In Rescuing Sohrab, Amir Could Find Redmeption for Both Baba and Himself. Do You Agree?

After losing his wife while she was in labor, he was burdened until the end of his life. Even his own son could not bring him joy due to the fact that he was not athletic nor could he stick up for himself. He as well as society looked down upon Amir for his lack of manliness. Baba was constantly dealing with his own self conscience yet did good deeds to cover them up and hide them from society so they also would not see how broken he was. He later on died with cancer but was happy for his son. He did not feel dishonored, he was proud of Amir. Like Rahim Khan said “ Children are not coloring books. You can’t fill them with your favorite colors.” This really spoke to Baba before his passing and made him realize that Amir was doing what he wanted to do, taking his own path. Baba found peace in himself with his son and therefore died with no regrets. Some parents passed with grief for their

Baba would always tell Amir how lying was a sin yet Amir eventually finds out that Baba had lied to him about Hassan being his brother. Baba said, "There is only one sin. And that is theft... When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth."(pg.237) By him lying, he completely went against what he said was right. Baba had not only lied to Amir, but to Hassan and others as well. Baba had been doing something he knew was wrong, but he had still chosen to go against his own beliefs and do it anyway. The theme addressed here is simply betrayal. Baba is consistently hypocritical throughout the novel. For example, Baba is immensely ashamed of 11 year-old Amir for crying when he saw a man murdered in the street, but later in the novel when Ali and Hassan leave for good, Baba is full of tears. This reveals the bias and corrupt personality Baba possesses. Baba is not a great father and only shows his affection for Amir when great successes occur such as the kite competition victory. Baba betrays many characters in the novel, however he does most of an injustice to Amir, his son. Baba never informing him of his sibling relationship with Hassan appears as stupidity and selfishness. Baba does not wish to provide joy for his sons at the cost of revealing that he had slept with Ali’s wife and produced Hassan. Baba is really just a coward. The lying demonstrated by Baba contributes to the main idea of forgiveness. Baba does a poor job as a father for the most part of his life and on his deathbed he receives the forgiveness from Amir for all of the pain he has caused Amir throughout his

Baba sacrificed his own soul in order to keep the people he loved safe. He committed the only sin that he believed in, “and that is theft” (17). He hid his affair and having a second son, not for his reputation’s sake, but to keep everyone around him safe. He stole Amir and Hassan of a true brotherhood, but

Forgiveness is a necessary part of human existence, although it is rarely easy to give, and sometimes hardest to give to ourselves. The Kite Runner illustrates humanity's tendency, and even willingness, to dwell on past mistakes. The opening sentence sets this theme with "I became what I am today at the age of twelve," as Amir unapologetically relates how he believes one action at that young age defined his entire life. However, as the novel progresses, the reader comes to the conclusion that it was not one action, but a series of choices and events that created Amir's persona as an adult. By holding onto his guilt and fear of discovery, Amir could only bury his past for short periods of time before his own conscience uncovered it and the

Baba is a giving man; he will try to help friends and poor beggars. Baba’s guilt comes from the fact that he cannot show the same affection to Hassan that he shows Amir. He cannot be a father to Hassan because of the affair he had with Sanubar, she is a Hazara making Hassan a Hazara. If others knew of Baba’s affair then it would ruin his reputation. As said in Rahim Khan’s letter to Amir: “But your father was a man torn between two halves, Amir jan: you and Hassan. He loved you both, but he could not love Hassan the way he longed to, openly, and as a father” (Housseini 301). The inevitable fact that Baba

19). Since Amir thought that he had killed his mother, he always believed that his father, Baba, hated him for it. Amir uses this perceived reason as explanation for why Baba stayed distant from him, and never addressed this issue, keeping the shame for something that he should not feel guilty for. Adding on, Amir also felt guilty for allowing Hassan to get attacked by Assef and not saving his best friend. After the attack occurred near the beginning of the book, Hosseini continuously mentions the event and how terrible Amir feels, even years after. This shame motivated Amir to go back to Afghanistan and find Hassan’s son, as well as bringing him back to America (Hosseini, 2003). Finally, Baba also had guilt to bear in the novel. Baba was Hassan’s biological father. “How had Baba brought himself to

One of Amir's prime qualities of his personality is being able to redeem himself. Throughout the story, Amir makes horrible decisions like running away as Hassan is raped, and strives for the affection of his father through jealousy. Although he makes a lot of mistakes, Amir proves that he can be a sharpened person towards the end of the story when he tries to adopt Sohrab, Hassan’s son. Amir and Sohrab eventually go to America, and when Amir and Sohrab talked, Amir told him, “I won’t ever get tired of you, Sohrab...Not ever. That’s a promise. You’re my nephew, remember (Hosseini 324)?” Amir greatly redeems himself by taking care of Sohrab

After some thought, Amir knows that he must go and find Hassan’s son, his nephew to redeem himself for the things he did to Hassan. Amir thinks to himself, “there is a way to be good again, he’d said. A way to end the cycle. With a little boy. An orphan. Hassan’s son. Somewhere in Kabul” (227). After feeling this sense of redemption, Amir does everything he can to bring Sohrab back to America with him, to help him start a new and better life.

