamb. As an animal, a lamb belongs to the herbivore. It eats plants not meat. It is harmless for human. There is also an element of innocence which makes it even more suitable for a sacrificial animal. God would more willingly accept innocent sacrifice rather than the less or non innocent one. For Amir, Hassan is the

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sacrifice needed to be the winner of this kite competition. Amir reassures himself that his decision for doing nothing in preventing Hassan’s raping is acceptable.

Since Amir has mostly viewed Hassan as his servant, his slave, rather than his best friend. There are times for Amir to position Hasan as a best friend, but as the surroundings demands, Amir mostly positions Hasan as servant. Amir has uneasiness actually in his positioning of Hasan as his servant. This uneasiness grows into unrestlessness.

The victimizing of Hassan meets Girard’s concept on the victim’s sign.

The violated person is not taken randomly. He/she has shown some characteristics. According to Girard, the scapegoated person has had the victim’s sign. There are some characteristics found. The first one is that Hassan, like common Hazara, has Chinese face. This genetic appearance has made them very different from the Pashtun. He has also a birthmark, a cleft lip.

I can still see Hassan up on that tree, sunlight flickering through the leaves on his almost perfectly round face, a face like a Chinese doll chiseled from hardwood: his flat, broad nose and slanting, narrow eyes like bamboo leaves, eyes that looked,depending on the light, gold, green, even sapphire. I can still see his tiny low-set ears and that pointed stub of a chin, a meaty appendage that looked like it was added as a mere afterthought. And the cleftlip, just left of midline, where the Chinese doll maker’s instrument may have slipped, or perhaps he had simply grown tired and careless. (Hosseini, 2007: 12)

The cleft lip is a sign. This abnormality is not human made. It is there, like the limp of Oedipus in Oedipus Rex. The next sign is that Hasan is described as having innocent looking and qualities. His face is like Chinese doll, round with flat nose and narrow eyes. With his fair skin and black hair, Hassan has added an

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innocent quality. In the choice of animal as the scapegoat, the most preferred animal is the lamb that has never been a threat to human. The whiteness symbolizes the innocent quality. Hassan has this innocent quality. He is described as a good person. Another victim’s sign is the condition of Hassan as member of the minority. The minority means a difference. A difference means a threat. Among the majority, therefore the minority will commonly be marginalized, and oppressed. Moreover, if the minority is poor. They will suffer more. Hassan is the poor and the servant, while Amir is the rich and the master.

With all these signs, the victimizing of Hassan has been part of cultural ones. Girard uses the term ‘the victim’s signs.’ In many cultures, for example like the Pharmakos in Greek, the victim is chosen because of their being different.

Abnormalities have always been related with being different. People will find that the difference is a threat. If there is crisis, a different person is the one to blame.

In number, these different people are usually small or few. They are the minority against the majority.

4.2.2. The Victim’s Resistance

In contrast to TKR, in which the story is narrated from the scapegoater’s point of view, who is Amir, in ATSS, the story present us the point of view of the victim, Mariam. Mariam has been violated by her close relatives. The first one is her mother, the second one is the father, and the third one is the husband. Mariam represents one of the groups who are used to be victimized, such as: children,

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women, the poors and the minorities. Mariam, in her unavoided situation, has shown her resistance.

Like other victims, Hassan in TKR and Pari-Abdullah and Masooma in

ATME, Mariam has received violation from the people close to her. The first one is the mother, Nana. Little Mariam mostly spends her time with Nana. Both live in a small hut located in a remote place. Before Nana has Mariam, she worked for

Jalil, one of the wealthiest people in Herat. Nana was one of the housekeepers.

Jalil has three wives and nine children. When the wives knew that Nana was having Jalil’s baby, they made Jalil to make an arrangement. Nana cannot live there anymore. They build Nana a small hut in a remote place far from Herat.

Nana has been victimized by Jalil. She is the one to be blamed after the pregnancy found out by Jalil’s family. She is accused of being the one responsible for the incident. Jalil claims that he is innocent. When Nana’s father, who is a lowly stone carver, hears the news, he disowns her and leaves to Iran. Nana has nowhere to go, since her mother died when she was only two. Nana’s resistance on the violence she receives is in the form of her bad sayings and stories of Jalil and his family. Nana teaches Mariam to hate Jalil and his family.

Nana’s other resistance is how Nana believes that she and her daughter, like other poor women, only need to learn how to endure suffering. From what she learns and experiences, Nana is sure that as harami and as woman, Mariam’s life will also be full of sufferings. Therefore Mariam should learn how to endure those sufferings.

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(Nana): ”What’s the sense schooling a girl like you? It’s like shining a spittoon. And you’ll learn nothing of value in those schools. There is only one, only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they don’t teach it in school. Look at me.” “You should not speak like this to her, my child,” Mullah Faizullah said. “Look at me.”Mariam did. “Only one skill. And it’s this: tahamul. Endure.”(Hosseini, 2009: 20)

Nana neglects Mariam’s request to go to school. According to Nana, school does not provide the life skill Mariam needs. The word endure in Merriem Webster

Dictionary means to undergo especially without giving in. Being given no choice, to endure is the best option for a victim, like Nana. Enduring gives portion for the victim to do something, that is to survive from those difficult times. This means that the victim is active, not passive.

