In the attention-grabbing book, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which is about an Afghan boy, Amir, growing up and dealing with the pain of mistakes and unfortunate circumstances. Amir manages to hide his wrong doings until he receives a call from an old friend. Amir moves out of Afghanistan in his late teenage years with his father Baba, a many hat is courageous and hard to satisfy, not brining much with him besides a few clothing items and a whole lot of guilt for abandoning his friend Hassan. To redeem himself, Amir travels back to Afghanistan as an adult facing challenges such as violence and lack of courage to save his nephew and bring him to safety. Amir channels Baba’s courageousness when fighting with Assef, which then Amir to relieve …show more content…
the guilt he struggles with during the story.. Baba’s actions clearly display his undeniable traits of courage and dissatisfaction in the first half of the book. From the beginning of the book the reader gathers that the public and community of Afghanistan consider Baba a strong and heroic man, and when Baba and Amir are making their journey out of Afghanistan, a soldier requests to rape a wife as the price for being able to pass through; however, Baba stands up to the soldier saying, “Tell him I'll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place” (Hosseini 82). As Baba stands up for what is right, the reader has no option but to be inspired by the audacity and bravery Baba has when putting his life on the line. It is necessary for Hosseini to portray Baba as a courageous character because Amir always lacks courage and the strength to do what is right, which adds another example of Baba and Amir being polar opposites. Growing up Amir always tries to find common interests he and Baba could share, but in the end always seems to fail. Baba is portrayed as a dissatisfied character, especially when it comes to his son Amir. Amir recalls Baba taking him to a Buzkashi tournament as a child, and when the horse rider gets trampled Amir remembers, “I cried all the way back home. I remember how Baba's hands clenched around the steering wheel. Clenched and unclenched. Mostly, I will never forget Baba's valiant efforts to conceal the disgusted look on his face as he drove in silence” (Hosseini 21). Baba’s inability to accept and love Amir the way he is becomes extremely frustrating for the reader because they want Amir to win Baba over. Through Baba’s trait of dissatisfaction and the way it impacts those around him, Hosseini teaches the importance of accepting that people are not the same, and characteristics that are different from one’s own are not necessarily all flaws. As Baba stands up to people and grows frustrated with Amir, the reader picks up on the courage and dissatisfaction Baba obtains. The themes redemption and courage become apparent when Amir has conflict with himself and with Assef.
Throughout The Kite Runner, Amir makes poor decisions that hurt himself and others such as not telling anyone about Hassan being raped; these decisions lead to extreme guilt along with hated he feels towards himself. To relieve the guilt and pain after several years, Amir tries to redeem himself by rescuing Hassan’s son Sohrab. When Amir receives a phone call from Rahim Kahn, Baba’s good friend, Amir gains courage to fix the conflict he has with himself when Rahim says, “There is a way to be good again”(Hosseini pg1). After Rahim Kahn tells this to Amir, Amir knows that Rahim is saying that it is a way for Amir toe feel good again. Amir has already been forgiven a thousand times by Hassan, this opportunity is for Amir to forgive himself. Amir and Assef have conflict continuously throughout the book starting as kids playing outside and ending in a fight till death circumstance. Although Amir and Assef rivaled as children, after Assef raped Hassan is when the real conflict occurred. Amir did not have the courage to stand up to Assef until Amir was an adult who was trying to redeem himself. When Amir and Assef, now a Taliban leader, were fighting to live and for Sohrab, Amir says, “ I don’t know at what point I started laughing, but I did” (Hosseini pg. 248 ). When Amir laughs, he wins the fight between he and Assef despite losing physically because he doesn’t care …show more content…
about what Assef does, he only cares that he has a redeemed himself. Amir having conflict with himself and Assef allows for redemption and courage. Violence and guilt are common occurrences in The Kite Runner, and catch the attention of the reader more than anything else in the book.
When a child receives abuse, their life can become forever damaged, and problems such as what Sohrab experienced through mutation may occur. When Amir is trying to gain trust from Sohrab through talking, Sohrab tells him, “…they did things…the bad man and the other two…they did things…did things to me” (Hosseini 277). Violence brings people together, in some ways it brings people in to help join in and hurt more, but the violence in this book brings the readers together to share utmost sorrow and compassion for Sohrab. Hosseini writes Assef as the “evil villain” in The Kite Runner; however, Assef, always doing harm and hurting others, is written as a villain that many could and have encountered throughout life, which is why the theme of violence guides the readers to relate and understand easier the events of rape and abuse in the book. Guilt can bring the best or worst out of a person. As Amir thinks over his development in how he has dealt with guilt, he says, “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 2). The reader gets to see Amir grow up through his development of redemption as he deals with the guilt of not
saving Hassan hanging over his head. Hosseini brilliantly uses guilt for character progression allowing the readers to experience a roller coaster of emotions, feeling anger, sadness, and joy. When Amir travels to Afghanistan to redeem and free himself of guilt by saving Sohrab, he faces the challenge of fighting Assef and must channel Baba’s bravery. The importance of Baba’s characteristics are realized when Amir is able to use them for the first time. The conflict between Amir and Assef as adults parallel the conflict between the two as children which brings even more satisfaction when Amir is beaten and finally feels his guilt seep out of him and leave him with happiness. Amir’s encounters with guilt and violence are due to his upbringings and conflicts that arise within the story.
