Much of Afghan society is built on the concept that a man’s image comes from his status, and that his manhood is defined by his honor and his pride, his nang and namoos. In this society, men appear to hold most of the power. This power is fragile, however, because “all a man ha[s is] his honor [and] his name” (223). Without honor, or with a tainted name, a Pashtun man is nothing. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, some characters follow this standard to a fault. General Taheri, for example, is so prideful that he remains on welfare in the US, as he believes that getting a job would be degrading to him and his position as a general in Afghanistan (176). Ironically, the women in the novel achieve true nang and namoos, while most men cannot, …show more content…
He sees her determination to stand up to her father for what she loves, as she exclaims, “Teaching may not pay much, but it’s what I want to do! It’s what I love” (182). Amir sees a woman stand up to her father, a strange occurrence in Afghan society, which provides him with a model of what it means to stand up for one’s his own beliefs and dreams. Later, after General Taheri calls Sohrab a ‘Hazara Boy’, Amir is able to follow this model, telling the general, “You will never again refer to [Sohrab] as ‘Hazara Boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s Sohrab” (361). He stands up to a powerful proponent of the status quo, rejecting the general’s discrimination towards Sohrab and making Amir’s belief that Pashtuns are no better than Hazaras very clear. Soraya also shows Amir courage in her willingness to face her past. Right before they marry, Soraya reveals the secrets of her past to Amir. Amir realizes that he is jealous of her bravery, noting, “I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with” (165). When he finally tells her of his past, years later, Amir “imagined Soraya had experienced something similar the night of our khastegari, when she’d told [him] about her past,” a sense of relief, a lifting of weight off of his shoulders (325). He learns that, through courage and the ability to face his past , he can start …show more content…
In her quest to atone for her sins, Sanaubar first returns to Kabul and faces her past head on. When she first sees Hassan, she exclaims, “I have walked long and far to see if you are as beautiful in the flesh as you are in my dreams” (210). She then admits her sins, crying out to Hassan, “Allah forgive me, I wouldn’t even hold you” (210). She asks for forgiveness from Hassan, and after a long night of deliberation, Hassan tells her that “she could cry if she wanted to but she needn’t [because] she was home now … with her family” (210). She is forgiven, but she still must make up for her actions, so when Hassan’s child, Sohrab, is born, she walks out of the hut “clutching th[e] baby like she never wanted to let go. Not this time” (211). She cares for Sohrab, the two of them becoming “inseparable” (211). She tends to Sohrab as she should have for Hassan, making up for her sins with her actions towards his son. Amir then follows her model, first returning to Afghanistan to get Sohrab, then admitting his sins, and finally completing the atonement process by bringing Sohrab home to care for him and give him a better life, beginning to do what he can to make up for betraying Hassan and driving him out of his house in Kabul. Because of the model
Despite living majority of his life with the guilt of not helping Hassan, Amir’s nemesis is yet to come. Destiny plays a huge game with Amir and reveals to him that Hassan is his illegitimate brother during his visit with Rahim Khan. Reacting with various emotions, Amir first decides to head back about to America, but in the end makes the first brave decision in his life by going back to Kabul “…to atone not just for [his] sins, but…Baba’s too” (198). Amir tries to compensate for his sin by rescuing Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from the brutality occurring in Kabul. Amir puts his entire life in jeopardy by facing the oppression in Kabul so he could make a genuine effort in eliminating his sins. In an ideal world, when one truly makes an effort to redeem themselves for their wrongdoings, they are usually gifted with forgiveness. However, in reality, Amir’s heroic act of saving Sohrab, did not free him of sorrow because he still has to live with his nemesis for the rest of his life. By taking Sohrab to America with him, Amir constantly is reminded of his hamartia by envisioning Hassan through Sohrab. This shows how the guilt from a cowardly act leads one into a lifelong feeling of
When individuals heavily rely on others due to their immense respect and veneration for other people’s accomplishments, this voluntary dependence causes them to be incapable of making their own judgements without being easily affected by the values of others. It is only upon an individual’s ability to overcome their own hardships will they suddenly begin to realize of their true potential and identity. In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini suggests that when individuals encounter a dilemma that significantly challenges their morality and trust for others, they become capable of overcoming these adversities and as a result, they are able to embrace their true individuality and identity. This is demonstrated through the character of Amir
The way our friends treat us in the face of adversity and in social situations is more revealing of a person’s character than the way they treats us when alone. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, ethnic tensions, nationality, and betrayal become the catalyst that drives and fuels Amir, Assef, and other characters to embark on their particular acts of cruelty. Serving as a way to illustrate the loss of rectitude and humanity, cruelty reveals how easily people can lose their morals in critical circumstances. Through Amir, Assef, and the Taliban’s actions, cruelty displays the truth of a person’s character, uncovering the origin of their cruelty. Amir’s cruelty spurs from his external environment and need for love from his father, choosing
Amir goes through many events that take place in the book that change him, and the way he is perceived within the book. Amir is a young boy, who is tortured by his father’s scrutinizing character. Amir is also jealous of Hassan, because of the fact that his father likes Hassan instead of Amir. Amir fights for his father’s approval, interest, and love. This is when Amir changes for the good as he deals with the guilt of the rape of Hassan. Amir witnessed Hassan getting raped, but decides to nothing in order to win over his father’s interest. The guilt that Amir builds up is carries from his premature times as a child to his mature times. From Afghanistan to
Hosseini constructs parallels between Amir’s relationship with both Hassan and Sohrab in order to provide Amir with the chance to redeem himself. He heads Rahim Khan’s advice as he finds a way “to be good again” (226). Amir builds a new relationship with Sohrab and ultimately earns the redemption he longed for. Without the connection between Sohrab and Hassan, Amir would never have been able to make amends for his past. He not only earns Hassan’s forgiveness, but also his own, which is what truly allows Amir to move on.