As for Mariam, she also creates her own resistance toward her difficult times. When Mariam receive her mother’s violence, in which Mariam is called as a harami, Mariam does something. This verbal violence at first cannot be understood by little Mariam. But when she grows older, Mariam understands it well. In her effort toward this violence, Mariam at first move her mediation from her mother to her father. Whenever Nana curses Jalil and family, Mariam keeps quiet.

Mariam would listen dutifully to this. She never dared say to Nana how much she disliked her talking this way about Jalil. The truth was that around Jalil, Mariam did not feel at all like a harami. For an hour or two every Thursday, when Jalil came to see her, all smiles and gifts and endearments, Mariam felt deserving of all the beauty and bounty that life had to give. And, for this, Mariam loved Jalil.(Hosseini, 2009: 13)

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Mariam quietly changes her mediation. Now she adores Jalil and wants to leave

Nana. Mariam thinks that Jalil is not like the person Nana always tells. When

Mariam gets bigger, she decides that she is going to Jalil’s house in Herat.

Mariam’s next effort is to face her difficult situation with her father, Jalil.

When she finds Jalil’s house, she is persuaded to go back to her village because

Jalil is not at home. She refuses it. She waits and waits for Jalil until the night comes. She even spends the night sleeping in front of the house. When she is awaken in the morning, again she is coaxed to go home by the driver. When the driver doesn’t notice, she bursts into the house. She is in the garden. She sees in the second floor window, her father’s face.

In the handful of seconds that she was in Jalil’s garden, Mariam’s eyes registered seeing a gleaming glass structure with plants inside it, grape vines clinging to wooden trellises, a fish pond built with gray blocks of stone, fruit trees, and bushes of brightly colored flowers everywhere. Her gaze skimmed over all of these things before they found a face, across the garden, in an upstairs window. The face was there for only an instant, a flash, but long enough. Long enough for Mariam to see the eyes widen, the mouth open. Then it snapped away from view. A hand appeared and frantically pulled at a cord. The curtains fell shut. (Hosseini, 2009: 30) Her father seems very shocked. Mariam is forced to get inside the car and driven home. For Jalil, Mariam’s coming is a disgrace. He feels that his name and reputation will be ruined.

When Nana kills herself, Jalil has to take the responsibility upon Mariam.

Mariam has to face another violence. Jalil and his three wives arrange for

Mariam’s marriage to Rasheed, a widowed shoemaker from Kabul, a friend of

Jalil. Rasheed is almost as old as Jalil. For Jalil, Mariam’s marriage is an escape

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from another humiliation. And it gets better because after the marriage, Mariam will live with Rasheed in Kabul, hundreds of kilometres away. This means that

Jalil can be a respected man again. For Jalil, his good name is more important and is the main reason for his violence toward Mariam.

It is true that Mariam finally says yes to her marriage, yet she shows her reactions during this difficult moment. In the parting moment before she leaves for Kabul with Rasheed, she does the following reactions. First, Mariam speaks to Jalil her thoughts before and after the incident. Jalil acts nicely and tells her the beautiful city of Kabul. He promises to Mariam that he will visit her.

“I’ll visit you,” he muttered. “I’ll come to Kabul and see you. We’ll—” “No. No,” she said. “Don’t come. I won’t see you. Don’t you come. I don’t want to hear from you. Ever. Ever. ” He gave her a wounded look. “It ends here for you and me. Say your good-byes.” “Don’t leave like this,” he said in a thin voice. “You didn’t even have the decency to give me the time to say good-bye to Mullah Faizullah.”(Hosseini, 2009: 42)

The above conversation is between Jalil and Mariam. Mariam’s resistance is delivered through her refusal of Jalil’s visit. She also gives her statement upon their relationship. She decides that she wants to end her relationship with Jalil.

“It ends here for you and me.” She wants to send her message to Jalil, that she also has control of the situation.

A showing of her determination that she is hurt by her father’s decision is her choice of not looking back at her father when the bus leaves. She senses her father, yet she determines not to look at him.

She turned and walked around to the side of the bus. She could hear him following her.

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When she reached the hydraulic doors, she heard him behind her. “Mariam jo.” She climbed the stairs, and though she could spot Jalil out of the corner of her eye walking parallel to her she did not look out the window. She made her way down the aisle to the back, where Rasheed sat with her suitcase between his feet. She did not turn to look when Jalil’s palms pressed on the glass, when his knuckles rapped and rapped on it. When the bus jerked forward, she did not turn to see him trotting alongside it. And when the bus pulled away, she did not look back to see him receding, to see him disappear in the cloud of exhaust and dust. (Hosseini, 2009: 42)

The last resistance toward Jalil’s violence takes form during Jalil’s visit in

Kabul. Mariam refuses to open her door. She chooses not to go out. She parts the curtain and catches a brief look at him.

