Guilt In The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

Guilt is the emotion that a person feels when they are responsible for an action that has violated some set of standards. Khaled Hosseini conveys this through his novel, The Kite Runner, by following a young Afghan boy and the events that surround him with the build up of guilt that continue to follow him as he ages.The consequence of guilt is that it stays with the person for the rest of their life, but one way of getting rid of its weight is to use the past to make the future better by acting upon it in the present. As seen in both Baba's and Amir's actions throughout the novel, guilt can propel actions in order to ease the burden the person had experienced.
Amir's reluctance to face his troubles is the chief cause for guilt and throughout

Amir is literally running away from the situation because he panicked and froze. By trying to come up with a reason to justify his way of dealing with the situation, he is legitimizing his action of running away to try to make himself feel better and to cover up for the true reason for him to run away, which people sometimes do when they are under high stress. After a week or so of avoiding Hassan, Amir tries another method by attempting to permanently remove the source of guilt- Hassan. Amir has contradicting emotions about Hassan's false confession of stealing the money and watch because he thinks, "I wasn't worthy of this sacrifice [...] except part of me was glad. Glad that this would all be over soon" (105). Once more Amir finds a different way to defer any encounter with Hassan, this time by using his father to dismiss Hassan and Ali. Amir convinced himself that he would be "glad" after this would be over, that the stress and guilt he was feeling would reduce once Hassan and Ali would leave. This way of managing stress mirrors those who take actions because of their emotions.