Subtle Echoes In The Kite Runner

Subtle Echoes
Letting go of the past can be a challenge. In fact, often what one experiences as a child is carried with them throughout adulthood as well. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner Amir, the protagonist, finds himself haunted by the selfish decisions he made as a child. As he works to try and forgive himself for the wrongs he committed against his friend Hassan he finds that the choices he makes will stay with him forever. Amir never lets Hassan's memory stop influencing his thoughts and decisions, and in doing so he changes to become more like Hassan.
Amir starts his journey as a selfish child with little regard for others, while Hassan cares deeply for those around him and protects those that he can. Amir spends many years trapped

in his own head caring for little more than himself. He longs for his father's affection and will do anything necessary to get it. Amir even wishes, with disturbing characterization, that he “had some kind of scar that would beget Baba’s sympathy,” as Hassan’s harelip scar does for him (Hosseini 46). His going as far as longing to be disfigured to gain Baba’s care shines a light on how disturbed he is as a child. Even now he is allowing his thoughts to be consumed by his jealousy for Hassan and wish for his father's love. When Amir is attacked by bullies “Hassan steps in and fends them off” while Amir stands back and waits for the storm to pass, further revealing his selfish nature, and contrasting with Hassan’s strength (22). Later, in one final act of selfishness Amir turns on his heel and abandons Hassan to be raped. He then acts as though he has seen nothing, even admitting that he “can’t lie now and say my eyes didn’t scan [the kite] for any rips”(78). The kite that would be able to gain his father's favor, once again demonstrating how he cares for no one else. Hassan is brutally attacked and still Amir is just a child and thinks only of himself and how best he can garner Baba’s love. His selfishness is prominent and painful, but even at such a young age Hassan’s effect on Amir is obvious, amplifying his selfish and jealous nature.
Amir may begin young and naive, but as he spends time ruminating on his past decisions and guilt he finds himself taking the initiative to redeem himself.

He finds himself unable to let go of his past sins. He thinks frequently of Hassan even as he claims in desperate metaphors that “America was a place to bury [his] memories”(129). In reality, he wallows in his guilt and knows he must do something about it if he will ever be able to have a happy life. He reflects back, recalling Hassan’s dream that there are no monsters in the lake, but Amir thinks that “he’d been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake … I was that monster,” the monster that does not save a little boy in need, who casts a friend from his life because of his own guilt. But Amir takes the guilt he faces and he does something with it because “Hassan had loved [him] once, loved [him] in a way that no one ever had or ever would again. He was gone now, but a little part of him lived on. It was in Kabul,” waiting to be saved, waiting for that little boy peering into the alley way on a winter's evening to do something (227). And this time he does. Amir finds it in himself to grow beyond his guilt and lets Hassan's influence turn him into a better man. He goes to Kabul and saves Hassan’s son, and in doing so, feelings of peaceful irony are revealed as his “body was broken… but [he] felt healed”(289). Amir is able to put his very life on the line to selflessly save Sohrab. He redeems himself, finding the

courage he sees in Hassan to do what is right and help his nephew. In saving Sohrab he rights the wrongs he commits, even if it is a few years late and Hassan is no longer around to see it, Amir is able to change.
As Amir grows, taking on Hassan's more selfless and courageous traits, he finds himself echoing Hassan in both appearance and action.

Amir grows up at last, finding a selflessness and loyalty that only Hassan can coax from him. When Amir ultimately saves Sohrab he finds himself in the position that Hassan had been in so many years before, being brutalized by Assef with only a young boy to come to his rescue. Yet in this moment he is finally relieved of his guilt. However, saving Sohrab has a number of unforeseen consequences, destroying both his cowardice and his face. Amir finds himself with a deep cut on his lip “clean down the middle. Like a harelip” one that eerily parallels the harelip scar Hassan once had (297). Amir not only resembles Hassan physically after helping Sohrab, but also slips into the role of father figure to Hassan’s boy. He finds himself inviting Sohrab to “come live in America with [him] and [his] wife” and caring deeply for the child (32). In fact, he begins to see Sohrab as family and he looks after him as one would their own child. Amir has at last come to peace with the mistakes of his past, but they will sit with him forever. With every glance in the mirror, glimpse of Sohrab, memory of Kabul, or appearance of a kite, Hassan will be there, forever influencing Amir's

journey.
Amir echos Hassan in traits, appearance, role and attitude and it may have been a long haul, and he may have started out selfish and uncaring, but he makes it. Amir is a reminder that anyone can change if they put their heart into it, no matter what they have done. Letting go and moving on are difficult, and the choices people make follow them through life, but those actions do not always have to define them. However, change only comes with reflection and in Amir’s case the events of his past will haunt him for years before he is able to turn the pain into something good. He sees Hassan everywhere and in everything, and he may never stop feeling his presence, but it pushes him to become more like the kind and courageous child he once knew. Hassan influences Amir more than he can ever know and will always be with Amir in memory, changing him for the better.