Run And Resurface In The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

Kenny Brooks

Mrs. Hupper

Period. 5

12 Jan. 2015

Run and Resurface

Achieving redemption can take a lifetime. The Kite Runner is set in 1975 Kabul, Afghanistan. The book shows the trials that the main character, Amir, goes through to attain redemption for conflict in his past. The author, Khaled Hosseini, gives historical insight on pre-Taliban, and post-Taliban Afghanistan. As a boy, Amir faces conflict that affects the entire course of his life, and the lives of others. Amir’s best friend was sexually assaulted, and in fear, Amir decided to stand back and hide. The book is about finding peace with himself, learning how to forgive, and repairing his past. Through the conflict that Amir faces, the author illustrates how running away from conflict

usually causes memories filled with guilt to resurface which can negatively affect decisions, emotional moments, and reactions.
The impact of conflict in the past is strong and therefore becomes an ongoing burden in Amir’s decision making. Unfortunately, Amir makes the same harmful decisions that brought him to know guilt. Conflict with Hassan in the past leads Amir to make a bad decision. Amir hides his birthday money and watch under Hassan’s mattress. He tells his dad, Baba, that Hassan stole his presents. Baba asked Hassan if he did and Hassan’s reply was, “a single word, delivered in a thin, raspy voice: “Yes””(105). Amir did this because he felt guilty. He ran away from his problem by forcing Hassan to leave. This bad decision ends up place more guilt on Amir. In addition, Amir’s conflict in the past caused him to place un-heroic morals on Baba, “‘Tell him I’ll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place,’ Baba said. My mind flashed to that winter day six years ago. Me, peering around the corner in the alley…Some hero I had been…Sometimes, I too wondered if I really was Baba’s son. The bulldog-faced Russian raised his gun. ‘Baba, sit down please’” (116). The young Russian soldier at the checkpoint wanted one of the lady’s for a half an hour in the immigrant truck. Amir’s reluctance to stand up for others reminds him of his childhood, and his decision not to stand up for his best friend, Hassan. Yet Amir makes a bad decision by telling Baba to let go of the potentially harmful conflict, just as he did six years before. Even though Amir has a deep recollection of the past, he has not realized that by disowning the past, he is affecting his inability to make the right decision. When his memory turns to the past, the same fears come back and Amir tries to protect himself at all cost. Hosseini narrates these situations, setting up Hassan and the situation at the checkpoint, to emphasize the idea that running away from conflict will result in guilt and bad decision making.
Amir’s conflict with Hassan generates reactions and painful memories resurface during emotional moments.The deep connection Amir and Baba have to Hassan is powerful, and many times thoughts of Hassan bring up sadness or guilt.

Amir has been searching and waiting for Baba to take pride in him. When in America, Amir graduates and he is accepted into college. Baba is very proud and comments about how he wishes Hassan could be there with them. “‘I am moftakhir, Amir,’ he said. Proud.’” “‘I wish Hassan had been with us today,’ he said” (133). Amir is hit hard by his father bringing up Hassan in his moment of glory. He has a reaction of guilt. “A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan’s name” (134). Amir felt guilty because all he ever wanted was to make Baba proud, and now in the moment of his father’s praise, Baba is reminded of Hassan. At Amir’s wedding, he saw Baba sitting on the couch, and it triggered thoughts about Hassan, and how he was living. “And I remember wondering if Hassan too had married. And if so, whose face he had seen in the mirror under the veil? Whose henna-painted hands had he held” (171). Once again, Amir’s felt a reaction of guilt. He knew life would have been better with Hassan if he hadn’t run away from conflict. The past finds its way into everyday life, especially if it is something like Amir’s, which was full of regrets. No matter how far Amir tries to run, it never helps because reminders of the past will trigger the memories again. Amir ran. He moved 7,683 miles away from his past, yet the memories continued to impact emotional moments causing reactions of guilt to consume

him.
Throughout Amir’s life he ran, hid, and ignored his past. The conflict impacting Amir’s life and the lives of others became hard to escape, and made it easier for the past to resurface. Out of fear, Amir stood back and did not help Hassan when he needed it. The impact this experience had on Amir’s life caused him to continue to make bad decisions by turning away in situations that were similar in context. Until Amir was able to atone for his past actions, no place was safe from his memories. This caused reactions of guilt during emotional moments. Hosseini foreshadowed the entire book with one idea: unresolved conflict claws its way out, no matter how far we place ourselves from it. The story of Amir and his past demonstrates the negative effect unresolved conflict can have on one’s life.