Compare And Contrast Rostam And Sohrab In The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is the first novel of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It tells the story of Amir, a boy from Kabul, Afghanistan, whose closest friend is Hassan, a young Hazara servant. Novel turns around these two characters and Baba, Amir’s father, by telling their tragic stories, guilt and redemption that are woven throughout the novel. Even in the difficult moments, characters build up to their guilt and later on to their redemption. Their sins and faults alter the lives of innocent people. First, Amir and Baba fail to take action on the path to justice for Ali and Hassan. Moreover, Amir and Baba continue to build up their guilt due to their decisions and actions. Although Amir builds up more guilt than Baba throughout the novel, he eventually succeeds in the road to redemption unlike his father. After all, Amir and Baba have many chances to fix their atonements but Baba chooses not to and Amir does. Baba uses his wealth to cover up his sins but never atone himself while Amir decides to stand up and save Sohrab and finally finds peace. Amir and Baba’s reaction to sins essentially indicate their peace of mind and how they react to guilt and injustice.

The Kite Runner is a novel that is considered to be a fictional memoir throughout the life of the main character, Amir. Starting in 1975 Afghanistan, the sentiments between the Hazaras and the Pashtuns were very negative and violent. Afghanistan as a country was experiencing a lot of hardships as the two main races and religions that resided in the country began to fight, eventually leading to the war that is still going on today. As a nation, Afghanistan has a long and interesting history. The Kite Runner itself is written by an Afghan man, Khaled Hosseini, who himself lived in Afghanistan throughout these years. Growing up in Kabul, Hosseini grew up in an area later to be considered as more fortunate and more wealthy than those who lived elsewhere in the country. Khaled’s father worked as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, and his mother worked as a persian language teacher at a high school for girls. Later on, after his father got a job in Paris, France. Hosseini’s family moved to France and were unable to return to Afghanistan due to the saur revolution, the initial segment leading to the Afghan civil war. The Kite Runner was written in California as Hosseini was studying in medical school, in order to become a doctor. The book itself is fictional, however much of the occurences in the novel are influenced based upon real-life scenarios and situations that occur during parts of the war. Specifically, this is portrayed via the arguments between the

Sohrab’s attempt of suicide shows that Amir still does not understand what Sohrab has been going through. In other words, he can’t see things from Sohrab’s perspective. Moreover, what happened to Sohrab shows that Amir has difficulty understanding how young and vulnerable Sohrab is. Every child has something in his or her mind that they are really afraid of, such as monsters or ghost, and Sohrab faced them all when he enslaved or watch her parents got murdered. He was a victim. When Amir broke his promise he gave to Sohrab, it made Sohrab feel insecure. Overall, being abandoned again was too much for Sohrab to take.

One of the major differences between Amir and Baba is that Baba is seen as courageous, while Amir is more cowardly. Amir always seems to let hassan stand up for him, instead of standing up for himself. “‘Self-defense has nothing to do with meanness. You know what always happens when the neighborhood boys tease him? Hassan steps in and fends them off.’” When Amir sees that Hassan is being attacked, he has to make a decision on whether or not to save him. “I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan – the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past – and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran.” He was too scared to stand up for his closest friend. When Baba and Amir were escaping from Afghanistan, they were stopped by some russian soldiers and Baba was faced with a similar choice. “But the Russian soldier shouted something that made the other

During one’s life, they will be faced with situations that can influence the people surrounding them. The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini a novel based on the life of Amir, the son of a well-off Pashtun. Amir spends the majority of his life trying to please, and receive affection from his father, Baba. Amir and Baba had two Hazara servants; Hassan, and Ali, Hassan’s father. Hassan and Amir have been friends since birth despite their different social classes. Hassan has always gained the affection of Baba with less effort than Amir has, and for that reason, Amir begins to resent Hassan. After a series of unfortunate events, Ali and Hassan made the decision to leave the company of Baba and Amir to start a new life in Hazarajat. Later

Lastly, foreshadowing is widespread in The Kite Runner, and does not fail in contributing to the theme of redemption. As Amir and his wife learn of their inability to conceive, his mother-in-law states, “God knows best, bachem. Maybe it wasn't meant to be” (Hosseini, 96). This dialogue suggests that in the future there is a reason Amir's wife is infertile. Contributing to redemption, this is because Amir must save and adopt his dead

