The Meaning Of Betrays In The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

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

First and foremost, from the very beginning of the novel it is clear to see that Hassan has an undying and unfortunately, unrequited love for Amir. There are a variety of times that Hassan’s love for Amir is portrayed throughout the novel, but the one time that stands out the most is right before the turning point of the story. After Amir wins the kite flying tournament, he asks Hassan to run the blue kite for him and Hassan replies by saying, “‘For you a thousand times over’”(Hosseini 67). This one statement from Hassan sums up everything about him, meaning that no matter what Amir would ask of him, he would do

    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.

The Kite Runner focuses on the journey of Amir as he struggles both mentally and physically to make up for a horrible wrong that he committed in his past that continues to haunt him to this day. He encounters many difficulty, fear, and happiness. Hosseini teaches his readers that it is necessary to channel one’s guilt into a means of redemption because although forgiveness may not be granted right away, as long as moral actions are taken, atonement will eventually ensue.

Hassan is hurt and frustrated by the way Amir treats him after the betrayal, but he never blames Amir for the way he acted. He never forgets about Amir and remains his faithful servant and loving friend until his he is killed by Taliban soldiers, even though Amir and Hassan's paths

Throughout the novel, “The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini, Amir is haunted by memories of his past. The theme has been, betrayal, loyalty, guilt and honor. The tone throughout is confessional. Amir the main character, is constantly troubled by his memory of Hassan’s rape and believes “he became what [he] is today at the age of 12,” because of his own cowardice at not stopping Hassan from being raped. After Hassan’s rape, Amir spends the rest of his life trying to redeem himself for his betrayal of his loyal friend. The rape leads Amir to his final quest for redemption when he is told “there is a way to be good again.” The climax of “The Kite Runner” is when Amir seeks to rectify the wrong he did to Hassan and finally finds Hassan’s son, Sohrab.

The act of betrayal that haunted Amir though is life is his betrayal towards Hassan. There were small acts of meanness towards Hassan such as only playing with him when no one else was around and hiding money and a watch underneath Hassan's pillow. The biggest act of betrayal towards Hassan was the cowardice act of leaving him there in the alley to fend for himself against Assef. Amir admits that he had a chance to help but instead ran saying, "I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan … and accept whatever happened to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran." (77) Hassan would eat dirt for Amir and stood up for Amir when Amir would not do it himself whereas Amir did not care for him the same way. Amir decided he would try and make his previous mistakes right by saving Hassan's son, Sohrab, from a life of his body being bought and sold. Though his intentions were good, Amir ended up hurting yet another person. Amir promised Sohrab that he would never have to be in a children's home again and momentarily went back on his promise telling Sohrab that, " Mr. Faisal thinks that it would really help if we could … if we could ask you to stay in a home for kids for a while." (341) Children take promises to heart, especially children

“Sometimes, the person you’d take a bullet for ends up being the one behind the gun” (Picture quotes). People are not what they seem; selfishness and greed can play a huge part in betrayal. Betrayal often comes with great consequences of guilt or a need for forgiveness. Most often, it is driven by selfish desire, greed, hatred or lust. In most cases, the act of trying to redeem oneself becomes a prolonging guilt stuck for the rest of one’s life. Learning to forgive oneself becomes the passage to gaining the desired redemption. In the novel The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Hosseini displays the theme of forgiveness and redemption. After Amir and Baba’s betrayal toward those most loyal to them, they realize that one must forgive themself

Overall, Amir betrayal of hassan and Baba betrayals of his sons show a lot. On one side it shows how fear can cause you to change even to the point where you freeze up and cannot act. On another it shows how a father's decisions can alter his son or son's life. hence when the found out they were brothers. In to Kill A Mockingbird the betrayal of people continue to show

After feeling guilty for not standing up and saying something about Hassan getting raped by Assef, Amir schemes up an idea to get rid of Hassan. Seeing Hassan everyday only makes Amir feel bad and Amir decides that the only way to make his guilt go away is to get rid of Hassan. Amir gets Baba to believe that Hassan stole his gifts. Even though Hassan could have argued that he did not steal from Amir, he admits to the crime. Hosseini states, “This was Hassan’s last sacrifice for me … And that led to another understanding: Hassan knew. He knew I’d seen everything in that alley, that I’d stood there and done nothing. He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time” (Hosseini 405). Hosseini’s point shows Amir letting his guilt get the best of him. All the pain on not standing up for Hassan causes Amir to make a bad decision, while at the time seems like the best decision. Hassan takes the blame and Ali believes it is best to leave Baba and Amir. With Hassan finally gone Amir realizes his guilt had

