tart fresh by redeeming their sins. It gives birth to new emotions, experiences, thoughts, and creates n“Atonement of sins create new relationships“
It's what one does in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future. As said by William Shakespeare " Time yet serves, wherein you may redeem your tarnished honors, and restore yourself into the good thought of the world again" Redemption gives a soul motivation to be better and sew relationships. This research paper intends to write about the same by proving how the protagonists redeemed themselves, thereby creating new relationships.
Why should one redeem his sin? Human beings have an innate desire to rid themselves of guilt when they know they have done wrong. There is nothing like a clear conscience. It is always an important moment when an individual admits to God the sins he or she has committed. He feels free and gets mature by his experience. It's no longer redemption of his sin but evolution of his soul. He realizes his mistake within and tries to get away from the darkness. This leads to new relationships in his life and new circumstances, which
Amir committed several terrible acts against his servant "friend," Hassan, in Khaled Hosseini's novel “The Kite Runner”. It is true that Amir never fully accepted Hassan as an equal or as a friend or as a member of the household. This is an additional guilt with which Amir has had to live. But the two specific acts for which Amir feels guiltiest concern, one was Hassan's rape at the hands of Assef; and the second Amir's planting of money and a watch in Hassan's room and then claiming that they have been stolen. On the other side Baba, who betrayed his friend Ali, by having relationship with wife and also a child. The child was none other than Hassan. He never confronted the truth and felt guilty about it every
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
to happened a man must repent and in so doing become like a child whose heart is
Amir learns of many things going on in another world that will hopefully help with his guilt once and for all. In Rahim Khan's call he says “there is a way to make things good again,” this may be the most powerful quote in the book as it shows both the reader and Amir that there is a solution to his guilt. Amir eventually finds out from Rahim that Ali was sterile: “she left him childless after three years and married a man in Khost. She bore him three daughters”. Amir puts the dots together and is outraged, but not only that it adds a major connection to the theme of guilt. Baba carried around the guilt of having sex with the wife of what he viewed as his brother, it shows a deeper theme that it's a generational thing starting with Baba betraying Ali and Amir betraying Hassan. Amir shows him coming to see Rahim as: “a way to end the cycle”. Amir recognizes this as his only way to relieve himself of his guilt and also Babas.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, focuses on the character Amir who fails to help his friend Hassan in an alley when they are both children. This incident occurs because of the simple reason that Amir is a coward even when he knows deep down that Hassan would do anything for Amir. This betrayal towards Hassan turns out to cause Amir a lifetime guilt throughout the rest of the novel. Later on when Amir moves to America, gets married, and becomes a successful writer, Amir is still incapable of forgetting the incident. Amir’s actions as an adult stem from his desire for redemption and start forgiving himself for the mistakes of his past. Amir is an accurate portrayal of a tragic hero based on his inherent guilt, well deserved punishments, and
Baba is a very high standing man in Kabul, but seems to be extremely harsh to Amir when he was a child. He is a very large, tough man who was very well known in the town and as Amir stated in the novel, “Lore has it my father once wrestled a black bear in Baluchistan with his bare hands” (Hosseini 12). This small detail of Baba makes it known to the reader that Baba is a man of great courage and strength. Some may think that an honorable man is one with no flaws, but many disagree. Every human being makes mistakes, including Baba. When Amir grows up and goes back to visit Rahim Khan in Afghanistan, he finds out that his father lied to him his entire life about Hassan being his half-brother. He also finds out from Rahim Khan that all Baba had back then “was his honor, his name” (Hosseini 223). He did not tell Amir and Hassan that they were brothers because they had a different mother and that would have made their entire family be looked down upon in the town. He did it for their own good, and wanted for them both to grow up as honorable men, like himself. There is a difference in making mistakes and trying to do what’s best to fix them, rather than making the same mistakes over and over again, which is what Amir seemed to do in the novel. Amir was the exact opposite of his father, which made it very hard for them to have a
Over the course of the novel, Baba implies that he is not proud of Amir and the only reason he knows Amir is his son, is because he witnessed Amir 's birth. He states to Rahim Khan that he thinks Amir needs to stand up for himself more often. Countless times during the novel, Amir feels like he has to fight for his affection, that he has to earn Baba’s love. In order to prove himself worthy of affection and to redeem himself for not being a son Baba could be proud of, Amir yearns to win the kite runner competition. He reminisces on a memory, when all “I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption” (65). In the aftermath of Hassan’s rape, Amir got rid of Hassan so he would not have to face the cause of his guilt on a daily basis. Amir buries the secret of the rape deep within him, where he hopes that it will not come back to haunt him, which is not the case. “We had both sinned and betrayed. But Baba had found a way to create good out of his remorse. What had I done, other than take my guilt out on the very same people I had betrayed, and then try to forget it all? What had I done, other than become an insomniac? What had I ever done to right things?” (303). As mentioned earlier, Amir is not one who stands up for himself. In order for Amir to redeem himself for betraying Hassan, and not standing up for him earlier,
Amir's actions showed how much of a coward he was. Amir suffered his whole life living with the guilt of knowing that Hassan was raped, much like Baba lived his whole life in guilt knowing that he stole the truth from Ali by committing adultery. Baba ran from the truth, and so did Amir to protect the family name, even if that meant betraying the people closest to him. Baba was a man more worried about his image than anything, and that is what he taught his son as well. Slowly that is all Amir knew how to do: protect his family and himself, leading him into a life of guilt, and running from people when situations were challenging, instead of making the admirable decision and help a
To begin, the first instance of redemption is found and portrayed through irony. As Amir's mother died giving birth to him, he has always felt guilty. Leading up to the annual kite-fighting tournament, Amir feels as if winning will redeem her death, and solidify his relationship with Baba. When he comes upon Hassan who is cornered by Assef, Amir feels as if his rape might be justified: “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba. Or was it a fair price?” (Hosseini, 82) If Amir gains the kite, he wins Baba's heart. Ironically, the sacrifice of Hassan is the catalyst to Amir's need for redemption. Instead of redeemi...
