The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, follows the maturation of Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, as he discovers what it means to stand up for what he believes in. His quest to redeem himself after betraying his friend and brother, Hassan, makes up the heart of the novel. For most of the book, Amir attempts to deal with his guilt by avoiding it and refusing to own up to his mistakes. Because of his past, Amir is incapable of moving forward. His entire life is shaped by his disloyalty to Hassan and his desire to please his father over helping his friends. Throughout the novel, his attempts to atone for his sins end in failure, as neither physical punishment nor rescuing Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from Assef prove to be enough for Amir to redeem himself. Only when he decides to take Sohrab to the United States and provide his nephew with a chance at happiness and prosperity that was denied to his half-brother does Amir take the necessary steps toward atonement and redemption. Khaled Hosseini uses a series of symbols to reinforce the message that atoning for one’s sins means making up for past mistakes, rather than simply relying on forgiveness from either the person one betrays or from a higher power.
In Amir’s early childhood, kites represented happiness. Flying kites was his favorite pastime, as it was the only way that he connected fully with Baba, who was once a champion kite fighter. However, the kite takes on a different significance when Amir doesn’t stop Hassan's abusers from raping him in order to prevent the kite from being stolen. The kite serves as a symbol of Amir’s guilt throughout the novel. Hechose his fragile relationship with his father over the well-being of his best friend and half-brother: “Baba and I lived in the same ...
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...t didn’t make anything all right. Only a smile… But I’ll take it… Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting. (371)
A sign of what’s to come, Sohrab’s smile implies that the abuses of the past cannot dominate him or anyone forever, and that eventually Amir and Sohrab will look to the future and be healed. When Amir mentions the snow melting, he is referring to the barrier Sohrab built between himself and others. The novel returns to the same symbol as it started with. He says to Sohrab the last words Hassan said to him before Hassan was raped: “’For you, a thousand times over’” (371) as he runs the kite for Sohrab, but despite the fact that those were the circumstances the last time these words appeared in the book, the hopeful tone suggests Amir has paid his penance and found his redemption.
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
...r image had occurred from the past with the reversal it entails. The kite is important in this situation because the reversal could not have taken place in any other scenario. Sohrab would not interact with the world nearly at all at this point, and the only way it could have paralleled would be with a kite battle. Amir had traded places with Hassan through Sohrab with the use of the kite.
Amir’s development from being “a boy who won’t stand up for himself,” to a man that stands up for the morally responsible thing to do (22, Hosseini). When Amir was a child, he tried to escape from his sins in the past by hiding them with lies. However, this only made it worse for Amir, causing him to be an insomniac for much of his life and putting himself through constant torment. Only when Amir became a man, like Baba wanted him to be, was Amir able to face the truth of what he done and put himself on the path of redemption. Even when Amir was suffering a violent beating from Assef, Amir was able to laugh because he knew he was doing what he should have for Hassan years ago. Amir’s development from a child, who lies in order to cower from their own mistakes, into a man, someone who is not only able to admit his sins, but atone for them, is essential to communicating the theme of redemption being the only way to settle with your
Flying kites was a source of Amir 's happiness as a child as well as a way to attain his father’s approval. In Kabul, Afghanistan, a kite flying tournament was held annually. Young boys laced their string with glass and attempted to cut the strings of other kite flyers. That last on standing was deemed the champion and the idol of all the younger children. Before Amir competed in his kite tournament, Baba said, “I think maybe you 'll win the tournament this year. What do you think?” (Hosseini, 50) Amir took this opportunity and told himself that, “I was going to win, and I was going to run that last kite. Then I’d bring it home and show it to Baba. Show him once and for all his son was worthy. Then maybe my life as a ghost in this house would finally be over.” (Hosseini, 50) Amir wanted the approval and affection of his father badly enough that he was willing to allow Hassan to get raped in order to attain it. After this kits became the symbol of Amir 's betrayal to Hassan. The kite ultimately becomes the way that Amir connects with Sohrab, mirroring how Amir connected with Baba when he was a
The novel is told by Amir, one of the novel's main characters. Amir is an Afghan man living in Fremont, California remembering his childhood in Kabul in the 1970s.
