There are always moments or events that occur in someone’s life that stay with the individual into adulthood. We often try to forget these things that make us feel guilt or anxiety, but in reality we never really lose the impact that event has made on us. The Kite Runner is an emotional story about two boys whose lives are shaped dramatically by the political and social tensions that existed in Afghanistan during the 1970s. It is a story that highlights the danger of hiding behind lies and putting one’s own needs before that of another’s. Amir, the main character and narrator begins his journey to redemption by indicating that all his attempts to forget his past have failed. Amir is forced to reflect on his troubled childhood and past mistakes, …show more content…
Amir attempts to bury this event, lying to hide his cowardice from his father, leading to a lifetime of cover up lies and guilt over what he should have done that day. When Amir says “that the past continues to claw its way out”, he understands that as much as he tried to bury the past and forget, he was unsuccessful. Amir’s feelings of guilt continue throughout his life. Images of that day are triggered easily for Amir. The moment of betrayal in this friendship is when Amir hides the watch his father had given him on his birthday under Hassan’s mattress and accuses Hassan of stealing it. This results in the end of their friendship, as well as the end of the relationships between Baba, Ali and Hassan forever. Hassan does not tell Baba about Amir’s actions, showing his loyalty to his friend (and brother) until the very end – and this too is something that haunts Amir every day. The attempt at gaining a close relationship with Baba is soon realised as unachievable and Amir is left with loneliness and no one to hear …show more content…
Amir chooses to risk his life in the hope that he can get him back and discovers that Assef is the one who is holding Sohrab captive and is abusing him in the same way he abused his father. This is yet again another example of how the past, if not dealt with, can be repeated. Amir did not stand up to him in the past and now his feud against Amir and Hassan was directed at Sohrab, an innocent child. Amir has the opportunity to do what he did not in the past and stand up to Assef. In the past Assef had said, “this isn’t the end for you either Amir. Someday I’ll make you face me one on one.” Assef is the beast that claws his way out of Amir’s past but this time he stands up to him. The beating Amir cowardly avoided in the past is now experienced and he makes up for his past wrongs; but Amir is again saved, not by Hassan this time but when Sohrab shoots Assef in the eye with a slingshot. This is one of many parallels in this story that emphasise that the past has a way of repeating itself until people do the right
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
the crime. Hassan and his father Ali, to Baba's extreme sorrow, decide that it's time to leave.
On his journey to save Sohrab, Amir discovers that a Taliban official took him from the orphanage. When meeting with that Taliban official, who turns out to be his childhood nemesis Assef, Amir is placed in a situation where he is forced to choose between fleeing from the enemy and saving Hassan’s son. The structure of this scenario is analogous to one earlier in the book when Amir had to choose between saving Hassan by standing up for him and repairing the relationship with his father by bringing the blue kite back. The author uses the similar setting with Assef and the similarities in characterization of father and son in order to provide Amir with the opportunity to make the choice to stand up for what he believes in. When Amir allowed Hass...
Amir gets more upset after this, thinking he can’t possibly fix this anymore. But he realizes he has one final chance at redemption, saving Hassan’s son, Sohrab. He needs to save Sohrab. Once he gets to where he is being held, he realizes Sohrab has been made into a sex slave for the Taliban.
However, Amir’s happy day turns dark, when an hour later, he witnesses Hassan, his best friend, raped in an alley. He had “one final opportunity to decide who [he] was going to be”. 77. Instead of standing up for his friend and loyal servant, he runs like “a coward.” 77.
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
As a young boy he made the wrong decision in life by letting Hassan get raped, which led to his guilt. The guilt grew to the point where Hassan and Ali had to move out of Baba’s house and start a new life away from Amir. Hassan’s son Sohrab is a significant character who represents Amir’s hope for redemption. Sohrab led to Amir’s redemption by giving Amir the opportunity to do good for his past actions. On the quest for redemption, Amir achieves the redemption he desired through his fight with Assef.
He was a shy kid who depended on other people to stand up for him. For example Baba and Hassan. His guilt changed him. When Rahim Khan said “A way to be good again” (192). The chance came up for Amir to do something about his guilt. He took his chance. That was the first time in his life he stood up for something he believed in his life. Amir’s guilt negatively affected him before, but when he went to Afghanistan his guilt changed him positively. Amir, now able to stand up for what he believed in, wanted to fix his wrong, and he felt going to meet with Rahim Khan would help him. This change was not temporary for the time in Afghanistan. When he returned to the United States, General Taheri questioned Amir about bringing back a Hazara boy. When Amir said “You will never refer to him as a ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s Sohrab” (361), Amir stood up for himself, Sohrab, and his father at that time. Standing up for himself and others signifies the change in Amir’s personality caused by
Amir rescued Sohrab by accepting Assef's challenge for the last standing. When Amir was getting beat up by Assef he started to laugh because, “I saw that, in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d been looking forward to this,” Amir happiest in a painful moment was the climax for his redemption (Hosseini 289). After this event, Amir had helped and defended Sohrab and never gave up on him when he was mute. Amir’s redemption was significant to his twelve year old self because, the younger version of him would not have defended Hassan as he did with Sohrab.
Typically, Hassan took the blame for most of the shenanigans, so when Amir becomes accountable for the blame he does not know how to handle it. The incident forces Amir to deal with the consequences of his actions, and he realizes how important choices are. Even when Rahim Kahn reminds Amir, “‘You 've always been far too hard on yourself’” (222), Amir ignores him. Although many people commit sins, Amir only focuses on his. He also does not share his burden with anyone else, so the sin occupies every part of his brain. It continues to fester for over thirty years because he never allows it out. Even after he moves to America, Amir loses sleep from the guilt, “I lay awake, an insomniac once more . . . Alone with demons of my own” (358). Unfortunately, only Amir can hear the blaring guilt because he misses the opportunities to tell others for fear of losing his precious reputation. Once he admits to the General, “‘That boy sleeping on the couch . . . He’s my nephew . . . You will never refer to him as a ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence’” (361), he truly redeems himself. Amir feels redemption because he finally stands up for what is right, like his father would have done. Amir earns the lasting praise he has continued to yearn for and surpasses his father’s expectations, truly making him
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
Amir recalls an event that had happened to him in 1975. The time period that they are living in is in December 2001. He was twelve years old when he experienced. It was a negative thing that happened to him because he does not say the exact event. “There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 1). Amir said that the event made him who he is as a better person. "I become 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. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years" (Hosseini 1, 2). Amir and his best friend, Hassan, used to do everything together when they were children. They were like two peas in a pod. Whatever Amir would do, Hassan would b...
Amir’s struggle with the morality of his decisions allows him to grow as a character. Amir had always feared Assef and was not able to bring himself to stand up to him. Baba always criticized this inability claiming that “‘a boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything’” (Hosseini, 24). In the alley,
Because of Amir’s extreme desire to receive the attention and affection from Baba, he begins to subconsciously sacrifice his relationship with Hassan in order to fulfill his interests. However, as Amir continuously matures and begins to recognize his initial ignorant, detrimental actions towards Hassan, he no longer “worship” his father like he did in the past. This causes him to ensure a sense of independence because of his ability to quickly adapt to a completely new, unfamiliar environment and remain adamant on pursuing their own aspirations.
His entire life he has dealt with his guilt. The guilt was so empowering that he’s been waiting for this moment of redemption. Redemption took him years to achieve, but it is proven to be possible. Amir has found peace within himself which solves his internal conflict of guilt and shame. According to Schoolworkhelper, “Despite his lack of action in the beginning, Amir makes a decision that changes his life, as well as the life of Sohrab, and he finally feels he is the son his father always wanted him to be” (Pg. 4).