In the novel The Kite Runner, author Khaled Hosseini writes about Amir a young Afghan child who is a coward and who later as an adult seeks redemption from past mistakes. These characteristic effects Amir’s live throughout the novel from childhood to present. However, these are just words on a paper without some proof and the novel happily supports this either through the events or the behavior of other characters. Now let’s start with Amir’s past childhood.
Throughout The Kite Runner this theme is shown many times without this aspect and understanding of this part of the book it would be incomprehensible. Amir eventually learns how to cope with his own guilt and his
In Khaled Hosseini’s book, The Kite Runner, Amir is an example of growing up, making mistakes, and facing the consequences for those mistakes. Amir grows so much throughout the book. He is a fictional example of maturing and growing up in a realistic manner. Making mistakes is a part of this growth, even though his were extreme. The reader is introduced to Amir and is disgusted about how he treats Hassan and abandons him in a time of needing rescuing. His mistakes disgust us, especially after Hassan has been by his side the entire book. As the reader gets deeper into the book, they start to develop feeling of anger but sometimes sympathy, towards Amir. By the end, we are not as angry as Amir than the reader to begin with. Amir has grown into
At the beginning of The Kite Runner, young Amir wins a kite fighting tournament. He feels like he has finally redeemed himself for his father. 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...
Many people have done things that they can’t seek redemption for or can’t forgive themselves for, such as not being there for a friend when they need you most. Including Amir, from The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Amir is best friends with Hassan, a Hazara boy. They grow up together, and Amir later finds out that they are half brothers. Hassan helps Amir, but he allows a boy, Assef, and his group of friends to rape Hassan, which he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to forgive himself for. Amir is redeemed because he receives letters from Hassan, he adopts Sohrab, and fights Assef.
One of the most tragic and tear-jerking moments in the entire novel surrounds the moment when Amir decides to not help Hassan while he is getting raped. Reading this part, it is very hard not to get furious with Amir because obviously what he did was wrong, but he did have reasoning behind not helping his brother. Amir stands there for a few reasons; one of the reasons being his desire for his father approval, which he knows he can receive by coming home with the kite. When Assef says this, “I've changed my mind; I'm letting you keep the kite, Hazara. I'll let you keep it so it will always remind you of what I'm about to do.
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...
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.
It is difficult to face anything in the world when you cannot even face your own reality. In his book The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses kites to bring out the major themes of the novel in order to create a truly captivating story of a young boy’s quest to redeem his past mistakes. Amir is the narrator and protagonist of the story and throughout the entire novel, he faces enormous guilt following the horrible incident that happened to his closest friend, Hassan. This incident grows on Amir and fuels his quest for redemption, struggling to do whatever it takes to make up for his mistakes. In Hosseini’s novel, kites highlight aspects of Afghanistan’s ethnic caste system and emphasizes the story’s major themes of guilt, redemption and freedom.
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.
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 Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the author follows the development of protagonist Amir through a life filled with sorrow, regret, and violence. Amir encounters numerous obstacles on his path to adulthood, facing a new test at every twist and turn. Amir embarks on the long journey known as life as a cowardly, weak young man with a twisted set of ideals, slowly but surely evolving into a man worthy of the name. Amir is one of the lucky few who can go through such a shattered life and come out the other side a better man, a man who stands up for himself and those who cannot, willing to put his life on the line for the people he loves.
Due to the nagging guilt he can not live a peaceful life, and feel the need to punish himself for what he did. Cowardly, Amir waited years to inform anyone of what happened to Hassan at the Kite festival. Amir already carries guilt and resentment inside him. He claims “’I [Amir] watched Hassan get raped,’ I said to no one…A part of me was hoping someone would wake up and hear, so I wouldn’t have to live with this lie anymore…I understood the nature of my new curse: I was going to get away with it." (page 86) The novel starts with the incident at the kite tournament and continues with many other mistakes that he later regrets. The structure of the Kite Runner refers back to the past by changing the date constantly. Amir goes back and forth telling stories about his life and all the mistakes he made. Once he becomes an adult the responsibilities he faces become greater. Hassan’s passing