...her mind wandered. It wandered to the last time she’d seen Jalil, thirteen years earlier, back in the spring of 1987. He’d stood on the street outside her house, leaning on a cane, beside the blue Benz with the Herat license plates and the white stripe bisecting the roof, the hood, and trunk. He’d stood there for hours, waiting for her, now and then calling her name, just as she had once called his name outside his house. Mariam had parted the curtain once, just a bit, and caught a glimpse of him. ... Jalil had seen her too, if only for a moment. Their eyes had met briefly through a part in the curtains, as they had met many years earlier through a part in another pair of curtains. But then Mariam had quickly closed the curtains. She had sat on the bed, waited for him to leave. (Hosseini, 2009: 183)

Mariam decides not to see Jalil, although she wants to. Yet, she still waits for the signs of his leave. In this situation, Mariam has the advantage to do things based on her will. She is still angry with Jalil. She wants to send him a message of how bad she felt when Jalil refused her.

In dealing with the violence Mariam has from Rasheed, Mariam produces the following resistancies. When Mariam married with Rasheed, she has been pregnant seven times, yet none of them develops into a baby. Rasheed who had lost a son really wants to have another son. Disappointed with Mariam’s misccarriages, Rasheed becomes abussive. To face his bad conducts, Mariam has

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tried to endure her sufferings. When Rasheed marries Laila, Mariam, who is usually quiet, utters her objection. In her relationship with Laila, she declares her position.

“I have been meaning to talk to you about it.” Mariam broke in. “Yes, please,” the girl said earnestly, almost eagerly. She took a step forward. .... “I won’t be your servant,” Mariam said. “I won’t.” The girl flinched. “No. Of course not!” “You may be the palace malika and me a dehati, but I won’t take orders from you. You can complain to him and he can slit my throat, but I won’t do it. Do you hear me? I won’t be your servant.” (Hossein, 2009: 135)

Mariam has never before spoken out what is in her mind. This is because Laila is younger than her. Although Rasheed loves Laila more than Mariam, when

Rasheed is not at home, Mariam is the one in charge. Therefore Mariam can state her rules.

“And if you think you can use your looks to get rid of me, you’re wrong. I was here first. I won’t be thrown out. I won’t have you cast me out.” “It’s not what I want,” the girl said weakly.... “I will still cook and wash the dishes. You will do the laundry and the sweeping. The rest we will alternate daily. And one more thing. I have no use for your company. I don’t want it. What I want is to be alone. You will leave me be, and I will return the favor. That’s how we will get on. Those are the rules.” (Hossein, 2009: 135)

Interestingly when later on Laila loses her charm over Rasheed and she is abused also, Mariam feels sorry for her and develops this motherhood feeling for

Laila and her children. Mariam chooses to sacrifice her life to save Laila and her children. In a fight, which involves Rasheed, Laila and Mariam, Mariam kills

Rasheed because she sees that Laila is almost killed. Mariam takes the responsibility as the killer of Rasheed. She is sentenced to death.

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Mariam translates her death penalty as the best meaningful act from a harami. She, who learns from the very beginning that her being is a kind of unexpected accident, has been rejected and denied, but now she can give her life for her beloved ones. She comes to the understanding that her life purpose is to save Laila and her children. She is able to stop the violence. This means that

Mariam has accepted her being scapegoated. She is willing that her life is exchanged for the happiness of Laila and her children, Mariam’s only family. She loves them and she is sure that they love her too.

Mariam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was notregret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die thisway. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.(Hoseini, 2009: 219)

Mariam has found her identity that she is a friend, that she is a companion, that she is a guardian, a mother to Laila and Aziza (Laila’s daughter). Her death has opened some doors for Laila and children to live better. This is the most significant resistance Mariam has. She does not let her as the object of the event, but she is the subject. She is the one who gives meaning. Her death is a meaningful death.

4.2.3. Shared Suffering

In the third novel, the victims are children. They are Abdullah and Pari.

Abdullah as the older sibling has suffered more than Pari. The source of the

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suffering is the remembrance of his sister. Abdullah cannot forget his sister. He misses her very much. When Abdullah marries and has a daughter, his longing of his sister is inherited to his daughter. His daughter has been given the same name after his sister, Pari. He has shared with his daughter his longing for his sister.

The tale of how my father had lost his sister was as familiar to me as the stories my mother had told me of the Prophet, tales I would learn again later when my parents would enroll me in Sunday school at a mosque in Hayward. Still, despite the familiarity, each night I asked to hear Pari’s story again, caught in the pull of its gravity. Maybe it was simply because we shared a name. (Hosseini, 2013: 183)

Having the same name as the aunt, the daughter has imitated Abdullah’s mediation of his sister. Pari learns the aunt’s figure and imagines her as her invisible twin sister. Pari’s imagination of her twin shows that she wants to be like her aunt. She wants to be the figure that her father misses.

Pari, who is in the search of an identity, considers the revealing of Pari’s mystery will give answer to her self discovery. “I felt certain that if I listened closely enough to her story, I would discover something revealed about myself.”

(Hosseini, 2013: 183) Pari has chosen to follow her father’s mediation. Pari wants herself to be like his father’ sister. She wants to find his father’s missing sister, to buy her back for her father.

