In Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, betrayal is one of the greatest moving forces of the story. Using the concept of betrayal in his novel, Hosseini successfully portrays human nature and its greatest flaws. Through his depiction of Amir’s betrayal of Hassan, Hosseini is able to illustrate what a person can do or sacrifice if he or she succumbs to his or hers greatest desires. Hosseini further delves into human nature in his novel as he shows Amir’s difficult path to redemption after committing his betrayal of Hassan. Amir’s abandonment of Hassan in the alleyway is the turning point of Hosseini’s novel. He foreshadows this great betrayal through Amir’s actions and thoughts, showing his desperate behavior to gain Baba’s affections and …show more content…
his willingness to sacrifice anything even his most loyal friend, Hassan. Hosseini induces a conflicting feeling from his readers through his portrayal of the betrayal itself. Many might feel anger for Amir for what he did, but others might feel sympathy because his desperation is the one that led him to do what he did. Hosseini manages to illustrate the complex nature of human by showing how Amir’s naiveté, childish mindset and his desire of gaining his father’s love are the things that spurred him to commit his betrayal that led to Hassan losing his innocence at the hand of Assef. Amir’s betrayal is critical to the advancement of the story as it sets off chain of events that eventually lead to the story’s theme.
Hosseini uses the betrayal to show the internal struggle within Amir and how it represents human’s struggle within themselves as they continue deciding to do what is right or to do things to get what they want at the expense of others. He shows that nothing will be gained from betraying someone to get what they desire by showing to the readers that Amir’s good relationship with Baba did not last very long and soon returned to the distant kind that they had before. He also shows the flaws of humanity as he illustrates how Amir once again betrayed Hassan by framing him up in order to kick him out of the house and to relieve the guilt he has been feeling ever since he abandoned Hassan in the …show more content…
alleyway. The concept of betrayal that is prominent in the novel gives way and is connected to the story’s main theme which is seeking for redemption to remove the lingering guilt in one’s self. As Hosseini portrays the conflicting emotions within Amir, he manages to show the emptiness and relentless guilt that Amir is experiencing to his readers in a way that they are able to sympathize and understand him. He ties Amir’s search for redemption to his development as a person in a method that efficiently portrays the possibility of improving human nature by overcoming their weakness and their flaws. Despite Amir’s reluctance to face the memories of his betrayal that continue to haunt him, the unending guilt causes him to seek for salvation. His journey to find salvation becomes the driving force of the second half of Hosseini’s novel as Amir returned to Afghanistan to see Rahim Khan. On his quest to seek redemption, Amir uncovered a betrayal made by his father, Baba.
This betrayal sets a parallel or similarity between him and his father, but it also sets them apart. Baba did his best to make things right while Amir chose to run away and ignore what he did. However, his discovery motivates Amir to finally make things right just like Baba did. His salvation comes into the form of Sohrab, the son of the now deceased Hassan. Hosseini is able to portray the difficulty of attaining salvation by putting Amir through life dangering situations such as going into the Taliban filled Afghanistan, and the face-off with Assef that nearly cost Amir his life. Along with these risky events, the audience is able to see the growth that Amir is going through and he is slowly getting over his flaws and his mistakes. He is becoming into a person that can stand for what he thinks is right and has the determination to protect those he
cherishes. The Kite Runner by Hosseini is a great example of literature that successfully portrays the concept of betrayal and human flaws. Its great illustration of human nature and a person’s development as they seek redemption brings lasting impression to the readers. Betrayals caused by desire and desperation as well as the path to salvation filled with hardships bring life to Hosseini’s story.
Clearly, Amir hears how his father compares the two, and unlike Hassan who manages to meet Baba’s expectations, Amir grows bitter towards Hassan. He is unable to fight off his envy which later causes him to sacrifice his best friend’s innocence: “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (82), and this is all because he realizes “his shame is complicated by his own realization that in part he doesn’t help his friend precisely because he is jealous of him” (Corbett, 2006). From here, Amir develops strong feelings of guilt that induces him to perform even more destructive acts, such as having Hassan and his father evicted from the house. Amir not only loses a close friend, but now he has to continue to live with remorse as he dwells on these memories.
In the book “THe Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, betrayal is is one of the big themes that occurs in this book. Amir shows the most betrayal of all, like him witnessing Hassan's rape and not helping him at all. That was his cowardly thing that he did and experiences guilt from it. Many years pass since that event he starts to feel what other people felt when he would betray them, like when he was betrayed by his father and Rahim Khan, because he found out that Hassan was his brother and he felt betrayal of trust just as he made the people he betrayed feel.
