Emotional Deceit and Changed Minds
Betrayal is probably the most devastating loss someone can experience. To get betrayed, one has to place their trust on someone else and it hurts considerable when the person they trusted put their self-interests first and tore their trust. It not only breaks people’s hearts but also their trust. Betrayals also have unintended effects because everyone reacts with different levels of emotion when someone they trusted and loved broke their implicit trust of always being there for them. It also changes the deceiver because guilt drives them to change in order to redeem themselves. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, there are many betrayals found in the book and it affects the characters differently.
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Alex Lickerman, a doctor, writes about how breaking a promise affecting him in “Redemption”. This 2011 article highlights the thought process of one who betrays, as well as how to acquire redemption. In a 2013 article, “Great Betrayals”, psychiatrist Anna Fels writes about how great betrayals affects victims. Everyone should avoid betraying the people they trust because it causes more pain than happiness and also it changes people involved.The consequences of betraying someone causes inner turmoil and changes the betrayer’s and the victim’s character, so, therefore, a person should try to avoid betraying and lying because the negative effects are worse than what they gain from deceiving a person. No one likes admitting their crimes especially if they betrayed a loved one in the process. The first stage of betrayal for a betrayer is justification. The deceiver will alway try to find reasons as to why they did something or didn’t do something. People don’t like admitting their own faults to themselves so why in the world would they admit it to someone else. In the Kite Runner, Amir betrays Hassan by not preventing rape incident from happening, all because he wanted to bring the kite home in order to win his Baba’s affection. However after he didn’t do anything, he tried to justify his actions: “I ran because I was a coward.” (Hussaini 77). Amir defended his actions to himself by saying, he’s just a Hazara,” but in the end, he was unable to make peace with his actions (Hussaini 77). In “Redemption”, Alex wrote about how he betrayed someone and after “[he tried to] rationalize [his decision] by arguing that [he didn’t] want to make the promise in the first place but was pressured into it.” Both Amir and Alex Lickermanboth tried to make their decision more acceptable by making excuses to defend their actions. These are just two examples of how deceivers try to justify why they broke someone’s trust. They do this in order to prevent themselves from feeling bad and prevent self-hatred. Alex and Amir’s deception makes them experience inner turmoil because they can’t forget it. When a deceiver realizes the wrongness of his actions, his subconscious makes sure that he or she doesn’t forget.
Betrayals can cause someone to hate oneself. Whether the wrongdoer realizes his misdeed or not, a betrayal will always have consequences, no matter the intentions. For example breaking someone’s trust can deteriorate relationship. This fact is proven in both the Kite Runner and Alex Lickerman’s article, “Redemption.” After betraying their friends, both Amir and Alex lost their friends. Some people become the victims of their own mind because their mind is constantly reminding them of what they did. People who experience this will try to escape from this by pushing away people that remind them of their mistakes. Like for example Amir pushes Hassan away because he did not want to be reminded constantly of his betrayal: “I want you to stop harassing me. I want you to go away!”(Hosseini 88). Hassan reminds Amir of what he did and since Amir doesn’t want to face them, he tries to make Hassan leave. Carrying around burdens of things that someone isn’t proud of, like actions that harmed others, make them lose faith in goodness and self-esteem (Lickerman 2). Betrayal causes inner agitation because you feel guilty and which makes you lose faith in oneself. The only way to decrease this mental battle is by focusing on positive things and trying to do good things. This helps because it is a way of balancing the bad deeds with the good deeds which make people feel better and cause changes in their behavior. Amir’s betrayal changed him because he is not a selfish person anymore. His relentless guilt causes him to be kinder and selfless; He planted a “fistful of crumpled money under the mattress” when he realized that Wahid, an Afghanistan whose house Amir stayed in, didn’t have food for his family (242). Alex Lickerman wrote that one path to redeeming oneself is to “aim to improve [themselves]” which is what Amir did by growing out of his selfishness (3).