... a fantasy played out in my head. In it, I would save all my money, not spend a dollar on candy or stickers, and when my piggy bank was full— though it wasn’t a pig at all but a mermaid sitting on a rock—I would break it open and pocket all the money and set out to find my father’s little sister, wherever she was, and, when I did, I would buy her back and bring her home to Baba. I would make my father happy. There was nothing in the world I desired more than to be the one to take away his sadness.(Hosseini, 2013: 183)

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Abdullah has inherited his suffering as the victim to his daughter that makes her daughter feels obligated to be the one to take away the sadness. Pari’s statement of her life goal “There was nothing in the world I desired more than to be the one to take away his sadness.” represents this inherited mimetic desire of Abdullah.

Abdullah does not blame his father. He has seen that Saboor, his father, has got his own punishment.

Sometimes, in unguarded moments, he caught Father’s face clouding over, drawn into confusingshades of emotion. Father looked diminished to him now, stripped of something essential. He loped sluggishly about the house or else sat in the heat of their big new cast-iron stove, little Iqbal on his lap, and stared unseeingly into the flames. His voice dragged now in a way that Abdullah did not remember, as though something weighed on each word he spoke. He shrank into long silences, his face closed off. He didn’t tell stories anymore, had not told one since he and Abdullah had returned from Kabul. Maybe, Abdullah thought, Father had sold the Wahdatis his muse as well. (Hosseini, 2013: 30) His father has lived a meaningless life. Abdullah feels sorry for him. The phrase

“Maybe, Abdullah thought, Father had sold the Wahdatis his muse as well.” has represented Abdullah’s empathy for the suffering resulted from his father’s decision to sell his daughter.

Lucky Pari, she has been gifted with her young age. She can forget her past. She cannot remember that she has a brother who loves her very much.

When she is an adult, she has sensed her past, but she does not really try to find her past. It is because of Nabi’s letter that she finally learns the truth about her past. When one day, Abdullah’s daughter has tried to reach her, she finally meets her brother Abdullah. Yet, it is not a happy ending for old Abdullah who lives in his own world. He does not recognize her sister Pari. He has suffered from dementia.

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In brief, the victims are generally of the innocent or the minority or the weaker ones. Hassan represents the child, the uneducated, the minority and the poor. Mariam represents the illegal child, the uneducated, the poor and the female. Abdullah and Pari represent the children and the poor. To be children, the victims give their innocent qualities. To be the uneducated, the victims represent their small and limited knowledge. To be the minority, the victims represent their limited power and their indifference. All of these fit to Girard concept on the selection of the victims.

When the victims learn that they have no other choice but to go through the violence, they adapt themselves to adjust with the situation. They make an understanding of their difficult situation. They give their best meaning for their suffering. As the scapegoaters finally understand the victims’ acceptance, and at the same time learn their disappointment of not reaching the happiness in the accomplishment of their desire, they learn their victims’ desire. The scapegoaters find their way to redeem their sin into a heroic deed, in Girard’s term:

‘conversion.’

4.3.The Transformation of a Sinner into a Hero

Girard’s mimetic desire concept has mostly concerned with the conflictual relationship. This means that there are some refer to the non-conflictual relationship. For example, in a loving relationship, the imitation of the desire also happens and is beneficial for any parties. From the scapegoater’s point of view, the conflictual relationship or hateful relationship happens before and until the violence, while the non-conflictual or loving relationship happens after the

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violence. The following passages discuss the imitation of the victim’s desire by the scapegoater and what happens to the scapegoaters. The discussion starts with the first novel, The Kite Runner, followed by the second and the third novels.

In The Kite Runner, particularly in Amir and Hassan’s relationship, there are some issues that creates unequal situations between Amir and Hassan. The first one is their ethnic origins. Hassan is of minority Hazara, while Amir is of majority Pashtun. On Afghanistan, there has been very long history on the conflicts between these two ethnics. Secondly, the different ethnics are closely related to the different religious majors. Although both are muslims, but Hassan is of Shi’a and Amir is of Sunni. These two muslim majors have also their never ending dispute. The third one is related to the economy gap between the two.

Amir is coming from a rich family and Hassan is from a poor family. Hassan and his father Ali are servants who work for Amir’s family. The last one is the educational gap between the two. Amir can go to a school, but not Hassan. It is easy for Amir to access books and knowledge, but not for Hasan. Amir is an educated one and Hassan is the uneducated one. The combination of all these differences have made Amir to hold more power than Hassan.

The tendency for the more powerful party to use the power to opress the less powerful party is very strong. It is so with Amir. As a child, this temptation is even more powerful. Amir, who is the legal son of Baba, violates Hassan, the illegal son. Amir, who has been under Hassan mediation, now thinks that he is better than Hassan. According to Girard, this is due to transformation of the

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disciple into someone equal the model (2000). Amir has now considered Hassan as his rival. This brother-like rivalry has been the main frame of the story.

There is a moment in which Amir’s hatred has been in its highest peak.

Amir has decided to do something to make Hassan to be sent out of the house.

Amir has been told by his father, Baba, that for Baba there is only one sin and he really hates those who do the sin. This sin is stealing. Baba explains, “Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft.

Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that?” (Hosseini, 2007:

19) For Baba, all other crimes are originated from stealing. Based on this faith,

Amir prepare a set up for Hassan. Amir places some valuable items inside

Hassan’s room. Amir’s thieving trick to set Hassan up works uninterupted. To his surprise, Amir finds that even Baba forgets his faith when it concerns with

Hassan. When Amir can show Baba that Hassan steals his things, Baba doesn’t want to punish him and to send Hassan out from the house. It is Ali’s decision that Ali and Hassan finally move out from the house.

The death of Hassan is not a result from Amir’s violence. Yet it has related with Hassan’s loyalty toward Amir’s family. After Amir and Baba leave their house, it is Rahim Khan who lives there. Rahim manages to persuade

Hassan to accompany him in Amir’s big house. Kabul at that time is in war time.

The ruler of the city is the Taliban. When one day, Rahim Khan is very sick and has to leave the house for some months, Hassan and his wife are left to keep the house. The Taliban later shot Hassan because they accuse him of stealing the house. The Taliban wants to own the house. Hassan is killed and also his wife.

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Sohrab is an orphan. According to Rahim Khan, Sohrab is brought to an orphanage somewhere in Kabul.

The death of Hassan opens a hidden truth, that Hassan is actually Amir’s half brother. Ali is not Hassan’s father, it is Baba. Rahim Khan opens this secret and asks Amir to go to Kabul to save Sohrab. Rahim has contacted a couple who runs an orphanage in Peshawar. He asks Amir to find Sohrab and to bring him to the orphanage. It is hard for Amir to say yes to the dying man’s request. But he finally says yes. This means that Amir has got a chance to transform from a sinner into a savior.

In Girard’s concept, there are two different conditions in the relationship between the victim and the scapegoater: the first is that the victim is innocent and the scapegoater (who is usually the survivor) is guilty; and the second is that the victim is guilty and the scapegoater is innocent. In Amir and Hassan’s case, the victim is guilty and the scapegoater is innocent. Hassan is found guilty of stealing the money and the birthday gift. Amir’s goal to make Hassan move out from the house is reached. Yet, Amir cannot find his peaceful life again. Whenever

Hassan’s name is spoken, he feels a painful sting in his heart. After hearing Rahim

Khan’s story that Hassan and his wife were killed by the Taliban in the defense of his house and leaving Sohrab parentless, Amir finally agrees to find Sohrab in the city of Kabul.

It is Rahim Khan that drives Amir’s regret into a real action. Rahim Khan, a close friend of Baba, is like a father for Amir. Compared to his conflictual

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relationship with Baba, Amir’s relationship with Rahim Khan is warm and supporting. If Baba seems never understand nor receive him the way he is, Rahim

Khan is the contrast. With Rahim Khan, Amir will never have to pretend to be somebody else. Amir can be his own self. Rahim Khan can understand him very well that sometimes it looks like Rahim can read what is in his mind and feeling, what he is hiding, all the secrets, the sins.

When Rahim Khan asks him and pushes him so in a way that he cannot say no, Amir learns to behave like what Rahin Khan expects him. He learns how to save the other, to think not only his needs but also the others’. What makes it interesting is when Amir tries to save Sohrab from a Taliban commander, who was formerly Amir and Hassan’s boyhood enemy: Assef, it is Sohrab who saves Amir from being killed by Assef. When Amir is being beaten by Assef, and is almost killed, it is Sohrab who save him by pointing a slingshot to Assef. Sohrab makes a fatal shot and ends up in one of Assef’s eyes.

“PUT IT DOWN!” Assef let go of my throat. Lunged at Sohrab. The slingshot made a thwiiiiit sound when Sohrab released the cup. Then Assef was screaming. Heput his hand where his left eye had been just a moment ago. Blood oozed between his fingers. Blood and something else, something white and gel-like. That’s called vitreous fluid, I thought with clarity. I’ve read that somewhere. Vitreous fluid. Assef rolled on the carpet. Rolled side to side, shrieking, his hand still cupped over the bloody socket. (Hosseini, 2007: 152).

Like his father Hassan, Sohrab is very deadly with a slingshot. He can shoot accurately to a target. In the case of Assef, Sohrab’s slingshot has damaged

Assef’s left eye. Amir and Sohrab can get away and drive to Peshawar. Amir has been badly hurt. But to Amir’s surprise, his being hurt has given him a relief, a

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freedom from his restlessness. He is healed. “Do you feel better? I hadn’t been happy and I hadn’t felt better, not at all. But I did now. My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.” (Hosseini, 2007: 152) Amir has just realized the meaning of his action.

He never thinks that fighting for good deeds has freed his mind and feeling.

Amir’s effort to free Sohrab from Assef’s exploitation has granted him a healed feeling, the peacefulness he has longed for. Before, he had always thought for his own being. All this time, he has been too dependent to the people around him, Baba, Rahim Khan, Hassan etc. He has been very selfish. And this selfishness has weakened him. He can never be happy. He never thinks that it is the other way round. His heroic deed has given him a release from his mental illness. He, who at first was unable to love others, now learns to love and to think of others. When he fights for others means he fights for himself. He frees other’s suffering which turns out to be a freedom for his own suffering.