They play like brothers and fight like brothers; however, protecting each other like brothers is one-sided as Hassan would die “a thousand times over” for Amir, but Amir wouldn’t. Hassan is courageous, he becomes afraid but never shows it; always protecting Amir

First, Amir promised Sohrab that if they get him into the US that he and Soraya will always love him (p. 324). This shows that he treats him like his own son because he will always love him just like a father would. He is worthy of forgiveness because he will love Sohrab like he never could love his brother for the twenty years that he was separated from him. After that Amir says to General Sahib, “‘You will never again refer to him as ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence. He has a name and it’s Sohrab’” (p. 361). Amir stands up to the General just like a father would, showing that he is treating him like his own child. He shows that he is worthy of forgiveness because defended Sohrab like he never defended Hassan in his times of need. Finally, Amir states, “‘For you, a thousand times over,’ I heard myself say” (p.371). This is an action that shows Amir treats Sohrab like his old friend because it is what Hassan said to him when they were best friends back in 1975. It shows that he is worthy of forgiveness because he never told Hassan that, but now he is making up for it by saying it to Hassan’s son. Amir treats Sohrab like he never treated his brother, showing that he is worthy of

Moreover, Amir tries to redeem himself to Sohrab. Sohrab had one request, and that request was to never go back to an orphanage. When a lawyer tells Amir that sending Sohrab back to an orphanage is their best bet, Soharb tries to kill himself by slitting his wrists. Amir was always “... met by silence” (352) whenever he tried to talk to Soharb. Soharb went silent when they moved to America, and Amir did everything in his power to give Sohrab a good life. He wanted to make up for the pain he had caused Sohrab, Amir couldn’t live knowing that Sohrab tried to kill himself because of what he had done. Sohrab had also saved Amir’s life. When Amir unexpectedly confronted Assef, the man who raped Hassan, he almost beat him to death. but Sohrab stepped in and shot Assef’s eye with a slingshot, saving Amir’s life. Amir owed his whole life to Sohrab. Amir tried everyday to redeem himself to Sohrab subconsciously speaking, Amir was trying to give him a better life than Hassan, to be the man he should have been all those years

The Kite Runner is a novel that is filled with betrayal, guilt, and redemption. Khaled Hosseini uses past events to show how they can affect a character in both a negative and positive way. Due to past events, Hassan and Amirs' relationship is almost completely destroyed, and Amir is constantly overwhelmed with guilt. The past events both, positively and negatively, affect Amir where he must contend with the aspects of the past. Amir must make amends with his past where it served to benefit and hinder him because he struggles to get over the guilt of his betrayal, and tries to atone for his sins by going to Kabul.

Though Hassan was his best friend, Amir feelt that Hassan, a Hazara servant, was beneath him. He passively attacked Hassan by mocking and taunting him. Amir never learned how to affirm himself against anyone because Hassan always defended him. All of these factors lead to Amir not being able to stand up for Hassan when he needed him most.

Khaled Hosseini writes the novel, The Kite Runner to make readers think of how his use of symbolism and other

"The Kite Runner" tells the story of two children growing up in the 1970s in Afghanistan. Amir-the protagonist is a young son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul. Hassan, son of his poor servant Ali, is his partner. The two boys are inseparable, even in an ethnically divided Afghanistan,

The story is based on the life and journey undertaken by Amir, the protagonist. Hosseini expresses essential ideas in his novel through the themes of redemption/atonement, the relationship between father and son and lastly, the theme of degradation/discrimination. The author expresses these themes through the setting and characterization. Hosseini presents characters from different social status in Afghanistan and how this affected their childhood. Amir despite coming from a privileged class had to work hard for his atonement by going back to Afghanistan to face his demons as well as to mend his relationship with his father who had rejected him since his birth. On the other hand, Hassan, from the minority class suffered because of his social status after he was abused and mistreated by those in power. The Kite Runner is a story about two boys who grew up in different worlds because of the presence of various social classes in

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