The story The Kite Runner is centered around learning “to be good again.” Both the movie and the book share the idea that the sins of the past must be paid for or atoned for in the present. In the book, Amir can be seen as a troubled young boy who is struggling with a tremendous amount of guilt. It is easy to blame Amir’s actions on his guilt and his father’s lack of love for him.
“It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out” (Hosseini). In The Kite Runner, Hosseini shares Amir’s journey to atonement. As Amir states, he was unable to bury his past, similar to his father, Baba, who spent the majority of his life haunted by his sins. While both father and son are consumed by guilt, the way in which they atone for their iniquities is dissimilar. While Baba attempts to live his life according to the Afghan saying, “ Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end...crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis [nomads]” (Hosseini 356), Amir strays from this traditional perspective. Baba chose to continue his life unmindful of his past, while Amir, eventually decides to confront his. Although both Baba and Amir have acted immorally, the choices they make find redemption affect the success of their individual attempts. In the novel, Amir’s quest for atonement is more effective than Baba’s because he acts virtuously, while his father, acts selfishly. Ultimately, Amir is the more successful of the two because, in opposition to Baba, he seeks holistic atonement and is willing to make sacrifices to achieve redemption.
The Kite Runner focuses on the relationship between two Afghan boys Amir and Hassan. Amir is a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim, while Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a. Despite their ethnic and religious differences, Amir and Hassan grow to be friends, although Amir is troubled by Hassan, and his relationship with his companion, one year his junior, is complex. Amir and Hassan seem to have a "best friend" type relationship. The two boys, Hassan and Amir, are main characters in the book titled, The Kite Runner. The two boys have a relationship that is significantly different compared to most. There are many different facets that distinguish the relationship the boys possess. The boys do write their names in a pomegranate tree as the "sultans of Kabul" (Kite Runner 27) but, their friendship is not strong and it is one sided. Hassan has love for Amir. He loves him like a brother. Hassan is exceedingly loyal to Amir. The relationship between the two boys is emotionally wearing and rather gloomy for the most part. The main reason for their complicated relationship is the fact that Amir is Pashtun, and Hassan is Hazara. The Afghan society places Hassan lower than Amir. Hassan is Amir's servant. The placement of Hassan in the Afghan society disenables Amir from becoming Hassan's true friend. Amir sees Hassan as lower than human. Amir ruins the chance for friendship between himself and Hassan because he is jealous of Hassan, he thinks of Hassan as a lower human, and because Amir possesses such extreme guilt for what he has done to Hassan. Amir is an unforgivable person overall.
Amir’s redemption is a large part of the novel and is carried out almost entirely until the end of the story. He travels to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from the orphanage he was placed in after the death of his parents. He promises to find him a safe home with someone but after time passes he feels like this is not enough. He then speaks to his wife and decides to take Sohrab back to the United States with him and take care of his as if he was one of his own. Earlier in the novel when Baba is speaking Amir over hears his conversation as he is referring to him stating, “A boy who won 't stand up for himself becomes a man who can 't stand up to anything” (Hosseini, 22). Thus meaning that if he is able to stand up for himself as a young boy, when he is grown he will not be able to stand up for anything that is in his future. This is true throughout the story until he stands up for himself and Sorhab when he is arguing with his life long bully, Assef. Amir lacked the courage to defend himself in the novel until he finally took charge and went against
During The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini reinforces the theme of the loss of innocence and redemption. Many characters lose innocence or are the cause of another character losing theirs. Amir both loses his innocence and that of others. His innocence is stolen by his father. In the novel Amir overhears Baba saying, “‘If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son’” (Hosseini 24-25). This affects Amir for his entire life as he tries to compete with Hassan for his father's attention. He does not realize that in doing so, this crumbles his world as he knows it. It makes Amir resentful, calloused, and even cruel, all of which are characteristics of someone who has lost their innocence. In turn, Amir’s loss of innocence causes other to lose their innocence because of his lack of courage and disregard for others feelings.
... one feels after they have sinned. The characters in The Kite Runner, are very much like modern day individuals who make mistakes and have a strong feeling of remorse for what they have done so they try and make up for it in any way possible. Amir found a way to redeem himself for the sins he committed as a child; he did this through saving Sohrab. This was how he showed his repentance towards Hassan. Baba found his redemption by allowing for Ali and Hassan to live with them. What he did was wrong but the way he handled the situation was mature on his behalf. The relationship between sin and redemption was displayed many times throughout the novel and was shown through various characters. It is the guilt that one feels that leads one to their redeeming moment; perfect or not perfect this was a way for one to ease themselves from the sins they have committed.
Amir and Hassan’s relationship in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is extremely strained due to deeply ingrained values and misplaced jealousy. Amir fears that if he truly befriends Hassan others will think less of him, and he fears he will lose the attentions of his father to Hassan in time; therefore, Amir constantly tries to push Hassan away by testing his loyalty. This tactic is deployed by Amir when he throws overripe pomegranates at Hassan until he is “smeared in red like he’d been shot by a firing squad” (Hosseini 93). Amir’s reasoning for doing this seems to be to forgive himself for not saving Hassan after the kite tournament because he feels like it was morally wrong not to save Hassan; however, due to the timing of this