Analyzing Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner'

Psychologic Analysis of Amir’s Dreams
In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the hidden connection between Amir’s dreams and his conscious actions correlate in regards to how he psychologically experiences his guilt. This will be demonstrated by focusing on one of Amir’s dreams from the novel known as ‘the snowstorm’ in order to analyze the guilt that Amir carries with him throughout most of his life. Analyzing Amir’s dream will help to develop a better understanding of how his guilt is affecting him in a psychological manner. Connecting Amir’s dream to how he reacts to his guilt will exemplify the progress that he makes to compensate for his prior mistakes that lead to his guilt. Amir obtains a lurking guilt that follows him throughout his

life, especially that lies in his dreams.
A lack of succor, lack of respect, and Hassan’s everlasting selflessness reinforce Amir’s guilt.

Amir’s guilt sparks when he witnesses his half-brother Hassan succumb to rape by Assef. Hassan’s rape is what originates Amir’s guilt that develops throughout the novel in his dreams. A memory of Hassan and Amir, “[Do] you know Hassan and you [feed] from the same breast?” (73). This memory enunciates the connection Amir and Hassan have ever since they are as young as feeding as infants having a physical bond of closeness leading into Amir’s dream. Amir’s dream reveals his guilt as this, “A familiar shape materializes. A hand reaches out for me. I see deep, parallel gashes across the palm, blood dripping, staining the snow. I take the hand and suddenly the snow is gone… I look up and see the clear sky is [filled] with kites, green, yellow, red, orange” (74). This dream presents a hand reaching out to help Amir which can be analyzed as Hassan’s hand reaching out to lead Amir out of the snow. Hassan’s hand can also represent him

continually having a strong bond with Amir as they did while they were infants. The blood and gashes that are depicted resemble Hassan being there for Amir no matter what the circumstances which link back to Amir’s guilt due to Hassan’s selflessness. The dream interferes with Amir’s psychological thought pattern and forces him to recognize his guilt that is caused by the absence of responsibility taken on by Amir while Hassan takes full responsibility for Amir and his actions of just watching Hassan get raped without moving an inch to help him, whether it is to acquire assistance or to terminate the event. Amir’s dream and memory forces him to think about all that he has done, and realize his true guilt in relation to Hassan being the cause of his drastic change in character throughout the novel.
Realizing the true innocence of Hassan, Amir realizes that he has to modify how he acknowledges his guilt.

Once the guilty snowstorm dream subsides, Hosseini describes Hassan as having the “the look of a lamb” (76). Hosseini uses Hassan’s appearance to reiterate on his innocence throughout the novel to enhance Amir’s guilt owing to him disrespecting Hassan. This innocence is used to spark amends in Amir as represented in his dreams. Amir’s dream exhibits, “Baba is sitting on the bear’s chest, his fingers digging in its snout. He looks up at me and I see. He’s me. I am wrestling the bear” (295). Amir strives to become the man that Baba dreams of him being, and Amir believes that evolving to be an improved person will help him relieve his guilt. Amir doubts his ability to become a man of good morals as he matures while continually counterbalancing his guilt as a priority. This recurring dream encounters Amir with the guilt of never becoming the man that Baba believes that he should be. Amir’s dream resembles the monumental accomplishment of Amir becoming the man Baba always wants him to become, yet the black bear represents Amir’s guilt as a ‘beast’ that takes maturity for Amir to overcome. This closure is a success for Amir and changes him to be a tremendous, guilt-free person. Amir’s dream releases his guilt that is building up inside of him, which allows him to overcome his precedent

mistakes.
In Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the disguised relationship between Amir’s dreams causes his actions to positively affect how he goes about his future experiences. Amir’s dreams make him think about his actions to transform and overpass his guilt. Inspecting Amir’s ‘snowstorm’ dream help to create a superior recognition of how his guilt is affecting him psychologically. Coupling Amir’s dream and his feedback to his guilt will embody Amir’s advancement to satisfy his past failure to extinguish his guilt.