Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner Quote Analysis “Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”(Chapter 1, Page 1) Speaker: Amir Listener: Reader Context: It is winter time, December 2001 to be exact, and Amir is reflecting on his life, and his life shaping moment that also happened in winter of 1975. He constantly flashbacks to the moment of peeking into the alley behind the frozen creek in Kabul, Afghanistan, and the memories associated with it. Significance: After reading most of The Kite Runner, it has become clear that although this quote is literally located on the first page of the book it is very significant. By speaking these words, Amir hints or foreshadows at the drama and …show more content…
As the story progresses, the notorious alley in this quote ends up being the location where Amir’s best friend Hassan is brutally raped by Assef the bully, which displays the theme of violence. During Hassan’s rape Amir caught the group of bullies in action, but surprisingly he did not help Hassan at all. After this moment Amir’s feeling of guilt, the theme of betrayal and the characterization of Amir being a coward arises. On the other hand, looking at this quote symbolically, The season where Amir is remembers this incidence was during winter. Winter fits in perfectly to what is happening in the novel. Winter is a time of reflection, which Amir is literally doing. Animals and other living things hibernate, to grow and be able to withstand harsh living conditions, just like how Amir is trying to grow and adapt to what he has done to become a better person. Lastly, Regarding to looking at the quote through a psychoanalytical lens, Amir’s psychoanalytic defense of selective perception is blatant when he notices Hassan in the alleyway. Amir acted
This is just the beginnings of his guilt. We leave Amirs childhood memories and return to the summer of 2001, where Amir and Baba, Amir's father, have moved to America (191). Amir
Referring to the winter of 1975, Amir says, “That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” (12). These lines refer to the early catalyst in the story: the rape.
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Amir was the son of a wealthy social worker. He was brought up with the son of his servant, and perhaps his only best friend, Hassan. Amir had a rocky relation with his father. At times, it seemed as his father loved him but those moments didn’t lasted forever. He thinks Baba (his father) wishes Amir were more like him, and that Baba holds him responsible for killing his mother, who died during his birth. Despite being best friends, Amir thinks that Hassan is beneath him because he belonged to an inferior cast. He used to mock him jokingly or tried to outsmart him. In all fairness, it was Amir’s cowardly nature that
Before this, Amir was trying to forget ever since he left Kabul, and it was only until this moment that he realizes in order to be a whole and good person, he cannot forget any longer. He understands that he must confront his past and deal with it. The past is a problem that not only exists in this book but modern day society. People struggle to move on from a dramatic event that happened in the past. The past can never
This metaphor represents Amir desiring not to continue to live his life with the guilt that was basically suffocating him to the point where he was beginning to regret his choices and deeply reflecting on who he was as a person and friend to Hassan. Aside from that I found a simile, "I flinched, like I'd been slapped". This meaning that the emotionally pain that he's suffered is similar to someone being slapped. This passage could represent the themes of betrayal, redemption, and love. The love in this story being the brotherly loved that Hassan has towards Amir being selfless while Amir's towards Hassan could be called selfish. Even though Hassan knew of Amir being present that day in the alley his love towards Amir was strong enough to forgive him. The betrayal being that despite the loyalty and friendship that Hassan has given Amir he decided to not stand up for him, he betrayed Hassan's trust. The last theme being redemption due to Amir wanting to do something in order to redeem Hassan's friendship and trust back but isn't doing anything to do
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)
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 novels, The Kite Runner (year), and A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) both explore the idea that a significant individual can inspire a course of action, which may result in a change of self.
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
In the novel The Kite Runner the text explores many different ways the relationships and people surrounding a person can shape one's self, this is most prevalent in Amir. During Amir's childhood, he is constantly vying for Baba's attention and affection. Amir's cowardice is seen through many different examples in the novel, mainly Assef and his violent actions bring forth his cowardice in many forms. Hassan is Amir's best friend in the beginning of the novel, he is also a role model to Amir.
In Runner, Robert Newton conveys that Charlie the protagonist is bound to mature early to make completely selfless choices. When his father dies, Charlie is contrived to fill his father’s boots, meaning he had to take up his father’s role of being the financial provider of his family. Additionally, Charlie makes an altruistic choice by running for squizzy Taylor. Lastly, Charlie makes the self-sacrificing decision by gambling his large saving from Squizzy on the Ballarat Mile. In summary, Newton demonstrates that Charlie is forced into adulthood early through necessity and make self-denying decisions due to his family's desperate circumstances.
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.
"There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood,” says the protagonist of The Kite Runner. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini explores the tangle of a guilty Afghanistan child named Amir, and his journey through life as he tries to hide his lies. The boy is born to a wealthy family, but his mother dies during childbirth and leaves him to his aloof father. The only refuge he has is found in Hassan, the Hazara servant who he ridicules as often as he can, yet seems to love in many occasions. Amir cowardly let’s Hassan fight his battles for him all the time, and does not help when Hassan is harmed by Assef, a malevolent kid and his gang of thoughtless followers.
This one decision left a stain on Amir for the next thirty years. A quote on pg. 88 states “I wish someone would wake me up, so I wouldn’t have to live with this lie anymore” This quote explains how guilty Amir felt after seeing Hassan get raped as he desperately sought for anyone to find out but didn’t chose to tell anyone the actual truth. Another example from the text is when Amir tries throwing pomegranates at Hassan, as an attempt to get Hassan to fight back and punish Amir for choosing to leave Hassan. However, Hassan refused to throw any pomegranates at Amir, but instead smashed one into his face. A quote on pg.94 states “I wanted Hassan to fight me back for the way I failed him” This quote indicates that Amir wanted Hassan to fight him back, so he could have the “punishment [he] craved” (93) This demonstrates that Amir wanted to feel the act of being punished for his wrongdoing, similar to how Hassan was brutally raped due to Amir’s apparent mistake. Amir’s guilt forces him to travel across two countries to seek redemption for the mistake he made. 15 years later, Amir’s guilt led him to make the hefty decision of returning to Afghanistan “to be good again” (189) by rescuing Hassan’s orphaned son, Sohrab, from the terrible conditions he was left to face in Kabul. Amir sees this as an opportunity to redeem and free himself from
Lastly, we are told about the narrator himself. We know that Amir is a very regretful character as he is told he can be “good again,” insinuating that he knows he is bad. We also know that he is a slightly broken individual, as his life, and by extension, he was defined by this moment in the winter of 1975, and this moment was not an enjoyable one.