So how do victims react? Victims act differently based many factors like characteristic, beliefs and what relationship they have with the person who betrayed them. Victims’ willingness to forgive depends on many factors also like the characteristic of their relationship with the perpetrator and their own personal characteristics. Hassan was raised to be forgiving and care for others by his father. He learned not to hold things to his heart because he was constantly being discriminated for being a Hazara. So when Amir betrayed him twice, Hassan still forgave him because he’s a selfless person: “He knew [Amir] had betrayed him and yet he rescued him once again” (Hosseini 105). Also, he was quick to forgive because he loved Amir and would do anything for him. “After a year, victims are counseled to move on, to put it all behind them and stay focused on the future” (Fels 3). Victims are faced with a difficult decision of forgiving their perpetrators or holding a grudge. The best thing is to left go because that is the only way people can heal. Hassan moves because he would not heal in that environment because Amir might hurt Hassan by his attitude and actions again. Another type of betrayals is one that reveals a truth that shakes people’s reality. This makes people question their past and go over each and everything in order to see what was really happening: “New information disrupts their sense of their own past, undermining the veracity of their personal history”(Fels 2). When Amir finds out that Hassan was his half-brother, he felt naive and went over past events with this new knowledge: “How could I have been so blind? The signs had been there [like] Baba never missing Hassan’s birthday” (Husseini 225). Victims react differently based on the type of betrayals among other factors. Both victims and perpetrators go through a difficult time in order to heal themselves and forget or at least redeem themselves. A betrayer will try to justify his action but if he is unable to there's a lot of consequences. The consequences of betraying can include guilt, destroyed relationship and make perpetrators experience inner turmoil. Victim’s reaction differs based on many variables and the betrayal can change a victim's perception of reality. The only way to avoid causing this pain is to avoid betraying others. Avoid betraying others because it won’t give you happiness . It’ll cause more harm than gain .
In some situations, people become violent because of their emotions. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior leaves his school on the reservation to go to an all white high school. His Indian friends feel betrayed. He joins the basketball team at his new school and the first game is against the reservation team. The Indian crowd throws things at him and he needs stitches on his forehead. During the game, as Junior jumped into the air, he “heard the curses of 200 Spokanes, and saw only a bright light as Rowdy smashed his elbow into my head and knocked me unconscious”. (pg 146) After Junior left the Reservation, Rowdy felt betrayed, and became violently angry. His emotion of betrayal caused him to turn on Junior and act more evil. This is especially hard on him because Junior was his best friend.
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.
The Kite Runner is a book about a young boy, Amir, who faces many struggles as he grows up in Kabul and later moves to America to flee from the Taliban. His best friend and brother , Hassan, was a big part of his life, but also a big part of guilt he held onto for many years. The book describes Amir’s attempt to make up for the past and resolve his sins so he can clear his conscious. Amir is worthy of forgiveness because although he was selfish, he was very brave and faced his past.
In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini he uses many works of literature that contain a character, Baba, who intentionally deceives other. Baba is seen has the man who can do no wrong, he helps out people, gave people jobs and more. He always use to tell Amir to never sin and that stealing something away from someone is the worst sin you can do. He could do no wrong right? Babs past decisions of dishonesty towards Amir, Hassan, and Ali have already caused great sin. Is the result of the pressure of Afghan society to blame? In Afghan cultures a man’s honor, ethnicity, and family name are paramount. Well, it can be shown in these three areas of Baba life, Baba life in America, Amir going back to visit Rahim Khan, and
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
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.
Right before he goes to run the blue kite, Hassan says to Amir, “For you a thousand times over!” (Hosseini 67). This is one of the most significant quotes in the novel, The Kite Runner by the number one New York Times bestselling author Khaled Hosseini. This quote means to do anything, no matter what deed or task, however many times for a person. A common phrase exchanged between loyal friends or partners. Speaking of loyalty, this is one of the main themes present within The Kite Runner. Quite frequently and especially in this novel, loyalty often comes with the reality of (ADD MORE) In the novel, The Kite Runner by author Khaled Hosseini, the theme of loyalty is present throughout the book and especially
According to dictionary.com betrayal means "an act of deliberate disloyalty,”. Betrayal is something that is very prevalent throughout the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini which is a story about the betrayal that a young boy named Amir does to his friend Hassan. Amir shows that he is a betrayer to Hassan when he belittles, plots, refuses to acknowledge their friendship, and walks away from Hassan. With each betrayal listed they progressively get worse and worse as Amir continues to show how little he really cares for Hassan.
Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, from minor to major mistakes. But the most important part is not the mistake itself, but how hard that person is trying to fix that mistake. This also applies to the novel The Kite Runner. The story revolves around the main character Amir, and his childhood friend, Hassan. After Amir came to America with Baba, his father, he still regrets the things he had done to his childhood friend. He left Hassan getting raped by Assef in a small alley in 1975. Thereafter, Amir always feel regret and seeks for redemption. Hosseini -the author, argues that redemption can be achieved by helping others, teach others not to repeat the same mistake and acknowledge your mistake and try to fix it.
Betrayal, redemption, and forgiveness are all major themes in The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini. The novel also focuses around the theme of a broken relationship between father and son as well as facing difficult situations from ones past. Amir and Hassan are best friends with two completely different personalities. Each character in the novel faces their own hardships and eventually learns to overcome those difficulties. Beginning with betrayal then the characters have to make their way to gaining redemption and forgiveness from others, as well as their self, is carried on throughout the novel. It is a continuous story of the relationships between Amir and his father Baba and facing their challenges from the past every day of their present.
The themes of the loss of innocence and redemption is used throughout the novel The Kite Runner to make a point that one can lose innocence but never redeem it. Once innocence is lost it takes a part of oneself that can never be brought back from oblivion. One can try an entire life to redeem oneself but the part that is loss is permanently gone although the ache of it can be dampened with the passing of time and acts of attempted redemption. Khaled Hosseini uses characters, situations, and many different archetypes to make this point.
...achieves redemption and finally succeeds in overcoming his guilt. Hosseini uses this struggle to persuade those who feel extreme guilt for a wrongdoing to seek forgiveness and to help others in need. The author emphasizes that atoning one’s sins comes from reaching out to others. He expresses this when Amir offers to help Sohrab and he rids himself of guilt from his former relationship with Hassan. In addition, Hosseini writes to those who challenge the ideals of society in order to encourage them to create and follow their own values. The author uses Amir’s struggle in his relationship with Baba and his acceptance with Amir’s writing career to demonstrate this idea. Throughout his novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini develops a main character that questions his decisions, yet conforms to societal ideals to represent his theme of redemption and self-acceptance.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel based in Afghanistan that shows the betrayal between two boys with two different social backgrounds. Four years later “The Kite Runner” was filmed by David Benioff, which shows the meaningful message that the book delivers in a movie. Throughout the book and movie, Amir the protagonist must live the rest of his life with guilt from his childhood. Although the movie gave the same meaningful message that the book delivered, the book was further developed, which had more detail and kept the readers wanting more. Ultimately these details that were present in the novel gave the readers a better understanding of the characters, which led to the relationships
“For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first” ( Suzanne Collins). Suzanne Collins is an American television writer and author, best known for her best selling novel, Hunger Games. Collins explains that, for betrayal to occur, there would need to be a friendship, or feeling of trust. Since Jack quickly left Ralph when he couldn’t be leader, and fear of beast rose, Jack betrays Ralph by putting his personal needs over his loyalty to him.
Sometimes when people betray others they will sometimes regret what they did or said. That is where guilt comes into the picture, and a sense of guilt is felt which is horrible. In the novel ‘The Kite Runner’ this occurs throughout it. This quote expresses this “There is a way to be good again”- Rahim Khan, the significance of this is that Rahim is saying that there is a way; forgiveness ties into this because you can forgive yourself, you just have to learn how to. Going back to betrayal/ forgiveness.