In Girard’s theory, this freedom-finding represents the conversion, a new understanding of the relationship. The scapegoater finds a new perspective in seeing his relationship with the victim. The scapegoater now considers the victim as the model or the mediator. The victim is seen not as a rival anymore, but the one whose desire should be imitated. This copying of the victim’s desire now happens in the non conflictual relationship. The similar mimetic desire in which a scapegoater redeems his past sin happens to Jalil, the father of Mariam.

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In the second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Jalil, who feels guilty in the way of treating Mariam, has tried to ask for Mariam’s forgiveness by visiting

Mariam in Kabul. The long drive from Herat to Kabul which is surely very uneasy for the old and sick Jalil is taken. Unfortunately, Mariam decides not to see him. She does not even open her door. It is worse that Jalil’s letter is also left unread. Jalil leaves Kabul with his broken heart. Jalil has realized the value a family member. Now he considers Mariam, his victim, as his role model.

To redeem his past sin, Jalil has made some arrangement for Mariam. He leaves a letter and some dollars before his passing. He trusts the package to a mullah in Mariam’s village. In the future, Jalil’s arrangement for Mariam, has been used by Laila to help run an orphanage for Kabul’s children. Similar with

Amir, Jalil has been acknowledged for being generous. He has helped Mariam to make her dream realized. His money which is inherited to Mariam and later goes to Laila has been spent to help the unfortunate children of Kabul.

In Laila and Mariam’s relationship, at first Laila is Mariam’s rival in the marriage with Rasheed. Mariam as the first wife feels betrayed when Laila agrees with Rasheed’s proposal to make Laila the second wife. They become enemy.

Later on, Mariam knows Laila’s true reason of marrying Rasheed. Laila is protecting her baby. Mariam learns the love and sacrifice Laila has for the unwanted baby. In the other hand, Laila also learns from Mariam and her love toward the children. Laila imitates Mariam’s sacrifice and dedicates her life to help the unfortunate children. Laila uses Mariam’s money to run a school and an

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orphanage. In Girard’s theory, the use of the wealth that Jalil gives to Mariam offers the redemption of Jalil’s sin.

In the third novel, And The Mountains Echoed, the character who undergoes the transformation from a sinner into a hero is Nabi. Nabi was one of the main actors in Pari’s selling to the Wahdati’s. It is true that Saboor and

Parwana are also responsible for the crime. But the idea was originally coming from Nabi. Nabi’s real reason is to find a way for him to get close to Nila

Wahdati. Nabi has been attracted to Nila. It was the time when his employer, Mr.

Wahdati, proposed Nila to be Mr. Wahdati’s wife. Even after Nila becomes Mrs.

Wahdati, he never stops loving Nila. Loving other’s spouse is one of the big sins that God forbids as in Ten Commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20: 17). This kind of desire is an example of mimetic desire.

Nabi has heard Nila’s unfortunate story that leads to her inability to have a baby. She loses her womb in a medical operation to save her from a very serious illness. Nila will never be a perfect woman because of this. Hearing this sad condition and seeing with his own eyes the unhappy marriage life she leads with

Mr. Wahdati, Nabi wants to help her. This desire is not a sincere one, for Nabi expects that the adoption will make Nila closer to him. Nila will think of owing him a life time favour.

The adoption idea comes as one day, when Nila visits Nabi’s village to meet his sister’s family, Nila seems very fond of Pari. Seeing this, and also

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knowing the family’s poor condition, Nabi proposes the possibility of selling Pari to Nila and her husband. Nabi uses the winter incident that took the life of Saboor and Parwana’s baby. Because of the financial shortage, Saboor and Parwana could not save their first baby boy. As now they have their second baby boy,

Saboor and Parwana agree to Nabi’s idea to sell Pari to the Wahdati family. The money can be used to save the other family members. In Parwana’s sentence, “It had to be her. I am sorry, Abdullah. She had to be the one. The finger cut to save the hand.” (Hosseini, 2013: 30)

The sentence, “the finger cut to save the hand,” is the sentence Abdullah heard from Saboor’s tale narrated during the journey to take Pari to the Wahdati.

Saboor cannot explain directly what he and Parwana have decided to Abdullah.

Saboor can only tell it through a tale. As a great storyteller, Saboor narrates a story of Baba Ayub and his family. The situation in Baba Ayub story is similar to the situation that Saboor, Abdullah’s father. As a father, he has to choose one of his children to be taken away to save the other children and the family. In Baba

Ayub’s story, the father and the mother have to choose one of their five children to be given to the div, a myterious giant.

While Saboor do not have a chance to redeem his wrongdoings, Nabi is fortunate. Nabi, who has inherited Wahdati’s properties, makes use his wealth for the goods of others. He lets the humanitarian people who come to Afghanistan to stay for free in his big house. This kindness has made Nabi to be considered as a sort of hero. He later gives the house to Pari and leaves a letter that reveals the

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story of Pari’s adoption. Nabi tells the truth and admits his wrongdoings. Nabi confesses to Marko, it is the guilt that drives him to open the truth.

