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Symbolism in the kite runner by khaled hosseini
Symbolism in the kite runner by khaled hosseini
Symbolism in the kite runner by khaled hosseini
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Betrayal is considered a form of sin by the characters of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. One of the major events in the novel that deals with betrayal is Amir’s silence about Hassan’s rape. Amir attempts to deal with his guilt of ignoring Hassan’s rape by avoiding the subject, but this clearly does nothing toward redeeming himself, therefore his guilt endures. Amir’s could shoulder towards the topic is why he still cringes every time Hassan's name is mentioned. But when Amir finds out about Baba's betrayal of Ali, he realizes that everything he thought he knew and understood about his father was false, and Amir himself feels the same betrayal that Hassan would have had he known Amir witnessed his rape. The betrayal of a loyal friend by …show more content…
I knew I was being cruel, like when I'd taunt him if he didn't know some big word. But there was something fascinating – albeit in a sick way – about teasing Hassan. Kind of like when we used to play insect torture. Except now, he was the ant and I was holding the magnifying glass.” (Hosseini, Page 47). Hosseini has Amir betray Hassan – or at least be cruel to Hassan – in all sorts of small ways, to display the motif of a corrupt master to his servant. Amir does not defend Hassan from the neighborhood boys, and when asked about their friendship, he almost blurts out that Hassan is only his servant and not a friend, essentially betraying what Hassan may have thought was his loyalty to their friendship. Amir, decades after betraying Hassan’s loyalty, learns Baba also betrayed his own best friend and servant by fathering a child (Hassan) with Ali’s wife Sanaubar. When finding this out, Amir asks Rahim Kahn; “ "Did Hassan know?" I said through lips that didn't feel like my own. Rahim Khan closed his eyes. Shook his head. [...] "Please think, Amir Jan. It was a shameful situation. People would talk. All that a man had back then, all that he was, was his honor, his name, and if people talked...We couldn't tell anyone, surely you can see that." He reached for me, but I shed his hand.”
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...
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.
Although Hassan is his best friend, there are many instances where Amir reveals his jealousy, most notable when Baba sees Hassan as the stronger boy, "self-defense has nothing to do with meanness. You know what always happens when the neighbourhood boys tease him? Hassan steps in and fends them off. I 've seen it with my own eyes…” (Hosseini 24). 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. The only way for Amir to redeem himself of his repercussions is through a challenging process of sacrifice and self-discovery. Although one is unsure at this point whether Amir succeeds at his endeavors, it is clear that this story
Your Scars and Wounds are pieces of evidence that show you are human. Your wounds and scars leave much more than a mark, it leaves a story. A story that can build you as a person, or in the least bit, change the person who suffered the extent of an injury. In The Kite Runner, the motif that stands out from the first chapter to the last, and reoccurs from chapter to chapter is the wounds and scars that all the characters have the shape the book for what it is.
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 also committed a sin that affected him negatively throughout his life. This sin occurred when Hassan, Amir’s best friend during his childhood, was getting raped by Assef. This situation occurred when the children were chasing kites. Hassan got the kite first, but Assef insisted that he wanted the kite. Assef also had a racial and religious prejudice against Hassan.
The Kite Runner is filled with many secrets that are uncovered throughout the story. Readers find out that Amir is not the only one who has a big secret, but his father, Baba, did as well. Although there is a balance between Baba and Amir’s lives, it is possible that Baba’s secret does not contain betrayal the same way Amir’s does. Baba did indeed sleep with Sanubar and as a result have Hassan. For the most part Baba’s deed seems like an act of betrayal, unless he did it on purpose.
“There is only one sin. And that is theft… When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth,” (Hosseini 225). The main character's father would say this to him try set a good example and try make the best of his son. Betrayal is an, unintentional or intentional, act of disloyalty and distrust. Throughout The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, there are constant, unintentional acts of betrayal. These characters believe they are doing what is best for them but in the end they realize they have been cheated of the truth. Being betrayed can affect people’s personalities and relationships with others. Amir’s betrayal of Hassan is a direct result of Baba’s original betrayal of both his sons.
No matter how big or small a sin is, achieving redemption is a great success. Everyone will go through some sort of betrayal, although they may be the one causing the betrayal, or the one being betrayed. The main theme of Khaled Hosseini's novel "The Kite Runner" is about the journey from sin to redemption. The main character who plays the role of the narrator, is Amir, who needs to be saved from the betrayal that he caused twenty-six years ago. In the first chapter Amir says: “[l]ooking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years” (Khaled Hosseini, pg 1). He feels this way because the betrayal haunts him, makes him crave ways to be good again. Amir has one more chance to redeem himself of sin from the past to save the life of a boy, by taking him away from the streets of where he grew up to America for a better life.
In The Kite Runner Amir makes a poor decision which will haunt him and cause him shame throughout the rest of his childhood and adulthood. When Amir was a kid an incident took place where Hassan had gotten assaulted. Amir says, “ I could step into that alley stand up for Hassan, in the end I ran” ( Hosseini 77). When he had the chance to step in for his friend he did not do anything he ran and didn’t look back. The shame of that incident paralyzed him throughout the novel. The shame behind the incident is because Amir understood that if he was in that position Hassan would have done everything and anything to help him get out of the predicament. The overpowering emotions that arose when he thought about his childhood or Hassan had an a negative impact on him. The destructive force that presented itself while Amir thought about Hassan and the assault consisted of sadness, guilt and shame.
A past full of guilt-drenched events does not compare to the realization of living one's entire life, in a prolonged lie.
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.
The only reason for Amir to feel guilty for staying silent except for the fact that he knew that it was morally unjust to not protect Hassan during the rape. Because of this, when Amir moves to America, he takes his past and guilt and tries to start anew and forget about his sin; however, the moment Rahim Khan mentions Hassan and reminds Amir of what he had failed to do, he “broke a spell” and “set [the barbs of guilt] free.” Hosseini uses this to give the reader a further understanding of Amir-- more specifically, during Amir’s time in America, he stays stagnant as a character, unable to build morals of his own due to the fact that instead of confronting his sins, he does the exact opposite. He does not fight against the guilt he feels during those peaceful years in America; instead, he hides and “live[s] on in [his] oblivion” so that when the topic resurfaces, his pain “[bears] into [him] once more,” “torment[ing] [him] anew,” forcing Amir to finally stand face to face with his own past (Hosseini 227, Hosseini 202). Rahim Khan then tells Amir that although Hassan has passed away now, “there is a way to be
Guilt is the emotion someone experiences after they have done something they believe is morally wrong. People feel guilt when they do something wrong and despite knowing better cause someone else harm, or disappoint someone. People deal with guilt in various ways, but do not necessarily admit what they have done, so they try to overcompensate and do good later on to make up for their mistakes from the past. In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini a young boy named Amir, is haunted by the sins of his past and follows his struggle with the resulting guilt. Guilt causes people to make irrational decisions because it impairs judgment and consumes a person’s life.
Moral ambiguity is lack of clarity in decision making. Basically, moral ambiguity is when you have an issue, situation, or question that has moral or ethical elements, but the morally correct action to take is unclear, due to conflicting. The author of The Kite Runner is Khaled Hosseini, the book is about a boy named Amir and how much of a easy life he has at first, but near the middle of the book his life is horrible from there to the end of the book.