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Themes of guilt and redemption in Kite Runner
Themes of guilt and redemption in Kite Runner
Examine the role of guilt in the Kite Runner
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Human nature is often paradoxical. People tend to believe that in order to obtain true happiness, there needs to be a price–a sacrifice. The price of happiness is inescapable, as it seems anything in life that involves happiness comes with a catch. The paradox is that once one makes a sacrifice to obtain the happiness they so desired, the guilt that comes from the sacrifice can destroy their happiness. Khaled Hosseini, famous novelist and founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, captures the theme of sacrifice in his novel, The Kite Runner. Similarly, Ursula Guin, a distinguished American novelist and writer of short stories, conveys the need for sacrifice in order to have a utopian society in her short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from …show more content…
Amir describes this guilt accompanied with sacrifice when he reflects, “I finally had what I wanted I’d wanted all those years. Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into (85).” Amir loses his happiness and begins to despise himself after thinking about what he had done to Hassan by saying “I was that monster. That was the night I became an insomniac (86).” Ultimately, Amir is haunted throughout his adulthood believing that he deserves punishment for his inaction of saving Hassan. Both the people of Omelas and Amir leave their homes because of guilt. When Amir leaves home to go to America he says, “For me, America was a place to bury memories.” Amir goes to America where he is able to bury his childhood guilt of Hassan, and the people of Omelas go to find a new place where they can forget the horrors of the child in the room. However, what makes The Kite Runner have more weight than “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” is that the people who leave Omelas never return, but Amir does. Amir returns to Afghanistan searching for redemption and “a way to be good again (192).” In order to have happiness again, Amir repeats this cycle by sacrificing himself to fight Assef to the death so that he can save Sohrab. When Amir does sacrifice himself he experiences redemption and joy. After nearly being killed by Assef, Amir says, “But I was laughing and laughing. And the harder I laughed, the harder he kicked me. Punched me, scratched me…I felt at peace (289).” Amir suffered from guilt for decades, but after he made a sacrifice he was able to have happiness again. The people in Omelas may have found happiness elsewhere, but this is not evident from
How much are you willing to sacrifice for another? Whether they are a family member or a complete stranger. In the novel The Kite Runner Baba was was willing to risk his life when he had stood up and was trying to stop the Russian soldier from rape the young woman as payment for letting them pass through one of the checkpoints. Then there had been Amir it was when he had suffered extreme injuries, nearly losing his life when he had fought Assef, so that he could save Sohrab for the abuse he was suffering from the Taliban. Both Character Baba and Amir were willing to sacrifice themselves for another person, regardless of who they were. Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, teaches the reader sacrificing your life can lead to another person’s happiness through Baba saving the woman from the Russian soldier and Amir fighting Assef.
Throughout The Kite Runner this theme is shown many times without this aspect and understanding of this part of the book it would be incomprehensible. Amir eventually learns how to cope with his own guilt and his
Many people have done things that they can’t seek redemption for or can’t forgive themselves for, such as not being there for a friend when they need you most. Including Amir, from The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Amir is best friends with Hassan, a Hazara boy. They grow up together, and Amir later finds out that they are half brothers. Hassan helps Amir, but he allows a boy, Assef, and his group of friends to rape Hassan, which he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to forgive himself for. Amir is redeemed because he receives letters from Hassan, he adopts Sohrab, and fights Assef.
The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, shows how lying and deceit is a counterproductive route when trying to live with a dreadful past, exhibited through the actions of Amir. Amir’s decision to withhold the truth and blatantly lie in several situations due to jealousy and his desire for Baba to be proud of him amounts to further pain and misery for himself and those he deceives. Because of Amir’s deceit towards Baba and Hassan, his guilt from his past manifests itself into deeply-rooted torment, not allowing him to live his life in peace. The guilt from Amir’s past is only alleviated when he redeems his sins by taking in Sohrab, contributing to the theme that the only way “to be good again” is through redemption, not shunning the past.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a story about a young boy named Amir that begins in 1975 in Kabul, Afghanistan. As a child, he mistreats his servant, Hassan, who is like a brother to him. After failing to intervene in Hassan 's rape, Amir lives with guilt until his late thirties when he is presented with a chance at redemption. Amir 's father’s old friend, Rahim Khan, called from Pakistan to summon Amir to him. Upon his arrival, Amir learns that Hassan is his illegitimate half-brother. Hassan had been killed and his son had become an orphan. Amir then goes to drastic lengths to find and retrieve Hassan 's son, Sohrab. During this time Amir faces the guilt of his past and finds peace with himself while saving Sohrab
“It is easier for a father to have a child than for a child to have a real father”; a quote from Pope John XXIII that sums up the relationship between Baba and Amir. Fathers are important in children’s lives, however occasionally a father is not emotionally connected to their child. Relationships are important for learning, especially those with parents. In “Kite Runner”, Amir’s character is shaped and colored by many people. Baba is most responsible for how Amir was shaped.
