One of this novel’s themes is the ability to redeem oneself by removing political and religious barriers and fighting for what is right, without allowing obstacles to prevent such action. In the first quotation presented, Amir redeems himself for hiding money beneath Hassan’s mattress to frame him for larceny. Years later he has “planted a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress” (pg. 254), this time it’s to provide for an impoverished household. This is Amir’s way of starting to apologize to Hassan. The subsequent quote presents Amir realizing that the only way to be released from his past is by repenting. Amir says ““I have a wife in America, a home, a career and a family”. But how could I pack up and go back home when my actions may have …show more content…
The quote “the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years” (pg. 1) shows, in the most blatant of ways that although Amir ran away to California, he continues to feel guilt about his inaction towards Hassan’s abuse 26 years earlier. The guilt about his past “claws its way out” whether Amir is living in Afghanistan or across the world. The second quote selected, discusses how the knowledge of Hassan’s rape weighs on Amir and will do so for the rest of his life until he deals with the issue. His curse is he’s ‘’going to get away with it.” The final quote “My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed” (pg. 303), is describing how Amir feels after he is beaten by Assef. Having faced his fears and felt sufficiently punished for what he did to Hassan, Amir is finally somewhat free of the burden that had been weighing on him. Having recognized his past, he needn’t run from it any longer. The song designated to represent this theme (“What I’ve Done” by Linkin Park) perfectly represents, facing one’s past. The passage stating “I'll face myself, To cross out what I’ve become, Erase myself, And let go of what I’ve done” (verse 3) describes how confronting oneself leads to redemption (“cross out what I’ve become”). By repenting the singer is forgiven by others and himself for what he has done. In other words, he can finally start to “let go”. This is exactly what Amir does in The Kite Runner. He returns to Afghanistan to repent for his actions toward Hassan, and in doing so he learns to forgive
Hosseini shows that it is Amirs immense guilt that drives him to want to make things right and to earn redemption. We learn the basis Amir's guilt through his memories. It is caused by a lack of response at a time when his loyal servant and close friend Hassan is in trouble. Amir makes a conscious decision to hide in the distance and just watch, not because he was afraid. He sacrifices Hassan in order to earn his fathers attention and affection. This decision results in Hassan suffering though a traumatic experience and is the root of Amir's lasting regret.
The first sentence of the quote foreshadows Amir’s struggle to forget the past throughout the rest of the book. He claims that no matter how hard you try or how far you bury it, the past will always “claw its way out”. Also in this sentence, Amir implies an occurrence of a tragic event without actually telling the readers what it was. In the last sentence Amir speaks of peering into an alley later revealed as the alley where his childhood friend, Hassan, was raped. By saying this he is telling the readers that the alley and the events that occurred in the alley are constantly on his mind and have been on his mind for the past twenty-six years. The fact that it has been twenty-six years also verifies the importance of the event.
“My body was broken — just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later — but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.” (289) Assef beats Amir with knuckle reinforcements, snapping Amir's ribs, part his lip and busting his jaw, and breaking the bone underneath his left eye, but since Amir feels he merits this, he feels help. He supposes he ought to have acknowledged the beating from Assef years prior, when he was given the decision of sparing Hassan — and likely getting physically hurt—or giving Assef a chance to assault Hassan.
The love and disputes between father and son. The relationship that Amir has with Baba is quite complicated. Amir constantly tries to earn Baba’s love and respect while Baba has a hard time accepting how Amir is and compares him to Hassan. While travelling to Pakistan in the back of the truck Amir felt sick quite often by which Baba was quite annoyed. “I saw it on his embarrassed face the couple of times my stomach had clenched so badly I had moaned. When the blurly guy with the beads-the praying woman’s husband-asked if I was going to get sick, I said I might. Baba looked away.”In addition to this when Amir throws up, Baba apologizes to the fellow passengers to which Amir feels guilty and annoyed that he is just 18 and the way Baba is behaving is as if car sickness is a crime. This suggests that Baba was expecting Amir to be more self controlled and strong so that he didn’t feel sick showing us the conflicts he has with Amir as he expects a lot from him.
Amir says this simply because he feels regret for what he has done in the earlier years of his life and although he has made a lot of mistakes he redeemed himself by saving Hassan’s son. Him doing this action of kindness proves that he would have done it over and over again for the responsibility of earning his own integrity back. Amir says this line because he feels strongly that for a person he had unconditional love and he is hoping that one day people will return the favor and help him later on. Amir is not like his dad he is not strong headed or over exaggerate like Baba he is kind and is making up for a lot of mistakes he has made in his life especially in the younger years with Hassan. Amir has made a lot of mistakes and with this quote
1. It is very evident that Hassan and Amir have a complex relationship, that is not always compromising this could be because Hassan is a Hazara and Amir is a Pashtun, Amir having lived a life which he was always smothered with expectations of being the best and unsurpassed Amir and Hassan relationship suffers because of Amir’s need to be the best and reflects a side of Amir portraying his superiority complex. Amir doesn't see Hassan as a loyal friend, but sees him as a dumb Hazara who will never accomplish anything in life, for example we see Amir snap back with a nasty thought, after Hassan gave his input for an alternate ending for the story when the man killed his wife for wealth “A voice, cold and dark, suddenly whispered in my ear,
Major Character Note #1: The character trait of brave is displayed in this quote. This is because Baba stands up to the Russian officer, even though he could be easily killed by him. The Russian officer wants to sleep with a married woman, but Baba won’t let him do such a thing because he feels it is morally wrong. He believes that war doesn’t exclude decency and that instead, the officer should show respect because of how they are in times of war.
“Sometimes, the person you’d take a bullet for ends up being the one behind the gun” (Picture quotes). People are not what they seem; selfishness and greed can play a huge part in betrayal. Betrayal often comes with great consequences of guilt or a need for forgiveness. Most often, it is driven by selfish desire, greed, hatred or lust. In most cases, the act of trying to redeem oneself becomes a prolonging guilt stuck for the rest of one’s life. Learning to forgive oneself becomes the passage to gaining the desired redemption. In the novel The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Hosseini displays the theme of forgiveness and redemption. After Amir and Baba’s betrayal toward those most loyal to them, they realize that one must forgive themself
Amir's entire life had been haunted by what he saw happen to Hassan. Although he was a child at the time, he couldn't accept his shortcoming during a time of need. He was jealous of his father for being able to stand up for himself and others and Hassan's undying loyalty to him. He developed a pattern of behavior - of covering up his mistakes and hiding his past – that he could not rid himself of until he suffered like Hassan did. He made it up to Hassan by saving his son, and he made it up to himself by suffering the way he
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel about life in Afghanistan that follows a boy named Amir, his father Baba, and their two servants Hassan and Ali. Amir and Baba are wealthy Pashtuns, and Baba is well respected. Hassan and Ali, on the other hand, are Hazara, an ethnic minority in Afghanistan. The Hazara people are oppressed and seen as inferior to the Pashtun people. Baba, however, doesn’t treat them as inferior:this way, he shows kindness towards Hassan, instead ofunlike Amir. Throughout Amir’s childhood, he is constantly ignored by Baba because he does not fit Baba’s idea of the son he wants. Baba’s general disapproval and disinterest in Amir shows that he is a bad father to Amir, especially because he shows the opposite emotions to Hassan.
Social conditions are what shape a country. Over the years, people, not only in Afghanistan, but around the world create norms that define people’s roles in life, their future, and how they should be treated based on their gender and beliefs. Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner, comments on the social conditions of Afghanistan through telling a story about the lives of two Muslim boys; a privileged Sunni Pashtun, Amir, and his long-time friend and servant, Hassan, a loyal but disadvantaged Shia Hazara. Hosseini expresses Amir’s uncertain feelings toward Hassan which form the decisions he makes throughout the book. These choices result in Amir destroying his relationship with Hassan. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini is a commentary on the social conditions in Afghanistan as shown through the roles of women and men in society and the ideals of Afghan culture. Unfortunately, these problems are still active in most of Afghanistan.
In Runner, Robert Newton conveys that Charlie the protagonist is bound to mature early to make completely selfless choices. When his father dies, Charlie is contrived to fill his father’s boots, meaning he had to take up his father’s role of being the financial provider of his family. Additionally, Charlie makes an altruistic choice by running for squizzy Taylor. Lastly, Charlie makes the self-sacrificing decision by gambling his large saving from Squizzy on the Ballarat Mile. In summary, Newton demonstrates that Charlie is forced into adulthood early through necessity and make self-denying decisions due to his family's desperate circumstances.
She comes soon after to check the dead, I hold my breath as she says that I take one dying breath (she knows I am alive I think)
Forgiveness is essential to daily life. An important person does the unthinkable, and finally that person earns forgiveness. It is important to forgive oneself, so one can forgive others, too. In The Kite Runner, novelist Khaled Hosseini tells about the past of the Afghan refugee, Amir, and about the importance of forgiveness regarding to what happens in Afghanistan a long time before Amir arrives in America. Amir grows up in Kabul with his prosperous father, Baba, who has two servants, Ali, and his son, Hassan. Amir and Hassan are best friends until Hassan is raped, and Amir doesn’t help him. Amir can’t get over his guilt, so he takes it out on Hassan and treats him very badly. Thus, Hassan and Ali leave
The expression "riddled with guilt" is a good way to describe the main character's life, Amir, in the book The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner is a story about an Afghan boy, Amir, who has many hardships throughout his life as he grows from a boy living in war-torn Afghanistan, to a successful writer living in America. Amir experiences many events that caused him to carry a great amount of guilt throughout his life. So much guilt that it even turned him into an insomniac. He needed to find a way to make amends which would allow him to forgive himself and hopefully, one day, be able to sleep soundly again.