The Kite Runner Chapter 19 Summary

Eventually, Amir received a call from his old mentor, who told him to come back to Afghanistan because "there is a way to be good again." What Amir learned while he visited his mentor would lead him to what he considered redemption. Hassan had been killed, which Amir partially considered his fault, but Hassan's son, Sohrab, was still alive. With the idea of giving him to a good placement organization, Amir set out to save Sohrab. Amir found Sohrab in the possession of a Taliban member, the same man who had raped Hassan when they were children. In order to save Sohrab, Amir had to fight the man, and he was injured very badly in doing so. Despite his injuries, he felt better about himself. He felt free, at peace. He finally had the courage to tell his wife about what he had done, and that took a weight off of his shoulders, as well. Even though Hassan had forgiven him long ago, Amir refused anything less than Hassan's fate.

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.

Throughout the novel, Amir attempts to find redemption after failing to stop his half-brother Amir 's rape.

Hosseini utilises Structure, Symbolism and Dialogue throughout chapter 6 to explore the characters and their relationships along with the central ideas of truthfulness and Afghanistan Culture.

    Amir had been disloyal to Hassan his whole life. He did not stand up for Hassan when he needed it most and Amir even ran away when he could have helped Hassan. Amir constantly tortured Hassan as he tried to make Hassan eat dirt, throw fruit at him, or even when he tried to get Hassan to punch him. Amir wanted Hassan to stoop to his level and beat him up, so his guilt would disappear.

Once back in Kabul, Amir takes steps he would never have imagined, which truly define his character. On his venture back to Afghanistan he learns the truth about Hassan’s connection with Baba. After hearing this Amir feels robbed of the truth and is angry at how his own father could hold this back from him. Despite his feelings, Amir realizes he must not only pay for his betrayal of Hassan but for Baba’s betrayal of Ali too. Amir knows he must face his fears and he understands this when he reveals, “I remembered Baba saying that my problem was that someone had always done my fighting for me" (Hosseini 239). Following this he undertakes a personal mission to find Sohrab and finds the courage to stand up to the Taliban, nearly dying in the process. During his quest Amir comes face to face with the disturbing Assef and fights him for Sorab, the ultimate sacrifice for his dead half-brother. While he is beaten he begins to laugh, which angers Assef even more. Amir explains that, “What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace" (Hosseini 303). After successfully bringing Sohrab back to California, Amir defends his Hazara nephew when General Taheri insults him. Over the dinner

Over the course of the novel, Amir’s Character matures greatly because of the subsequent effects of witnessing Hassan’s rape.

Amir has shown to Baba that he is not a reflection of him, which makes Baba believe that it is not necessary to develop a connection with his son. This makes Amir feel guilty of himself which leads him to pursue a series of events where he attempts to win Baba’s love, even if those decisions put Hassan’s life in danger. After winning Baba’s affection and creating a stronger bond with his father in America, Amir still feels guilty for betraying his best friend in the winter of 1975. Amir’s guilt is not tearing his life apart as much as it did when he lived in Kabul, but it still affects him negatively. He is willing to do anything to let go of his guilt, even if it means putting his life at risk. After finding out Hassan is dead and he is Amir’s half-brother, Amir heads back to his childhood home during a time when the country is run by a terrorist organization, so he can rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, and finally be able to find peace in his life. Everyone makes mistakes in their life and even if those mistakes might have destroyed another person’s life, there is always a way to earn redemption and that is by letting the guilt that one carries lead to something

Both Hassan and Sohrab have gone through abuse at the hands of Assef, but Amir ends this cycle of abuse by rescuing Sohrab when he returns to Kabul. This shows how Amir has become nobler and made the decision to do what he feels as morally correct. When he was 12, he witnessed Hassan get raped by Assef in the alleyway and he did nothing to help Hassan. He tried

