The book Kite Runner follows the story of a kid named Amir that experienced both loyalty and betrayal. First off, the story starts following the rough and unwilling childhood of Amir when he lived in Afghanistan. He lived with Hassan, who was actually his half brother, and his father, Baba. Throughout the story, it explains different chapters and events throughout Amir’s childhood and adulthood, which rounded him as a person, and made him more dynamic. Three main characters throughout the story, including Amir, exemplified the contrast between betrayal and loyalty. First of all, Amir’s half brother, Hassan, shows unspeakable loyalty towards Amir to help and protect who he thinks is his leader. Many examples of Hassan’s loyalty throughout …show more content…
The book explains how Amir had an underlying hate for Hassan, even though they partook in so many activities together during their childhood. One example of Amir’s underlying hate and betrayal towards Hassan was when Hassan was getting attacked in the alleyway while Amir was watching it occur, and not taking action. Based off Hassan’s loyalty, if the person getting attacked in the alleyway was Amir, and Hassan was watching, Hassan would have taken action and helped him, but Amir would not do the same. The reason why Amir did not take action was because he wanted to gain affection and love from his father, Baba, as explained in the book, “… Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.” (page 77, Kite Runner). This showed Amir’s true emotions about what he thought about Hassan, and how he was invading his love with his father. reflecting upon that idea, this also showed how he had to pay him as a sacrifice to receive a perfect life living with his father. To conclude, Amir liked the loyalty that Hassan had towards him, but he always had an underlying guilt and hate towards
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.
“Or I could run. In the end, I ran. I ran because I was a coward.” [Amir Pg. 82]. The main character throughout the whole book is Amir. Then there is Hassan who is Baba’s servant's son who grew up with Amir. Baba is the father of Amir. Rahim is Baba’s friend. Ali is Hassan father he is also Baba’s servant. The Kite Runner is about a little boy and there servant’s son who lives with them. Amir and Hassan grew up together, they lived in the same house. Amir and Hassan love to fly kites to get ready for the tournament that they have in the wintertime. Amir and Hassan do the tournament, they win the kite fight. Hassan goes miss. Amir goes out and looks for Hassan, it starts to get dark out Amir starts to worry. Amir hears Hassan voice down and alley way. There was three other people cornering him.
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
From brief observation, it may appear as though Hassan and Amir are the best of friends. However, as readers come across this quote from Amir’s point of view, they achieve a bit of insight on his deepest thoughts and feelings. According to Amir, history and ethnicity can break the bonds of their seemingly everlasting companionship. Amir is wrong to think this way and to follow in the footsteps of his flawed societal views. However, not all the blame can be placed on Amir, for his reasoning can be traced back to his father’s complicated relationship with the beloved family servant, an event that has clearly had a significant influence on him.
In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir craves his father's approval. Amir becomes jealous of Hassan and turns to cowardliness to hide his guilt for what he saw in the winter of 1975. The author develops the theme of betrayal and redemption throughout the novel by Amir’s experiences of betrayal from his father and by betraying others in return. Amir goes through his life wanting redemption for the sins he has committed.
The Kite Runner is a powerful book contrasting selfishness and selflessness. The book follows the life of Amir, a character who experiences guilt and tragedy throughout his life. While growing up in Kabul, Amir witnesses the imperfect and prejudice society in his country. Within an imperfect society, there are many who are self-invested, and among those, there are those who are selfless. Characters Amir and Hassan possess selfish and selfless traits. The traits that these characters possess are influenced by fear, victimization, and loyalty, ultimately leading them to inaction and action.
Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a fascinating book that through the story it releases a remorse content. Amirs character in the novel centers on Amir struggling throughout his life. When we discover how the winter of 1975 in Kabul makes Amir Jan become guilty of his actions. Amir is a character who Hosseini makes us feel compassion for. Amir has conflicted feelings toward his father, Baba, and especially his best friend servant, Hassan. Amir attempts to avoid his guilt, but it does nothing to help him redeem himself and therefore his guilt remains. That is why every time he hears his friend's name, Hassan, he quivers from the flashbacks he gets. Making us grasp how Amir stops himself from actually moving on and achieving more, proving that a life
The fact that Amir does not stack up to Hassan in the eyes of their father becomes clear during a conversation that he overhears between Baba and Rahim Khan. Not only does his father not understand his inclination to spend his days reading and writing, he also looks down upon Amir’s inability to stand up both for his own self and for others and tendency to let Hassan fight his battles for him. He states unequivocally that “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything” (22). This leads to Amir’s heightened jealousy of Hassan, general feeling of inadequacy, and an
In the book The Kite Runner, there are many conflicts that the characters have to face. The story was based on a young boy named Amir. He lives in the country of Afghanistan with his father, Baba. There were many conflicts in the story. Many about adolescent decisions, his relationship with his baba, and his shia’ muslim servant, Hassan.
Baba and Amir both go through lying to their loved ones, Amir and Hassan’s friendship gets put on a price and poor Amir spends most of his life trying to redeem his mistakes. “The Kite Runner” shows how each main character deals with betrayal, friendship and redemption in their own ways. Baba and Amir betrayed the ones who were always loyal to them from the start through thick and thin. “Baba and I were more alike than I’d ever known.
To begin with, one of the most horrific ways that Amir abused their friendship was using Hassan in his own selfish ways to attain what he desires. Despite the fact that running away from the scene where Hassan was being raped was wrong in itself, Amir is thinking to himself, “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay […] to win Baba” (77). Amir within those few short seconds had made up his final decision; Hassan was going to be the price he paid to uncover his own selfish pleasures while including winning the love of his father, Baba. In addition, he believed that the only way he would achieve what he wanted, the blue kite, was to sacrifice Hassan to any destruction that could possibly come his way. Without a
The novel The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, contains a great deal of motifs, secrets, and betrayals. Amir and Baba grew up with their servants Hassan and Ali. Amir betrays Hassan early on in the book and attempts to get rid of him, but Hassan and his father Ali leave willingly. Amir leaves for America with his father for a better life after the government is overthrown and turmoil enters Kabul. After living in America for several years, marrying, and the passing of Baba, Amir receives a call from an old close friend who wants him to visit him in Afghanistan while he is sick. Rahim Khan is an important character that has always understood Amir’s pain and sets him on the path of his redemption. Amir’s battle for redemption may
From reading chapters one to four, one of the main aspects of Amir and Hassan’s relationship is the sense of control Amir has over Hassan. It becomes apparent that Amir is the one with the most authority in their friendship when he ‘talked’ Hassan into firing walnuts at the neighbour’s one-eyed German shepherd, ‘Hassan never wanted to, but if I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me’. This highlights the way Hassan looks up to Amir and obeys him due to their religious, cultural and social differences, ‘I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a’. Nevertheless, Amir does express his sensitive side towards Hassan and feels protective over him, especially when he can see he’s upset, ‘I reached across my seat, slung my
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.
Throughout the novel, Amir endeavors to be approved by his father, Baba, who is admired by people in Kabul. Unfortunately, Baba believes that Amir, unlike him, is very unmanly “and [that he] never fights back. He just... drops his head ” (Hosseini 24). Since Baba wishes for a son who would stand up for himself, he can’t help but observe that Amir’s friend Hassan, as the guy who “steps in and fends the [bullies] off” (Hosseini 24) is his idea of the ideal son. Though aware of his father’s expectations, Amir is unable to change himself and instead envies Hassan and the fact that Baba treats him like his own son by“[patting]Hassan on the back. [and even putting] his arm around his shoulder [like a fatherly figure]”(Hosseini 15). Despite the manifestation of this hatred in Amir, he continues to recognize the bond that he shares with Hassan, “ brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast” (Hosseini 11) which is because both their mothers died during birth. The confusing emotions he feels for Hassan has Amir face a situation in which he acts inappropriately and allows the guilt to manifest upon him. After winning a very important kite tournament for the first time and “seeing Baba on that roof, proud of [him] at last” (Hosseini 71) Amir begins to search for Hassan who had gone to run his kite earlier. Finally, Amir finds him in a dark alley and as he “peeks around the corner” (Hosseini 75) he witnesses a sight that eradicated not only his relationship with Hassan but also Baba’s brotherly relationship with Ali, Hassan’s father. Peeking through the corner of the alley, like a bystander, he watches his one and only friend getting raped. The guilt that came upon him was for two reason; one, his lack of courage to stand up to