Pain: The Detrimental Effects Of Guilt

Thesis: Betrayal leads to feeling of guilt which forces the person in search of redemption either directly or through indirect actions and gestures.

The quote,“Guilt is to the spirit, what pain is to the body” said by Elder David A. Bednar, really proves that guilt can be very painful and it is especially painful for Amir because he dealt with the guilt of choosing to not help Hassan his whole life. As soon as Amir decided to run away instead of trying to help Hassan and stop him from being sexually assaulted by Assef, he immediately felt guilty and that stuck with him for the rest of his life. The author really shows Amir’s guilt throughout the novel through different negative events that always seem to happen to Amir, he uses the idea of “full circle” throughout the novel to express Amir’s guilt. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini shows the motif guilt by adding important details throughout the novel: these include how Amir continues to feel guilty for the way that he treated Hassan throughout their childhood, he never stood up for Hassan when he needed him the most, and even when Amir tried to get rid of his guilt by bringing Sohrab back to America, he still felt guilt for everything he had done to Hassan.

“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.” – Voltaire. Guilt is an emotion that comes from believing that you were responsible for a particular mistake (usually the violation of some moral code) whether or not this guilt is accurate. In the novel The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir portrays guilt as being destructive. Amir’s experience leads to him feeling guilty for the rest of his life. This guilt breaks up the relationships he once had, it also affects the people around him. In the novel The Kite Runner, Khlaed uses Amir to show how violence leads to betrayal, then guilt and at some point destroys relationships between people. This is mostly proved in the novel by the impact of violence on Amir which

“Guilt is cancer. Guilt will confine you, torture you, destroy you. It’s a black wall. It’s a thief “ (Grohl). Guilt consumes you with every evil pondering present within the atmosphere. Carrying it brings resentment and death of the spirit, tormenting and haunting you for the rest of your days. It’s like filling a sack full of heavy rocks and never giving yourself the opportunity to rest. In Gary Soto’s personal narrative “The Pie”, he expresses his guilt as a 6-year-old child.

Baumeister et al. (1994) describes guilt as an individual's unpleasant emotional state associated with possible objections to his or her actions, inaction, circumstances, or intentions. Baumeister et al. (1994) thought that Guilt could be understood in a relationship contexts as

Guilt is a strong emotion that haunts us all, others hide it deep within themselves, some try to fix the wrong, and few people do good from it. The Kite Runner is the story of a boy named Amir, he struggles to find his place in the world, reason being of the all of the traumatic childhood events. He sends most of his time and life just sulking in guilt about the decisions he has made. Khaled Hosseini has given the idea that guilt can make you do good things, but all relies on what you're guilty about. The way this is portrayed is through the novel is through rhetorical strategies and imagery.

Guilt has the incredible power to change an individual’s perspective and affect them for the rest of their life. The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is a world-renowned novel published in 2003 that tells the story of a young boy named Amir who grows up with the guilt of having failed to fight the group of boys who raped his closest friend. One of the main themes Hosseini emphasizes in the novel, is the powerful affect of guilt on one’s self. Different characters such as Amir, Sanubar and Baba use the guilt that exists in every one of them as a motive to their actions to further develop the plot. Amir, the narrator of the novel, witnesses his closest friend, Hassan, get bullied by an older boy named Aseef and decides not to

The presence of guilt has been felt by all human beings. As guilt grows in a

One’s moral duty is often conflicted with an emotional drive or a strong passion. The drive it takes to deviate from knowing what is right and wrong can lead to unfavorable outcomes, such as suffering. Not only does this engagement establish a war within the mind, but it also hinders certain responsibilities. In Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, the protagonist, Ethan, encounters a dilemma: his strong feelings for his wife’s cousin, Mattie, compels him to reconsider his devotion to Zeena. Ethan allows himself to seize feelings for Mattie, through which he disregards his moral duties to his wife, typifying that addressing a private passion over responsibility can lead to suffering.

A very common theme in classical literature is guilt, and the ways that it manifests itself in a character. Guilt is the feeling of remorse or responsibility for a crime or moral offence, whether it is real or hypothetical. Every person on Earth will have a run in with guilt, and it impacts each person in a different manner. The different impacts of guilt are strikingly visible when comparing Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In The Scarlet Letter, we see Arthur Dimmesdale’s struggle with internalized guilt, while the titular character and his lady in Macbeth continually feel guilt due to their actions that affect many people around them, but the couple does not strive to change their ways. The

“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do,” Voltaire once said. Every choice in life comes with a consequence that follows. A common consequence is guilt, a bad feeling caused by knowing or thinking that you have done something wrong. Amir, the main character in The Kite Runner, discovers the consequence of guilt after making decisions throughout his childhood that were destructive. Khaled Hosseini describes the destructive ability of guilt to consume one’s life through the the relationships of Amir and Hassan, Baba and Ali, and Amir and Sohrab.

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.

This serves as a motivator to change. As guilt causes discomfort, it can be used as a need to change things in your life, and eliminate the guilt. For example, if someone bullied an individual, they would probably eventually realize they have wronged that person and feel guilty. The guilt would motivate the bully to change their attitude, which would lead to a better life.

    "You keep lying!" screamed Raskolnikov, no longer able to restrain himself. "You're lying, you damned clown!" And he flung himself on Porfiry, who retired to the doorway, but without a trace of panic. "I understand everything, everything!" He approached Porfiry. "You're lying and taunting me so Ill give myself away-" "You can't give yourself away any more than you have already, Rodion Romanovich, old man. Why, you've gone into a state. Don't shout, I'll call my men, sir!" (Dostoyevsky, 34)

Conflict between guilt and redemption has been one of the big themes of mankind, as it is described in many notable literary pieces and scriptures including the Bible. Similarly, The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini vividly depicts a young Afghan man, Amir, suffering between sin and guilt, realizing how he could’ve changed one’s destiny. This story is not merely about repentance, but also about the whole process of realization. Although Amir remains guilty by avoiding Hassan consistently after the betrayal, he seeks true repentance after realizing that apologies towards Hassan are too late.