Is There More Value in Forgiveness or Vengeance?
There are two types of people in every given situation, the one who forgives and the one who seeks retribution for whatever deed is done. Everyone’s fate is sealed when they they decide which person they want to be and more often than not they choose the person who fits them in the heat of the moment, the person of vengeance. In the novel The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, the reader is immersed into the world of Kabul with Amir, who is constantly faced with choosing what kind of person he wants to be due to his Father’s inability to shower him with the affection he craves and thanks to his insecurities that plague him and cause him to lash out on Hassan, one of the people in his
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life who truly cares for him. These details all come together in a horrifying series of events that leaves everyone affected in the worst way, but slowly it gets better by doing one thing; forgiving. For the purpose of understanding why the value of forgiveness is far greater than vengeance due to its ability to mend old wounds and open new paths, three quotes from The Kite Runner story will be used. To start, the first quote in The Kite Runner that shows the value in virtue is found after Amir watches Hassan get raped by Assef and held down by the other bullies. He becomes consumed with the guilt of what he had done, with what he failed to do for the boy he grew up with. It came to a point where Amir couldn’t be in the same room as Hassan without the air around him thickening and being transported back to that place in the alleyway. Knowing this, Amir decides that the only way for one of them to survive is for the other to leave, which brings the reader to the following quote “I waited another thirty minutes. Then I knocked on Baba’s door and told what I hoped would be the last in a long line of shameful lies”(Hosseini 104). Amir plants money in Hassan’s hut in order to get him and Ali to leave and while Baba’s forgives Hassan for what he claimed to do, Ali insists that they need to leave. Hassan continued to give Amir loyalty and love, even after all that he had done, but there was no stopping Amir from choosing vengeance at this time. This can be taken as Amir’s attempts at revenge for making him feel so awful about himself, for making him realise he’ll never be the man Baba tries to mold him to be. The value of virtue is important here because if Amir had chosen to forgive Hassan and Baba for making him feel these emotions, then he wouldn’t have tried to do everything he could to get Baba’s full attention. Even sacrifice Hassan’s innocence and Baba’s happiness at that moment. Eventually Amir is able to bury his past in America, more specifically Fremont.
He builds a life with a career and wife he is able to call his own, until he gets an unexpected call from Rahim Khan who was friends with his late father and also served as a sort of mentor to Amir when he was a child. Rahim Khan sends Amir on a journey to search for Hassan’s now orphaned son in Afghanistan in order to be good again and make up for the treatment of his now dead friend. It is on this journey when Amir is faced with an old demon, Assef, who has taken Hassan’s son and preformed unspeakable acts upon him. Assef agrees to give Hassan’s son, Sohrab, over to him in exchange for settling old conflicts. This is Assef’s fatal flaw, his need for vengeance that pushed him to rape Hassan as a child and will now push him to attack Amir as an adult. The reason this moment brings up a quote that highlights the value of virtue is due to what happens as Assef is beating Amir to the point of near death. “The slingshot made a thwiiiii sound when Sohrab released the cup. Then Assef was screaming. He put his hand where his left eye had just been a moment ago. Blood oozed between his fingers” (Hosseini 291). In this instance, Assef chose to be the person who seeks vengeance and as a result he his eye popped from his skull the same way Sohrab’s father had threatened to do when they were kids. His lack of virtue shows just how detrimental not letting go of pent up resentment can …show more content…
be. Baba was a thief who stole Amir’s right to the truth when he was still alive.
Rahim Khan, in his dying months, had been the one to not only send Amir to search for Hassan’s son, but to also help Amir discover the truth that they had been hiding for so long. Hassan had been Amir’s half brother all along and Baba hid this fact due to his place in Afghan society, he was a rich pashtun man, having a child with a Hazara woman would tarnish his reputation. Baba’s attempts at suppressing his urge to treat Hassan like his son caused him to take his frustrations out on Amir, who lacked all the qualities Hassan and Baba had. He wasn’t assertive, athletic, or able to stand up for himself and all his life Amir resented Baba for making him feel like he wasn’t enough. In The Kite Runner there is a scene where the adult Amir looks back on Baba and doesn’t feel sad or angry, he just feels the content emotions of forgiveness. “The half that, maybe, in the lost secret recesses of his heart, Baba had thought of as his true son. I slipped the picture back where I found it. Then I realized something: That last thought had brought no sting with it. Closing Sohrab’s door, I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night” (Hosseini 359). This content feeling of acceptance highlights just how powerful virtue can be in Amir’s life. When he was younger, Amir’s lack
of virtue is what led him to his downfall. Now, as a man who has learned from his mistakes, he is able to grow out his need to be the apple of his father’s eye and the object of affection, he can accept that Baba had most likely seen Hassan as more of his son than Amir. The lack of vengeance in him leads Amir to a life full of understanding and virtue that eventually helps him and Sohrab. With a novel such as The Kite Runner, the author is presenting two types of people in everyone. The one who is virtuous and the other who demands vengeance. The side of virtue seems to be the one that leads to less regret and hurt compared to the vengeance route. This can be seen in the three assorted quotes that all exemplify how the character who had insisted to use vengeance as the answer was only left with a bigger problem. Amir’s vengeance towards Hassan, Assef’s vengeance for Amir, and Amir’s forgiveness for Baba were all used to prove one thing. There is more value in virtue than vengeance. For the groups of people who continue to harbor ill feelings towards someone, it is crucial to know that nothing in life that has hurt them is truly not worth holding onto and milling over time and time again.
