Theme Of Innocence In The Kite Runner

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The life we are given influences what we do, but it is up to us to decide our future.
Innocence can mean purity, virginity, naivety, or lack of knowledge. These different definitions are diverse, but four characters in The Kite Runner embody one or more of these definitions of innocence: Amir, Assef, Hassan, and Sohrab. The life we are given influences what we do, but is up to us to decide our future.

In The Kite Runner, we can easily identify the protagonist and the antagonist. Amir, the protagonist, grows to fit the hero archetype when he learns to be selfless and saves Sohrab. Initially, Amir is an innocent boy who acts according to the life he was given. He is privileged and a Pashtun, and his actions reflect these qualities. Amir grows and learns …show more content…

Although everyone is born innocent, he was also born with a flaw. He was born a sociopath and is unable to relate to others in a “normal” way. He lacked proper judgement, and could not build his own beliefs. His beliefs come from what he is told, and he takes them to an extreme. He, a Pashtun, is indoctrinated to see Hazaras as inferior, and as a result ends up viewing Hazaras as Hitler viewed Jews: “We are the true Afghans, pure...His people pollute our homeland...they dirty our blood” (40). Assef is innocent because of his mental situation, but his actions make him guilty. Assef knows that society believes what he is doing is wrong, but he ignores it because it does not mean anything to him. Assef gets a message from God: “He was on my side. He wanted me to live for a reason” (253). After that event, his actions are now “guided” by an outside force, giving him a justification for what he does. When Amir confronts Assef and names the crime that Assef is committing, Assef’s response was: “Ethnic cleansing. I like it. I like the sound of it” (285). The word cleansing has a positive connotation, and Assef feels as though what he is doing is right.

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