What Are The Similarities Between The Kite Runner And A Tale Of Two Cities

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Sacrifice can come in many different forms. Sacrifice of time, wellbeing, or even of one’s life. Regardless, literature has proven time and time again that the idea of giving something up for the greater good is an essential part of life. Throughout the novels The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, parallelism is used to show that in order to accomplish your goals, one must be able to sacrifice. In the novel The Kite Runner, Hosseini uses similar events and characters in the first and second half of the book to create parallelism. Although the situations that Amir is presented with are very similar, his mindset when facing them changes dramatically the second time around. The scene in which Amir must react to …show more content…

Hosseini creates this parallel by characterizing Sohrab very similarly to the way he characterized Hassan. Thus, In both instances, Amir must help someone who is unable to help themselves. Initially, Amir is not willing to sacrifice anything of his own in order to help Hassan. He knew that he could either “stand up for Hassan… and accept whatever would happen to [him]. Or [he] could run. In the end, [he] ran” (Hosseini, 77). His decision results in a lot of emotional distress for him, and ultimately causes him to push Hassan and his father out of the house. Baba’s disappointment in the departure of Hassan and Ali goes to show that Amir did not achieve his goal of winning his father’s approval, because he was not willing to lose anything on order to earn it. However, in the latter portion of the book, when Amir is again forced to make a decision similar to the one he made in his childhood, he is willing to sacrifice. When Assef demands that Amir “earns” Sohrab from him, Amir recognizes that now is is “his turn” to sacrifice for someone he loves. As a result of his sacrifice, he is able to save Sohrab from Assef’s abuse., and finally be at peace with

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