It is difficult to face anything in the world when you cannot even face your own reality. In his book The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses kites to bring out the major themes of the novel in order to create a truly captivating story of a young boy’s quest to redeem his past mistakes. Amir is the narrator and protagonist of the story and throughout the entire novel, he faces enormous guilt following the horrible incident that happened to his closest friend, Hassan. This incident grows on Amir and fuels his quest for redemption, struggling to do whatever it takes to make up for his mistakes. In Hosseini’s novel, kites highlight aspects of Afghanistan’s ethnic caste system and emphasizes the story’s major themes of guilt, redemption and freedom.
As a young boy he made the wrong decision in life by letting Hassan get raped, which led to his guilt. The guilt grew to the point where Hassan and Ali had to move out of Baba’s house and start a new life away from Amir. Hassan’s son Sohrab is a significant character who represents Amir’s hope for redemption. Sohrab led to Amir’s redemption by giving Amir the opportunity to do good for his past actions. On the quest for redemption, Amir achieves the redemption he desired through his fight with Assef.
After weeks of secrecy, a brutal fight, and battles with the immigration office, Amir is able to return to America with a bright perspective of his new home albeit broken, beat, and scarred, and a new adopted child, Sohrab. The developed Amir is brought out with his interaction with General Taheri. In the novel, Amir shows his new found ability to stand up for himself with the quote, “‘And one more thing, General Sahib,’ I said. You will never again refer to him as a ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s ‘Sohrab’” (361).
Writer Ayn Rand once said that, “Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.” This happiness is not what a person feels when common pleasures occur in their lives, such as the purchase of a new car, or a promotion at work and an increase in salary. The feeling of genuine inner well-being and peace is a completely separate state of being that can be witnessed in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner. The two key characters to the story, Amir and Hassan, share a very unique relationship. They achieve the deepest longing of humanity to achieve happiness through the different choices they make and experiences they have. Hassan proves to be on the proper path to happiness early on with a strong moral conscience in his life, sense of purpose to serve others, and the self-confidence to be independent. On the other hand, Amir struggles to achieve these same qualities as Hassan; to do the right thing, to think of others, and to carry his own weight with confidence.
Amir is, to be put bluntly, a coward. He is led by his unstable emotions towards what he thinks will plug his emotional holes and steps over his friends and family in the process. When he sought after Baba’s invisible love, Amir allowed Hassan to be raped in an alleyway just so that the blue kite, his trophy that would win his father’s heart, could be left untouched. In the end, he felt empty and unfulfilled with the weight of his conscience on his shoulders comparable to Atlas’ burden. Unable to get over his fruitless betrayal, he lashes out and throws pomegranates at Hassan before stuffing money and a watch under his loyal friend’s pathetic excuse for a bed, framing Hassan for theft and directly causing the departure of both servants from his household. Even after moving to America, finding a loving wife, and creating a career for himself in writing, he still feels hollow when thinking of his childhood in Afghanistan. Many years later, he is alerted of Hassan’s death and sets out on a frenzied chase to find his friend’s orphaned son. He feels that he can somehow ease his regrets from all of those years ago if he takes in Hassan’s son, Sohrab. He finds Sohrab as a child sex slave for Assef, who coincidentally was the one to rape Hassan all of those years ago. After nearly dying in his attempt to take back Sohrab, he learns that he can take the damaged child back to the states with him. Sadly, Hassan’s son is so
In my view The Kite Runner is an epic story with a personal history of what the people of Afghanistan had and have to endure in an ordinary every day life; a country that is divided between political powers and religiously idealistic views and beliefs which creates poverty, and violence within the people and their terrorist run country. The story line is more personal with the description of Afghanistan's culture and traditions, along with the lives of the people who live in Kabul. The story provides an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political chaos. Of course there are many things that are unsaid and under explained in this tragic novel which, in my observation, is an oversimplification. There is also a heavy use of emotional appeal, and an underlying message. This is a flag for propaganda.
Amir’s childhood is quite unusual compared to most children in Afghan. Amir’s father, Baba, is a very rich and successful individual in his lifetime. This success allows Amir to live a wealthy lifestyle with access to western commodity as well as servants. In novel, Amir is risen mostly by his servants Hassan and Ali, as well
Kite Runner depicts the story of Amir, a boy living in Afghanistan, and his journey throughout life. He experiences periods of happiness, sorrow, and confusion as he matures. Amir is shocked by atrocities and blessed by beneficial relationships both in his homeland and the United States. Reviewers have chosen sides and waged a war of words against one another over the notoriety of the book. Many critics of Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, argue that the novel would not have reached a lofty level of success if the U.S. had not had recent dealings with the Middle East, yet other critics accurately relate the novel’s success to its internal aspects.
Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner, grew up in prejudiced Afghanistan during the 1960’s as a middle-class Pashtun living with Hazaras working for his family. His move to America after the Communist Coup proved difficult for his family, especially his father. In his novel, Hosseini writes through a young boy, Amir, very similar to himself, who grows up with his father and two Hazara servants in Afghanistan at the time of the Taliban attacks. Both Amir and his father, Baba, treat their servants, Hassan and Ali, like family. Society, however, does not approve of such relationships between Pashtuns and Hazaras. As Amir hides and watches horrified, another Pashtun boy rapes Hassan. This leads to the continuation of Amir’s internal conflict about the treatment of Hazaras by the public, and also makes him feel guilty and self-conscious throughout his entire life. In addition, Amir strives for affection and attention from his rather indifferent father. Amir’s outward conformity to societal values in his relationships with both Hassan and Baba, as a result of his inner struggle and guilt, contribute greatly to the significance of The Kite Runner.
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch