Decisions In Khaled Housseini's The Kite Runner

Referring to the winter of 1975, Amir says, “That was a long time ago, but 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. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” (12). These lines refer to the early catalyst in the story: the rape.

The guilt that Amir feels due to his destroyed relationship with Hassan haunts him throughout his entire life. First, Hosseini uses the scene of Hassan’s rape as a haunting source of

Unlike Gene when he was responsible for his friend being harmed, Amir never admits the truth to his friend. Although he had at first told himself that his second betrayal was the ideal solution to assuage the memory of his first, Amir still suffers from his crisis of conscience. In that respect he can again be compared to Gene, who, even as a mature man visiting his old school at a reunion fifteen years later, suffers from the recognition of how the treatment of his friend reflects on his own true nature. Also, Amir visits his old homeland fifteen years after marrying in America and reflects how his act of cowardice has haunted him.

It’s so easy for the reader to hastily judge and draw unfair conclusions about a character in a novel. It’s so easy for the reader to sit back and say to themselves, “He should’ve done this,” or “He should’ve have said that.” In fact, it’s so easy for any person, whether it be real-world or within literature, to gloss over the stress, the intensity, the trauma of being ensnared in a personal dilemma. Amir Khan was 12 years old when he peered down an alleyway from behind a corner wall as his childhood friend, Hassan, was brutally raped. Amir stood there, shaking from fear, and made a decision that would transform the rest of his life. He ran. However, any wise man knows that you cannot out-run your personal dilemmas, and for the rest of the novel, he encountered difficulties. Amir’s past is haunted by his memories and fills his conscious with regret, his experience shatters his childhood innocence and thrusts him into the grim reality of his society, and his soul challenged as he seeks repentance and cleansing. In Khaled Hosseini’s, “The Kite Runner,” Amir’s fateful decision not to act while his friend Hassan was cruelly sexually assaulted serves as a pivotal moment in shaping the greater meaning of the novel as a whole by exploring the topics of regret, loss of innocence, and soul-searching.

Amir’s struggles, on the other hand, are of an inherently different nature from John’s in that they are internal and Amir is more directly responsible for the cause of his alienation. Amir, having witnessed the rape of his childhood best friend and servant Hassan at a young age, failing to help him, and not telling anyone about it, bears the weight of his sins throughout a large portion of his childhood and adult life. Amir struggles greatly with what he has done in the weeks and months after the rape, leading him to emotionally and physically harm Hassan even more than he has already been

How, after years of guilt, self-disgust, and deception, is it possible for one person to become good again? Entrapped in a cage of cowardice for so long, can they ever develop and grow as a normal human being? Amir, the anti-hero in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, seeks to answer these questions in his own search for atonement through various existential events in his life.

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is an award-winning novel and considered one of today’s most popular, contemporary classics. The story is one of familiar themes such as loyalty, forgiveness, betrayal, love, and redemption. It follows the tale of Amir and how he must atone for his sins and find a way to “be good again” (Hosseini 2). The quintessential message of this book relies on the idea of second chances. Themes of redemption, betrayal, loyalty, and forgiveness are not only shown without doubt through this book, but are also common among many literary works and religions. Hosseini is successful in showing the significance of these themes throughout the novel.

In Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, mistakes and their confrontation is a major theme. The Kite Runner takes us on the journey of life as an immigrant through the eyes of refugee Amir. It is through the mistakes of Amir and his family and friends that the novel develops. The most significant and central mistake in the novel is of Amir not standing up for Hassan whilst he is being raped. Although this mistake is the most significant and central one, I will also look into two others; Baba cheating with Ali’s wife and Soraya and her previous marriage. To confront our mistakes we may try to ‘redeem ourselves’ by doing good that we believe may make up for this mistake or even just getting this mistake out in the open and talking about it. The

One triumphant day, Amir won the local kite fighting tournament and finally earned Baba’s praise. Hassan ran to retrieve the losing kite, which was considered a trophy, and told Amir “For you, a thousand times over”. When Hassan finally obtained the kite, he was cornered by Assef and his friends. Assef was the neighborhood bully and had tortured Amir and Hassan for years. When Hassan refused to give up the kite, Assef beat and raped him. Amir watched the whole thing but didn’t interfe because he didn’t want to lose the respect of his father. The guilt ate Amir alive. “That was a long time ago, but 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. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” Soon after the incident, Amir tried to distance himself from Hassan and Hassan and his father eventually leave. A couple years later, Amir and Baba flee to America to escape the war in Afghanistan. Amir graduates and gets married but even after all those years;

After he had just witnessed his own “bestfriend” get raped, Amir wants to make things right: “I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of

As well as his need to recognize the past not hide from it. “I became what I am today…because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realise I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last 26 years” (1), this quote provides evidence that Amir has reflected his past mistakes and chooses to define himself as a result of them. Later in the novel, Amir finds a form of redemption for his inaction that night in the alleyway when he chooses to return to Afghanistan and save Hassan's only

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a remarkable coming-of-age novel describing and revealing the thoughts and actions of Amir, a compunctious adult in the United States and his memories of his affluent childhood in the unstable political environment of Afghanistan. The novel showcases the simplistic yet powerful ability of guilt to influence decisions and cause conflict which arises between Amir’s childhood friend and half-brother, Hassan; Amir’s father, Baba; and importantly, himself. Difference in class The quest to become “good again” causes a reflection in Amir to atone for his sins and transform into the person of which he chooses to be.

Amir resents his choice to be a coward when Hassan is raped. His guilt is immediate and it gnaws at him. A few days after Hassan was assaulted, Amir already feels guilt and resentment inside him. “’I [Amir]

The consequences of the past are inescapable and the choices a person makes can influence the rest of his life. There is no way to change the past, so once important choices are made it is impossible to reverse time and change those decisions. Khaled Hosseini explores this idea of having to live with past decisions in his compelling novel The Kite Runner. To enforce the message of how inescapable the past truly is, the main character of Hosseini’s book, Amir, betrays his closest friend and struggles to cope with the haunting consequences of this betrayal. Through Amir’s complex character development and The Kite Runner’s distinctive plot structure, those who read the novel gain a deeper understanding of Amir’s decisions as a result of his past mistakes via Hosseini’s use of foreshadowing and flashbacks. By creating a unique relationship between the past and present in the novel, Hosseini urges readers to ponder the consequences of mistakes and reflect on their own past.

Amir was an extremely privileged boy during his childhood in Afghanistan. As such, Amir did not really have a frame of reference for the feelings of others, mostly his childhood friend Hassan, and was more concerned with reading. After a kite-fighting tournament in the winter of 1975, Amir witnessed the rape of Hassan at the hands of some other boys their age. Rather than take action to help Hassan in the moment or act as a supportive friend to Hassan after this event, Amir instead did everything in his power to get rid of Hassan and his family. All Amir wanted was to remove the object of his guilty conscious from his immediate surroundings. These actions led to Amir’s