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Bravery is a characteristic that includes being strong or fearless when making sacrifices and taking challenges. It is an attribute people from young children to elders, poor to wealthy and those of different social classes or races demonstrate. Bravery is present in various ways through small and large situations. Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, evidently displays different aspects of bravery, through many characters. Bravery stands out as the most significant characteristic in this novel. Hassan a young Hazara; Baba, a wise, wealthy Pashtun and Amir, a Pashtun boy who struggles to find courage in himself displays bravery in several ways through their words and actions.
Hassan, a young Hazara boy demonstrates bravery by standing
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Soraya confirms once again with Amir if he is willing to marry her even when he is aware of her secret. Amir justifies by saying, “‘No, Soraya. Not even close,’ I said. ‘Nothing I said changes anything. I want us to marry’” (Hosseini, 174). Despite the fact that Soraya holds a trajic past, Amir is daring to still accept her as his wife. He understands how people make mistakes and need another chance to prove themselves better. This shows bravery because he is trusting her as he believes she is a worthy woman to be his wife. Another person that strengthens Amir is Rahim Kham, when he convinces him to return to Kabul to find Hassan’s son. The novel states, “Then I told him I was going to Kabul. Told him to call the Caldwell’s in the morning” (Hosseini, 239). Even supposing to the dangerous place Kabul has now become, Amir is willing to go there. After leaving years ago, Kabul is now a war torn country due to the Soviet invasion. Returning to his homeland, signifies his courage to face such devastations and destruction and serves as a reminder of his unforgettable memories from his past. This shows bravery because Amir is able to face his own guilt that has been haunting him ever since he left Kabul. His journey in search of Sohrab continues when he discovers Assef is the one who is holding him captive, and must fight his way to receive him back. He starts by commanding, “All I want is the boy” (Hosseini, 298). Amir is brave by attempting to stand up to Assef and demanding for Sohrab, knowing he is one of the biggest bullies. Amir’s attempt signifies that he is not afraid of whatever Assef will do to him, and all that he desires is to save Sohrab. This demonstrates bravery because Amir is aware of Assef’s capabilities, but still makes a sacrifice to save another person’s life. Amir’s deed of accepting beyond what others think,
Despite living majority of his life with the guilt of not helping Hassan, Amir’s nemesis is yet to come. Destiny plays a huge game with Amir and reveals to him that Hassan is his illegitimate brother during his visit with Rahim Khan. Reacting with various emotions, Amir first decides to head back about to America, but in the end makes the first brave decision in his life by going back to Kabul “…to atone not just for [his] sins, but…Baba’s too” (198). Amir tries to compensate for his sin by rescuing Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from the brutality occurring in Kabul. Amir puts his entire life in jeopardy by facing the oppression in Kabul so he could make a genuine effort in eliminating his sins. In an ideal world, when one truly makes an effort to redeem themselves for their wrongdoings, they are usually gifted with forgiveness. However, in reality, Amir’s heroic act of saving Sohrab, did not free him of sorrow because he still has to live with his nemesis for the rest of his life. By taking Sohrab to America with him, Amir constantly is reminded of his hamartia by envisioning Hassan through Sohrab. This shows how the guilt from a cowardly act leads one into a lifelong feeling of
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
Misplaced priorities are a struggle that is known to every member of the human race at some point in their lives. Some defeat this predicament with strong morals and a brave heart, and others, afraid to stand up, are defeated by the struggle, left to regret what they did not achieve. This is especially evident in Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner. Amir makes his priority Baba’s love, while Hassan’s priority is loyalty to his masters: Amir and Baba. This leads Amir into acts of cowardice as he chooses what will most make Baba proud instead of the moral thing to do. In contrast, Hassan’s loyalty results in him being brave in all situations, doing whatever he can to serve and protect
This is because the Afghan culture does not adopt children. Disregarding this cultural difference, Sorab is a Hazara boy, but Hassan does not take the same cowardly route that his father did. Instead, he embraces Sorab like a son without the legal documentation of being his son. Amir loved Sorab and treated him like his own. Ironically, Amir’s wife is bearen, meaning she cannot bear children.
Amir gets more upset after this, thinking he can’t possibly fix this anymore. But he realizes he has one final chance at redemption, saving Hassan’s son, Sohrab. He needs to save Sohrab. Once he gets to where he is being held, he realizes Sohrab has been made into a sex slave for the Taliban.
The definition of bravery in the Standard College Dictionary Canadian Edition is, "the quality of mind or spirit enabling one to meet danger or opposition with fearlessness, calmness, and firmness." Bravery is a quality that is shown by many of the characters in the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The characters are brave in their effort to protect physical well-being, personal values, their reputation and sanity. In the novel the characters exhibit genuine bravery in order to guard the things important to them.