While Amir is a Sunni, his childhood friend Hassan is Shi’a, an inferior division of Islam. Simultaneously, Amir and Hassan belong to different ethnic groups-Amir is Pashtun while Hassan is Hazara. During his childhood, Amir would constantly mock Hassan’s illiteracy and poke fun at him. But, the pivotal demonstration of pressure from his surroundings that makes Amir commit his own act of cruelty is when he watches Assef rape Hassan for refusing to give him the kite that Hassan caught for Amir. To this, Amir describes the look of Hassan’s face to “a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb” (76). Throughout his upbringing, Amir constantly believed that his father blamed him for killing his mother in childbirth. To Amir, Hassan’s rape is a sacrifice that Hassan has to pay the price, the lamb to kill, in order to win his father over. To justify his refusal to intervene, Amir reminds himself that “[Hassan] was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (77). Amir’s surroundings cause him to have a negative outlook on people that his society deem lower. Amir knows he is morally wrong for not helping Hassan, but his need for his father’s love overpowers his friendship. Adding to his pressures, Amir believes that Baba prefers Hassan over him, a belief that further drives him to be cruel to Hassan. As a result, Amir’s motivation for validation and love from his father
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
The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, shows how lying and deceit is a counterproductive route when trying to live with a dreadful past, exhibited through the actions of Amir. Amir’s decision to withhold the truth and blatantly lie in several situations due to jealousy and his desire for Baba to be proud of him amounts to further pain and misery for himself and those he deceives. Because of Amir’s deceit towards Baba and Hassan, his guilt from his past manifests itself into deeply-rooted torment, not allowing him to live his life in peace. The guilt from Amir’s past is only alleviated when he redeems his sins by taking in Sohrab, contributing to the theme that the only way “to be good again” is through redemption, not shunning the past.
It is not often that Amir’s love for Baba is returned. Baba feels guilty treating Amir well when he can’t acknowledge Hassan as his son. Baba discriminates against his son Amir by constantly making him feel weak and unworthy of his father. Baba once said to Rahim Kahn, “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 23). Amir doesn’t feel like a son towards Baba since he seems like such a weakling. This neglect towards Amir causes him to feel a need to be accepted by Baba to end the constant discrimination from his father and he will do anything for it. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, 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” (Hosseini 77). Amir did not stop the rape of his good friend for one sole purpose. Amir felt that he had to betray his own half-brother to gain th...
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.
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
Betrayal is one of the most prominent themes in the novel The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini chose to represent this theme through the decisions and actions of the main protagonists. Both Baba and Amir chose to betray the people close to them, which resulted in major ramifications for themselves and the people around them. With their betrayals came feelings of guilt. However Amir 's guilt was exponentially more conspicuous than Baba 's. It followed him into his adult life, and the impacts were quite negative and detrimental to both his personal health and his personal relationships. Hassan, on the other hand, chose to remain loyal to those close to him, regardless of the situation or the threats placed upon him. While this resulted in major consequences, it also demonstrated his capacity for kindness, caring, and loyalty. Even though he was confronted with traumatic experiences due to his loyalty, he was able to accept it, move past it and eventually heal. In turn, although his life was short, it was filled with meaningful realizations
Amir takes advantage of Hasan because he is a Hazara and his servant. “When it comes to words Hassan is an imbecile” (29). This is when Amir first starts to belittle Hassan knowing that he is a Hazara therefore illiterate. Instead of helping his friend, Amir chooses to instead downplay him and mock Hassan. “What would you do if I hit you with this?” (92). Amir pelting Hassan with the pomegranate after he asks this question continues his betrayal because Amir knew Hassan would not do anything about it. “A loyal Hazara. Loyal as a dog” (72). Assef of all people acknowledged that Hassan was loyal to Amir. This in some ways makes Amir as disgusting as Assef but it there are worse instances of betrayal by Amir.
Amir overhears this and is very troubled that Baba doesn’t approve of him. To Amir, this is a realization that he is a coward and his father notices it. Later in the book, Amir sees Hassan being raped and he is contemplating jumping in and being courageous because he says, “I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be” (Hosseini, 77). Amir realizes that he has to decide “who I am”....
Amir is a man who is haunted by the demons of his past. This is first shown in the opening lines of the novel “I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but 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 pg.#) These opening lines of the novel foreshadow what is yet to come. You can see that Amir looking back at the past with an attempt to justify why he is the man he is today. In the winter of 1975 it was the final round of the Kite Running tournament when Hassan choice to run the last kite for Amir. In doing so Hassan is corner by Assef and his gang who question Hassan’s loyalty to Amir. They give Hassan the choice to give them the kite in exchange to do no harm to him or to...
The only reason that Hassan got raped was that he was trying to get a kite for Amir. Now the kite acts a reminder to Hassan of his wrong-doing and it will now begin to haunt him for a long time. Although when in America, Amir does not get reminded about Hassan, deep inside he still feels guilty. Amir immediately begins to feel the most guilt when he goes to Iran when Rahim Khan, Amir’s childhood friend, asks him to come. He feels that Rahim Khan has reminded him of his “past of unatoned sins”(Hosseini 2).
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
A large part of the novel deals with Amir trying to redeem himself. First with his Baba by trying to win the kite fighting tournament because Amir feels as though his father blames him for his mothers death. The the larger act of redemption occurs when trying to rid himself of the guilt of letting Hassan be rape...