Amir thought, “I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan – the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past…. Or I could run. In the end, I ran.” (Hosseini, 82) It was this conflict that changed the lives of all the characters. This was Amir’s, “final opportunity to decide who [he] was going to be.” (Hosseini, 82) As a result, He spent his adolescence ‘running’ away from his mistakes, because everywhere he looked “Kabul had become a city of ghosts…A city of harelipped ghosts.” (Hosseini, 144) To Amir, Hassan was haunting his memories. Amir couldn’t stand it so Baba and Amir moved to America. “For [Amir], America was a place to bury [his] memories.” (Hosseini, 136) In contrast to Kogawa’s novel, Amir’s actions resulted to the change of his life and the lives of people around him. Rahim Khan, a family friend, calls Amir in his adulthood asking him to come to Pakistan. Rahim Khan urges Amir, “There is a way to be good again.” (Hosseini, 2)

Just like his father, Sohrab is “great with a sling shot.’ He hits Assef in the eye with his slingshot, and he and Amir escape. The novel’s falling action is Amir’s efforts to bring Sohrab to the U.S. which he eventually was successful in doing. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I liked the author’s style and diction, both made the novel a fun and enjoyable read even though there were many dark parts to the novel. At times I found some of the terminology difficult, however I appreciated the setting as it allowed me to learn about Afghanistan. I loved many of the quotes, particularly the one that stood out was, “It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.” This quote is so true and is the entire basis of this story, if Hassan’s actions had been different “on that frigid overcast day in 1975,”his entire life would have been different. I am thrilled that Amir was able to find peace and redemption as this shows strength of Amir’s character. I felt that Amir deserved his final redemption, however I wish that both him and Hassan would have known from early on that they were

The reader is then able to recognize a shift in Amir’s values. A child who once favored validation, worthiness, and honor from his father has transitioned into a grown man, who accepts his past mistakes with humility, wishing only now to right his wrongs. He finds Sohrab, Hassan’s now orphaned son, and asks him: “Would you like to come live in America with me and my wife?” (320). As a child, Amir betrayed Hassan’s friendship in order to obtain the blue kite, the key to Baba’s heart. Sohrab represents a change in values, as well as a change in Amir. Now, Sohrab is the key to redemption, the key to giving back to the life he once abandoned. However, Amir does not act out of selfishness. He has built a connection with Sohrab, not only because he know that he is Sohrab’s uncle, but because he understands that helping Sohrab means that one less child will be starved, beaten, or raped in Afghanistan. Amir, who once acted out of envy, and resentment, now makes decisions based on what is

Hassan’s death is instrumental in shaping the narrative of the novel and is arguably the turning point as it forces Amir to seek his redemption and debt to Hassan to Sohrab. The reason Amir came to visit Pakistan in the first place was to apologise to Hassan and being the only person alive and able, ‘Now everyone in that photo was either dead or dying. Except for me’, Amir was the only one left to save Sohrab from the Taliban and Assef.

Chapter 1: Jordan (a 12 year old boy), Tachelle (Jordan’s younger sister), and their Mom are moving to a white, upper class area. If he moves he will get himself in trouble from Cobra gang leader, King. Jordan joined the Cobras, so he could pay for airfare to live with his father, since his mother won’t give the money to him. Jordan’s parents are divorced because of Mom and Daddy’s arguments about Daddy’s easy money schemes. Being in the Cobras gives Jordan the respect he deserves, which he doesn’t get from his mother. Every Cobra member must be strapped, so the Jordan is going to buy a gun because King had directed him too and by doing whatever King wants him to do will earn him the money he needs sooner.

In Chapter 17, Amir takes the time to think things through. He realizes that the signs were there all along. He realizes all the things Baba did for Hassan was because he was his son too. At the tea stall, it was interesting how Amir thought process changed to what could have been different. What could of have happened if Ali and Hassan stayed? How Hassan’s life could of have been different? I also found how he remembered Baba’s lesson on theft. Yet, Baba stole his brother from him. He finally realized that he has to stand up for himself. He is old enough to fight his own battles. This time his battle is entering a Taliban territory to find the boy. At the end of the chapter, Amir agrees to visit Kabul to find Sohrab. At last, he made a decent