Redemption In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

In Khaled Hosseini’s story The Kite Runner, the characters Amir and Hassan come from two polar opposite lifestyles. Amir is a rather wealthy, Pashtun boy who has always grown up in a luxurious estate decorated with servants and superb reputation. Hassan, on the other hand, is a monetarily lacking, Hazara boy who helps his father, Ali, as a servant for Amir and his father, Baba. Hassan and Amir grow up as close friends almost like brothers and share a mutual lack of maternal figures in their lives. Due to a poor decision to not stand up for his friend as he is raped, Amir damages his relationship with Hassan and their friendship and sense of brotherhood falls apart. After years of guilt, Amir concludes he finally finds reconciliation with Hassan

Years later, Jamal and Salim find each other again and Salim still has a sense of guilt that has followed him during the time they were apart. Salim detects a sense of redemption with Jamal by sacrificing his own life to free Jamal’s destined lover, Latika from the abuse-bound relationship she was trapped in. Although Amir and Salim’s actions are wrong, there could be multiple reasons for Amir’s conviction of redemption with Hassan through saving and tending to Sohrab and Salim’s redemption with Jamal by freeing Latika. The reasoning that Boyle’s character provides, explains to the reader the reasoning as to why Amir returns to Pakistan to save Hassan’s last living blood in The Kite Runner; through sacrifice and brotherly devotion to discover redemption for his wrong doings towards Hassan. A superficial reader may at first believe that Amir returns to Pakistan due to long lasting guilt, but a closer reading of the novel reveals that Amir experiences a sense of brotherly love and a yearning of self-sacrifice to save Hassan’s son, Sohrab to mend he and Hassan’s broken

It is also demonstrated when Hassan lays down his own life protecting the estate that belongs to Baba and Amir out of love and loyalty for Amir. Sacrificial love is a concept some may not understand and question. One may ask why Amir and Hassan acknowledge the need to complete this one courageous, sacrificial act in order to experience redemption. Amir and Hassan may have the perception that even though they are on opposite sides of the world, their courageous acts could at least take the place of a personal apology. Amir was informed by Rahim Khan that “There is a way to be good again, [he] had said on the phone just before hanging up” (Hosseini 192). Maybe Amir takes this advice from Rahim Khan as a sign that going to find Sohrab would redeem and restore his broken relationship with Hassan as well as heal the hole that self-guilt has left in his chest years after he had wronged Hassan. Similar to The Kite Runner, in Slumdog Millionaire, Salim experiences deep regret for how he left his relationship with Jamal by driving him away. Jamal informs Salim that “[he] will never forgive [him]” and Salim replies to Jamal saying “I know” (Slumdog Millionaire). Though Salim does not know how to fix their relationship at first, he soon realizes his