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The theme of guilt in kite runner
Guilt in the kite runner essay
The theme of guilt in the kite runner essay
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“The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” – Victor Hugo. In the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Hosseini narrates the life of a wealthy boy named Amir whose life revolves the theme of betraying a best friend for the love of his father. Growing up, Amir struggles to gain his father’s love and affection. In that quest, he ruins the one friendship that haunts him for the rest of his life. As the story continues, Amir tries to move on with his life. He immigrated to the United States, got married and has a successful career as a writer. However, the guilt that he tries to suppress for years continues to bother him. Hosseini masterfully shows the psychological conflict Amir experiences when he tries to put his …show more content…
friendship with Hassan on pause, demonstrating that guilt in friendship can last for a lifetime, until it is confronted and past wrongs corrected.
Although Hassan is Amir’s family servant, they are best friends and share a bond like family. Amir enjoys hanging out with Hassan, flying kites together, and reading to Hassan. Their childhood together was very innocent and memorable. As Amir grows older he constantly tries to seek his father, Baba, love and approval. This urge for his father’s love, causes him to sacrifice the friendship with his best friend Hassan. Amir had just won the big kite flying tournament which he knows would him father proud. Hassan volunteers to retrieve the kite so Amir can show it to Baba. While doing so, Hassan ran into a bully, Assef. Amir witnesses the encounter between Hassan and Assef. He was faced with the choice to either help Hassan or the get the kite so he can impress and gain Baba’s love. He tries to convince himself by saying, “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba Was it a fair price?” (Hosseini 82). Ultimately Amir chooses his father’s love over his friendship with Hassan. He did not confront the bully, Assef, who ended
up beating and raping Hassan in the alley. Deep inside Amir does in fact feel bad for betraying Hassan and tries to do what he thinks would overcome his guilt. He thought sending Hassan away and not having to face him would help. He devised a scheme that would send Hassan away. "I lifted Hassan's mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it. 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 110). Amir thought Baba would send Hassan away when he finds out that Hassan has stolen the watch and money. While Hassan “confesses” to stealing, Baba forgive him and did not send him away. The traumatic incident that happened to Hassan in the alley and Amir’s cowardice inaction leads to a pause in a friendship between two best friends. The incident scars Amir with guilt for the rest of his life. Subsequently Amir was successful in distancing himself from Hassan when he left Kabul and immigrated to the United States with Baba. Yet, mentally the guilt continued to eat at him emotionally. In California, he pursues his passion for writing and becomes quite successful, but the guilt is constantly in the back of his mind. One day an old family friend, Rahim Khan, asks Amir to come back to Kabul to help him. When Amir meets up with Rahim Khan, he explains to Amir that he needs to go help locate Hassan’s son, Sorab. Initially. he didn’t understand why Rahim asked him, “Why me? Why do I have to do this.” It took Amir a while, but he realized that Rahim asked him to do this dangerous task to help redeem himself. Amir had just found Sorab, but he again meets the bully that raped his only friend, Hassan, Sorab’s father. Assef starts beating Amir when Amir asks for permission to take Sorab with him, it was that moment that “[his] body was broken” that he had confronted the center of all his guilt. He was standing up for Hassan’s son, he did something for once that benefitted Hassan, he selflessly sacrificed his own life for his friend and family member. At that moment, he realizes after he is beaten that he was healed, “My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.” (Hosseini 289) Amir, like Baba had sinned by what he had done, or rather what he didn’t do. This caused guilt which he attempted to hide, but the memories and the past continued to haunt him, nag at him, and remind him of the person who had loved him so much. The person that he had turned around and betrayed them in their time of need. This guilt of betrayal weighs on Amir characters throughout the story, and pushes him to seek out redemption. He longs to “be good again” and get rid of the guilt that he has carried since he was just twelve years old. This is a fantastic story about the the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons-their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
As he grows into a man and pushes his regrets to the side - though not ever completely out of his mind - he learns to live through and accept the pain he caused both himself and his best friend, Hassan. Towards the end of the novel, Amir goes to great lengths to earn the redemption he feels he needs in order to finally be at peace. The Kite Runner asks the audience what it truly means to be a good person - do we need to be born with goodness in our hearts, do we live the way that is comfortable and right according to ourselves, or do we have to constantly fail and prove that we are good?
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
While Amir is a Sunni, his childhood friend Hassan is Shi’a, an inferior division of Islam. Simultaneously, Amir and Hassan belong to different ethnic groups-Amir is Pashtun while Hassan is Hazara. During his childhood, Amir would constantly mock Hassan’s illiteracy and poke fun at him. But, the pivotal demonstration of pressure from his surroundings that makes Amir commit his own act of cruelty is when he watches Assef rape Hassan for refusing to give him the kite that Hassan caught for Amir. To this, Amir describes the look of Hassan’s face to “a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb” (76). Throughout his upbringing, Amir constantly believed that his father blamed him for killing his mother in childbirth. To Amir, Hassan’s rape is a sacrifice that Hassan has to pay the price, the lamb to kill, in order to win his father over. To justify his refusal to intervene, Amir reminds himself that “[Hassan] was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (77). Amir’s surroundings cause him to have a negative outlook on people that his society deem lower. Amir knows he is morally wrong for not helping Hassan, but his need for his father’s love overpowers his friendship. Adding to his pressures, Amir believes that Baba prefers Hassan over him, a belief that further drives him to be cruel to Hassan. As a result, Amir’s motivation for validation and love from his father
... Finally, Amir chooses to redeem himself by opting to protect Hassan’s son Sohrab. The guilt which estranged Amir from his childhood friend in a way manages to reunite him with Hassan, albeit in a different manner. Thereby, the two works that are Macbeth and The Kite Runner not only present before the humanity, the immense power and potency of guilt, but also emphatically reveal the eventual consequences of the guilt traceable to an evil act or an act of cowardice or betrayal. These two works expose the psychology of guilt in a very vivid and threadbare manner, which explains their appeal and the human interest they accrue.
