Loss of innocence in Amir and Ralph What would it be like if your best friend/acquaintance did not stand up for you when you were in trouble? This question is great for how the two protagonists Amir and Ralph lose their innocence after their closest relationship dies. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Lord of The Flies by William Golding can be associated with one another in many ways. The first way that they are similar is the loss of innocence that is evident in each novel. Both Amir and Ralph experience a loss of innocence because of events that take place throughout the novel. This loss of innocence change Amir and Ralph in positive and negative ways. Some ways the two novels can be compared with regards to loss of innocence is firstly, how a death of a friend affects them, secondly, how Ralph and Amir deal with it and finally how they mature after their friends' deaths. Regarding loss of innocence, a friend's death affected Amir and Ralph in similar ways, such as how they matured from it. An example is evident in The Kite Runner “Why are you here?”, “For the boy”, when Amir decides he wants to adopt Sohrab (Hosseini 267). It is evident in Lord of the Flies, “the tears began to flow and Ralph was sobbing”, when Golding tries to depict Ralph growing into a man as he matures through the book and after Piggy’s death, acknowledging Piggy’s intellect (Golding 202). Another way, a way they affected each other similarly is when Amir and Ralph feel remorse and grief to their dead friends. They both act like this in the book because they know they could have prevented it. In contrast, regarding the loss of innocence, a friend's death affected Amir and Ralph in different ways. One way they affected Amir is that he felt guilty and Ralph did not feel as guilty. This is evident because Amir lost his innocence after watching Hassan get raped when he clearly could have prevented it, “I watched his face, but I didn't do anything.” (Hosseini 76). Another way Amir is different from Ralph is that Amir seeks redemption and Ralph seeks salvation, an example of Ralph’s disparity is when the savages are about to kill him and Ralph is frightened
Thesis: Betrayal leads to feeling of guilt which forces the person in search of redemption either directly or through indirect actions and gestures.
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.
One major theme that is evident in The Kite Runner is that scars are reminders of life’s pain and regret, and, though you can ease the regret and the scars will fade, neither will completely go away. We all have regrets and always will, but though it will be a long hard process we can lessen them through redemption. The majority of The Kite Runner is about the narrator and protagonist, Amir. Almost all of the characters in The Kite Runner have scars, whether they are physical or emotional. Baba has scars all down his back from fighting a bear, but he also has emotional scars from not being able to admit that Hassan was also his son. Hassan is born with a cleft lip, but for his birthday Baba pays for it to be fixed, which left a small scar above his mouth. Hassan also has emotional scars from being raped. The reader is probably shown the emotional scars of Amir the most. Amir has emotional scars because he feels that he killed his mother, and also because his father emotionally neglects him. In the end of the novel, Amir receives many physical scars from getting beaten up by Assef, when rescuing Sohrab. Though scars will never go away and are a reminder of the past, not all scars are bad.
The expression "riddled with guilt" is a good way to describe the main character's life, Amir, in the book The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner is a story about an Afghan boy, Amir, who has many hardships throughout his life as he grows from a boy living in war-torn Afghanistan, to a successful writer living in America. Amir experiences many events that caused him to carry a great amount of guilt throughout his life. So much guilt that it even turned him into an insomniac. He needed to find a way to make amends which would allow him to forgive himself and hopefully, one day, be able to sleep soundly again.
“ For you, a thousand times over”. This one sentence sums up the immense love, loyalty and friendship Hassan had for Amir.
Amir went through a tough battle with guilt. He saw his friend get raped and did nothing about it, he blamed himself for his mother's death and he felt bad for thinking that he wanted another man as his father. All this guilt he kept inside. But one day he ran into Assef, Assef and him got into an altercation. He got vanquished by Assef, the man who raped Hassan. While he was he felt relieved of the guilt that he had, another way he helped himself relive his guilt is by taking care of Hassan's child. Nevertheless everyone has felt somewhat guilty once, we all handle our guilt differently, yet we shouldn't act badly. We should do good, fix our wrongs and should have the idea that guilt can make you do good
In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of English boys in their adolescence are stranded on an island. They crash-land while being evacuated because of an atomic war, so the boys must learn to cooperate with each other in order to survive. The boys are civil at first, but the bonds of civilization unfold as the rapacity for power and immediate desires become more important than civility and rescue. The conflict between Ralph, the protagonist, and Jack, the antagonist, represents the conflict between the impulse to civilization and the impulse to savagery, respectively. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Ralph and Jack’s struggle for power to show that greed and lust for power can corrupt the best
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 Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini can be seen as a great book but at the same time one that is too simple and easy. In discussions of The Kite Runner, one controversial issue has been the inner levels of the novel. On one hand, many people believe that the novel is filled with numerous themes that are deep and make one think about the human experience and will leave you thinking long after you finish reading it. On the other hand, there are also many literary critics who contend that opinion and say that the novel is overly sentimental and simplistic. The view I obtained while reading The Kite Runner would be in agreement with the first statement. I also believe that the novel is deep and makes one think
Humans develop in societies with rules, order and government, but humans are not perfect, they have many deficiencies so do the societies they live in. When a group of schoolboys land on a tropical island, Ralph takes on the role of leader by bringing all of the boys together and organizing them. He first explains “There aren’t any grownups. We shall have to look after ourselves.”(p.33), this brings up the question if the boys will have prosperity or will they succumb to the evil on the island. At first the young boys start being successful and civilized, but chaos soon overruns them and evil starts to lurk over the island.The fictional story of the group of British schoolboys stranded on an island and the decisions they make, relates back
Amir’s shame brought on by his marriage to honest Soraya was his poor treatment of his closest childhood friend, and later understood half brother, Hassan. Amir questions what would have happened “had he not as a child lied monstrously about Hassan” “which resulted in Hassan and Ali leaving the service of Baba” (Graves 1). These feelings of inadequacy arose when Amir overheard his father say “’I’d never believe he’s my son’” (Hosseini 23). Amir and Caleb both indirectly caused the death of their brothers because of their jealousy. Both believed the other sibling was loved more, when all actuality the only reason it seemed this way is because there was more in common between Adam and Aron and Baba and Hassan which led to a stronger bond but not greater love.
Honesty and respect are among many qualities that deep relationships carry, especially loyalty. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, he uses two young boys to convey his theme, “loyalty is not freely given, it is learned.” This theme is portrayed as Hosseini uses examples of devotion from his character, Hassan, to teach Amir what defines loyalty. While these two boys grow up together and form a friendship, a life-changing event splits them apart, only to take Amir twenty-six years to discover the truth of their past, their fathers, and their lives.
Amir and Hassan’s relationship throughout the book, The Kite Runner, is based off of love, betrayal, and forgiveness.
C.S Lewis once said “friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” These words perfectly summarize the journey of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. This novel is filled with young boys yearning to escape the grasp of a deserted island. In the process of survival, the group splits into two, with one group turning violent and the other remaining sane.The two main characters of this book, Ralph and Jack, have opposing perspectives causing conflict throughout the novel. By analyzing the values of the two throughout the course of the book, it becomes apparent that the morals of the duo foil.
Symbolism is a very important factor in many books. The use of symbolism in William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies is the most essential aspect to the function of the story. At first glance you may not think the symbols are very important, but with some in-depth thought you can see how it is necessary to explain the microcosm of an island.