Many people have done things that they can’t seek redemption for or can’t forgive themselves for, such as not being there for a friend when they need you most. Including Amir, from The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Amir is best friends with Hassan, a Hazara boy. They grow up together, and Amir later finds out that they are half brothers. Hassan helps Amir, but he allows a boy, Assef, and his group of friends to rape Hassan, which he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to forgive himself for. Amir is redeemed because he receives letters from Hassan, he adopts Sohrab, and fights Assef. 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 …show more content…
Assef is the same guy that rapes Hassan. Amir runs into Assef, who is now apart of the Taliban, while trying to get Sohrab. Amir says, “I’ll pay you for him, … I can have money wired” (282). Amir is trying to buy Sohrab from Assef, but Assef doesn’t need the money. His parents are rich and live in this gorgeous place called Rockingham. He says, “Have you ever heard of Rockingham? Western Australia, a slice of heaven… So if I need money, I’ll have them wire it to me” (282). If Assef needed money, he would just have his parents send it to him. Assef wants something else from Amir. Assef wants to settle some ‘unfinished’ business with Amir. Assef fights Amir, but really he ends up just beating him with brass knuckles. In the end, Amir feels better. He says, “My body was broken-but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed” (289). Amir feels the pain of Assef continuously beating him, but he also feels like he is at peace, because when he wanted Hassan to hurt him back, he wouldn’t. He laughs because he is feeling at peace. Now that he has finally gotten what he has been waiting for and what he thinks he deserves. By Amir getting beaten feeling peace, he is finally fulling
Amir is, to be put bluntly, a coward. He is led by his unstable emotions towards what he thinks will plug his emotional holes and steps over his friends and family in the process. When he sought after Baba’s invisible love, Amir allowed Hassan to be raped in an alleyway just so that the blue kite, his trophy that would win his father’s heart, could be left untouched. In the end, he felt empty and unfulfilled with the weight of his conscience on his shoulders comparable to Atlas’ burden. Unable to get over his fruitless betrayal, he lashes out and throws pomegranates at Hassan before stuffing money and a watch under his loyal friend’s pathetic excuse for a bed, framing Hassan for theft and directly causing the departure of both servants from his household. Even after moving to America, finding a loving wife, and creating a career for himself in writing, he still feels hollow when thinking of his childhood in Afghanistan. Many years later, he is alerted of Hassan’s death and sets out on a frenzied chase to find his friend’s orphaned son. He feels that he can somehow ease his regrets from all of those years ago if he takes in Hassan’s son, Sohrab. He finds Sohrab as a child sex slave for Assef, who coincidentally was the one to rape Hassan all of those years ago. After nearly dying in his attempt to take back Sohrab, he learns that he can take the damaged child back to the states with him. Sadly, Hassan’s son is so
Hassan agrees and gives chase for the kite with Amir follow some time later on. However, during that time Hassan is corner by Assif and several others children. Hassan is then punished by Assif for protecting Amir, as well as being a different type of Afghani. In one swift motion, Assif performs a horrifying sexual act on Hassan, all the way Amir watch it far down a street. And what does Amir do? Well he ran as he put it, “I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt” (77).
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.
To atone for his past sins, he embarks on a journey back to Afghanistan to redeem himself to Hassan for not treating him the way he was treated. He redeems himself by saving Sohrab and giving him a safer and enjoyable life in the Untied States. Amir tyres to attain redemption to baba for being the cause of his mother’s death as he believes. Gaining his fathers love and care will make him feel redeemed from all of the resentment and lack of care that his father shows to him. He must prove to Baba that he is worthy of spending time with everyday because he feels the hatred that his father shows to him. One way how he gets redemption from his father is by winning the kite running tournament to prove to him that he is worthy of being his son. Amir’s path of redemption is not only directed to other people but personal redemption for himself. He attempts to redeem himself by building an orphanage with his wife Soraya and giving Sohrab the childhood that is safer and more suitable for a young boy to grow up in. Amir has to realize that the past doesn’t define who someone is although you can’t forget the past, the actions that they decide to do to redeem themselves from the past mistakes defines who someone is. If Amir’s mother did not die at birth would he be resented from his father greatly and have to make great
“Forgive and forget” is a common phrase in our society. However, one may argue that mistakes are never truly forgotten. The Kite Runner suggests that the best way to resolve your past and make up for your mistakes is through doing good. Through Rahim Khan’s wisdom, the actions of Baba, and the journey of Amir, Khaled Hosseini illustrates that the need for redemption, due to unresolved guilt, can haunt someone throughout their life.
“For you, a thousand times over.” In The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini, there is a recurring theme of redemption that is portrayed by various literary devices. Kahled excellently juxtaposes devices such as irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing to show redemption within his first novel.
Forgiveness: A brother’s journey, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is an exciting and emotional book that stirs the reader into many different paths. An overarching theme that is shown throughout the two major characters (Amir and Hassan) is the element of forgiveness. The novel reveals a lot of racial and ethnic discrimination and family secrets. As these lucrative statements get disclosed, the main character, Amir, is shown to be battling with his own conscience. Forgiveness in the novel is shown in the two different relationships: Amir and Hassan, and Baba and Hassan.
“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.
Amir’s way of coping with the guilt was to push Hassan out of his life which eventually breaks the strong bond between him and Hassan. He took advantage of his new life in America by trying to forget...
In Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” redemption develops the story plot surrounding Amir, who had lived with regret and guilt for 26 years before he finds a way to redeem himself. Watching his own friend getting rape had became the deeping secret in his heart. A childhood fault had followed him for the rest of his life. Hosseini’s development of such theme controls the plot, the characters, and the structures of the novel. The characters grow through the mistakes they made and learn from their introspections. Hosseini stretches the plot accordingly to make the impact of redemption influential. Although redemption and forgiveness come in side by side, they are not meant to be a true erase for the mistake.
Assef responded saying, “You’re bothering me very much. In fact, you bother me more than the Hazara here” (Khaled 41). A few moments later Assef was putting on his brass knuckles. As a result, Amir was standing there, scared for what might happened next. On the contrary, Hassan picked up his slingshot and was ready to protect both himself and Amir. “Someone had challenged their god. Humiliated him. And, worst of all, that someone was a skinny Hazara” (42). Although Hassan was not as fortunate as Amir in regards to the living situation, he undoubtedly had more courage than any character in the novel. There were various occasions in the book where Hassan is taking Amir’s consequences. For instance, hours after the kite tournament Amir was out searching for Hassan in order to retrieve the kite for his father’s blessing. After hours of searching he finally found him in an alley with Assef and his followers. Once he arrived to the scene Hassan was cornered by the group of boys, they wanted the kite. Hassan was extremely loyal to Amir, in result he said no to giving them the kite. At this point Assef decided to punish Hassan in a
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.
Have you ever regretted a descion that you made in your life and wished you could have changed it? In the novel The Kite Runner, a boy named Amir struggles throughout his life to gain his father approval and makes a decision that will not only cost his friendship, but will also regret for the rest of his life. “I ran because I was a coward” (Hosseini 77). The scene in which Amir abandons Hassan to Assef and his group of thugs in Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, is important because Hosseini uses it to establish that avoiding your problems can affect you for the rest of your life through Amir betraying Hassan and regretting it for the rest of his life throughout the novel.
Even after doing something bad, a good person will always try to make it good again. There are many themes in the novel, The Kite Runner. Amir winning the kite tournament, Sohrab confessing to what happened to him, and Amir going to get Sohrab are all courageous acts that support a theme in this novel. The desire for redemption gives people courage is a major theme shown in The Kite Runner.