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.
Amir is able purge his sin of silence and lying by using his newfound life to forget of all that has occurred in Kabul. This new land of opportunity also brings Baba and Amir closer, for they need to look out for each other as a way to be successful and survive in the land of the free. Also, with a few books published under his belt and an adopted child to relieve his guilt, Amir is able to continue his future without a need for conflict both internal or external. Amir reflects back to Baba and his immigration at the end of The Kite Runner; “‘He was, wasn’t he?’ I said, smiling, remembering how after we arrived in the U.S. Baba started grumbling about American flies. … ‘In this country, even flies are pressed for time,’ he’d groan. How I had laighed. I smiled at the memory now” (Hosseini 366). Had Amir not immigrated to America, one would not see a cleansed and stable main character reminiscing about his father at the
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?
“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). In The Kite Runner, Hosseini shares Amir’s journey to atonement. As Amir states, he was unable to bury his past, similar to his father, Baba, who spent the majority of his life haunted by his sins. While both father and son are consumed by guilt, the way in which they atone for their iniquities is dissimilar. While Baba attempts to live his life according to the Afghan saying, “ Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end...crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis [nomads]” (Hosseini 356), Amir strays from this traditional perspective. Baba chose to continue his life unmindful of his past, while Amir, eventually decides to confront his. Although both Baba and Amir have acted immorally, the choices they make find redemption affect the success of their individual attempts. In the novel, Amir’s quest for atonement is more effective than Baba’s because he acts virtuously, while his father, acts selfishly. Ultimately, Amir is the more successful of the two because, in opposition to Baba, he seeks holistic atonement and is willing to make sacrifices to achieve redemption.
...and not self-sacrifice, giving a wide array of consequences. Amir serves as a way to show that it is possible to move from one end of the spectrum to the other. Jesus said in the bible, “There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends” (John 15:13), and an easy contrast to that made by the novel is “There is no greater sin than to lay down one's friends for one's life.” Whether as small as Wahid giving up some food to treat Amir like a guest, or as significant as Amir abandoning Hassan in his time of need, in The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini teaches that self-sacrifice brings wholeness while sacrificing another brings only guilt.
The novel The Kite Runner, teaches a lot of possessions about redemption. It starts out with Amir receiving a phone call from his old friend Graham Khan. His friend Rahim says, “There is a way to be good again” (2). This implies that Rahim knows of Amir’s shameful past, and that he wants Amir to redeem himself. Since this quote comes from the beginning of the book, we do not know what Amir did that is worthy of redemption, or even why Rahim Khan is calling Amir. But, later in that chapter, it is revealed that something very dark and life-changing is lurking in Amir’s past; something that he will forever regret. “I thought about Hassan. Thought about Baba. Ali. Kabul. I thought of the life I had lived until the winter of 1975 came along and changed everything. And made me what I am today” (2). This is what Amir thinks to himself as he is debating on whether or not to go back to Afghanistan. His initial reaction is not to go. Kabul, Afghanistan was Amir’s former home, but was also one p...
In a lifetime, one will face an abundance of personal battles in their decision making. When bad decisions result negatively, people find peace mentally in redeeming themselves of their sin through redemption. In Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner”, the main character, Amir, commits a sin and goes through great lengths to find redemption. Using metaphors, personification, and irony Hosseini expresses the theme of sin, suffering and redemption. Achieving redemption is a long journey people seek after suffering the consequences of sin.
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.