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Amirs personality in the kite runner
The external and internal conflict of amir in the kite runner
How does amir justify his actions in the kite runner
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If someone had the chance to save your life when you were in need, how would you feel if they decided to continue walking past you? A boy in The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, starts out being selfish but later on realizes it is very important to take care of someone else when they are in need. In the article, “Good samaritan save man being mauled by pit bulls,” a selfless man saved a complete stranger from being killed by pit bulls. The “Parable of a good samaritan” describes how someone saves a traveling mans life with his generous mercy. In society, people should be responsible for one another and take care of one another. People aren’t here to purely take care of themselves.
Within Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, one witnesses a tremendous act of self sacrifice. During a kite competition Hassan retrieves a kite to bring back to his friend, Amir. However, while running back to Amir, he is cornered by Assef, town bully, and his lackeys. Assef gives Hassan an option to give up the kite and be let loose, or keep the kite and be raped. Hassan’s self sacrifice is letting himself be raped for his friend. It was important for Hassan to keep the kite because Amir is trying to please his father who has neglected Amir. Getting the kite from the competition is the real grand prize and it would please Amir’s father. Amir sees Hassan being raped, but doesn’t do anything because of his cowardice. Hassan and Amir notice each-other at one point. That is when Amir knows he has lost his relationship with Hassan. Amir goes on to say, “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan(sacrifice) was the price I had...
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...ed a man being mauled by dogs, risked his safety to insure the safety of the victim. This scenario bears a similarity to that within the “Parable of the Good Samaritan.” The mission behind the parable is to instill in common people, the desire to help those in need. If related to modern times, one can compare this thought process to the good samaritans of the 9/11 world trade center attack. Many firemen and police officials rushed into the collapsing buildings in order to save anyone they could find. In doing so, many of those samaritans lost their lives, but many more lives were saved by their selfless actions. Had it not been for those rescuers, many more lives would have been lost. In everyday life, we will come across a situations where tough choices will be made. In this case, we need to “take a moral high road” and choose to help and not be a bystander.
How much are you willing to sacrifice for another? Whether they are a family member or a complete stranger. In the novel The Kite Runner Baba was was willing to risk his life when he had stood up and was trying to stop the Russian soldier from rape the young woman as payment for letting them pass through one of the checkpoints. Then there had been Amir it was when he had suffered extreme injuries, nearly losing his life when he had fought Assef, so that he could save Sohrab for the abuse he was suffering from the Taliban. Both Character Baba and Amir were willing to sacrifice themselves for another person, regardless of who they were. Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, teaches the reader sacrificing your life can lead to another person’s happiness through Baba saving the woman from the Russian soldier and Amir fighting Assef.
...and not self-sacrifice, giving a wide array of consequences. Amir serves as a way to show that it is possible to move from one end of the spectrum to the other. Jesus said in the bible, “There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends” (John 15:13), and an easy contrast to that made by the novel is “There is no greater sin than to lay down one's friends for one's life.” Whether as small as Wahid giving up some food to treat Amir like a guest, or as significant as Amir abandoning Hassan in his time of need, in The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini teaches that self-sacrifice brings wholeness while sacrificing another brings only guilt.
At the beginning of The Kite Runner, young Amir wins a kite fighting tournament. He feels like he has finally redeemed himself for his father. 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...
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...
“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.
Amir also committed a sin that affected him negatively throughout his life. This sin occurred when Hassan, Amir’s best friend during his childhood, was getting raped by Assef. This situation occurred when the children were chasing kites. Hassan got the kite first, but Assef insisted that he wanted the kite. Assef also had a racial and religious prejudice against Hassan. Because Hassan did not give the kite, Assef decides to rape Hassan as a “punishment”. Instead of helping his friend out, Amir just walked away from the scene and let Hassan get violated in one of the most vulgar ways. After this incident, Hassan quietly walked back home and gave Amir the kite for which he was confronted by Assef for. The kite in this situation proves to be an important symbol. Whereas earlier in the novel the kite represented happiness and fun to Amir, in this situation it represented sin and guilt to Amir. 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).
It was stated that whether or not people help depends on a series of interconnected events and decisions. They must first notice what’s happening, understand that it is an emergency and accept personal responsibility. When this fails to happen that is called the bystander effect (Carpenter & Huffman, 2008, p. 422).
2, 2007, Wesley Autrey jumped on the subway tracks of a New York City subway platform, as a train was approaching to save a man who fell due to a seizure. Since most people would tend to argue that he did it influenced by pure altruism, because he did not gain anything in this moment, he got the satisfaction of having helped somebody, and the respect of that and other humans after that accident, which proves that there was no pure altruism. Altruism, an illusionary behavior, lets us gain from charity, but always requires something in return, influenced by reciprocal altruism and empathy, universal egoism and moral, leading to an overvaluing of the action.
