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.

“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

5. Sanaubar is Hassan’s mother who ran away shortly after his birth. She contrasted with Amir’s mother because she was not a loving women who cared for her husband.

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.

19). Since Amir thought that he had killed his mother, he always believed that his father, Baba, hated him for it. Amir uses this perceived reason as explanation for why Baba stayed distant from him, and never addressed this issue, keeping the shame for something that he should not feel guilty for. Adding on, Amir also felt guilty for allowing Hassan to get attacked by Assef and not saving his best friend. After the attack occurred near the beginning of the book, Hosseini continuously mentions the event and how terrible Amir feels, even years after. This shame motivated Amir to go back to Afghanistan and find Hassan’s son, as well as bringing him back to America (Hosseini, 2003). Finally, Baba also had guilt to bear in the novel. Baba was Hassan’s biological father. “How had Baba brought himself to

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

“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.

Moral ambiguity in the novel The Kite Runner is a concept Khaled Hosseini, the author, exercises plenty of times throughout the novel, but the few characters that are frequently accounted for being ambiguous are obvious, for instance, Amir and Baba. The Kite Runner is a novel written to express the lives of other people in separate countries. As life advances for the two characters, Hassan and Amir, trauma causes them to get wound up in a landslide of events leading to agitation, redemption, and Amir questioning if his entire life is a lie. In this novel ambiguity means the reader is not sure how the character is supposed to act which causes the reader to question the characters morals. Hassan, for the most part, is a static character who is neither viewed as vague, nor ambiguous in this narrative. Hassan is mainly known for his kind-hearted selflessness and always doing as Amir asks him; however, the reason behind this trait is never stated. Hassan is ambiguous, and that trait is essential for the development of the story, anything stating something different might be a misinterpretation.

It is a common nature for humans to commit mistakes; matter fact, mistakes are inevitable to the human development. Within the beautiful course of life, individuals are presented with various obstacles that are developed due to the mistakes ones made. As well, throughout the journey, guilt is constructed as a consequence of indigent decision-making leading to an undefined path of fate. The protagonist, Amir, in the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, is a perfect example of how personal battles of guilt genuinely dictates one's victory road to redemption. Ultimately, it is only by taking responsibility for one's actions can one truly find peace and be free.

“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 by Khaled Hosseini, the author shows us a major theme pertaining to forgiveness and how we feel guilt when we have not been forgiven. When developing this theme, the writer makes a strong link to the theme of immigration, and the feelings that immigrants feel when they leave behind their past to start a new future. Hosseini emphasizes throughout the book that the relationship between Amir and Hassan is stressed mainly by the feeling of lost forgiveness Amir feels, added to the fact that he left Hassan in Afghanistan while he and Baba left to America. These themes of immigration and forgiveness are placed in the forefront by Hosseini through the deepening of Amir’s internal feelings, beliefs, and conflicts, added to how Amir copes with the feeling of leaving Hassan.

The Kite Runner is a reflection on history, societal evils and human weaknesses. It is not a story of heroes but it is the story of ordinary people and the choices they make in their lives, which reveals friendship, betrayal and making thins right. Redemption is the main idea of the novel, and it is also the root cause of the climax of the story which is guilt. Guilt has the power to inspire a person's motives and shape who they are at their core. There are three people in the story who has guilt and their behavior strongly effected what happened in the story.

“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.

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.