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In The Kite Runner, Amir is on a quest for redemption. Throughout his entire childhood, he struggled to redeem himself to Baba for “killing” his mother while giving birth. Baba was always disappointed by Amir because he was nothing like him. After Hassan got raped by Assef, which Amir witnessed but never did anything to help him, Amir spent every second of his life trying to redeem himself to Baba, and Hassan. Amir goes back to Afghanistan in attempt to save and adopt Hassan’s son, Sohrab, after something terrible happens to Hassan. “And that, I believe, is what true redemption really is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.” (Hosseini 302) Amir redeemed himself because he finally felt at peace after Assef let his anger out on him, he is afraid …show more content…
but trying to make friends with Sohrab, and last but not least, he left money under a child’s mattress. Amir goes to a house where he will meet the Taliban official. He gets lead into the house by two guards, he is taken to wait. The official enters the room with guards surrounding him. Amir is asked why he is in America, he answers by saying that he is looking for Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Amir discovers the official he must rescue Sohrab from is the same person that raped Hassan all those years ago. He tells Assef that he will pay him for the boy. Assef does not want the money, it is irrelevant and not why he joined the Taliban. Amir and Assef have some unfinished business with each other, and Assef puts on his brass knuckles. “Another rib snapped, this time lower. What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in the corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this… My body was broken – just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later – but I felt healed.” (Hosseini 289) Assef had been sexually abusing Sohrab, and because Sohrab represents a living piece of Hassan, Assef continues a figurative rape of Hassan. Amir is now in a position to stop this. He can do what Baba always hoped he would and stand up for what is right. As Rahim Khan put it, it is his way to be good again. Amir is finally able to make up for some of his regrets in the past, he could not help Hassan, but he knew he could help Sohrab and he did. Although Amir is injured, he finally feels at peace. Amir wakes up in a hospital after the incident with Assef, his mouth is wired shut, his upper lip is split, the bone of his left eye socket is broken, and several ribs are cracked.
Farid and Sohrab are there for him, and Amir really appreciates that. Amir spends the day playing cards with Sohrab, and Farid leaves to try and find the American couple who run the orphanage that Baba built. I twirled the jack of diamonds in my fingers, flipped it back and forth. “I wasn’t such a good friend, I’m afraid,” I said. “But I’d like to be your friend. I think I could be a good friend to you. Would that be alright? Would you like that?” I put my hand on his arm, gingerly, but he flinched. He dropped his cards and pushed away on the stool. He walked back to the window.” (Hosseini 306) Amir and Sohrab play a card game called panjpar. Sohrab tells Amir that his father, Hassan, said Amir was "the best friend he ever had.” Sohrab barely speaks, he did not know what to say to Amir since he has been through so much. Amir is trying to build bridges with Sohrab because he practically does not have anyone anymore, his father is gone forever, Amir is all he really has. Amir talks a lot about how Hassan was his best friend, and how sometimes he was not the greatest friend he could have been. He wants to prove to Sohrab that he can be a good friend, that he has
changed. Amir and Farid are stopped at Farid’s brother’s house, Wahid, for the night. The three men talk for a while, mostly about why Amir never went back to Afghanistan.He is going to find a Hazara boy, his illegitimate half-brother, so that he can take him to Peshawar where people will take care of him. Wahid calls Amir a true Afghan and says he is proud to have Amir stay in his home. Wahid’s wife begins to serve dinner, While Amir eats, he notices Wahid’s three boys staring at the watch on his wrist. He gives the boys the watch as a gift, but they lose interest quickly. Wahid and his wife are arguing about dinner because they gave Amir the boy’s food, the children did not have any dinner. Amir realizes that the boys were not staring at his watch, they were staring at his food. “Earlier that morning, when I was certain no one was looking, I did something I had done twenty-six years earlier: I planted a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress.” (Hosseini 242) The next morning, before Amir and Farid leave, Amir stuffs a wad of money under one of the boy’s mattresses. Amir realizes then that not everyone gets everything they want, not everyone gets to eat a meal for dinner, as he saw that night. He left that money for the three boys because he did not realize that he had eaten their meal for dinner the night before. Amir is feeling very sympathetic for the kids because they probably do not get much for dinner every night, he left money anonymously and felt very good about it. Amir redeemed himself because he finally felt at peace with himself, he is afraid, but is trying to become friends with Sohrab so he can prove he can be a better friend, and he left money under Wahid’s child’s mattress because he felt terrible that he was given their food for dinner. Amir went through a lot of things, being there to watch Hassan being raped was a very horrible thing that had to happen to him. He did not help Hassan in that situation, but after it happened he realized that he could have helped him somehow. It is in the past though, forgive but do not forget. Amir spent the rest of his life to try and redeem himself. He took in Hassan’s son, brought him to America, and adopted him so he would not have to be a part of that orphanage anymore. Hassan may have had something horrible happen to him and now he is gone, but he saw how Amir redeemed himself throughout his life.
As he grows into a man and pushes his regrets to the side - though not ever completely out of his mind - he learns to live through and accept the pain he caused both himself and his best friend, Hassan. Towards the end of the novel, Amir goes to great lengths to earn the redemption he feels he needs in order to finally be at peace. The Kite Runner asks the audience what it truly means to be a good person - do we need to be born with goodness in our hearts, do we live the way that is comfortable and right according to ourselves, or do we have to constantly fail and prove that we are good?
