To What Degree Did Amir Atone for His Sins and Gain Redemption? - the Kite Runner

Forgiveness is a necessary part of human existence, although it is rarely easy to give, and sometimes hardest to give to ourselves. The Kite Runner illustrates humanity's tendency, and even willingness, to dwell on past mistakes. The opening sentence sets this theme with "I became what I am today at the age of twelve," as Amir unapologetically relates how he believes one action at that young age defined his entire life. However, as the novel progresses, the reader comes to the conclusion that it was not one action, but a series of choices and events that created Amir's persona as an adult. By holding onto his guilt and fear of discovery, Amir could only bury his past for short periods of time before his own conscience uncovered it and the

As a boy Amir fails to stand for himself, as an adult he can only atone himself by proving he has the courage to stand up for what is right. When Amir decides to fight Assef who was a part of Taliban to save his nephew, Sohrab ,is the time when he achieved atonement because he feels that finally he was punished for never stepping in and trying to protect Hassan because of his cowardice. “What was so funny that for the first time since in winter of 1975 I felt peace. I laughed because I saw in some hidden, nook in a corner of my mind, I ‘d even been looking forward to this... But I did now know my body was broken badly, I wouldn’t find out until later- but I felt healed at last, I laughed.” (Hosseni Khaled

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

Moreover, Amir tries to redeem himself to Sohrab. Sohrab had one request, and that request was to never go back to an orphanage. When a lawyer tells Amir that sending Sohrab back to an orphanage is their best bet, Soharb tries to kill himself by slitting his wrists. Amir was always “... met by silence” (352) whenever he tried to talk to Soharb. Soharb went silent when they moved to America, and Amir did everything in his power to give Sohrab a good life. He wanted to make up for the pain he had caused Sohrab, Amir couldn’t live knowing that Sohrab tried to kill himself because of what he had done. Sohrab had also saved Amir’s life. When Amir unexpectedly confronted Assef, the man who raped Hassan, he almost beat him to death. but Sohrab stepped in and shot Assef’s eye with a slingshot, saving Amir’s life. Amir owed his whole life to Sohrab. Amir tried everyday to redeem himself to Sohrab subconsciously speaking, Amir was trying to give him a better life than Hassan, to be the man he should have been all those years

Once back in Kabul, Amir takes steps he would never have imagined, which truly define his character. On his venture back to Afghanistan he learns the truth about Hassan’s connection with Baba. After hearing this Amir feels robbed of the truth and is angry at how his own father could hold this back from him. Despite his feelings, Amir realizes he must not only pay for his betrayal of Hassan but for Baba’s betrayal of Ali too. Amir knows he must face his fears and he understands this when he reveals, “I remembered Baba saying that my problem was that someone had always done my fighting for me" (Hosseini 239). Following this he undertakes a personal mission to find Sohrab and finds the courage to stand up to the Taliban, nearly dying in the process. During his quest Amir comes face to face with the disturbing Assef and fights him for Sorab, the ultimate sacrifice for his dead half-brother. While he is beaten he begins to laugh, which angers Assef even more. Amir explains that, “What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace" (Hosseini 303). After successfully bringing Sohrab back to California, Amir defends his Hazara nephew when General Taheri insults him. Over the dinner

Everyone has heard the saying “everyone makes mistakes.” No matter who you are, you are going to experience failure. In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, 12- year old Amir learns about mistakes the hard way. By having his best friend taken away due to his own cowardliness and then trying to cover up the guilt he felt by pleasing his father, he thought he would never again be a worthy person. However, Amir learned that even though it may seem impossible to fix your mistakes in the aftermath, there’s always a way to redeem yourself. With the influential words given to Amir by his valued mentor Rahim Khan, Amir discovered that “there is a way to be good again.”