During The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini reinforces the theme of the loss of innocence and redemption. Many characters lose innocence or are the cause of another character losing theirs. Amir both loses his innocence and that of others. His innocence is stolen by his father. In the novel Amir overhears Baba saying, “‘If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son’” (Hosseini 24-25). This affects Amir for his entire life as he tries to compete with Hassan for his father's attention. He does not realize that in doing so, this crumbles his world as he knows it. It makes Amir resentful, calloused, and even cruel, all of which are characteristics of someone who has lost their innocence. In turn, Amir’s loss of innocence causes other to lose their innocence because of his lack of courage and disregard for others feelings.
Also, social psychologists have long been concerned in when and why some individuals help others while some decline to help. Although the evidence for the inhibitory effect confounding, there are also counter-examples which exemplifies individuals demonstrating pro-social behavior in the presence of others. Hence, while the bystander effect can have a negative impact on prosocial behavior, altruism and heroism, researchers have identified factors that can help people overcome this predisposition and increase the probability that they will engage in helping act. Lantane and Darley (1968) proposed a five-step psychological process model to account for the bystander effect. These processes include observing that a critical situation is current, interpret the circumstance as a crisis, generate a feeling of individual obligation, believe that we have the adequate skills necessary to succeed, and finally reaching a conscious decision to render help (hellen et al )
Maybe you carried a stranger's groceries, maybe you helped pick up a piece of trash on the street. When you went out of your way to help someone, did it make you feel like a lesser person? If it didn’t, then what is wrong with going out of your way to help people? People feel good about helping others. Not only that, but they make the whole world a better place for everyone by doing so. Say there is a natural disaster that hits New York. People are devastated. In a world where John Galt’s philosophy is adopted, those people in New York are done for! No one would come to help them because “It’s not their responsibility.” People following Galt’s philosophy wouldn’t realize that by not helping the New Yorkers, they are hurting the New Yorkers, their economy, their country and many other aspects of their life connected to their
One small act can change a person’s life forever. This should have a big effect on you because one kind act can change the attitude of a person in an instant. This effect could be good or it could be bad depending on your attitude towards them. If you do a good deed you will have the good and I like that person vibe and you could have them go from suicidal to making them feel like they are important and worth something in life. Or you could be a jerk about it and change their attitude and look on life forever into being rebellious and mean. Flannery O’Connor wrote the story The Life you save may be your Own the fate of the characters Mr. Shiflet saved his own life by leaving Lucynell in the diner; Mrs. Crater saved her own life by setting up Lucynell and Mr. Shiflet, and the title means you don’t always have to do the best thing for other people some time’s you do it for yourself.
On December 3, in full view of a number of witnesses standing within close proximity, Ki-Suck Han, a 58 year-old male entered into an altercation with Naeem Davis, a 30 year-old homeless male at the Times Square subway station. Han was pushed down into the tracks and then struggled and pleaded for help for what was reported to be a full 22 seconds, as witnesses watched, took pictures, and failed to come to his assistance (Petrecca & Eversley, 2012). The man was then hit by the approaching subway train as it dragged into the station. This is a sad example of the Bystander Effect which demonstrates that people are less likely to come to the assistance of another in an emergency situation when other bystanders are present and also perceived to be responsible and able to help (Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, 2012). Moreover, we are most of the time influenced by Social Loafing. Social loafing is the diffusion of responsibility among a group of people. When a group of people are perceiving an emergency situation, all of them tend to think that others are available to help. Social influence explains that people always look to others to evaluate a situation as a real emergency. We assume that others may know something that we do not know and we measure their reactions before we decide how we will respond. If we noticed that those around us are acting as if it is an emergency, then we will view the situation in the same way and act accordingly. However, if those around us are acting calm, then we may not realize the immediacy of the situation and therefore fail to respond appropriately. Maybe this is the answer to why people did not help the homeless who was attacked by the 58 year- old man. They failed to see the situation as a real emergency, and as a result they did not act
In a lifetime, one will face an abundance of personal battles in their decision making. When bad decisions result negatively, people find peace mentally in redeeming themselves of their sin through redemption. In Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner”, the main character, Amir, commits a sin and goes through great lengths to find redemption. Using metaphors, personification, and irony Hosseini expresses the theme of sin, suffering and redemption. Achieving redemption is a long journey people seek after suffering the consequences of sin.
In Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner, the main character, Amir, since the age of 12, sought redemption after watching his best friend, and half-brother, Hassan, get violently raped. Even though he did nothing, that was precisely his crime, doing nothing. He just stood there; he did nothing to help