The consequences of the past are inescapable and the choices a person makes can influence the rest of his life. There is no way to change the past, so once important choices are made it is impossible to reverse time and change those decisions. Khaled Hosseini explores this idea of having to live with past decisions in his compelling novel The Kite Runner. To enforce the message of how inescapable the past truly is, the main character of Hosseini’s book, Amir, betrays his closest friend and struggles to cope with the haunting consequences of this betrayal. Through Amir’s complex character development and The Kite Runner’s distinctive plot structure, those who read the novel gain a deeper understanding of Amir’s decisions as a result of his past mistakes via Hosseini’s use of foreshadowing and flashbacks. By creating a unique relationship between the past and present in the novel, Hosseini urges readers to ponder the consequences of mistakes and reflect on their own past.

One triumphant day, Amir won the local kite fighting tournament and finally earned Baba’s praise. Hassan ran to retrieve the losing kite, which was considered a trophy, and told Amir “For you, a thousand times over”. When Hassan finally obtained the kite, he was cornered by Assef and his friends. Assef was the neighborhood bully and had tortured Amir and Hassan for years. When Hassan refused to give up the kite, Assef beat and raped him. Amir watched the whole thing but didn’t interfe because he didn’t want to lose the respect of his father. The guilt ate Amir alive. “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.” Soon after the incident, Amir tried to distance himself from Hassan and Hassan and his father eventually leave. A couple years later, Amir and Baba flee to America to escape the war in Afghanistan. Amir graduates and gets married but even after all those years;

Regardless of whether or not betrayal is intentional, it creates feelings of pain and hurt between people. Amir gives a perfect example of this when he flees the scene of Hassan’s rape. Hassan has been nothing but loyal to Amir up to this point in the novel and it is reasonable to believe Amir would return his loyalty. Right before Amir runs away, readers get a glance into his thought process when he thinks to himself, “I had one last chance to make a decision...I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan -- the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past -- and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran” (Hosseini 77). Amir turns his back on Hassan despite the fact that Hassan has done everything for Amir, even saying he would eat dirt if Amir asks him too (54). Amir might not have wanted to betray Hassan, but he knew he had more to lose if he stayed and helped rather than if he just returned home and said nothing. Although intervening

Hassan allows Assef to rape him because Assef threatens to take away the last kite that Amir has cut to win the competition. Since he seeks Baba’s approval, he wants to present it to him to establish a better* relationship with him. Therefore, he views Hassan’s rape as a sacrifice for his desires. Directly before the incident, Amir “[catches] a glimpse” of Hassan’s face, and describes his face as holding “resignation in it” (76). He then goes on to compare his expression to the “look of a lamb” (76). In this quote, Amir is referring to the sheep that he witnesses the mullah kill on a Muslim holiday, the tenth day of Dhul-Hijjah, which he and his family celebrate every year. Amir believes that the lamb sees itself as a sacrifice, and accepts its unwanted fate, which is how he believes that Hassan feels too. Though Amir later feels immense guilt for his actions*, he is able to disregard* his regrets when he and Baba move to America to escape the Russian takeover. Amir compares America to a “river, roaring along”, and views it as being “unmindful of the past” (136). He describes forgetting his mistakes in America as entering the river, “[letting] [his] sins drown to the bottom”, and allowing, “the waters” to “carry [him] someplace far.” (136). Because of this, Amir enjoys thinking of America as a place with “no ghosts, no memories,”, and “no sins”, and relishes in his forgetful state (136). However, as one can not continue

Betrayal is the action of disloyalty towards one’s country, a group or a person. Sometimes betrayal can be considered a form of sin and this ends up occurring in The Kite Runner. During majority of the novel, Amir attempts to deal with his guilt by avoiding it. As time goes by this clearly does nothing towards him redeeming himself and therefore his guilt remains. This is why Amir crouches in fear every time he hears Hassan’s name being mentioned. “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” (Hosseini 1). This quote from the novel hints at the main point of the story and the reason he is telling it. To anyone as a reader the quotation is almost a teaser. It triggers a spark in the reader’s mind of what it could be without telling exactly what Amir is talking about. Later on in the story it then explains that the deserted alley Amir refers to is the place where Hassan was raped and Amir has not stop thinking about it since. This is what metaphor Amir used means how the past tries to claw its way out, because Amir had so much guilt the whole time. He kept trying