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Joyce Meyer once stated that “character is doing something you don’t want to do, but you know you should do,” a quote that is effectively characterized through the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. This story revolves around a young boy named Amir as he watches a grave sin committed upon his servant, Hassan, by a boy named Assef, and fails to intervene. As Amir continues his life journey regretful of the fact that he failed to protect Hassan, a constant weighing thought that he struggles with is the concept of morality and finding the strength to confront wrong despite fear. Throughout the entirety of The Kite Runner, Hosseini effectively juxtaposes Amir’s guilt and Assef’s lack of guilt to demonstrate that as one comes to regret one’s …show more content…
wrongdoings and consciously fights against guilt, one is able to build character; however, without guilt, one will never come to grow into a person of strong morals and ethics. As the story follows Amir throughout his life, Hosseini characterizes Amir to be someone who feels nothing but anguish towards the past; however, through guilt, Hosseini shows Amir’s growth into becoming a man that is not just able to stand up for himself but others as well. Amir begins as a timid, 12-year old boy who is scorned by his own father as a man “who won’t stand up for himself” and “can’t stand up to anything” (Hosseini, 22). His father’s scorns are evidently confirmed when Amir becomes unable to move while watching Assef rape Hassan. Amir is then unable to bear with the guilt of being a bystander, and moves to America, in hopes of leaving behind his sinful past. After twenty years of relative peace in his life, he returns to Afghanistan upon being called by Rahim Khan, a childhood mentor and father-like figure of his, whose purpose was to talk with Amir about Hassan. The moment Amir hears Hassan’s name, his twenty years of suppressed remorse flood his mind as he thinks to himself that “those thorny bards of guilt bore into me once more, as if speaking his name had broke a spell, set them free to torment me anew” (Hosseini, 202).
The only reason for Amir to feel guilty for staying silent except for the fact that he knew that it was morally unjust to not protect Hassan during the rape. Because of this, when Amir moves to America, he takes his past and guilt and tries to start anew and forget about his sin; however, the moment Rahim Khan mentions Hassan and reminds Amir of what he had failed to do, he “broke a spell” and “set [the barbs of guilt] free.” Hosseini uses this to give the reader a further understanding of Amir-- more specifically, during Amir’s time in America, he stays stagnant as a character, unable to build morals of his own due to the fact that instead of confronting his sins, he does the exact opposite. He does not fight against the guilt he feels during those peaceful years in America; instead, he hides and “live[s] on in [his] oblivion” so that when the topic resurfaces, his pain “[bears] into [him] once more,” “torment[ing] [him] anew,” forcing Amir to finally stand face to face with his own past (Hosseini 227, Hosseini 202). Rahim Khan then tells Amir that although Hassan has passed away now, “there is a way to be …show more content…
good again,” meaning, there is a way to atone for his mistake, and presents Amir with a choice (Hosseini, 227). Sohrab, Hassan’s son, has been enslaved by Assef, and Rahim Khan asks Amir to find and rescue Sohrab who is living in Kabul. From moving to America to his meeting with Rahim, he did not take time to allow his guilt to mold him into a more morally driven man. Therefore, he initially refuses and in distress, tells Rahim to send someone else and that “[he’d] pay if it was a matter of money” (Hosseini, 221). Rahim Khan objects, telling Amir that it must be him, causing Amir to run out of the room in a mixture of fear, anger, and sadness. During his time alone, he contemplates about his past and the newly presented choice, and eventually returns to inform Rahim Khan that he has decided to go to Kabul. While he awaits his meeting with the man who had raped Hassan, he thinks to himself in fear, “this isn’t you, Amir. You’re gutless. It’s how you were made” (Hosseini, 275). It is obvious that Amir is frightened, but his fear runs deeper. He believes that he “[was] made” to be “gutless.” The fact that he is taking a step out of his usual nature in order to save someone else demonstrates that he has become the man who his father said he was not as a child-- a man who is finally able to stand up for himself and his beliefs. His guilt, and the fact that he finally realizes the result of his actions is the sole reason for this change of heart. As he confronts his past in a way that is like before, guilt driven, but now also a fight “to be good again,” he is led to want to save Hassan’s child. It is an action that truly reflects how he has built his morals and characters after confronting his guilt. In comparison to Amir’s guilt, Hosseini juxtaposes Amir’s feelings with Assef’s lack of guilt towards his wrongdoings to prove that without remorse, one is unable to distinguish between right and wrong.
