Theme Of Guilt In The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, shows events of a boy named Amir who experiences many life changing events in his life. Amir had made decisions that he didn’t like in his life. Hosseini wrote a story about Amir from the time that he was a child all the way to his adulthood. In The Kite Runner, Hosseini showed the themes that guilt can lead to a life filled with regret many times in the book through Amir.

Guilt can destroy a person , Everyone has once in their life felt some type of guilt.In the kite runner Khalid hosseini writes about two best friends Amir and Hassan and their life growing up in afghanistan. Amir tries to find redemption from the guilt he feels with Hassan.

What if one’s life could be put on hold or paused? Imagine this experience; a bad night’s sleep with a day of work ahead, calling off isn’t an option, and caffeine delivers a mean headache. What if a simple pause button, a life-pause button, was the solution? While this could be a great thing, imagine it’s negative side; what if it was only the user’s life that stopped? Everything else would change but the user’s life would stay exactly the same. This idea is similar both to the movie Click where a man uses a remote to fast forward though his life, and to the way guilt can burden a person. In Kite Runner, Khalid Hosseini uses the character of Amir along with several scenes to convey the same message; guilt can delay one’s ability to move forward in life.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

“True redemption is when guilt leads to good,” Rahim Khan asserts. Khaled Hosseini compels the readers to think in the novel, The Kite Runner, by analyzing Amir’s quests. Additionally, readers must understand Amir’s journey to maturity throughout The Kite Runner, as a Bildungsroman novel. Amir’s journey to redemption ultimately accentuates his quest for adulthood.

“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

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.

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a remarkable coming-of-age novel describing and revealing the thoughts and actions of Amir, a compunctious adult in the United States and his memories of his affluent childhood in the unstable political environment of Afghanistan. The novel showcases the simplistic yet powerful ability of guilt to influence decisions and cause conflict which arises between Amir’s childhood friend and half-brother, Hassan; Amir’s father, Baba; and importantly, himself. Difference in class The quest to become “good again” causes a reflection in Amir to atone for his sins and transform into the person of which he chooses to be.

“I lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it… Then I knocked on Baba’s door and told him what I hoped would be the last in a long line of shameful lies.”(Hosseini,104)- The guilt building up in Amir is causing so much tension between him and Hassan that he just wants Hassan to leave. However it won’t be easy because his father will not fire his “family”. Theft is the only sin Baba cannot tolerate and Amir knows this.

“Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt”-George Sewell. Guilt is just like fear, it will always haunt you until the day you be strong enough to face them. The book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini shows these two statements throughout the story. In the book in different situations when the characters faced their fears and dealt with their guilt. Different situations in the book would have maybe had a different outcome if some guilts and fears were faced and dealt with. Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, teaches the reader that guilt is just like fear it will hunt you until you until you face through Amir trying to overcome his guilt by facing his fear of Assef and getting beaten by him to forgive himself for the things he had done in the past,(3)and when Amir felt guilty when he made Hassan and Ali leave.

Guilt isn’t always a rational thing. Everybody is guilty of the good things that they didn’t do. Maybe there’s something more that could have been done, there always is right? All that’s left then is the guilt acting as a reminder to do better next time. Redemption is something you have to fight for yourself in a personal way. Some people stray and lose sight of that, some reach it