Sins and Redemption Essay

Sins are mistakes made in moments of weakness; everybody has weakness, thus everybody commits sins. These mistakes gone uncorrected leave guilt and regret, but because the nature of guilt is a feeling of responsibility for an action, it reflects the good in someone because at a subconscious level, they long for some form of redemption. The length at which two characters in The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, go to redeem themselves doesn’t necessarily show their “goodness”, but the level of guilt they experienced because of their sins. We find out that that the father, Baba, had an illegitimate son with his best friend’s wife, a Hazara woman, which in turn forced him to cover up his and Hassan’s relationship, not to mention his neglectful treatment of his legitimate son Amir due to their vast personal differences. Amir himself was cowardly when it came to defending his half-brother Hassan, his sins worsened when he sold Hassan out in order to bury his own guilt. While each character is good, Baba sacrificed more than Amir in order to redeem himself; though he was forced to cover up his relationship to Hassan, he did the best he could to give him and Amir a better life, and give back to his community.

Weakness, as seen in Amir, refers to his childhood selfishness. Selfishness for his father’s affections, and selfishness for his own well being; selfishness that forced cowardice to play a large role in Amir’s childhood, as he wanted to protect himself. Because of this, Amir’s betrayal of Hassan, who was his unwitting half brother, had repercussions that would last long into his life and negatively impact many people including Hassan, Ali, Sohrab, and himself. Since Hassan was Hazara, he was much lower in society than Pashtun Amir. Amir has an inherent advantage over Hassan. Though Amir consciously recognized Hassan’s status, he was still very good friends with him.