This quote, an excerpt from the letter Rahim Khan wrote to Amir, reveals the inner torment Baba faced regarding his two sons, whom he didn’t know how to love fairly, and the guilt he carried for fathering an illegitimate son, guilt that is reminiscent of Amir’s guilt for betraying Hassan. All his life, Baba had been hard on Amir, withholding the fatherly affection Amir longed for, but, as Rahim reveals, this was also hard on Baba. Baba wanted to be able to show affection to both of his sons, but didn’t know how when one of his sons was illegitimate and the other represented everything that made him feel guilty. In this quote, it is also apparent that Baba is much more like Amir than either of them thought. Baba harbored guilt for betraying Ali, just as Amir suffered guilt for betraying Hassan.
After some misgivings, Amir agrees to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, from an orphanage in Kabul. Amir even squares off against a Talib official who is actually Assef. In order to save Sohrab, Amir has to fight Assef, but Amir get beaten up badly by Assef. Amir can be seen as good because of what he done, he risked his life and almost got killed by Assef, but Sohrab saved Amir by shooting him in the eye with a slingshot. Even though Amir didn’t do anything good in his childhood and most of his adulthood too. He could have only saved Sohrab out of guilt and maybe some good intentions of actually being thought of as a good person for once, “Sometimes, I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.” (302). Amir is trying to redeem himself after all these years of being a coward and it pays off in the long
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.
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
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...
Redemption is gaining honor and self-forgiveness through a selfless act that reflects off of one’s regretful actions of their past. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Amir is the main character who goes through many life struggles and mistakes, then finds himself on a road to redemption. Amir and Hassan were best friends throughout their childhood and Hassan was the honorable, trusting best friend, the one to always take a stand for what he believed was right. Amir’s lack of courage caused him to stay silent in the worst of times, letting Hassan get tortured for the things he did not deserve. The themes of sacrifice, honor and redemption are carried out in many ways throughout this novel being shown through the actions of Hassan, Baba, and Amir.
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
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,
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...
Amir wakes up after fighting Assef in the hospital thinking about Sohrab, “for some reason I can’t think of I want to thank the child” (Hosseini 293). Sohrab is the first thing Amir thinks of when he wakes up in a groggy state in hospital. Sohrab was willing to attempt to save Amir’s life, a man he barely knew, even though it meant risking his own life. In this way, he was able to not only physically save Amir but also mentally because he allows Amir to complete his mission and redeem himself. While struggling against Assef, Amir thinks, “...for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace...I hadn’t been happy and I hadn’t felt better, not at all. But I did now. My body was broken...but I felt healed. Healed at last.” (Hosseini 289). Sohrab feels guilty for what he did to Assef, although it saved himself and Amir. Amir tells him, “There are bad people in this world, some people stay bad. Sometimes you have to stand up for them. What you did to that man is what I should have done to him all those years ago. You gave him what he deserved. He deserved more” (Hosseini 319). While talking to Sohrab, Amir acknowledges that he was wrong and that he could have avoided all his guilt, if he had only stepped in against Assef. But he had not, so part of Amir making up for his sins was to stand up to Assef, and win a fight against him. However, in the end, Sohrab is the one
Guilt is a strong emotion that affects many people around the world. It can either lead people into a deep and dark abyss that can slowly deteriorate people or it can inspire them to achieve redemption. Guilt and redemption are two interrelated subjects that can show the development of the character throughout a novel. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, are two literary works that convey the connections between guilt and redemption and show the development of the character by using theme and symbolism that are present in the novels.
Forgiveness and redemption make up considerable parts of our lives, as we all make mistakes. For some of these mistakes, we need to atone ourselves and gain forgiveness of either ourselves or another individual. Many times, we make big decisions based receiving forgiveness for the past mistakes we have made. This theme of forgiveness and atonement is also conveyed in the Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini. Forgiveness and atonement is a significant theme throughout the Kite Runner because it causes many of the major events in the story, which is illustrated when characters do certain actions or make decisions driven by the possibility of atonement or forgiveness.