After some misgivings, Amir agrees to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, from an orphanage in Kabul. Amir even squares off against a Talib official who is actually Assef. In order to save Sohrab, Amir has to fight Assef, but Amir get beaten up badly by Assef. Amir can be seen as good because of what he done, he risked his life and almost got killed by Assef, but Sohrab saved Amir by shooting him in the eye with a slingshot. Even though Amir didn’t do anything good in his childhood and most of his adulthood too. He could have only saved Sohrab out of guilt and maybe some good intentions of actually being thought of as a good person for once, “Sometimes, I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.” (302). Amir is trying to redeem himself after all these years of being a coward and it pays off in the long
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
Notwithstanding difficult and exhausting, characters in The Kite Runner try to prove that redemption is feasible. Amir, a young, cowardly Pashtun boy brought up in riches and luxuries, Baba, a father that works hard to prove his worth, and Sanubar, a mother and wife who abandoned her family in search of a more gratifying life each have their own stories filled with heart wrenching and unanticipated circumstances that lead to the questions, why did they choose to search for redemption? And had they ever attained it?
Redemption is gaining honor and self-forgiveness through a selfless act that reflects off of one’s regretful actions of their past. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Amir is the main character who goes through many life struggles and mistakes, then finds himself on a road to redemption. Amir and Hassan were best friends throughout their childhood and Hassan was the honorable, trusting best friend, the one to always take a stand for what he believed was right. Amir’s lack of courage caused him to stay silent in the worst of times, letting Hassan get tortured for the things he did not deserve. The themes of sacrifice, honor and redemption are carried out in many ways throughout this novel being shown through the actions of Hassan, Baba, and Amir.
To atone for his past sins, he embarks on a journey back to Afghanistan to redeem himself to Hassan for not treating him the way he was treated. He redeems himself by saving Sohrab and giving him a safer and enjoyable life in the Untied States. Amir tyres to attain redemption to baba for being the cause of his mother’s death as he believes. Gaining his fathers love and care will make him feel redeemed from all of the resentment and lack of care that his father shows to him. He must prove to Baba that he is worthy of spending time with everyday because he feels the hatred that his father shows to him. One way how he gets redemption from his father is by winning the kite running tournament to prove to him that he is worthy of being his son. Amir’s path of redemption is not only directed to other people but personal redemption for himself. He attempts to redeem himself by building an orphanage with his wife Soraya and giving Sohrab the childhood that is safer and more suitable for a young boy to grow up in. Amir has to realize that the past doesn’t define who someone is although you can’t forget the past, the actions that they decide to do to redeem themselves from the past mistakes defines who someone is. If Amir’s mother did not die at birth would he be resented from his father greatly and have to make great
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.
“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). In The Kite Runner, Hosseini shares Amir’s journey to atonement. As Amir states, he was unable to bury his past, similar to his father, Baba, who spent the majority of his life haunted by his sins. While both father and son are consumed by guilt, the way in which they atone for their iniquities is dissimilar. While Baba attempts to live his life according to the Afghan saying, “ Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end...crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis [nomads]” (Hosseini 356), Amir strays from this traditional perspective. Baba chose to continue his life unmindful of his past, while Amir, eventually decides to confront his. Although both Baba and Amir have acted immorally, the choices they make find redemption affect the success of their individual attempts. In the novel, Amir’s quest for atonement is more effective than Baba’s because he acts virtuously, while his father, acts selfishly. Ultimately, Amir is the more successful of the two because, in opposition to Baba, he seeks holistic atonement and is willing to make sacrifices to achieve redemption.
One can argue that Amir needs his experience returning to Kabul to rescue Sohrab as a way to engrain appreciation to his lifestyle in America. This return is the only way for Amir to be cleansed of his sins, as stated in The Kite Runner, “‘Come. There is a way to be good again,’ Rahim Khan had said on the phone just before hanging up. Said it in passing, almost as an afterthought” (Hosseini 192). After weeks of secrecy, a brutal fight, and battles with the immigration office, Amir is able to return to America with a bright perspective of his new home albeit broken, beat, and scarred, and a new adopted child, Sohrab. The developed Amir is brought out with his interaction with General Taheri. In the novel, Amir shows his new found ability to stand up for himself with the quote, “‘And one more thing, General Sahib,’ I said. ‘You will never again refer to him as a ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s Sohrab’” (361). Amir has now with him skills needed to continue his life in America as being independent and the man of the house. The future is bright for Amir, as one can see a fortified, relieved, and joyful version of him compared to the accustomed one in
Guilt is a strong emotion that affects many people around the world. It can either lead people into a deep and dark abyss that can slowly deteriorate people or it can inspire them to achieve redemption. Guilt and redemption are two interrelated subjects that can show the development of the character throughout a novel. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, are two literary works that convey the connections between guilt and redemption and show the development of the character by using theme and symbolism that are present in the novels.
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
The opening paragraph of Hosseini’s powerful novel shows many themes such as the guilt Amir is confronted with. Amir keeps sins deep in his heart as he is full of guilt and remorse of his childhood with Hassan. We also know that Amir does not see Hassan as a friend and Hassan really does see Amir as a true friend. Although Amir was not a horrible person he was never a loyal and true friend like Hassan was he betrayed Hassan and never had the chance to apologize to him. “But he’s not my friend! He’s my servant!” (Hosseini 38). This quote show exactly how Amir was not a true friend to Hassan he denies about Hassan being his friend but instead he describes him as his servant. "I'd sooner eat dirt," he said with a look of indignation.” (Hosseini 34). This was a quote said by Hassan as Amir quickly tells him if he would really eat dirt for him, Hassan gives him a look and Amir tells him he would never make him do that. That shows Amir really was never a good friend to Hassan.
Humans can easily make mistakes after all it’s what people do. Thus people make huge mistakes that they will regret for most of their life. Some do nothing about it and feel empty and hopeless about their life and choices. Others choose to do something about it and seek the redemption they need in order to feel better of themselves. Author’s are very capable of putting these ideals into the characters to make them feel relatable. In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses what happens when man needs redemption by using Amir’s betrayal, which leads him to a guilty conscious causing him to seek absolution.