When Amir and Hassan were young, there was another boy their age, Assef, who was always looking for a time to get them alone and beat them. One day Assef and the other two boys of his posse found Amir and Hassan alone in an alley. They were about to beat them when suddenly “Hassan held the sling shot pointed directly at Assef’s face” (Hosseini 42). Hassan showed his bravery and courage when he stood up to Assef, and what Amir did not know at the time was that he, too would have a chance to save his best friend. Later on in the novel, Hassan was running the last kite of the tournament that Amir had cut down because he knew that it was Amir’s only way to please Baba, his father. On his way back to Amir with the kite, Assef and two other boys cornered Hassan in an alley. What Hassan did not know was that Amir was watching the boys do very disturbing things to him and did nothing about it. Many times Hassan is compared to a sheep or a lamb, which is a symbol of sacrifice in many different religions. Amir described it as “the look of the lamb” (Hosseini 76) when he saw Hassan’s face while getting raped. This symbolization represents Hassan’s willingness to give up his purity and self-worth for his best friend, who at the time would not have done the same. It also displays Amir’s extreme lack of
There are many parallels between the first half of Amir’s life and the second half. Specifically, Hassan runs the blue kite for Amir during their adolescence and later Amir runs the kite for Sohrab. Moreover,
Book of Genesis in the Old Testament or from the Hebrew Torah. What may be less familiar to
... Kites are symbolic in the novel as it helps to support the themes of guilt, redemption and freedom in the novel. In the beginning of the story, Amir overhears Baba telling Rahim Khan that if Amir could not stand up for himself, he would never be able to stand up to anything when he becomes a man. It takes Amir over twenty years to finally muster up enough courage to stand up for himself in front of Assef. Amir takes the beatings from Assef as his punishment for what happened to Hassan. He rescues Sohrab and bonds with him through kite fighting, similar to when he flew kites with Hassan. Kites represent the freedom from the worries and burdens that Amir, Hassan and Sohrab has. It brings together the two participants in kite fighting. It gets rid of the discrimination of the ethnic caste system, any cultural differences, and also emphasizes unity amongst difference.
The Kite Runner is a book about a young boy, Amir, who faces many struggles as he grows up in Kabul and later moves to America to flee from the Taliban. His best friend and brother , Hassan, was a big part of his life, but also a big part of guilt he held onto for many years. The book describes Amir’s attempt to make up for the past and resolve his sins so he can clear his conscious. Amir is worthy of forgiveness because although he was selfish, he was very brave and faced his past.
The other source of tension in Amir’s life is his relationship with Baba, his hard-driving and demanding father. Desperate to win his father’s affection and respect, Amir turns to the sport of kite flying, and at the age of 12, with the assistance of Hassan, he wins the annual tournament in Kabul. Amir’s victory soon is tarnished when he witnesses a vicious assault against his friend, who raced through the streets of Kabul to retrieve the last kite, Amir had sliced from the sky, and fails to come to his aid. Amir’s cowardness is compounded by a later act of betrayal that causes Ali and Hassan to leave their home, and he now faces the nightmare, bearing the burden of his poor choices for the rest of his life.
As a foreword, the story of The Kite Runner focuses on a man named Amir. In his childhood, he enjoyed a high-class life in Kabul, Afghanistan, living with his father Baba. They have two servants, Ali and his son Hassan. They are Hazaras, a lower class ethnic minority in Afghanistan. In one Winter of their childhood, Amir and Hassan participate in a kite-fighting tournament; the goal is to be the last kite flying. When a kite is cut, boys chase after it as a trophy. Amir wins the tournament, and Hassan flies to catch the losing kite. Later, following Hassan's path, Amir comes upon a neighbourhood bully named Assef about to rape Hassan who has the trophy, the blue kite. Amir does not interject, believing this will secure him the kite. Thus, Amir sets forth a chain of events he must redeem in his adulthood.
The story The Kite Runner is centered around learning “to be good again.” Both the movie and the book share the idea that the sins of the past must be paid for or atoned for in the present. In the book, Amir can be seen as a troubled young boy who is struggling with a tremendous amount of guilt. It is easy to blame Amir’s actions on his guilt and his father’s lack of love for him.
To conclude, Khaled Hosseini uses the theme of the loss of innocence and redemption in The Kite Runner to make the point that one can never really redeem oneself. Amir attempted to do so throughout the entire novel but failed although partial redemption may have been achieved. The pomegranate tree, the kites, and even Assef are all symbols of innocence that has been lost. Later on in The Kite Runner they also represent the pursuit of redemption. Also the historical aspect of education and children support that innocence is lost daily and can never really be restored.
As the sun rose behind the Grand Mosque in the center of the city of white stone