Hosseini introduces Assef as a pivotal character who is not afraid to use violence to fulfill his selfish desires. However, unlike a normal boy, he finds joy in it which Amir comments on by stating, “I will never forget how Assef’s blue eyes glinted with a light not entirely sane and how he grinned, as he pummeled that poor boy unconscious” (Hosseini, 38). Assef is characterized as someone who is “not entirely sane,” a young boy of twelve who even grins as he inflicts pain upon another. The fact that he is smiling furthers Hosseini’s characterization of Assef, ultimately stating that no matter how morally incorrect the reader knows an action to be, Assef feels absolutely no guilt towards it. Even in the moment after Assef rapes Hassan, Amir hears “voices and running footfalls… watch[ing] Assef and the other two sprinting by, laughing as they hurried down the deserted lane.” Similarly to his previous sin, Assef continues to exert his dominance through force; however, this is continuously without guilt. Instead of just a grin, this time, he “laughs,” which speculates that his ability to feel regret is fading away with every increasing sin. Furthermore, Hosseini shows Amir’s mental capacity and the beginnings of his ability to tell the distinction between right and wrong,
juxtaposing that with Assef’s inability to do the same. Assef, the boy who committed the sin, should be tormented by this tragedy in a way that is more than the guilt Amir feels; however, Hosseini ironically allows the opposite to occur. It is Amir who is unable to forgive himself, whereas Assef believes that he is in no need of forgiveness. This mindset does not change, and even as he physically matures as an adult, he is still unable to grow into a character who “[does] something he [doesn’t] want to do, but… know[s] [he] should” in an attempt to build character (Joyce Meyer). During Amir’s confrontation with Assef, the two exchange words about Sohrab, in which Assef questions Amir as to why he wants Sohrab, asking, “‘Tell me why,’ Assef said… ‘That’s my business.’ ‘What do you want to do with him?’ [Assef] said. Then a coy smile. ‘Or to him.’ ‘That’s disgusting,’ [Amir] said. ‘How would you know? Have you tried it?’” (Hosseini, 285). Evidently, Amir finally matures into a man who is not only able to distinguish between right and wrong, but stand up against it. On the other hand, Assef is the same boy as he was in the past. He is still repeating his actions, and infers that Sohrab is, just like Hassan, being raped by Assef. His repeated actions reflect his stagnant character-- there is no growth whatsoever. He shows Amir a “coy smile” as he says it, and though Amir explicitly states the wrong in it, Assef is still unable to realize it. Because of his lack of guilt, he is unable to become a character who realizes wrong, eventually becoming one that fails to mature, grow, and build character. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini juxtaposes the guilty versus the not guilty through Amir and Assef to convey to the reader that a character that feels guilt is one that will be able to mature. In order for one to grow as a person, they have to face the consequences of their actions. Yet, as one faces those consequences in an attempt at redemption whether intentional or not, one will inevitably grow to become a person that has a better sense of right and wrong based on experience. Someone who faces their guilt will eventually and as a result, be able to do something they don’t want to, but know they should, and consequently, build character.
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.
Moral ambiguity is lack of clarity in decision making. Basically, moral ambiguity is when you have an issue, situation, or question that has moral or ethical elements, but the morally correct action to take is unclear, due to conflicting. The author of The Kite Runner is Khaled Hosseini, the book is about a boy named Amir and how much of a easy life he has at first, but near the middle of the book his life is horrible from there to the end of the book.
The Kite Runner is a book about a young boy, Amir, who faces many struggles as he grows up in Kabul and later moves to America to flee from the Taliban. His best friend and brother , Hassan, was a big part of his life, but also a big part of guilt he held onto for many years. The book describes Amir’s attempt to make up for the past and resolve his sins so he can clear his conscious. Amir is worthy of forgiveness because although he was selfish, he was very brave and faced his past.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, follows the maturation of Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, as he discovers what it means to stand up for what he believes in. His quest to redeem himself after betraying his friend and brother, Hassan, makes up the heart of the novel. For most of the book, Amir attempts to deal with his guilt by avoiding it and refusing to own up to his mistakes. Because of his past, Amir is incapable of moving forward. His entire life is shaped by his disloyalty to Hassan and his desire to please his father over helping his friends. Throughout the novel, his attempts to atone for his sins end in failure, as neither physical punishment nor rescuing Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from Assef prove to be enough for Amir to redeem himself. Only when he decides to take Sohrab to the United States and provide his nephew with a chance at happiness and prosperity that was denied to his half-brother does Amir take the necessary steps toward atonement and redemption. Khaled Hosseini uses a series of symbols to reinforce the message that atoning for one’s sins means making up for past mistakes, rather than simply relying on forgiveness from either the person one betrays or from a higher power.
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.
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
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.
