Redemption is the act of atoning a wrongdoing or mistake. Shaka Senghor, the speaker of the Ted Talk, “Why Your Worst Deeds Don’t Define You” talks about his story of growing up a troubled teen in Detroit. Also, about how he went through the jail system and how he wants to change that. While Khaled Hosseini, the author of the novel, The Kite Runner, writes about Amir, a kid who grows up with regret and hatred towards himself for being afraid to speak up. Whereas, Gabriele Muccino, the director of the film Seven Pounds, showcases a film about Ben Thomas, a man who killed seven people in a car accident caused by a single text message. Although all three types of media are different, they all share one common theme, redemption. The Ted Talk, “Why …show more content…
All three characters have to be courageous in order to redeem themselves from past wrongs. In the Ted Talk, “Why Your Worst Deeds Don’t Define You”, Shaka was freed from prison and was able to build up the courage to be able to go back into a community that thought he was an awful person. He came back and to his old Detroit community and built up enough courage to help kids who grew up in bad neighbourhoods like him. He says this in his Ted Talk, “The third thing was atoning. For me, atoning meant going back into my community and working with at-risk youth who were on the same path, but also becoming at one with myself,” (Senghor). When Shaka said this, it showed how he had the courage to go into the community and help people. He went back into a community that criticized him for murdering someone when he was a troubled teenager, and helped the kids that were also beginning to walk along the same path as himself. This is very courageous because the community could have destroyed Shaka’s self-esteem and made him not want to come back and redeem himself by helping others. In The Kite Runner, Amir’s entire life he never was courageous because he was always too shy. This was held true when his best friend was raped and he did nothing to help him, so he made sure he was courageous enough to save his friend’s son. Amir says this courageous quote in the novel, “I remembered Wahid’s boys, and...I realized …show more content…
This is no different for Shaka, Amir and Ben. Shaka tries to help people that went through the American prison system just like he did, so they can come out of jail as better people. He talks about the American jail system in his Ted Talk, “...but unfortunately the system that currently holds 2.5 million people in prison is designed to warehouse as opposed to rehabilitate or transform. So made it up in my mind that if I was ever released from prison that I would do everything in my power to help change that,” (Senghor). This shows that Shaka wants to come back into his community and help others. With the courage he built up to get back into his community, he wants to do everything in his power to help that community. He wants to help others who went through similar experiences as him in order to make himself feel like he has redeemed himself. Similarly in The Kite Runner, Amir tries to redeem himself by going to Afghanistan and saving Sohrab, Hassan’s son. The biggest way that Amir can help Sohrab escape his brutal life in Afghanistan, is by bringing him to America. Amir says this to Sohrab, “ ‘Would you like to come live in America with me and my wife,’ “ (336). Amir knew that what he did to Hassan was cowardly, so he needed to help Sohrab to feel like he redeemed himself. He asks Sohrab to move in with him in America because he
Amir’s redemption is a large part of the novel and is carried out almost entirely until the end of the story. He travels to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from the orphanage he was placed in after the death of his parents. He promises to find him a safe home with someone but after time passes he feels like this is not enough. He then speaks to his wife and decides to take Sohrab back to the United States with him and take care of his as if he was one of his own. Earlier in the novel when Baba is speaking Amir over hears his conversation as he is referring to him stating, “A boy who won 't stand up for himself becomes a man who can 't stand up to anything” (Hosseini, 22). Thus meaning that if he is able to stand up for himself as a young boy, when he is grown he will not be able to stand up for anything that is in his future. This is true throughout the story until he stands up for himself and Sorhab when he is arguing with his life long bully, Assef. Amir lacked the courage to defend himself in the novel until he finally took charge and went against
During the course of these four chapters Amir is on a mission to find Sohrab, Hassan’s son, in the city of Kabul. Initially Amir is uncooperative on Rahim Khans dying wish to see Sohrab once more. When Rahim Khan confronts Amir about being “A man who cannot stand up to anything,” (Hosseini 221). This ignites a flame within Amir to prove Rahim Khan wrong. If this statement had not been spoken to Amir, the events in twenty through twenty-three would not have happened. Based on the previous chapters of The Kite Runner Amir can be described as placid as well as
One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan – the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past – and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran.” ( ) This section of The Kite Runner was astonishing and unfathomable, but nevertheless sets the scene for Amir’s journey to redemption.
In Khaled Hosseini’s book, The Kite Runner, Amir is an example of growing up, making mistakes, and facing the consequences of those mistakes. Amir grows so much throughout the book. He is a fictional example of maturing and growing up in a realistic manner. Making mistakes is a part of this growth, even though it is extreme. The reader is introduced to Amir and is disgusted about how he treats Hassan and abandons him in a time of needing rescuing.