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.
Assef's vow comes true during the day of Amir's favorite sport: "kite fighting". In this sport, children fly their kites and try to "slice" each other's kite. Amir wins the tournament, and Baba's praise, with his kite the last one flying, but when Hassan goes to fetch the last cut kite, a great trophy, Assef and two henchmen are there instead. Hassan tries to protect Amir's kite, but Assef beats Hassan and brutally rapes him. Amir hides and watches Hassan and is too scared to help him. Afterwards, Hassan becomes emotionally downcast. Amir knows why but keeps it a secret, and things are never the same between the two. After hearing a story from Rahim Khan, Amir decides it would be best for Hassan to go away. Amir frames Hassan as a thief but Baba forgives him, even though he admits to committing
In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini guilt and redemption play a big role in the development of characters as well as their personalities. Throughout the novel Amir always had a sense of guilt. Amir’s sense of guilt stems from how he did not stick up for his best friend Hassan when Assef assaulted him. The guilt played a very important role in how Amir was characterized and how his personality changed towards everyone. Throughout the novel Amir was consistently trying to find redemption through various ways, he felt like the assault was his fault and he wanted to get punished so it would end his guilt. In the novel guilt and redemption were always hand in hand especially when Hassan and Amir were at the pomegranate tree in Chapter
“There is a Way to be Good Again”: Past Actions and Redemption in Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. In The Kite Runner, Amir, Baba and Sanaubar’s past actions all negatively affect those that are close to them, yet it is not their past that defines them, rather it is how they decide to amend their wrongdoings that reflects more on their character. After Hassan’s rape, Amir spends the rest of his life trying to redeem himself for the betrayal of his loyal friend and does so after saving Hassan’s son Sohrab.
In order to grow and prosper, one must make mistakes and learn from them. People are not born perfect; everyone must live and everyone must learn throughout his/her lifetime in order to mature. In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni, Amir does exactly this. He makes several mistakes, these mistakes are not wasted, because, in time he learns from his wrong-doings and redeems his himself. Several if not all of the mistakes Amir makes are directed toward his childhood friend, and brother, Hassan. The first mistake Amir makes is not a tangible one. This mistake being he does not see Hassan as a friend while they are children because they’re part of two different ethnic groups and cultures. Because of this difference, Amir does not stop
The story The Kite Runner is centered around learning “to be good again.” Both the movie and the book share the idea that the sins of the past must be paid for or atoned for in the present. In the book, Amir can be seen as a troubled young boy who is struggling with a tremendous amount of guilt. It is easy to blame Amir’s actions on his guilt and his father’s lack of love for him.
Guilt. A cancerous thing, spreading through your body, manipulating your thoughts, working as a deterrent for any type of long term vivacity. As seen in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner one of the main themes is seeking redemption. We see that in order to seek redemption and earn it, you must have the self-motivation deeper than other people pushing you.
“The guilty one is not the one who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” – Victor Hugo. In The Kite Runner, the theme of guilt and redemption is shown through the character development of the protagonist Amir. Hosseini used Amir’s guilt of his past to grow the impression that with regret lies a hope for redemption. Amir is a man who is haunted by the demons of his past.
Besides, later in the novel, Hassan portrays his love and loyalty towards his Amir by promising to bring back his blue kite after the kite tournament and not handing it over to Assef, when he was cornered by them. He shows courage by saying, “Amir agha won the tournament and I ran this kite for him. I ran it fairly well. This is his kite” (Hosseini 77). As a result, he gets raped by Assef for his courage and bravery.
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. Because Hassan did not give the kite, Assef decides to rape Hassan as a “punishment”. Instead of helping his friend out, Amir just walked away from the scene and let Hassan get violated in one of the most vulgar ways. After this incident, Hassan quietly walked back home and gave Amir the kite for which he was confronted by Assef for. The kite in this situation proves to be an important symbol. Whereas earlier in the novel the kite represented happiness and fun to Amir, in this situation it represented sin and guilt to Amir. The only reason that Hassan got raped was that he was trying to get a kite for Amir. Now the kite acts a reminder to Hassan of his wrong-doing and it will now begin to haunt him for a long time. Although when in America, Amir does not get reminded about Hassan, deep inside he still feels guilty. Amir immediately begins to feel the most guilt when he goes to Iran when Rahim Khan, Amir’s childhood friend, asks him to come. He feels that Rahim Khan has reminded him of his “past of unatoned sins”(Hosseini 2).
The other source of tension in Amir’s life is his relationship with Baba, his hard-driving and demanding father. Desperate to win his father’s affection and respect, Amir turns to the sport of kite flying, and at the age of 12, with the assistance of Hassan, he wins the annual tournament in Kabul. Amir’s victory soon is tarnished when he witnesses a vicious assault against his friend, who raced through the streets of Kabul to retrieve the last kite, Amir had sliced from the sky, and fails to come to his aid. Amir’s cowardness is compounded by a later act of betrayal that causes Ali and Hassan to leave their home, and he now faces the nightmare, bearing the burden of his poor choices for the rest of his life.