Kite Runner Past

1237 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How does amir develop throughout the kite runner

The Persistence of the Past

In life, no matter how hard one may try, it is impossible to escape from the past. The persistence of the past is a theme strongly expressed in the books The Kite Runner and Les Miserables. Multiple characters in both stories are haunted by both their past selves and actions. The past is what ends up driving crucial events in these stories to unfold how they do. There are characters who feel that they need to redeem their selves from their past such as Jean Valean from Les Miserables, and Amir from The Kite Runner. These characters strive towards creating a new life for themselves while having the weight of the past being pushed down onto them. Their past seems to ripple throughout their journey to redemption. …show more content…

In this essay these characters and their pasts will be explored and compared.
“The past can never be buried” (Hosseini 1). This is spoken by Amir at the very beginning of The Kite Runner and perfectly explains the theme of both this story and also Les Miserables. The protagonists of each story feel the need to redeem themselves from their past, despite their different classes that they start the story in. These needs later drive critical events in each novel to occur. In the Beginning of Les Miserables, Jean Valjean starts out as a thief in the chain gang who later decides to break his parole in order to become an honest man. “Through him, Hugo shows the dark side of virtue.” (Reeves). This statement is referring to a character in the story name inspector Javert, who tries to hunt down Valjean after he breaks his parole. Javert is a character in this story who acts as Valjean’s personified past. When Valjean changes his identity and becomes the mayor of Montreuil Sur Mer, Javert recognizes him and tried to get him back to jail, but Valjean manages to escape again. Multiple times we see Valjean running from Javert, but in reality he is running from his past life. Amir starts his story in a

Show More
Related

  • The Influence of the Past in Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy and Stick Figures by Tan Shaun

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    The past dictates who we are in a current moment, and affects who we might become in the future. Every decision people make in lives has an influence on future, regardless of how minimal or large it is. Some decisions people decide to make can have dire consequences that will follow them for the rest of the life. Moreover, even though if someone would want to leave any memories from past behind, however it will always be by his side. Specific memories will urge emotional responses that bring mind back to the past and person have no choose but to relieve those emotions and memories again. Nonetheless, certain events change people and make them who they are, but at the same time, some wrong choices made past haunts us. This essay will discuss the role of the past in novel Maestro, that was written by Australian author Peter Goldsworthy in 1989 and also in Tan Shaun's story Stick Figures which was included in book called "Tales from outer suburbia" and published in 2008.

    Read More

  • Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    Man must not only remember his past, but also choose to remember it as it really happened—for, to again quote Eliot, “What might have been is an abstraction" (175). Fantasizing about an abstract, idealized past will never give success i...

    Read More

  • The Grand Spirits of The Miserable Javert and Valjean

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    Javert, born in jail, saw himself as an ostracized adolescent with but two paths open to him. He could choose either to be a policeman or a criminal. He chose to be on the right side of the law. Valjean, a peasant, spent time in jail as a young man and came out of it hating society. He believed himself to be apart from it, and chose to live in hatred and crime. Fortunately, the action of a kindly old bishop prevented him from wasting the rest of his life. Valjean switched to tread the path of life on a more morally upright road. He became mayor, protector of society.

    Read More

  • Kite Runner Literary Devices

    1359 Words  | 3 Pages

    Actions made in a moment of pain, anger or simple immaturity can take anyone to make mistakes that can change their lives completely. Everyone has something in the past that is shameful, embarrassing and regrettable that is kept present daily. Whether this event happened during childhood, adolescence or early adulthood, this event could haunt and have shaped that person’s life into what he or she is today. In a similar way, in the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is shaped by a tragic and eventful past that has shaped Amir’s, Baba’s, and Hassan’s life. The four literary elements that will be used in this essay that Hosseini strategically uses in this book are: irony, simile, Metaphor, and personification.

    Read More

  • Memory And Memory In Kim Cruey's Ru By Kim Thúy

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    The memories of an individual will give shape to their own identity and how they are able to perceive the world around them; memories allow an individual to look back at where they were and where they are now and to see the contrast of their current life. In the text “Ru”, Kim Thúy, the narrator, finds herself looking back at her memories of her life and dreaming for more. When she arrives at Mirabel airport in Quebec, she is awestruck by the peace and beauty of it compared to her past in in the refugee camps of Malaysia and war torn Vietnam. Throughout her visit, she is able to dream of her future outside of her bleak memories of her past, and imagine a future without the constant strife of living in a post war life. Kim is able to use her memories to shape who she wants to be and allows her to truly admire where she is and where she wants to go, setting a path for her to follow throughout life. In the text, “Ru”, Kim Thúy uses her own past and memories to demonstrate the idea that an individual's memories will shape who they are and show them a life they want to live, whether it is a memory they want to revisit or a memory in which they wish to leave behind. Kim’s present is influenced greatly by her past and allows her to appreciate the little things all that much

    Read More

  • Transformations In John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tom Joad is an ex-convict that was only into his own self-interest and lived by a mantra of live your life day by day and not concerned with the future, to becoming a man who thinks about the future and someone with morals and an obligation to help others. Ma Joad is a typical woman of the early 1900’s whose main role was a mother only with a role of caring and nurturing. Later in the novel, she becomes an important figure for the family and is responsible for making decisions in keeping the family together and emphasizes the importance of unity. Another important transition in the book is the family starting off as a single close knit unit to depending on other families to survive. This common interest and struggle bonded the community of individual families to a single one. Steinbeck wrote this novel very well, by having great character dynamics and development that displays the characters strengths and also their