There is little point in recounting it in detail, Mr. Markos, the scene that did unfold precisely as I had feared. But all these years later, I still feel my heart clench when the memory of it forces its way to the fore. How could it not? I took those two helpless children, in whom love of the simplest and purest kind had found expression, and I tore one from the other. I will never forget the sudden emotional mayhem. Pari slung over my shoulder, panic-stricken, kicking her legs, shrieking, Abollah! Abollah! as I whisked her away. Abdullah, screaming his sister’s name, trying to fight past his father. Nila, wide-eyed, her mouth covered with both hands, perhaps to silence her own scream. It weighs on me. All this time has passed, Mr. Markos, and it still weighs on me. (Hosseini, 2013: 58)

The picture of the situation has always replayed in his mind. Nabi witnesses the bitterness of the sibling separation. He later realizes that this memory cannot be forgotten. After all the years, it still weighs on him.

To sum up, the transformation of the scapegoaters into heroes happen after they learn from the victim’s acceptance. The desire of the victim has been imitated by the scapegoabter. The scapegoater after gets through the disappointment of not finding happiness on the accomplishment of his previous desire, now tries to follow the victim’s desire. The result is the scapegoater determines to go under these difficult times to find his peacefulness and happiness. He does good deed to redeem his bad deed toward the victim. The scapegoater learns that by imitating the victim’s desire, he actually learns his own desire to accomplish his happiness.

After the triangular mimetic desire-rivalry-scapegoating, this redemption takes place in the final phase. After the desire is copied, it develops into a rivalry which then ends up in violence-scapegoating. The scapegoater feels bad and

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guilty after the scapegoating. He learn that his desire is not the one he seeks for.

The scapegoater then goes through the victim’s way of suffering. He (the scapegoater) experiences the similar violence to get his happiness. This is the time of the imitation of the (victim’s) desire in non-conflictual relationship. The scapegoater releases all his burden and walks out of his unpeaceful moment.

The redemption fills the conversion phase in Girard concept of mimetic desire – scapegoating. This particular phase is marked by the purgation or the cleansing of the scapegoater’s emotion during his effort to imitate the desire of the victim. By following the victim’s desire in truthfuly performing the actions under the victim’s mediation, the scapegoater feels that his sin has been forgiven. He has been cleansed by this redemption. The scapegoater can finally find his happiness and his peacefulness.

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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

As the final chapter of this thesis, this part consists of the conclusion and suggestion. The conclusion gives the summary of the analysis from the previous chapter aiming at finding the answers to the problem statements. The suggestion- sub-chapter presents suggestions and recommendations for those who are interested in researching similar topics.

5.1. Conclusion

The first objective of this research is to find the depiction of Girard’s mimetic desire in the character’s relationship. The second objective is to interpret the scapegoatings in the novels using Girard’s theory. There are two significant parts of Girard’s concepts applied in this reasearch: the mimetic desire and the scapegoating. Girard’s mimetic desire helps explaining the character’s relationship in Hosseini’s novels. The scapegoating concept helps explaining the origin of the violence and its meaning toward the scapegoater and the victim.

This thesis has shown that the pattern of mimetic desire (a subject-its mediator-object) has taken an important role in developing the stories. Girard’s triangular mimetic desire pattern can be found in these three Khaled Hosseini’s novels. In the first novel, The Kite Runner, Amir, the main character, has been under the mediation of his father dan his slave. Under the mediation of his father,

Amir has been enforced himself to be like his father. Under the mediation of his

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slave, Hassan, Amir wants to get rid of Hassan. There are times in which Amir jealous of Hassan and this jealousy escalated into rivalry. Amir mischievously sets up a trap for Hassan which then results in Hassan’s leave. In this hateful relationship, the mimetic desire has driven Amir to do a violence.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, the projection of the triangular mimetic desire can be seen in Mariam’s. At first, Mariam is under Nana’s mediation, then moves under Jalil’s mediation. The mimetic desire pattern can be seen also in

Mariam and Laila’s relationship, but this one is of loving relationship. As Mariam sees Laila’s effort to be a responsible mother, Mariam has placed Laila as her model. Mariam places herself to be Laila’s mother. She then willingly gives her life for Laila and her children. She takes all the responsibilities in the death of

Rasheed. Mariam imitates the desire of a mother from Laila. In And The

Mountains Echoed, the mimetic desire can be found in hateful relationship between Parwana and her twin sister Masooma. Parwana is jealous of Masooma.

The jealousy drives Parwana to do some violence toward her twin.

This thesis has also shown that in a hateful relationship, the fulfilling of the desire does not result in happiness or satisfaction. The disciple or the imitator who imitates the desire from the model as he or she accomplishes the mission does not get the happiness he or she imagines. In the previous analysis, for example, from TKR, Amir has imitated his father’s desire of an ideal son. When the time comes, Amir can successfully be this ideal son, Amir does not feel the happiness. His father’s warm love and appreciation mean nothing. Amir is preoccupied by his unfairness. Another example of this empty winning can also be

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found in the case of Jalil who victimizes his daughter, Mariam. Jalil has successfully gotten rid of her from his house in Herat. Yet, he is not happy as he expects to be.

The last example on the metamorphosis of the desire is from the third novel, ATME. The desire copied by Saboor, father of Abdullah and Pari, does not give him the happiness he previously imagines. Saboor, supported by his wife

Parwana, has decided to sell their daughter to save their sons. When Saboor finally sells Pari to the Wahdatis, he becomes a different person. Abdullah describes the changes in his father after the incident. His father always seems sad.

He has lost his life spirit. The success does not give Saboor the happiness.

The metamorphosis of the desires happens in the problematic relationships. The desire that promises the imitator happiness has lost its power.

The value is gone. The power is not there anymore. The imitator who is sure of the sweet winning, does not taste its sweetness. Amir is unhappy and restless.

Jalil is unhappy and regretful. Saboor is unhappy and sad.

On the second objective of the research, the thesis has shown that some of the mimetic desires have rolled on into violences. The violence can be done directly by the disciple/the imitator toward the rival or through the third party. In the case of the violence happens toward Hasan, there is a time when the execution is done by the third party. In the case of Hasan’s raping, the bad person responsible is Assef, the Pashtun soldier. Amir who is witnessing the incident reassures himself that Hasan’s raping is needed for him to have his winning.

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Another indirect execution happens also in the case of Jalil – Mariam.

Jalil has used his three wives and his business partner to do violence toward

Mariam. Jalil keeps himself at a distance. The ones to talk and to force Mariam to accept the wedding are his three wives. Jalil at that time thinks that his good name is everything. If Mariam is gone, his reputation will be safe. In the third novel, And The Mountains Echoed, the indirect execution of the violence is a little bit complicated. The violence is the selling of Saboor’s daughter, Pari, to the

Wahdatis. The people responsible for carrying out the violence are Saboor and

Parwana, as the parents, Nabi, as the initiator and the mediator, and the Wahdatis, as the buyers. All these people have their own mimetic desires to pursue. When they finally successfully carry out the plan, they learn that they do not have the happiness. Their desires have changed into something else.

This thesis has found that the interpretation of the violence from the victim’s point of view explains how the victims deal with their sufferings. In the first novel, Hasan’s acceptance is described as similar to the scapegoated lamb in

Islamic annual ritual during the Hajj month. It is a self sacrifice. In the second novel, Mariam learns that her being scapegoated can be changed into a fruitful one if she changes her point of view. In her resistance, she does not let hers to be an object anymore, she is the subject. She is happy to think that her end can help

Laila and the children to live better. Mariam faces her death penalty with great dignity. Last but not least, Abdullah’s daughter has inherited her father’s mimetic desire.

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This thesis concludes that the use of Rene Girard’s concepts of mimetic desire has been very significant. The study in the character relationship has shown that the mimetic desire can be found as problematic and helpful. The mimetic desire is problematic in worsening the rivalry between the imitator and the model and strengthening the imitator’s will to eliminate the rival. The mimetic desire is helpful in terms of transforming jealousy into love. The imitator copies the good desire to save the loved one.

The scapegoating concept reveals the origin of violence preceded by jealousy and rivalry. The dislikeness develops into hatred that drives the desperate imitator to eliminate the rival. The elimination can be of the well- arranged action or by-chance action. The violence has rarely been commited. On the part of the violence-actors (the scapegoater), some of them having learnt the desire in the victim’s acceptance do the good deed. They imitate the victim’s acceptance and find the happiness they seek for.

This new awareness, of placing himself in the shoes of the victim, has made the scapegoater realizes the meaning of his previous desire. He now places himself as the disciple and the victim as the model. He imitates the desire of the victim, and tries to make things right. This redemption phase can be found in these three of Hosseini’s novels. The redemption presents the conversion phase in

Girard’s concept in which the character comes to a realization. The scapegoater is given the chance to redeem his wrongdoings, to cleanse his sin, to shift from a sinner into a hero.

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5.2. Suggestion

This sub-chapter presents suggestions for future researchers who are interested to conduct a study with similar topics. As previously explained, this study focuses on finding the mimetic desire pattern in the character relationship and interpreting the scapegoating based on Rene Girard’s concept in Hosseini’s novels. The primary sources for this study are taken from three novels of Khaled

Hosseini: The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains

Echoed. Khaled Hosseini has released his fourth work. Therefore, for future researchers who want to study Khaled Hosseini’s writings can include the fourth novel. For more details, the future researchers may focus on other interesting topics, such as: violence toward children, violence toward women, violence in the society. Such study can make people realize the vulnerability of chidren and women to receive violence. By revealing those problems, the writer hopes that people will be aware of such problems and help to prevent them from happening.

The second suggestion concerns with the theory of Rene Girard. As new literature is always produced, it is interesting to research the depiction of the concept in those new literatures. The study can research the literatures from around the world. It is expected that the study can improve people’s understanding on the nature of human desire. Such a knowledge can prevent the misuse of the concept, and in the other hand, can improve the use of the concept for greater benefits. People can be aware of the possibility of the mimetic desire to advance to rivalry and conflict.

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