The life we are given influences what we do, but it is up to us to decide our future.
Innocence can mean purity, virginity, naivety, or lack of knowledge. These different definitions are diverse, but four characters in The Kite Runner embody one or more of these definitions of innocence: Amir, Assef, Hassan, and Sohrab. The life we are given influences what we do, but is up to us to decide our future.
In The Kite Runner, we can easily identify the protagonist and the antagonist. Amir, the protagonist, grows to fit the hero archetype when he learns to be selfless and saves Sohrab. Initially, Amir is an innocent boy who acts according to the life he was given. He is privileged and a Pashtun, and his actions reflect these qualities. Amir grows and learns
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Although everyone is born innocent, he was also born with a flaw. He was born a sociopath and is unable to relate to others in a “normal” way. He lacked proper judgement, and could not build his own beliefs. His beliefs come from what he is told, and he takes them to an extreme. He, a Pashtun, is indoctrinated to see Hazaras as inferior, and as a result ends up viewing Hazaras as Hitler viewed Jews: “We are the true Afghans, pure...His people pollute our homeland...they dirty our blood” (40). Assef is innocent because of his mental situation, but his actions make him guilty. Assef knows that society believes what he is doing is wrong, but he ignores it because it does not mean anything to him. Assef gets a message from God: “He was on my side. He wanted me to live for a reason” (253). After that event, his actions are now “guided” by an outside force, giving him a justification for what he does. When Amir confronts Assef and names the crime that Assef is committing, Assef’s response was: “Ethnic cleansing. I like it. I like the sound of it” (285). The word cleansing has a positive connotation, and Assef feels as though what he is doing is right.
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?
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, focuses on the character Amir who fails to help his friend Hassan in an alley when they are both children. This incident occurs because of the simple reason that Amir is a coward even when he knows deep down that Hassan would do anything for Amir. This betrayal towards Hassan turns out to cause Amir a lifetime guilt throughout the rest of the novel. Later on when Amir moves to America, gets married, and becomes a successful writer, Amir is still incapable of forgetting the incident. Amir’s actions as an adult stem from his desire for redemption and start forgiving himself for the mistakes of his past. Amir is an accurate portrayal of a tragic hero based on his inherent guilt, well deserved punishments, and
In the novel The Kite Runner, author Khaled Hosseini writes about Amir a young Afghan child who is a coward and who later as an adult seeks redemption from past mistakes. These characteristic effects Amir’s live throughout the novel from childhood to present. However, these are just words on a paper without some proof and the novel happily supports this either through the events or the behavior of other characters. Now let’s start with Amir’s past childhood.
Assef being a proud Pashtun has a strong dislike for all minorities in Afghanistan. He tells Amir “we are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans”(Hoseini 40). The word pure represents that all others are fake. Assef believes in the ideal of a master race superior to all others, going as far to support Hitler in all he did. According to Assef “if they had let Hitler finish what he had started, the world would be a better place now”(Hoseini 40). Assef resembles Hitler in many ways beyond their shared ideals. Assef has a way with words able to to control and deceit those around him. Even with his parent “he was the parent, and they his children”(Hoseini 95). As the story progresses the idea of superiority is lost to Amir but not to Assef whose actions have grown rampant in Afghanistan. Assef is now a Hitler in his own right, commanding mass murders at will. Assef showing no remorse for [leaving hazaras] for the dogs, [describing it as], dog meat for dogs”, this depicts modern Afghanistan filled with individuals accepting the superiority complex and letting atrocities happen just as they did in the Holocaust. Assef describes Afghanistan “like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, [which] someone has to take out”(Hoseini 284). Assef taking on the role of Hitler, who desired to create a master race by genocide, by “taking out the
Assef is the same guy that rapes Hassan. Amir runs into Assef, who is now apart of the Taliban, while trying to get Sohrab. Amir says, “I’ll pay you for him, … I can have money wired” (282). Amir is trying to buy Sohrab from Assef, but Assef doesn’t need the money. His parents are rich and live in this gorgeous place called Rockingham. He says, “Have you ever heard of Rockingham? Western Australia, a slice of heaven… So if I need money, I’ll have them wire it to me” (282). If Assef needed money, he would just have his parents send it to him. Assef wants something else from Amir. Assef wants to settle some ‘unfinished’ business with Amir. Assef fights Amir, but really he ends up just beating him with brass knuckles. In the end, Amir feels better. He says, “My body was broken-but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed” (289). Amir feels the pain of Assef continuously beating him, but he also feels like he is at peace, because when he wanted Hassan to hurt him back, he wouldn’t. He laughs because he is feeling at peace. Now that he has finally gotten what he has been waiting for and what he thinks he deserves. By Amir getting beaten feeling peace, he is finally fulling
In Khaled Hosseini’s book, The Kite Runner, Amir is an example of growing up, making mistakes, and facing the consequences for 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 his were extreme. The reader is introduced to Amir and is disgusted about how he treats Hassan and abandons him in a time of needing rescuing. His mistakes disgust us, especially after Hassan has been by his side the entire book. As the reader gets deeper into the book, they start to develop feeling of anger but sometimes sympathy, towards Amir. By the end, we are not as angry as Amir than the reader to begin with. Amir has grown into
Going through all these different motifs, it taught Amir many different lessons, good and bad. But in the end, Amir finally is able to let go of his guilt and make his awful choice to not help Hassan in his time of need, have somewhat of a better outcome. In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini’s repeated the use of rape, sickness, and sacrifice to represent many different things throughout the novel.