Shortly after Baba’s death, his old friend Rahim Khan calls him to come back to Afghanistan to finally make amends. As Amir begins his journey back to Afghanistan, his character can be defined as empathic and loving.

Khaled emphasizes Baba’s sacrifices to show how they lead Baba to his atonement. First, Rahim Khan attests to Baba’s character and actions in his letter, saying: “He was a good man […] everything he did […] it was all his way of redeeming himself” (Hosseini 302). This reveals that Baba finds peace with his regrets and made up tor them by creating the orphanage and committing other kind deeds (302). Baba protecting the Afghani woman trom a violent rapist on the way to Peshawar also demonstrated Baba’s atonement. Baba protects the woman because he had already committed the worst sin in his own mind- theft of the truth trom Amir and Hassan; he had to continue redeeming himself by sacrificing his safety (115-16). Last, Baba helped so many people that not even was the parking lot tull at his funeral; people were parking blocks away. The mourners taking their time to commemorate Baba illustrate that Baba has truly made up tor his lies by giving all he can to the people around him (173). Baba’s actions are just one way Hosseini explains how devotion to kindness is connected to atonement.

Baba’s lack of faith prevents him from finding atonement through God. Moreover, Baba is unable to find holistic atonement because he fails to admit and reconcile his sins to those who are affected by them. Although Baba preforms small deeds to redeem himself, such as providing cosmetic surgery to Hassan, he fails acknowledge him as his son, which would allow Baba to achieve true atonement. Evidently, Baba’s actions illustrate he only sought personal redemption. For instance, in an effort to ease his guilt, Baba constructed an orphanage in Kabul. While this initially depicted Baba as selfless, it is later discovered this act of charity is preformed predominantly to alleviate his guilt. Rahim Khan later tells Amir, “ I think everything he did, feeding the poor, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself” (Hosseini 302). Although, as Rahim Khan also says, “real good was born from your father’s guilt” (Hosseini 302), Baba never achieved holistic atonement because he failed to make peace with Ali, Hassan and Amir. Opposed to amending his sins to the people directly affected by it, Baba preforms charitable deeds to his community to make himself feel better about his iniquities.

Furthermore, Amir forgives Baba for not telling him that Amir and Hassan are half-brothers. Hassan gets treated very well by Baba, considering he is a server at Baba’s house. Hassan gets great birthday presents, and he is always welcome to father-son activities with Amir and Baba. Sometimes Amir is jealous and doesn’t understand why Hassan gets treated the same as himself. Amir wants to be treated better, because he is Baba’s son, and Hassan is Baba’s servant. What Amir doesn’t know is that Hassan is his half-brother. Years later, Rahim Kahn tells him this when Amir visits him in Pakistan. Amir learns that a long time ago, Baba had an affair with a Hazara woman, which was socially unacceptable. Out of this affair, a child was born: Hassan. Hassan is not Ali’s son; Hassan is Baba’s son. Baba never tells Amir, and this makes Amir very angry and disappointed. For Amir, his father is a hero and not a liar. However, when Rahim Kahn explains Baba’s situation and why he acted this way, Amir starts to

Baba never really confronted his mistakes, yet he seemed to live a fairly full and whole life. Amir and his father, Baba have a very distant relationship, they seem to be two very different people. “I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I?”(Pg. 18) In this quote Amir talks about his relationship with his father and how difficult it is. Although, he doesn’t know that the distance between them was because of Hassan, not the death of

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.

Yet, there are certain points in the novel where Baba provides his perspective on life to Amir, demonstrating compassionate, father-like qualities. This is highlighted when Baba states “There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft… When you kill a man, you steal a life…You steal his wife’s right to her husband, his children’s right to a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth (19-20). Baba educates Amir about the principles in which he values you to be true about sins. Yet, this is ironic because Baba proves to be a thief himself, which expresses more instances of alienation in Amir’s childhood existence. Baba shows to be hypocritical when he deprives Amir the right to have a father figure. This drives the conflict of the novel. He gives the impression how it is a sin to steal the right to someone. Although not recognizable at first, he clearly goes against his beliefs when analyzed. His disloyalty adds on to alienating Amir. This is because later on in the novel, Amir himself comprehends that Baba was truly a thief. This is expressed when Amir notes, “And now, fifteen years after I'd buried him, I was learning that Baba had been a thief. And a thief of the worst kind, because the things he'd stolen had been sacred” (225).