The Kite Runner Sacrifice

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.

As it has been written by the author it is in Baba’s nature to stand up for others just like he had done for the young woman.

When Baba, Amir, the young woman, her husband and their child were on a truck taking them to Jalalabad they had been stopped at a checkpoint. There had been a Russian Soldier who had opened the back of the truck and told the driver that he wanted the woman as payment for letting them through. Baba had began to protest telling the driver that he was not going to let the Russian Soldier harm the young woman. Hosseini himself writes“‘Tell him I’ll take a thousand bullets before I let this indecency take place’” (Hosseini 116). Baba had been willing to die and abandon Amir in order to save the young woman. Based off Baba’s risk along with the reaction from the young woman and her husband because Russian soldier had not harmed the young woman. Basically Hosseini is saying that risking your life for another can lead to that person’s happiness. Considering that Hosseini states that both the man and woman were thankful for Baba standing up to the

soldier.
Baba was not the only character to risk his life for another person, Amir had done the same for his nephew Sohrab. While Amir is in Afghanistan he discovers that he has a nephew and starts looking for him. While searching for his nephew, Sohrab, he finds out that he was taken by Amir’s old bully Assef, when Amir confronts Assef telling him that he wants Sohrab Assef tells him that he has to fight him in exchange for his nephew. Hosseini himself writes “Every inch of my battered body wailed with pain.” (Hosseini 291). Hosseini had written this to describe the amount of damage that had been done to Amir’s body, but the amount of pain that Amir had suffered from the fight does show how far he was willing to go to take Sohrab away from Assef. In the beginning of the book Amir had never gotten into a physical fight, but since he is willing to go this far for Sohrab and how much Sohrab had opened up to Amir after he takes him shows how much an affect Amir’s risk had made.
By Baba and Amir willing to sacrifice themselves for another person did have a positive on that person. The reaction that the young woman and her husband had after Baba stood up to the Russian soldier. Then amount of damage that had been done to Amir’s body after the fight he had with Assef and how much Sohrab’s character had changed. Both had shown how Hosseini used both the characters and the experiences to show how much of an affect taking a risk can have on another person.