Subtle Echoes Letting go of the past can be a challenge. In fact, often what one experiences as a child is carried with them throughout adulthood as well. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner Amir, the protagonist, finds himself haunted by the selfish decisions he made as a child. As he works to try and forgive himself for the wrongs he committed against his friend Hassan he finds that the choices he makes will stay with him forever. Amir never lets Hassan's memory stop influencing his thoughts and decisions, and in doing so he changes to become more like Hassan. Amir starts his journey as a selfish child with little regard for others, while Hassan cares deeply for those around him and protects those that he can. Amir spends many years trapped …show more content…
He finds himself unable to let go of his past sins. He thinks frequently of Hassan even as he claims in desperate metaphors that “America was a place to bury [his] memories”(129). In reality, he wallows in his guilt and knows he must do something about it if he will ever be able to have a happy life. He reflects back, recalling Hassan’s dream that there are no monsters in the lake, but Amir thinks that “he’d been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake … I was that monster,” the monster that does not save a little boy in need, who casts a friend from his life because of his own guilt. But Amir takes the guilt he faces and he does something with it because “Hassan had loved [him] once, loved [him] in a way that no one ever had or ever would again. He was gone now, but a little part of him lived on. It was in Kabul,” waiting to be saved, waiting for that little boy peering into the alley way on a winter's evening to do something (227). And this time he does. Amir finds it in himself to grow beyond his guilt and lets Hassan's influence turn him into a better man. He goes to Kabul and saves Hassan’s son, and in doing so, feelings of peaceful irony are revealed as his “body was broken… but [he] felt healed”(289). Amir is able to put his very life on the line to selflessly save Sohrab. He redeems himself, finding the …show more content…
Amir grows up at last, finding a selflessness and loyalty that only Hassan can coax from him. When Amir ultimately saves Sohrab he finds himself in the position that Hassan had been in so many years before, being brutalized by Assef with only a young boy to come to his rescue. Yet in this moment he is finally relieved of his guilt. However, saving Sohrab has a number of unforeseen consequences, destroying both his cowardice and his face. Amir finds himself with a deep cut on his lip “clean down the middle. Like a harelip” one that eerily parallels the harelip scar Hassan once had (297). Amir not only resembles Hassan physically after helping Sohrab, but also slips into the role of father figure to Hassan’s boy. He finds himself inviting Sohrab to “come live in America with [him] and [his] wife” and caring deeply for the child (32). In fact, he begins to see Sohrab as family and he looks after him as one would their own child. Amir has at last come to peace with the mistakes of his past, but they will sit with him forever. With every glance in the mirror, glimpse of Sohrab, memory of Kabul, or appearance of a kite, Hassan will be there, forever influencing Amir's
Actions made in a moment of pain, anger or simple immaturity can take anyone to make mistakes that can change their lives completely. Everyone has something in the past that is shameful, embarrassing and regrettable that is kept present daily. Whether this event happened during childhood, adolescence or early adulthood, this event could haunt and have shaped that person’s life into what he or she is today. In a similar way, in the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is shaped by a tragic and eventful past that has shaped Amir’s, Baba’s, and Hassan’s life. The four literary elements that will be used in this essay that Hosseini strategically uses in this book are: irony, simile, Metaphor, and personification.
...by Amir in his childhood not only gravely colors his relationship with Hassan, whose innocence he failed to protect from evil and overbearing Assef, but this guilt continues to stay with Hassan as he moves to America and starts a new life. Finally Amir chooses to redeem himself by opting to protect Hassan’s son Sohrab. The guilt which estranged Amir from his childhood friend in a way manages to reunite him with Hassan, albeit in a different manner.
Amir goes through many events that take place in the book that change him, and the way he is perceived within the book. Amir is a young boy, who is tortured by his father’s scrutinizing character. Amir is also jealous of Hassan, because of the fact that his father likes Hassan instead of Amir. Amir fights for his father’s approval, interest, and love. This is when Amir changes for the good as he deals with the guilt of the rape of Hassan. Amir witnessed Hassan getting raped, but decides to nothing in order to win over his father’s interest. The guilt that Amir builds up is carries from his premature times as a child to his mature times. From Afghanistan to
...he last words of the novel, suggesting that Amir has finally atoned for his sins and found his redemption. He is no longer running away from his past, but rather running towards the future and his new life with Sohrab. He will be as loyal to Sohrab as Hassan was to him.
