Forgiving the Unforgivable
Guilt is something that causes definite hardships and suffering to the person him or herself concerning whether that guilt-inducing act is forgivable or not. It is also common to feel resentful towards oneself, especially when they know they deserve every last bit of suffering coming to them. Although everyone is likely to make mistakes, someone's intentional actions can lead to severe damage that cannot be forgiven. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini involves the main character, Amir, who attempts to gain his worthiness back, yet his sins are not truly atoned as he betrays his friendship with Hassan a countless amount of times, as well as causes other extremely unacceptable events, eventually leading to Hassan and
…show more content…
Consequently, because Hassan, Sofia and Ali are all killed after they decide to move back into Baba’s house due to the Taliban, Hassan’s son Sohrab is sent to an orphanage where he becomes severely depressed. Although Amir wasn’t the one who did the action killing, Amir certainly cannot atone his sins as he is the catalyst of Hassan and Ali dying in the first place. Despite all this, Amir is ignorant about this and states, “And I would have told, except that a part of me was glad. Glad that this would all be over with soon. Baba would dismiss them, there would be some pain, but life would move on. I wanted that, to move on, to forget, to start with a clean slate. I wanted to be able to breathe again” (9.29). It seems that Amir himself feels that he has been redeemed, however in this situation, there should a constant feeling of not doing enough to atone for what has been done. He should not spend his life dwelling on what he did, but he definitely did not do enough for Hassan or his son to be able to atone for what he did. While Amir did a fairly good deed to help Sohrab by adopting him, he was still originally planning on escaping to America to start a new life. Furthermore, Sohrab tried to commit suicide as a result of Amir going back on his promise to keep him safe from orphanages. Soraya lost her right to the truth when Amir kept his past a secret even though she opened up to him about hers. It is one thing to destroy your own life with guilt, but it is a completely different issue when you destroy the lives of others. Amir constantly tries to push away his problems rather than address them. Moreover, when he attempts to rescue Sohrab from Assef, he is useless most of the time as he also fails to defeat Assef, Sohrab was actually the one who did most of the work, helping and taking care of Amir instead. In fact, regardless of how Amir felt about
Because he was ashamed of what he did. This quote explains how he ruins their trust between Hassan and Amir, “I went into Hassan's living quarters. I lifted the Hassan's pillow and placed the watch under it and a handful of afghan dollar bills”(91). Amir was brought into his father's office after this event with Hassan and Ali crying in the room. Shortly after ali made Baba take them to a bus station leaving Amir with guilt because of what he did. Another example is when Amir had promised Sohrab that he would never be taken back but he lied about his promise: “Sohrab it's only for a short period of time but you have to be placed in an orphanage until we get this sorted out”(342). This event lead to Sohrab losing all trust in Amir, making them lose the little connection the had.
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
To atone for his past sins, he embarks on a journey back to Afghanistan to redeem himself to Hassan for not treating him the way he was treated. He redeems himself by saving Sohrab and giving him a safer and enjoyable life in the Untied States. Amir tyres to attain redemption to baba for being the cause of his mother’s death as he believes. Gaining his fathers love and care will make him feel redeemed from all of the resentment and lack of care that his father shows to him. He must prove to Baba that he is worthy of spending time with everyday because he feels the hatred that his father shows to him. One way how he gets redemption from his father is by winning the kite running tournament to prove to him that he is worthy of being his son. Amir’s path of redemption is not only directed to other people but personal redemption for himself. He attempts to redeem himself by building an orphanage with his wife Soraya and giving Sohrab the childhood that is safer and more suitable for a young boy to grow up in. Amir has to realize that the past doesn’t define who someone is although you can’t forget the past, the actions that they decide to do to redeem themselves from the past mistakes defines who someone is. If Amir’s mother did not die at birth would he be resented from his father greatly and have to make great
Amir makes mistakes and hurts his friend Hassan, and immediately afterwards he felt guilt, and wanted forgiveness, but Hassan acted like Amir did nothing, which bothered Amir even worse. And that lasted on, throughout his childhood he’s constantly upset about what he has done to Hassan, he doesn’t feel like it can be fixed. And he strives to do things throughout the novel to achieve that. One good deed he does trying to be good again, was when he goes back home, he is at a house with Farid and
Redemption of Guilt Guilt is a result of sin, and sin is a result of misaction. In the novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the protagonist, Amir, goes on a journey to redeem himself for his sins. When Amir was 12, he witnessed his best friend, Hassan, get raped in an alley. Instead of standing up for his friend, Amir ran away in selfishness and cowardice. The guilt of his choice plagues Amir for the rest of his life, until one day, he gets a call from an old uncle, who tells him that “there is a way to be good again.”