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.
Amir, the main character and narrator in the Kite Runner, belongs to a wealthy family in which his father is a powerful businessman. Amir is also a part of the dominant Pashtun ethnic group and Sunni religious group. Amir in the Kite Runner tells the story of his friendship with Hassan. Hassan and his father, Ali, are Amir’s servants. Hassan on the contrary is a low-caste ethnic Hazara and belongs to the minority Shi’it religious faith. This provides many of the Afghan’s who are different such as Sunni’s, who make up 85% of the Muslim faith, to persecute people like Hassan for their religion.
Perfect heroes are unrealistic in literature because even though they seem ideal, the characters become flat and unrelatable. Therefore, authors often add other dimensions to characters that reveal their personality flaws and mistakes. Authors are able to use these dimensions to both relate the characters but also teach the readers life lessons from the characters mistakes. For example, in The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini crafts multiple ambiguous characters who are good people that make major mistakes. By contrasting these characters to the more pure characters, Hosseini is able to show both the ideal life to live and the ways to do that. In The Kite Runner, Amir and his father, Baba, display lives of contradictions while Hassan and Rahim
The Kite Runner focuses on the relationship between two Afghan boys Amir and Hassan. Amir is a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim, while Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a. Despite their ethnic and religious differences, Amir and Hassan grow to be friends, although Amir is troubled by Hassan, and his relationship with his companion, one year his junior, is complex. Amir and Hassan seem to have a "best friend" type relationship. The two boys, Hassan and Amir, are main characters in the book titled, The Kite Runner. The two boys have a relationship that is significantly different compared to most. There are many different facets that distinguish the relationship the boys possess. The boys do write their names in a pomegranate tree as the "sultans of Kabul" (Kite Runner 27) but, their friendship is not strong and it is one sided. Hassan has love for Amir. He loves him like a brother. Hassan is exceedingly loyal to Amir. The relationship between the two boys is emotionally wearing and rather gloomy for the most part. The main reason for their complicated relationship is the fact that Amir is Pashtun, and Hassan is Hazara. The Afghan society places Hassan lower than Amir. Hassan is Amir's servant. The placement of Hassan in the Afghan society disenables Amir from becoming Hassan's true friend. Amir sees Hassan as lower than human. Amir ruins the chance for friendship between himself and Hassan because he is jealous of Hassan, he thinks of Hassan as a lower human, and because Amir possesses such extreme guilt for what he has done to Hassan. Amir is an unforgivable person overall.
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.
Courage and bravery are two main characteristics seen in characters throughout the entire novel. The Kite Runner; written and published by Khaled Hosseini, has hidden characteristics of courage and bravery within different characters. This meaning that the characters stood up for themselves, others and for what they believe is right from wrong. The three main characters that showed an ample amount of these characteristics were; Amir, Sohrab, and Hassan. These characters were the ones whom throughout the novel were evoking the reader's thoughts by making them think about what defined courage and bravery to them. Khaled Hosseini purposely put these characters, with these specific traits into the novel because he knew that it would have a true significance. In the novel,
Betrayal, redemption, and forgiveness are all major themes in The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini. The novel also focuses around the theme of a broken relationship between father and son as well as facing difficult situations from ones past. Amir and Hassan are best friends with two completely different personalities. Each character in the novel faces their own hardships and eventually learns to overcome those difficulties. Beginning with betrayal then the characters have to make their way to gaining redemption and forgiveness from others, as well as their self, is carried on throughout the novel. It is a continuous story of the relationships between Amir and his father Baba and facing their challenges from the past every day of their present.
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.