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,
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 loyal servant, he runs like “a coward.” 77.
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.
When Sohrab is hesitant to go with Amir to America, he is fearful that his new family will not accept him. Amir reassures Sohrab that he “‘won’t ever get tired of [him]”’ (324). Amir is devoted to Sohrab unlike how he shunned Hassan in his past. Furthermore, Amir brings Sohrab into his life and introduces him to a new world, opposed how he pushed away and avoided Hassan. Once Amir and Sohrab return to America, Amir’s step-father is concerned and confronts Amir about adopting a ‘Hazara boy’. Amir defends his new son and establishes that his step-father “‘will never refer to [Sohrab] as ‘Hazara boy’ in [his] presence’” (361). Amir is loyal to Sohrab and makes sure he is treated with respect even by his own in-laws. Amir stays by Sohrab’s side, that revises all the times he was not there for Hassan. Amir loves and cherishes Sohrab for all the times he left Hassan companionless and
From a young age, Amir was around his father’s close family friend, Rahim Khan. Many other characters in the novel also affected Amir and shaped and influenced the way his character evolved. Similarly, Hassan helped to shape and influence Amir to become an honest and courageous person by the conclusion of the work of literature. Amir started the novel as a child who was unloyal, untruthful, and unreliable.
Amir is, to be put bluntly, a coward. He is led by his unstable emotions towards what he thinks will plug his emotional holes and steps over his friends and family in the process. When he sought after Baba’s invisible love, Amir allowed Hassan to be raped in an alleyway just so that the blue kite, his trophy that would win his father’s heart, could be left untouched. In the end, he felt empty and unfulfilled with the weight of his conscience on his shoulders comparable to Atlas’ burden. Unable to get over his fruitless betrayal, he lashes out and throws pomegranates at Hassan before stuffing money and a watch under his loyal friend’s pathetic excuse for a bed, framing Hassan for theft and directly causing the departure of both servants from his household. Even after moving to America, finding a loving wife, and creating a career for himself in writing, he still feels hollow when thinking of his childhood in Afghanistan. Many years later, he is alerted of Hassan’s death and sets out on a frenzied chase to find his friend’s orphaned son. He feels that he can somehow ease his regrets from all of those years ago if he takes in Hassan’s son, Sohrab. He finds Sohrab as a child sex slave for Assef, who coincidentally was the one to rape Hassan all of those years ago. After nearly dying in his attempt to take back Sohrab, he learns that he can take the damaged child back to the states with him. Sadly, Hassan’s son is so
As he gets older, Amir matures into the man Baba has always wanted him to be, and finally proves his father wrong. “... A boy who won’t stand
In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the author follows the development of protagonist Amir through a life filled with sorrow, regret, and violence. Amir encounters numerous obstacles on his path to adulthood, facing a new test at every twist and turn. Amir embarks on the long journey known as life as a cowardly, weak young man with a twisted set of ideals, slowly but surely evolving into a man worthy of the name. Amir is one of the lucky few who can go through such a shattered life and come out the other side a better man, a man who stands up for himself and those who cannot, willing to put his life on the line for the people he loves.
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.
During The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini reinforces the theme of the loss of innocence and redemption. Many characters lose innocence or are the cause of another character losing theirs. Amir both loses his innocence and that of others. His innocence is stolen by his father. In the novel Amir overhears Baba saying, “‘If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son’” (Hosseini 24-25). This affects Amir for his entire life as he tries to compete with Hassan for his father's attention. He does not realize that in doing so, this crumbles his world as he knows it. It makes Amir resentful, calloused, and even cruel, all of which are characteristics of someone who has lost their innocence. In turn, Amir’s loss of innocence causes other to lose their innocence because of his lack of courage and disregard for others feelings.
Despite Amir’s admiration for his father, Baba does not reciprocate his feelings. Therefore, Amir desires more than anything to have his dad’s affection. Amir’s yearning for his father’s love is so intense that he betrays his own brother in order to acquire it. After witnessing Hassan get raped, Amir runs away. Later, he thinks to himself, saying “I was afraid of getting hurt. That's what I told myself as I turned my back to the alley, to Hassan. That's what I made myself believe. I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win