Amir throughout the novel always felt guilty for not sticking up for Hassan especially when Assef raped Hassan in the alleyway. Amir 's guilt during this time made it hard for him to even be around Hassan because he didn 't know how to feel except guilty. Amir started treating Hassan very distant from him and doing things that would eventually ruin their friendship such as stop talking to him, hitting him with pomegranates, and trying to frame him as a thief (Chapter 8). Rahim Khan who played a very important role in the lives of Hassan and Amir felt guilty for keeping the secret about how the two boys were actually half brothers ( Chapter 17) . The secret was discovered once Amir returned to Afghanistan, this was part of the reason Rahim Khan disappeared after Amir left his house to go find Sohrab. Throughout the book Amir 's actions affected how he treated and dealt with everyone else. Amir 's actions often made him feel guilty because he didn 't stick up for himself or others. Amir 's actions such as when he asked Hassan “You’d do that? Eat dirt if I told you too” especially made him feel guilty because Hassan would do anything Amir asked of him (Chapter
Amir's actions showed how much of a coward he was. Amir suffered his whole life living with the guilt of knowing that Hassan was raped, much like Baba lived his whole life in guilt knowing that he stole the truth from Ali by committing adultery. Baba ran from the truth, and so did Amir to protect the family name, even if that meant betraying the people closest to him. Baba was a man more worried about his image than anything, and that is what he taught his son as well. Slowly that is all Amir knew how to do: protect his family and himself, leading him into a life of guilt, and running from people when situations were challenging, instead of making the admirable decision and help a
Baba told Rahim Khan, "I remember he said to me ‘Rahim, a boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up for anything." (Hosseini 221) Baba may have been a little hypocritical when it came to his relationship with Amir, but deep down inside he knew he had to teach Amir how to be a man of his mistakes. Amir could not get forgiveness from Hassan because he was already dead. But what Amir could do is make things right with God first and asking God for forgiveness. Rahim Khan says Amir, “I know that in the end, God will forgive. He will forgive your father, me, and you too. I hope you can do the same. Forgive your father if you can. Forgive me if you wish. But most important, forgive yourself.” (Hosseini 302) God does not hold grudges so neither should Amir. That’s why Amir went back to Kabaul to find Hassan’s son even though he was a Hazara boy. Amir knew from experience that nobody deserved to live a life like how Hassan did especially not his nephew. When Amir found Sohrab he found forgiveness with God
The climax for his journey was here when after all of the emotional pain that went on you see for the first time him truly happy. Truly satisfied. “For you, a thousand times over,” I heard myself say. Then I turned and ran. It was only a smile, nothing more… A tiny thing… But I’ll take it. With open arms.” Going back to what Hassan said to Amir in the beginning of the book we are seeing repetition with Amir and Hassans son. It is heartwarming to Amir that he finally got a smile out of Sohrab after the pain they’ve both experienced. Subconsciously he goes back to his good memories, the ones that allowed him to feel loved by someone who shouldn’t have. I believe he says that for Hassan, giving him a slight bit of
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.
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
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.” – Voltaire. Guilt is an emotion that comes from believing that you were responsible for a particular mistake (usually the violation of some moral code) whether or not this guilt is accurate. In the novel The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir portrays guilt as being destructive. Amir’s experience leads to him feeling guilty for the rest of his life. This guilt breaks up the relationships he once had, it also affects the people around him. In the novel The Kite Runner, Khlaed uses Amir to show how violence leads to betrayal, then guilt and at some point destroys relationships between people. This is mostly proved in the novel by the impact of violence on Amir which leads him to betray Hassan his only friend, Amir’s reactions towards Hassan by not helping him turns into guilt and it all leads to the turning point for Amir, Hassan, Baba (Amir’s father) and Ali (Hassan’s father).
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
In retrospect, as time progresses and the burden of redemption increases, Amir goes to the further extremes to receive forgiveness from Hassan. He acknowledges that Hassan will only be truly happy and exonerate him once Sohrab, his son, is. This is why when at the end of the novel Amir states, 'It was only a smile, nothing more... but I'll take it' is so significant. As previously Sohrab attempted to commit suicide, he is now finally content. As the novel concludes the pressure is removed from Amir which is why his narration is at its most reliable.
...a kite for Amir to put a smile on his face, and now that Hassan passed away, Amir is left with Sohrab who he repeats the same action with. In a way Amir did not truly find redemption as he was only trying to free himself from the consequences of sin rather than change for the better. In conclusion, redemption is so important because it frees a person from the sin and suffering they have endured.