Redemption is defined as the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil. Throughout life, individuals are faced with numerous incidences of redemption that can be taken up or ignored. Those who choose to take the opportunity are often able to grow mentally and accelerate much further than those who do not. However, what must be taken into account is that true redemption is for oneself rather than for others. For example, redemption by finally getting a well-deserved promotion which impresses others is not truly beneficial redemption. What must occur is happiness for the promotion within. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the employment of redemption as a central idea prevails throughout the novel, specifically in the life
Amir makes mistakes and hurts his friend Hassan, and immediately afterwards he felt guilt, and wanted forgiveness, but Hassan acted like Amir did nothing, which bothered Amir even worse. And that lasted on, throughout his childhood he’s constantly upset about what he has done to Hassan, he doesn’t feel like it can be fixed. And he strives to do things throughout the novel to achieve that. One good deed he does trying to be good again, was when he goes back home, he is at a house with Farid and
At the beginning of The Kite Runner, young Amir wins a kite fighting tournament. He feels like he has finally redeemed himself for his father. However, Amir’s happy day turns dark, when an hour later, he witnesses Hassan, his best friend, raped in an alley. He had “one final opportunity to decide who [he] was going to be. (77) Instead of standing up for his friend and...
Rahim Khan asked for Amir to come and save Sohrab because he knew about the past and felt this was the way Amir would be able to make up for his mistakes. However, Amir wasn’t willing to risk his life for the son of the man who was not only his best friend, but who had put himself in danger countless times to save Amir. This is very selfish because this boy in in need of help and he simply wants to throw money at the situation and stay out of it. Another example of Amir being selfish was when (Pg 309) they found out that the couple who were going to adopt Sohrab weren’t there so he was willing to just dump him with Farid without any further thought. This is extremely selfish because that is his nephew and he is willing to leave him in war stricken Kabul where the boy has already been abused by the Taliban. He only concern was getting home safe to America and doing the bare minimum to save Sohrab in hopes to clear his conscious. The final example of Amir being selfish was when he said that he hopes that he doesn’t end up letting Sohrab get hurt like he let hassan get hurt, only because he doesn’t want that sin stuck with him too: “I will do all of this one wish: My
Amir is a man who is haunted by the demons of his past. This is first shown in the opening lines of the novel “I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but 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 pg.#) These opening lines of the novel foreshadow what is yet to come. You can see that Amir looking back at the past with an attempt to justify why he is the man he is today. In the winter of 1975 it was the final round of the Kite Running tournament when Hassan choice to run the last kite for Amir. In doing so Hassan is corner by Assef and his gang who question Hassan’s loyalty to Amir. They give Hassan the choice to give them the kite in exchange to do no harm to him or to...
One can argue that Amir needs his experience returning to Kabul to rescue Sohrab as a way to engrain appreciation to his lifestyle in America. This return is the only way for Amir to be cleansed of his sins, as stated in The Kite Runner, “‘Come. There is a way to be good again,’ Rahim Khan had said on the phone just before hanging up. Said it in passing, almost as an afterthought” (Hosseini 192). After weeks of secrecy, a brutal fight, and battles with the immigration office, Amir is able to return to America with a bright perspective of his new home albeit broken, beat, and scarred, and a new adopted child, Sohrab. The developed Amir is brought out with his interaction with General Taheri. In the novel, Amir shows his new found ability to stand up for himself with the quote, “‘And one more thing, General Sahib,’ I said. ‘You will never again refer to him as a ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s Sohrab’” (361). Amir has now with him skills needed to continue his life in America as being independent and the man of the house. The future is bright for Amir, as one can see a fortified, relieved, and joyful version of him compared to the accustomed one in
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
As he grows into a man and pushes his regrets to the side - though not ever completely out of his mind - he learns to live through and accept the pain he caused both himself and his best friend, Hassan. Towards the end of the novel, Amir goes to great lengths to earn the redemption he feels he needs in order to finally be at peace. The Kite Runner asks the audience what it truly means to be a good person - do we need to be born with goodness in our hearts, do we live the way that is comfortable and right according to ourselves, or do we have to constantly fail and prove that we are good?
...achieves redemption and finally succeeds in overcoming his guilt. Hosseini uses this struggle to persuade those who feel extreme guilt for a wrongdoing to seek forgiveness and to help others in need. The author emphasizes that atoning one’s sins comes from reaching out to others. He expresses this when Amir offers to help Sohrab and he rids himself of guilt from his former relationship with Hassan. In addition, Hosseini writes to those who challenge the ideals of society in order to encourage them to create and follow their own values. The author uses Amir’s struggle in his relationship with Baba and his acceptance with Amir’s writing career to demonstrate this idea. Throughout his novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini develops a main character that questions his decisions, yet conforms to societal ideals to represent his theme of redemption and self-acceptance.
After some misgivings, Amir agrees to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, from an orphanage in Kabul. Amir even squares off against a Talib official who is actually Assef. In order to save Sohrab, Amir has to fight Assef, but Amir get beaten up badly by Assef. Amir can be seen as good because of what he done, he risked his life and almost got killed by Assef, but Sohrab saved Amir by shooting him in the eye with a slingshot. Even though Amir didn’t do anything good in his childhood and most of his adulthood too. He could have only saved Sohrab out of guilt and maybe some good intentions of actually being thought of as a good person for once, “Sometimes, I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.” (302). Amir is trying to redeem himself after all these years of being a coward and it pays off in the long