Not only that, just two nights before, he’d asked me if I wanted to see El Cid with Charlton Heston at Cinema Aryana” (81). Amir seems to love this kind of treatment from Baba. The rape is still a lingering thought in the back of Amir’s mind that is trying to escape. Does Amir tell somebody about the rape and ruin his own reputation, or does he keep it a secret and let Hassan suffer from the pain he feels? Amir chooses the latter. Some would say that this decision was brought on by Baba’s treatment of Amir. If Baba would have treated Amir like a son and not favored Hassan throughout his childhood, he might not yearn for Baba’s approval so deeply. Not only does Amir keep the rape a secret, he also tries to completely remove Hassan and Ali from his life by getting them fired as servants. Amir tries to get rid of his guilt by committing more immoral
Past experiences can affect all of us. Some more than others, but the ones that haunt us are the ones that we all have in common. After something tragic happens or something you feel you could have helped in but failed, you feel guilt. A prime example of guilt after events is in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini because the actions that Amir does afterwards that are influenced by his guilt.. It all starts with Amir not standing up for Hassan when Hassan gets bullied, then he walks away instead of backing up Hassan when he is attacked in an alley, those two events build up a lot of guilt inside him to the point where he decides to frame Hassan for stealing his watch just to get rid of Hassan. Although Amir feels regret for doing such a thing,
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 themes of the loss of innocence and redemption is used throughout the novel The Kite Runner to make a point that one can lose innocence but never redeem it. Once innocence is lost it takes a part of oneself that can never be brought back from oblivion. One can try an entire life to redeem oneself but the part that is loss is permanently gone although the ache of it can be dampened with the passing of time and acts of attempted redemption. Khaled Hosseini uses characters, situations, and many different archetypes to make this point.
...achieves redemption and finally succeeds in overcoming his guilt. Hosseini uses this struggle to persuade those who feel extreme guilt for a wrongdoing to seek forgiveness and to help others in need. The author emphasizes that atoning one’s sins comes from reaching out to others. He expresses this when Amir offers to help Sohrab and he rids himself of guilt from his former relationship with Hassan. In addition, Hosseini writes to those who challenge the ideals of society in order to encourage them to create and follow their own values. The author uses Amir’s struggle in his relationship with Baba and his acceptance with Amir’s writing career to demonstrate this idea. Throughout his novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini develops a main character that questions his decisions, yet conforms to societal ideals to represent his theme of redemption and self-acceptance.
Guilt prompts Amir to go back to Afghanistan and drives Baba to care for Hassan. In the beginning of the book, Amir expresses that “it’s wrong what they say about the past… about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out(Hosseini 1).” Amir realizes this when the guilt never goes away from when he ignored Hassan when Hassan needed help. Amir constantly tries to forget about the past and how the rape impacted his relationship with Hassan and Ali. However, even with Amir’s efforts to obliterate the memory of the event, it resurfaces with Rahim Khan’s request to find Sohrab. Initially, Amir is reluctant to go to Kabul to look for Sohrab, but he remembers Rahim Khan saying, “There is a way to be good again(Hosseini 226).” Desperate for the chance to redeem himself, Amir returns to Kabul with the intention of transporting Sohrab to a better place. Amir understands that the only way for him to stop feeling guilty about the winter of 1975 is that he finds Sohrab and verifies that he lives a more secure life. In Baba’s case, he was able to care for Hassan as an uncle and the guilt he has inclined him to help others by building an orphanage. Also, with Ali’s permission, Baba is able to “[hire] Dr. Kumar to fix Hassan’s harelip(Hosseini 225)” and give Hassan birthday presents to show his affection. Caring for Hassan helps Baba get rid of the guilt he feels from the affair. Even though Baba could only show his love as a friend and not as a father, he embraces the opportunity with open arms. The guilt that both Amir and Baba experiences motivate them to do whatever they can to make up for their
The first stage in achieving redemption is committing a sin which Hosseini captivates with the use of metaphors. As Amir retells his life story, he compares every event against his sin, his betrayal of Hassan when he left him to be raped by Assef. Amir introduces the story by telling us about sin’s prevalence with the use of a metaphor. “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” (Hosseini 1). In order for someone to be redeemed they must have committed some type of sin. Amir’s first sin of betraying Hassan is the first of many, as he was living in a constant cycle of sin since. The first major sin he committed is literally what keeps the story going. It is this sin that causes Amir’s guilt and affects the rest of his life. As a child, Amir never felt a sense of acceptance or affection from Baba. As a result of the lack of love Baba showed towards his son, Amir is very desperate to do anything to win his father’s adoration. “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba...