In the novel The Kite Runner, the main character, Amir, lives a normal, happy childhood until he faces a moral dilemma, in which he could save Hassan, the person he had grown up with, from being raped, or he could give in to cowardice. Sadly, he chooses the second choice. But later on in the story Amir tries to redeem himself in multiple ways, and like Salim from the film Slumdog Millionaire, he carries this need for redemption from childhood all the way into his adult life. Finally in the end of the story, Amir attempts a final act of redemption in saving Sohrab, Hassan’s son, from his enemy Assef. And just as Salim believes that he is redeemed in the end of the film Slumdog Millionaire, so does Amir after saving Sohrab and bringing him into …show more content…
This can be seen when Amir responds to Rahim Kahan’s words “There is a way to be good again.” Rahim Khan knows that Amir is guilty of what had happened to Hassan, and he also knows the truth of how Amir and Hassan are related. But Amir’s decision is made of a true desire to redeem himself, especially considering that he blindly went to Rahim Khan, without knowing what he would have to do, and without knowing that he and Hassan are related. If he had known that he is related to Hassan and Sohrab, he would have done it from a feeling of obligation, not because he wanted to redeem himself. This can also be seen when he thinks of the phrase Hassan had said many times, “For you, a thousand times over.” Amir wants to be loyal to Hassan, just as Hassan had been loyal to Amir, and because of this he wants to redeem himself, without any selfish reasons. This can be seen with Salim when he finds Latika watching the show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”, and he gives his phone to Latika. Although him giving Latika his cell phone wasn’t the greatest act of selflessness, but through this he shows that he has finally realized that he has deeply wronged Latika, and that we wishes to redeem himself. This can also be seen when he asks forgiveness from Latika, thus showing that he actually feels guilty for what he has done and wishes to make …show more content…
When Amir betrays Hassan, he doesn’t betray Hassan by not stopping the rape. It is the fact that he is willing to break the bond between him and Hassan by not stepping up for Hassan. Thus, for him to truly redeem himself, he has to reconnect that bond. Sadly he couldn’t reconnect that bond between himself and Hassan, but he can connect with his son, Sohrab. This can first be seen when Amir hugs Sohrab for the first time. By doing this, he is showing that he is willing, and happy, to accept Sohrab into his life and to bond with him. Sohrab is an “injured soul’, who had been affected partially by Amir’s betrayal. If Amir would not have betrayed Hassan, Ali and Hassan would not have moved away, and thus Hassan and his family would not have had to come back to later be killed, and Sohrab would not have been in the orphanage. Thus Amir is redeeming himself by bonding with the one who had to bear the consequences of his actions. Later on, Amir tightens this bond by breaking the discriminatory line between General Taheri and Sohrab by saying, “You will never refer to him as ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s Sohrab.” By saying this, Amir shows that he has fully accepted Sohrab, and doesn’t have any of the thoughts he previously had about Hassan. Salim does the same thing when he gives Latika his phone and his car. All through his childhood and even into
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.
Both Hassan and Sohrab have gone through abuse at the hands of Assef, but Amir ends this cycle of abuse by rescuing Sohrab when he returns to Kabul. This shows how Amir has become nobler and made the decision to do what he feels as morally correct. When he was 12, he witnessed Hassan get raped by Assef in the alleyway and he did nothing to help Hassan. He tried
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
S1/B3: Finally, Rahim Khan successfully shapes Amir into becoming the responsible man he has always wanted to be. This is indicated when Amir and Soraya are attempting to have a baby and Amir wonders what kind of father he will turn out to be. He thinks, “I wanted to be just like Baba and I wanted to be nothing like him” (Hosseini 184). Although Baba was the ‘ideal’ man: strong, popular, and well known, this is not the man Amir wants to turn out to be. Amir sees that Baba was secretly a materialistic, selfish, dishonest coward. So, while Amir wants to be a popular and strong idealistic father to his child, he does not want to leave his child feeling neglected by him, as he experienced with Baba. Amir would rather be a responsible and understanding
In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Amir feels obligated to find Hassan’s son, Sohrab because of his demons that he need to be free of to move on and live. This is due to one of the guilt’s Amir’s burdened with for many years where Amir “watched Hassan get raped” (pg.86) by Assef and his gang but did not do anything to save him. In a way, Amir feels he is making up for the sins he did to Hassan years ago by taking Shorab to safety in Peshawar. In addition, Amir later does another injustice with Hassan where he plants “a fistful of crumpled money under [Hassan’s] mattress.” (pg. 254)
Amir went through a tough battle with guilt. He saw his friend get raped and did nothing about it, he blamed himself for his mother's death and he felt bad for thinking that he wanted another man as his father. All this guilt he kept inside. But one day he ran into Assef, Assef and him got into an altercation. He got vanquished by Assef, the man who raped Hassan. While he was he felt relieved of the guilt that he had, another way he helped himself relive his guilt is by taking care of Hassan's child. Nevertheless everyone has felt somewhat guilty once, we all handle our guilt differently, yet we shouldn't act badly. We should do good, fix our wrongs and should have the idea that guilt can make you do good
When put into perspective, life proves to be truly unfair. It is often difficult to serve justice and distinguish between good and evil. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, there is no optimum justice, but instead a constant theme of mercy. Mercy is found to be an important virtue that allows characters to come to terms with their flaws and grow with benevolence. Amir is a character who began as a deceitful coward, burdened with the guilt of his mistakes. The mercy Amir receives from Rahim Khan, Hassan, and what comes to be himself, gives him the opportunity to do what is right and find goodness in his life again. On Amir’s journey back to Afghanistan, the forgiveness and compassion he discovers is what is most important in determining his future.
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
Amir cannot stand to look at Hassan and seeing the lamb-like eyes, so to make himself feel better about the situation, he frames Hassan. Amir is upset that Baba forgives Hassan but it is ironic because he is the one doing the sinful act and yet again it is Hassan who is saving and protecting Amir. These unfaithful acts are not in fact an act of selflessness but and an act of selfishness. Everything Amir is doing is for himself. He only cares about his own feelings but never is he putting himself in others people’s
When Amir and his wife, Soraya, can’t seem to have a child, Amir believes that it is because of his wrongdoings in the past. Right up until Amir is in his 30’s does he confront his mistakes. It takes a call from Rahim Khan to persuade him that there is ‘a way to be good again’ (Pg. 2). Amir knows that he needs to make up to Hassan for the wrong that he did all those years ago, and so by confronting his mistake and trying to redeem himself by rescuing Sohrab, Hassan’s son. Amir’s confrontation with Assef when he is getting back Sohrab made him feel like he was confronting his mistakes and gaining redemption ‘For the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace… In some nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this.’ (Pg. 265). This is the punishment and redemption that he has been waiting all these years for, because Hassan wouldn’t punish him all those years ago when they were under the pomegranate tree.
The Kite Runner, a novel written by Khaled Hosseini, focuses on Amir’s journey in life, both physically and emotionally. During Amir’s childhood Afghanistan became very unsafe. He and his father, Baba, fled from the city of Kabul to Pakistan and then made their way to America in hope of a better life for Amir. "For me, America was a place to bury my memories. For Baba, it was a place to mourn his." The need for Amir to "become good again" is embedded in the idea of a physical for redemption of his dignity.
Right after the Hassan’s rape, Amir cannot confront Hassan due to his inability to save him: “I didn’t speak to Hassan until the middle of the next week” (Hosseini 86). It is absolutely not Amir’s fault that Hassan was raped, however it is Amir’s fault that he is ignorant to rectify the situation by judging what is right or wrong. His sense of responsibility towards his action is where guilt comes from, and it is inevitable to remain ignorant from it. Even after years moving to America, he feels hesitant whenever people mention about Hassan. Baba mentions about Hassan that he wants to share the happiness and Amir’s growth with Hassan in the United States: “I wish Hassan had been with us today” (Hosseini 131). Amir’s reaction shows how remorseful he still is, as he claims that guilt is harming him: “A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan’s name”(Hosseini 134). The steel hands represent the stiffness of his guilt suffocating himself every second, and whenever people brings up topic about Hassan, his guilty conscience suffocates him. Likewise, Amir is not completely feeling free about Hassan even though he is miles away from him. Lastly, he is too late to learn from mistakes when he is told that Hassan passed away, thus he adopts Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Sohrab serves a huge role in this
The desire to feel loved and wanted by your parents can drive a person to go to extreme limits to get that love. One boy that goes to these extreme limits is Amir. All Amir wants is to have a good, strong relationship with his father. He feels the death of his mother was his fault, and he needed to make it up to his father. In doing so, Amir let’s horrible things happen to his friend Hassan. Many many years later, after fleeing to America, Amir returns to Afghanistan in search of redemption of his actions all those years ago. The theme of The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini is redemption. Through Amir’s life, that’s what he’s been doing to himself, trying to redeem himself from his acts that have brought pain
This one decision left a stain on Amir for the next thirty years. A quote on pg. 88 states “I wish someone would wake me up, so I wouldn’t have to live with this lie anymore” This quote explains how guilty Amir felt after seeing Hassan get raped as he desperately sought for anyone to find out but didn’t chose to tell anyone the actual truth. Another example from the text is when Amir tries throwing pomegranates at Hassan, as an attempt to get Hassan to fight back and punish Amir for choosing to leave Hassan. However, Hassan refused to throw any pomegranates at Amir, but instead smashed one into his face. A quote on pg.94 states “I wanted Hassan to fight me back for the way I failed him” This quote indicates that Amir wanted Hassan to fight him back, so he could have the “punishment [he] craved” (93) This demonstrates that Amir wanted to feel the act of being punished for his wrongdoing, similar to how Hassan was brutally raped due to Amir’s apparent mistake. Amir’s guilt forces him to travel across two countries to seek redemption for the mistake he made. 15 years later, Amir’s guilt led him to make the hefty decision of returning to Afghanistan “to be good again” (189) by rescuing Hassan’s orphaned son, Sohrab, from the terrible conditions he was left to face in Kabul. Amir sees this as an opportunity to redeem and free himself from
Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, depicts the conflicting life of Amir, a young boy who lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. His life becomes complicated at age twelve when he witnessed his best friend and Hazara servant, Hassan, get raped and abused. Amir just idoly stood by but was he feeling helpless, or was Hassan just a servant that meant nothing to him. This is when the question of good and evil comes out. While Amir shows significantly redeemable qualities throughout the book of doing, it does not change that he was toying with the fact that he let such a vial ast be committed in the first place. Later Amir finds out that Hassan was his brother and he tries desperately to do whatever he can to do good things in Hassan's name like adopt