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Turning By Tim Winton

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through this short story we are taken through one of Vic Lang’s memories narrated by his wife struggling to figure out why a memory of Strawberry Alison is effecting their marriage and why she won’t give up on their relationship. Winton’s perspective of the theme memory is that even as you get older your past will follow you good, bad or ugly, you can’t always forget. E.g. “He didn’t just rattle these memories off.” (page 55) and ( I always assumed Vic’s infatuation with Strawberry Alison was all in the past, a mortifying memory.” (page 57). Memories are relevant to today’s society because it is our past, things or previous events that have happened to you in which we remembered them as good, bad, sad, angry etc. memories that you can’t forget. Winton has communicated this to his audience by sharing with us how a memory from your past if it is good or bad can still have an effect on you even as you get older. From the description of Vic’s memory being the major theme is that it just goes to show that that your past can haunt or follow you but it’s spur choice whether you chose to let it affect you in the

    Read More

  • Kite Runner

    1586 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Kite Runner

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel is told by Amir, one of the novel's main characters. Amir is an Afghan man living in Fremont, California remembering his childhood in Kabul in the 1970s.

    Read More

  • Les Miserables Connections to Charity

    2201 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jean Valjean understands the deep emotions felt when the desire to love others persists in one’s heart. Valjean originally felt this desire specifically within his own family. Though during his years in prison, he lost it. In striving to feed his starving family by stealing a loaf of bread, Valjean earned himself “nineteen years” in prison. “He entered in 1796 for having broken a pane of glass and taken a loaf of Bread” (Hugo 86) Valjean loved his family so dearly that he risked rotting in jail rather than seeing them starve. He demonstrates pure charity in this act, for no sane person, would risk his life for others, unless his motivations lie in love. Then love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7) Valjean perfectly demonstrates the infinite measures people will take out of l...

    Read More

  • The Kite Runner

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    Book of Genesis in the Old Testament or from the Hebrew Torah. What may be less familiar to

    Read More

  • The Triumph of Les Misérables

    1426 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...'s anguishes with obsession, help him to more effectively relate his novel, Les Misérables, to the reader. In the book's ending, Jean Valjean dies knowing he is happy, content and prepared for his death. His adoration for Cosette has left her loving him and satisfied with the life he has helped her create. Before Jean Valjean dies, he says to Cosette and Marius, "I die happy. Let me put my hands upon you dear beloved heads" (399). Like Jean Valjean, Javert's obsessions rule his life, but with negative intentions rather than positive ones. Once Javert realizes his obsessions are nothing but empty promises, he too is empty and chooses to end his life. Three of the main characters of the story, find that their perseverance and obsession to have the life they wish for ends triumphantly.

    Read More

  • The Kite Runner

    1421 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Kite Runner focuses on the relationship between two Afghan boys Amir and Hassan. Amir is a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim, while Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a. Despite their ethnic and religious differences, Amir and Hassan grow to be friends, although Amir is troubled by Hassan, and his relationship with his companion, one year his junior, is complex. Amir and Hassan seem to have a "best friend" type relationship. The two boys, Hassan and Amir, are main characters in the book titled, The Kite Runner. The two boys have a relationship that is significantly different compared to most. There are many different facets that distinguish the relationship the boys possess. The boys do write their names in a pomegranate tree as the "sultans of Kabul" (Kite Runner 27) but, their friendship is not strong and it is one sided. Hassan has love for Amir. He loves him like a brother. Hassan is exceedingly loyal to Amir. The relationship between the two boys is emotionally wearing and rather gloomy for the most part. The main reason for their complicated relationship is the fact that Amir is Pashtun, and Hassan is Hazara. The Afghan society places Hassan lower than Amir. Hassan is Amir's servant. The placement of Hassan in the Afghan society disenables Amir from becoming Hassan's true friend. Amir sees Hassan as lower than human. Amir ruins the chance for friendship between himself and Hassan because he is jealous of Hassan, he thinks of Hassan as a lower human, and because Amir possesses such extreme guilt for what he has done to Hassan. Amir is an unforgivable person overall.

    Read More

  • Victor Javert Suicide

    1404 Words  | 3 Pages

    After relentless hunting for Jean Veljean over the course of many years, Javert is unable to capture the convict while given multiple opportunities. When adversity hits Javert, a man of the law, in the book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, the individual uses suicide as his solution to escape his inability to understand compassion. While everyone in the community has dealt with Javert’s unwavering commitment to the law, the people instantly judge him, as they are unaware of his past which influences his decision making and actions. Despite public opinion, Javert takes his own life because of his upbringing and the mercy shown to him by Jean Veljean, which ruins his black and white world view. Javert was not given many opportunities to succeed

    Read More

  • Cultural Relativism Javert

    2168 Words  | 5 Pages

    He praised him for doing really well and making the whole town very proud of his accomplishments as he was also the mayor of this town. Cultural Relativism: Javert assumed because Valjean owned a factory, and he was the mayor of the town, it was a good enough reason to be an honorable person. Being rich brought respect, and increased their worth as humans were the thought process of people such as Javert, as that was as far as they could think. The rich and affluent ruled the poor to get whatever they wanted. Scene:

    Read More

More about Kite Runner Past

Open Document