Theme Of Guilt In The Kite Runner

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.

He starts hating Hassan because of the guilt. In the novel Amir mentioned, “Every time Hassan was around, I was getting a headache” (Hosseini 93). It was a torture for Amir to see Hassan because he would remember what he did and feel bad about it because he knows that what he did was wrong and shouldn’t have sold his friend for a kite tournament to grab his father’s attention. Amir’s success as a loving and caring person is mostly influenced by Rahim Khan, he gives Amir the love that his father never gave him, he also encourage his creativity side, writing novels and short stories, Rahim Khan was always there for Amir when his own father wasn’t “Amir Jan, I enjoyed you story very much. Mashallah, God has granted you a special talent. It is now your duty to hone that talent, because a person who wastes his God-given talents is a donkey. You have written your story with sound grammar and interesting style. But the most impressive thing about your story is that it has irony. You may not even know what that means…My door is and always will be open to you, Amir Jan. I shall hear any story you have to tell. Bravo. Your friend, Rahim” That’s the main reason why Amir is willing to do anything to prove to his father that he his responsible and courageous and not like his father used to say. Ever since Amir has lived with Hassan he has always been jealous of him in every way because Amir’s father always said that Hassan was an ideal kid.

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

When put into perspective, life proves to be truly unfair. It is often difficult to serve justice and distinguish between good and evil. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, there is no optimum justice, but instead a constant theme of mercy. Mercy is found to be an important virtue that allows characters to come to terms with their flaws and grow with benevolence. Amir is a character who began as a deceitful coward, burdened with the guilt of his mistakes. The mercy Amir receives from Rahim Khan, Hassan, and what comes to be himself, gives him the opportunity to do what is right and find goodness in his life again. On Amir’s journey back to Afghanistan, the forgiveness and compassion he discovers is what is most important in determining his future.

“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.

As quoted by Khaled Hosseini, “What happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.” This quote encompasses the theme of everything an action being taken will affect your whole lifetime. This can be seen very well with the actions Amir has decided to take in his childhood and carrying it on into his adulthood. One thing that he carried throughout almost his entire life was the guilt and in turn seeking for redemption. Amir’s greatest struggle was to get rid of the guilt he had every time he made a mistake. But, realized that sometimes, even though he tried to redeem himself, it does not work, there is still the heaviness of guilt in him. The concept behind the feeling of guilt is that it will grow stronger and stronger, later having an impact on the person, as seen in Amir’s character. However, through his guilt and flaws it allows sacrifice to be opened by giving an opportunity for redemption, honor, and self-respect to occur.

Throughout The Kite Runner, Amir is faced with many challenges; some he runs from, some he must face head on. The book is all about life lessons and how lessons will repeat themselves until they are learned. Khaled Hosseini, the author, portrays Amir, the main character, as a privileged young lad who grows up to be a man who doesn’t fight his own battles. One of the novels reoccurring life lessons is sacrifice for others, how putting someone else’s wants and needs before your own can turn out for the best. Amir must learn how to surrender himself his messy past, “because the past claws its way out.” (1)

Guilt is a part of everyone’s life that will affect their future decisions and determine the way they live the rest of their lives.

As leading psychologists say, guilt drives you away from the person you have harmed. Feeling guilty is an everlasting burden that can only be fixed by counteracting your wrongs, it can be made even worse when the victim of your actions is not there to see you redeem yourself. In the Kite Runner Hassan and Amir were childhood best friends, until it all came down when Amir abandoned him when he needed him the most. Years later, Amir's search for Hassan’s lost child brings him to terms with himself, but not Haasan. Amir feels regret for not helping Hassan when he needed it the most and for driving him from their house.

Amir goes through two critical character shifts in Khaled Hosseini’s “Kite Runner” that get him closer to the man he aspires to be. The first shift occurs when he chooses not to take action when witnessing Hassan’s rape. Before this incident, he was fairly ignorant of his entitled, bratty attitude and was able to use Hassan as a sort of puppet without feeling any shame. When he lets Hassan be raped, however, guilt starts to gnaw at him, and he realizes how truly awful he has been to Hassan his whole life. The guilt affects him even through his adult life, a permanent mark on his heart he is constantly aware of.

My artwork connects to the theme of guilt and redemption in the novel the Kite Runner. The darkness in my art represents the guilt of Amir for not standing up for Hassan as he got raped. As Assef was humiliating Hassan, Amir just stood there and “In the end, I ran” (Amir, pg 77). This was the first darkness that showed up in the eyes of the boy in my artwork due to Amir doing nothing to help Hassan and instead just standing there watching. It was the start of the guilt and regret that tore at his character.

Guilt is a psychological feeling where one feels miserable and unworthy, and it gives the feeling as if one has committed a sin or a crime. There are many causes that create that feeling, such as doing something wrong, that goes against your morals and ethics, or not doing the right thing which leaves you ashamed and disappointed in yourself. In the novel “The Kite Runner”, the New York’s best seller, written by “Khaled Hosseini”, guilt is a major theme that plays an important role in how the characters feel and what they do, and it strongly contributes to the outcome of the story. Both Amir and his father are a tortured soul, that are feeling the guilt through the story The author used this story to communicate many universal truths, one of

Regret is an emotion humans experience all throughout their lives. Whether it is big or little, something will haunt you and make you ask the well-known question, “what if?” In The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini, the protagonist of the novel, Amir, experiences regret in many ways as he tries to find his true identity. It is to believe that one who doesn’t experience regret or guilt throughout life then one hasn’t truly lived. Amir must learn about unconditional/undying love, sacrifice and redemption to fully grasp what its like to learn from your mistakes.

In Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner, Amir says “I became what I am today at the age of twelve… 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 realise I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years… It was my past of unatoned sins”. Sin is like an albatross around ones neck and atonement is the only way to redeem oneself. This means that when one commits a sin, they are burdened with guilt and the only way to get rid of this burden and attain peace and redemption is to atone for one’s sins. Same was the case with Amir, his past full of unatoned sins kept haunting him even when he had tried to move on in life. And finally after

In the book The Kite Runner there are multiple themes that are a prominent analysis of the text. Betrayal, forgiveness and love are three that are used a lot throughout the novel but then have a deeper meaning.