Slide 1 In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the healing process of Hassan and Amir unfolds in distinct yet parallel ways. Both boy’s emotional journeys are marked with guilt, redemption, and the pursuit of forgiveness. However, their paths vary in how they navigate their respective paths towards healing. Slide 2 Despite the betrayal and injustices faced by Hassan, he continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience and forgiveness. Rooted in his unwavering loyalty to Amir, Hassan says “For you, a thousand times over” (67). Even after Amir’s cowardness and betrayal, Hassan tries to remain friends and still adheres to his words to Amir, highlighting his selflessness and forgiving nature. This does not mean that Hassan’s healing journey has …show more content…
Despite this, Hassan remains a beacon of hope through his forgiving heart and innate goodness, no matter the circumstances he must deal with. Slide 3 On the other hand, Amir struggles through a more volatile path toward healing, in his case, redemption. His internal conflict, plagued with self doubt and guilt from witnessing Hassan’s assault, is illustrated in his admission “I ran because I was a coward” (77). Throughout the novel, Amir’s guilt over witnessing Hassan’s assault and his silence on the matter is his driving factor to seek redemption and atonement. However, he’s faced with many obstacles as he fights against the weight of his past actions and their repercussions on his relationships, specifically Baba and Hassan. Slide 4 Amir’s healing process is eventually put into rapid motion with the opportunity to confront his past on his return to Afghanistan. This return symbolizes a turning point in his journey as Amir is finally seen taking action to right his wrongs. Rahim Khan serves as a guide in Amir’s path of forgiveness as he offers solace and wisdom to Amir. Rahim Khan reassures Amir that there “is a way to be good again” (1992). This resonates deeply with Amir and inspires him to confront his past and seek
Hosseini’s purpose of writing the Kite Runner was to teach the readers the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The main character, Amir, is a Pashtun and Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims, then there are Hazara’s that the Pashtuns do not get along with. Hazara’s are not welcomed by the Pashtuns because they are different social classes.
Although Hassan is his best friend, there are many instances where Amir reveals his jealousy, most notable when Baba sees Hassan as the stronger boy, "self-defense has nothing to do with meanness. You know what always happens when the neighbourhood boys tease him? Hassan steps in and fends them off. I 've seen it with my own eyes…” (Hosseini 24). Clearly, Amir hears how his father compares the two, and unlike Hassan who manages to meet Baba’s expectations, Amir grows bitter towards Hassan. He is unable to fight off his envy which later causes him to sacrifice his best friend’s innocence: “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (82), and this is all because he realizes “his shame is complicated by his own realization that in part he doesn’t help his friend precisely because he is jealous of him” (Corbett, 2006). From here, Amir develops strong feelings of guilt that induces him to perform even more destructive acts, such as having Hassan and his father evicted from the house. Amir not only loses a close friend, but now he has to continue to live with remorse as he dwells on these memories. The only way for Amir to redeem himself of his repercussions is through a challenging process of sacrifice and self-discovery. Although one is unsure at this point whether Amir succeeds at his endeavors, it is clear that this story
The Kite Runner is a book about a young boy, Amir, who faces many struggles as he grows up in Kabul and later moves to America to flee from the Taliban. His best friend and brother , Hassan, was a big part of his life, but also a big part of guilt he held onto for many years. The book describes Amir’s attempt to make up for the past and resolve his sins so he can clear his conscious. Amir is worthy of forgiveness because although he was selfish, he was very brave and faced his past.
Despite living majority of his life with the guilt of not helping Hassan, Amir’s nemesis is yet to come. Destiny plays a huge game with Amir and reveals to him that Hassan is his illegitimate brother during his visit with Rahim Khan. Reacting with various emotions, Amir first decides to head back about to America, but in the end makes the first brave decision in his life by going back to Kabul “…to atone not just for [his] sins, but…Baba’s too” (198). Amir tries to compensate for his sin by rescuing Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from the brutality occurring in Kabul. Amir puts his entire life in jeopardy by facing the oppression in Kabul so he could make a genuine effort in eliminating his sins. In an ideal world, when one truly makes an effort to redeem themselves for their wrongdoings, they are usually gifted with forgiveness. However, in reality, Amir’s heroic act of saving Sohrab, did not free him of sorrow because he still has to live with his nemesis for the rest of his life. By taking Sohrab to America with him, Amir constantly is reminded of his hamartia by envisioning Hassan through Sohrab. This shows how the guilt from a cowardly act leads one into a lifelong feeling of
Novel The Kite Runner Essay In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, there are several major themes. One of the themes that stands out the most is redemption. This theme is shown through the thoughts and actions of the protagonist of the novel, Amir. He is seeking redemption for betraying his childhood best friend and half-brother Hassan.
