Forgiveness In The Kite Runner

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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 …show more content…

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…

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

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