Analysis Of Atonement And Hosseini's The Kite Runner

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Review of Literature In Ananya Mishra’s article “The “Eternal Loop” of Guilt and the Attempt to Atone in McEwan’s Atonement and Hosseini’s The Kite Runner”, she deeply evaluates the character of Amir and his lifelong guilt. She notes Amir suffers from a deep emotional insecurity. His insecurity roots from the fact he is none of the things his father wants him to be; athletic, strong, and brave. His inability to stand up for himself and fight back disappoints his father. Amir is jealous of Hassan who is not only fast and athletic but also able to stand up to others on Amir’s behalf. Ananya believes it is Amir’s cowardice that causes him to commit such a terrible act resulting in his lifelong guilt. She says the reason Amir did not step in and save Hassan because he was afraid he would get hurt. She analyzes Amir’s reaction to what he did. He is unable to face what he did and he is so conflicted he lashes out at hassan. Unable to get past what he did he commits yet another act of betrayal towards him by framing him for stealing to get rid of him. She notes that Amir used Hassan as a scapegoat to gain Baba’s affection. Ananya digs deeper into the psychological root of guilt. She uses this quote of Sigmund Freud as a base for her theory “To begin with, if we ask how a person …show more content…

As Hassan writes in his letter, "fear is everywhere, in the streets, in the stadium, in the markets, it is part of our lives here, Amir agah."(216) This setting is vital as it results in the death of Hassan therefore Sohrab 's need for rescuing. The setting of Afghanistan once again results in the presence of sexual abuse. When Amir finds Sohrab he is a victim of Bacha bazi: an afghan tradition where boys forced to dance dressed as women and are sexually abused. The fact Sohrab is a sex slave gives Amir even more motivation to save him, the way he should have saved

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