...made fun of him and treated him badly. This may have been an example of separation in Afghanistan and how society was divided. But when Amir moved to America he buried his past until he got a call from Rahim Khan to come back home. Amir agreed and went back to find out Hassan has died and the Taliban took Hassan’s son Sohrab. Amir agrees to rescue him because he feels like it’s his obligation to Hassan because of all the wrong he has done to him. This may be an example of friendship goes above all and that separation within class, race, religion, or political climate doesn’t matter to Amir. Amir takes Sohrab back home and at the end of the book he flies a kite with Sohrab. When they cut another person’s kite, Amir runs to get the kite and yells to Sohrab “For you, a thousand times over” to reflect Hassan’s memory and how Amir appreciates Hassan’s friendship.
As a young boy he made the wrong decision in life by letting Hassan get raped, which led to his guilt. The guilt grew to the point where Hassan and Ali had to move out of Baba’s house and start a new life away from Amir. Hassan’s son Sohrab is a significant character who represents Amir’s hope for redemption. Sohrab led to Amir’s redemption by giving Amir the opportunity to do good for his past actions. On the quest for redemption, Amir achieves the redemption he desired through his fight with Assef.
He sees her determination to stand up to her father for what she loves, as she exclaims, “Teaching may not pay much, but it’s what I want to do! It’s what I love” (182). Amir sees a woman stand up to her father, a strange occurrence in Afghan society, which provides him with a model of what it means to stand up for one’s his own beliefs and dreams. Later, after General Taheri calls Sohrab a ‘Hazara Boy’, Amir is able to follow this model, telling the general, “You will never again refer to [Sohrab] as ‘Hazara Boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s Sohrab” (361). He stands up to a powerful proponent of the status quo, rejecting the general’s discrimination towards Sohrab and making Amir’s belief that Pashtuns are no better than Hazaras very clear. Soraya also shows Amir courage in her willingness to face her past. Right before they marry, Soraya reveals the secrets of her past to Amir. Amir realizes that he is jealous of her bravery, noting, “I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with” (165). When he finally tells her of his past, years later, Amir “imagined Soraya had experienced something similar the night of our khastegari, when she’d told [him] about her past,” a sense of relief, a lifting of weight off of his shoulders (325). He learns that, through courage and the ability to face his past , he can start
Bravery is the quality of a person who displays courage and fearlessness in the face of danger. Such qualities show splendor and magnificence in a person. Fear and terror sometimes hinder the determination someone can show. Overcoming this fear is what portrays bravery. In Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Frederick Henry shows bravery by freely joining the Italian army, risking his life for some ambulance drivers and swimming to freedom, being shot at the whole way.
We all are heroes of our own story, and it is a quality seen in many movies and books. The hero's journey is about progress and passage. This journey involves a separation from the unknown, known world, and a series of phases the hero must go through . Each stage of the journey must be passed successfully if the person is to become a hero. In “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir faces a series of trials and goes through obstacles where the concept of his childhood dies. Amir's mother passes away during his birth, and his left with the suspicion that his father blames him for her death. Amir longes for his father's attention and approval, but does not receive any affection as a son. He grows up with his Hazara best friend, Hassan. In Afghanistan culture, Hazaras are considered lower class and inferiors in society. Amir describes his friendship with Hassan saying, “then he would remind us that there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break." (20). Amir first refuses the call of action due to being afraid of the adventure ahead of him. Call to action is the very first step of the hero's journey, where the hero is disrupted and the
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
When he gets, Baba’s friend, Rahim Khan’s call and hears, “Come. There is a way to be good again”(192), he decides to go to Pakistan without any hesitation. Amir has a vital need to be good again and guesses Rahim Khan knows about his past, so he wants to see Rahim Khan to try to begin his redemption. After hearing the stories about Hassan and his son Sohrab, he determines to go back to Afghanistan and saves Sohrab alone. With the strong will to be good, Amir is no longer a coward. Although there are so many difficulties, he eventually saves Sohrab and takes him to America. Furthermore, Amir tries to atone his previous sin. After he saves Sohrab, he spares no effort to make Sohrab happy and earn his trust. “I struggled out of bed and crossed the space between us. ‘I won’t ever get tired of you, Sohrab’… ‘That’s a promise. You’re my nephew’ ”(324). To express the love that he didn’t give to Hassan, Amir becomes another man: He is unselfish and generous. He considers Sohrab as the most important person in his life and tries his best to love Sohrab. In the end, when he sees a steady smile spread across Sohrab’s face while flying kites in America, Amir finishes his
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch
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.