The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini, is a story about Redemption. In this novel, two kids always run kites together when they are young. One is Amir, a rich boy living in a high-status family; the other is Hassan, Amir’s loyal servant and playmate. One day, Amir wins the kite running tournament, and they need to run to get their trophy, the last fallen kite. Hassan tries to get the kite for Amir. He gets it successfully, but he is raped by the local bully, Assef. Amir sees everything behind a corner; however, he doesn’t do anything and runs away because of fear. He betrays Hassan, his friend. What’s more, he accuses Hassan of stealing in order to dislodge him because he is afraid
Hosseini constructs parallels between Amir’s relationship with both Hassan and Sohrab in order to provide Amir with the chance to redeem himself. He heads Rahim Khan’s advice as he finds a way “to be good again” (226). Amir builds a new relationship with Sohrab and ultimately earns the redemption he longed for. Without the connection between Sohrab and Hassan, Amir would never have been able to make amends for his past. He not only earns Hassan’s forgiveness, but also his own, which is what truly allows Amir to move on.
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch
Amir begins to feel redemption when he goes to Pakistan and Rahim Khan has letters from Hassan to Amir. In the letters, Hassan begins talking about his wife and
This embarrasses and frustrates Amir. This frustration is one reason for Amir to slowly but surely push Hassan out of his life. Although it is not the most obvious reason, it is an underlying one. This is a mistake on Amir’s part because Hassan does so much for Amir, being the loyal friend that he is, and for Amir to push someone of such good moral and character out of his life, is a tremendous mistake on his behalf. It is quite obvious that Hassan would give his life for Amir, but, because of where Hassan comes from, Amir struggles throughout his childhood, to find a way to accept the friendship Hassan gives him.
Amir went to extreme measures to make sure his guilt would go away and Hassan, the loyal friend he is, took the blame to help Amir. The road to redemption could be one phone call or a country away. As Amir got older, he started to forget about Hassan getting assaulted. While living in America, Amir had changed and he and Baba’s relationship was mended before he passed away. Amir, a published author who had everything going well for him, received a phone call from an old friend of Baba.
Amir struggles to live up to his father’s expectations and never really had to stand up for himself because Hassan was always there for him in a bad situation. As he grew older, Amir realized that there was a major difference between Pashtuns and Hazaras which Assef showed through his words and asked Amir how he could call Hassan his friend. The first thought Amir has is, “But he’s not my friend!... He’s my servant!” (Hosseini 41). Grabbing the brass knuckles, Assef was going to hurt Amir for taking in and caring for Hazaras, but from behind him, Hassan loaded his slingshot and aimed at Assef’s eye, threatening him to leave the two of them alone. Although Hassan has stood up and protected Amir many times, it seemed that Amir felt that betrayal was easier than loyalty. On the night of the tournament, hidden in an alley, Amir watched his friend and brother get raped for the kite that belonged to Amir and did nothing because he was terrified and a coward who was always protected by someone else. “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba... He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 77). Amir’s final act of betrayal to Hassan when he was a child was also the last time he saw him. Amir was tired of lying to those close to him, he only wanted the affection of his father and Hassan made that possible for him by running that one blue kite. As time went on, the guilt was looming in the shadows and Amir had enough, after his birthday he made one final act of selfishness, “I lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it.” (Hosseini 104). It took Amir twenty-six years to start standing up for himself and his first act of loyalty was presented to his nephew, “for you a thousand times over.” (Hosseini
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).
LOTF Synthesis William Golding proves to us in his book, Lord of the Flies, through characterization and imagery that humans are inherently evil. In his book, the question arises if humans are naturally born with a compass for morality, or if it’s something that we learn to have throughout the course of our lives. Do humans only act evil if they are in a certain environment, or are they evil regardless of the setting? In Lord of the Flies, the boys question the existence of the beast, and what it is if it does exist. Simon brings up his own answer, saying, “Maybe there is a beast.
Baba says this quote while having a private conversation with Rahim Khan, which exposes important traits of Baba and Amir. The irony of Baba ranting to Rahim Khan about Amir to never be able to stand up for himself; Hassan always saves him. The irony takes its place when Amir watches Assef rape Hassan without interfering. These words shows Amir’s character flaw, cowardice, and Baba shows how significant it is to stand up for what is right. We all know that Baba is hesitant to seize recognition of Amir because Amir’s decrease of courage to stand up for himself, which leaves Amir deeply wanting Baba’s praise and approval.