In the novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the main character, Amir, redeems himself for his sins against his childhood friend, Hassan. He redeems himself by returning to Kabul to find Sohrab and getting beaten half to death by Assef. Amir has been hurting his entire life at the thought of what he did to Hassan. First, Amir couldn't stand up to Assef when Hassan really needed him. Later, when Amir saw Hassan getting assaulted, he was so uncomfortable with it, that he figured out a way to effectively get Hassan and Ali to leave. This pain stayed with Amir throughout his entire life, from Afghanistan to America and back to Afghanistan. The only way he could redeem himself is to make things right with Hassan, in life or death.

Finding redemption is often the only way many people can escape the demons of their past. Actions have consequences and those consequences haunt people for the duration of their lives. Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner, presents seeking redemption throughout his novel by sharing the breathtaking story of Amir, a Sunni boy who struggles to forget his guilt­ridden past. Despite his greatest efforts, Amir finds it impossible to bury his past, so he returns to his home Kabul, Afghanistan to redeem himself of his wrong doings. By incorporating

In the Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini wrote that “true redemption is […] when guilt leads to good” (Hosseini 302). this connection between suffering and redemption develops throughout the whole story. Hosseini hints that sacrifice leads to redemption in the book the Kite Runner through the actions of Baba, Sanaubar’s return, and Amir’s journey to atone for his sins.

Healing takes courage sometimes that courage can be hard to find. The Kite Runner is a novel that shows immense amounts of healing. The main character Amir goes through a deep struggle to find self healing. After a long journey that is his life he has to overcome mistakes he had made in the past in order to redeem himself from it.

When Amir and his wife, Soraya, can’t seem to have a child, Amir believes that it is because of his wrongdoings in the past. Right up until Amir is in his 30’s does he confront his mistakes. It takes a call from Rahim Khan to persuade him that there is ‘a way to be good again’ (Pg. 2). Amir knows that he needs to make up to Hassan for the wrong that he did all those years ago, and so by confronting his mistake and trying to redeem himself by rescuing Sohrab, Hassan’s son. Amir’s confrontation with Assef when he is getting back Sohrab made him feel like he was confronting his mistakes and gaining redemption ‘For the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace… In some nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this.’ (Pg. 265). This is the punishment and redemption that he has been waiting all these years for, because Hassan wouldn’t punish him all those years ago when they were under the pomegranate tree.

How, after years of guilt, self-disgust, and deception, is it possible for one person to become good again? Entrapped in a cage of cowardice for so long, can they ever develop and grow as a normal human being? Amir, the anti-hero in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, seeks to answer these questions in his own search for atonement through various existential events in his life.

“There is a way to be good again” (2). This is the line that rolls through Amir's mind over and over throughout Khaled Hosseini's novel, The Kite Runner. This is the story of a mans struggle to find redemption. The author illustrates with the story of Amir that it is not possible to make wrongs completely right again because its too late to change past. In this novel Hosseini is telling us that redemption is obtainable, and by allowing us to see Amirs thought process throughout the novel, Hosseini shows us that it guilt is the primary motivation for someone who seeks redemption. Hosseini also uses not only the main character, but other secondary characters to show how big of a part that guilt plays in the desire for redemption. In this

The Kite Runner is an elaborate piece of work which invokes all kinds of emotions in the reader’s mind. Khaled Hosseini, manages to string together a number of themes and symbols in his novel and one of the strongest themes of the novel is “Sin and Atonement”. Amir, the protagonist of the novel lives with guilt after he doesn’t stand up for Hassan, his childhood companion and gets a chance at redeeming himself by returning to a terrorist occupied Kabul to save Hassan’s son, Sohrab. The novel provides numerous examples of atonement of sins and how people tend to ‘balance out’ everything with doing good deeds after committing a sin

Rather than leaving Sohrab, Amir chooses to take Sohrab’s place as the victim. He embraces the role of the lamb; he is the sacrifice needed in order to take Sohrab away from Assef. If Amir fights him and wins, he can leave a free man with Sohrab. Amir doesn’t realize until that moment that his sacrifice, that his potential death for another person, is what he needs to make up for his sins: