...In “The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini adds that the guilt is enduring and can only get rid of by redemption. To emphasize his message, Khaled Hosseini relies on the concepts of quest, violence, and politics, which are also the motifs of the novel and interrelated to each other and the theme of redemption. Khaled Hosseini introduce the concept of the quest by having the main character going on the quest to redeem himself, which is the true goal of his quest. In the novel, Amir learns of Sohrab from Baba’s letter, the quester, and travels back to his hometown, place to go, to save him, which is the stated reason, with the taliban being obstacles, but the true reason of accepting the quest is hopes of redemption to rid of the guilt. Khaled Hosseini...
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...Kite Runner: Redemption Amir’s Atonement When you do wrong, you are plagued with guilt. Guilt can be sinful; it stains your conscience and ruins your morals. Although these actions are wrongful, they can be atoned to through sacrifice or purification. People find piece of mind in doing something that makes up for the cause of guilt and this is especially eminent in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner. Although there are many ways to advocate to wrongful doing, through the main character Amir’s actions sacrifice was proven to be the most liberating act. Throughout the book, the main character, Amir, seeks redemption for his “…past of unatoned sins” (Hosseini, p. 1). These feelings of guilt arise at the beginning of his life, when his mother, Baba’s love, dies giving birth to him. From that point on, Amir strives to redeem himself because he feels he is responsible for her death: “Because truth of it was, I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I?” (p.20). It is this guilt that Amir carries throughout most of his childhood and for which he tries to atone to with Baba’s love and affection: “Maybe he’d call me Amir Jan like Rahim Khan did. And maybe, just maybe, I would finally be pardoned for killing my mother” (p. 60). Amir competes against Hassan for the approval...
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...In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner , home is no longer in the streets of Kabul, his childhood, and his culture; home is Soraya, his religion, and the streets of San Francisco. The embodiment of home aides Amir in times of cowardice and trouble by granting him reasoning and inner-strength. His idea of home allows him to seek redemption when he faces doubts when asked to rescue Sohrab and empowers him when he is about to give up when faced with Assef's abuse. This evidently encapsulates the meaning of the work: redemption, because home is Amir's ultimate drive to pursuing it. It's the absolute warmth and safety he has miles away that has Amir both questioning and not questioning his visit to Kabul and the approaching adventure of rescuing Sohrab. "I have a wife in America, a home, a career, and a family. Kabul is a dangerous place, you know that, and you'd have me risk everthing for..." Amir first initial thought is all he has, but not all he owes. He wishes to hide behind all he has created in America which inevitably proves his cowardice just as he proved in 1975. "I toyed with my wedding ring." Soraya joins the list of what matters most and...
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...Nothing Gold Can Stay Guilt. Cancerous almost, spreading through your body, manipulating your thoughts, working as a deterrent against any type of long term vivacity. As seen in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner one of the main themes is seeking redemption. Hosseini uses the motif of selflessness to show that in order to seek redemption and earn it, you must have the self-motivation deeper than other people pushing you (illustrated by Rahim Khan motivating Amir with his phone call). For most of the book, Amir has little self-confidence to achieve redeeming himself. It was an incredibly afflictive situation for Amir or any person to go through. Selflessness does not have a determined end or beginning; it happens when you’ve given your best...
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...Guilt and the search for redemption are two very important themes in “The Kite Runner”, as the reader watches Amir, the main character, deal with his guilt over the betrayal of a friend and the lengths he would go to gain forgiveness. Amir has always felt guilty over the loss of his mother. She died giving birth to him and he sees himself as his mother’s killer, the one who took Baba’s “princess” away form him. Amir believes that this is the reason why his relationship with his father is so strained and spends most of his childhood attempting to win his father’s love and forgiveness. His constant need of Baba’s approval is what drives Amir to want to win the kite fighting competition, to show Baba that he could also be a winner and make him proud. Amir is convinced that if he brings Baba the blue kite he will finally forgive him for his mother’s death and truly accept him. In his search for redemption Amir commits a terrible crime when he watches his friend Hassan get raped but does nothing about it. Instead of standing up to his friend and try to stop Assef from raping Hassan he hides and after pretends he never saw anything. He tries to justify his actions by saying that if he had intervened he would have gotten hurt, but he knows that the real reason why he did not defend Hassan is that he would have lost the kite and with it Baba’s love, so he sacrifices his friend for the approval of his father. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real...
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...In a lifetime, everyone will experience feelings of guilt, some large and some small. Such as guilt over sneaking out, not doing homework, or telling your parents a little white lie. People find peace of mind through redeeming themselves, in other words, we do something that makes up for the cause of guilt. Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner revolves around betrayal and redemption. Redemption is the act of saying or being saved from sin, error or evil, which the main character Amir seems to need the most. Amir lives with the guilt he has built up over the years because of one incident from his childhood. Amir's fathers words still echo through his head "A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything." –pg. 24 Although Amir destroyed the lives of many people, and he has had more than one opportunity to redeem himself of his guilt, he is not the selfish little boy he once was. How often does one stop and think, "How will this affect everyone else in my life?" Amir had a chance in the alley, to put Hassan first and change the path of both their lives, but he made the decision to turn around and run because it was what he thought was best for him: "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 – 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. I ran because...
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...“Come. There is a way to be good again, Rahim Khan had said on the phone before hanging up. Said it in passing, almost as an afterthought. A way to be good again.” (Hosseini 192). These were the last words Rahim Khan said to Amir before he hung up the phone. He wanted Amir to come back to pakistan and talk because he was very ill, Amir feared going back because of his wife and life in America. Rahim told him that coming back and seeing him would be a way to be good again but Amir had no idea how good his life would get through tough obstacles. Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, teaches the reader Amir’s redemption through honesty and coming clean about what happened thee winter of 1975, realizing the things he lied about caused more...
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...This man flew into burning builds and crossed dangerous roads. Is this man truly brave? In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, several characters demonstrate profound bravery. In their course to redemption, the characters find that to obtain their redemption, they will need to overcome challenges. In these situations, the characters profess instantly actions of bravery. Amir, the protagonist,travels on a long, painful journey to find atonement for his childhood sins which lead to his acts of bravery. Baba, Amir’s father, works on redeeming his preceding sins by giving a helping hand to people in his life. These actions develop his character of bravery. In The Kite...
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...love. This event leads to two paths, one in which a person tries anything to redeem themselves and another where selfishness takes over. Likewise, Macbeth by William Shakespeare and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini use the main characters from their works to demonstrate that sometimes without a second thought, betrayal takes place. They also show how some characters use betrayal to their advantage while others redeem themselves, as well, how even those who stay loyal end up having to pay the same price. At the end however, how people react to the guilt that they encounter in the past is what makes them who they are in the future. Macbeth and The Kite Runner both show how the main characters betray those who respect as well as trust them. Macbeth's eyes are blinded by the power of the throne and he will do anything just to obtain it. Since no one expects Macbeth to betray anyone close to him, he takes this as an advantage and says to himself “a false face must hide what a false heart doth know.”(I, vii, 94-95) With this in mind, it is evident that Macbeth betrays Duncan, Banquo and the whole of Scotland. He uses his innocence and trust that he gained from others to hide what his true intentions are and ends up betraying many people just for the good of himself. Similarly, in The Kite Runner the main character Amir is troubled by the guilt that builds inside of him after he betrays his best friend- Hassan, his father- Baba and Hassan's father -Ali. All these characters are...
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...The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a beautifully written story about the life of one Afghani boy's struggle from riches to rags and finding the truth about people in general. The story is about two boys growing up in pre- Soviet and Taliban Afghanistan. Amir is a Sunni or the privileged class; Hassan is Shi'a, which is the lowest minority. Even still the two boys, grow up together as brothers. Until one horrible incident changes everything. The Kite Runner is a story about love, guilt, truth, and redemption. Amir grows up as the only son of a WEALTHY MAN in Kabul where life is rich and full of possibilities prior to the Soviet invasion. His father Baba is disappointed in the bookish, non-athletic child he must raise. Amirs' playmate Hassan, a Hazara servant seems to have more of Baba's respect than Amir. Baba's love for Hassan and his disappointment in his own son drive Amir to taunt and abandon Hassan, even though he loves him more deeply than even he himself knows. Amir, burdened by jealousy, can't come to his friend's aid when he brutally raped, not even on the most glorious day of their childhood when together they claim the kite-fighting title. When the Russian army invades, Amir and his father flee to the United States. Amir grows up poor and in a different land, but with the same Afghanistan culture. He marries, goes to college, while wondering what happened to his childhood friend, the one he betrayed. As time marches on, Amir loses his father and is summoned to Pakistan...
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...Loyalty defines a person’s great devotion to another. These two works of literature integrated this theme of loyalty in both The Kite Runner and Beowulf. Beowulf from the epic poem Beowulf emphasizes the importance of loyalty. Beowulf is extremely loyal, as perceived in his commitment to his king Hygelac, to his entertainer Hrothgar, to his own loyal men, such as Wiglaf, and to his people. In contrast, Hassan from the “Kite Runner” shows loyalty for his friend Amir. It is in Hassan’s letter, years after their separation, that puts Amir on the way to redemption. And so, Hassan saves Amir twice, previously as a boy and later in the future, even after his own death. In both The Kite Runner and Beowulf, the authors express loyalty from friendship and from commitment....
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...Mariana Jimenez Period 1 The Kite Runner Final Essay It is normal for human beings to make mistakes that cause oneself to feel guilt, but what matters the most is how one fixes their mistakes that dictates what kind of person they truly are. In the book, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, it shows that the quest for redemption is the way to atone for guilt. The author uses the literary technique of symbolism to enhance the theme of feeling guilt and its quest for redemption throughout the book. Amir has done many things that cause him to feel guilt that cause him to go on a quest for redemption. For example, in the beginning of the book, Amir says, “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.”(Khaled Hosseini, 1) This shows not only how Amir has been feeling guilt for the last twenty-six years but also how one as a reader can see how Amir finds redemption later in the book. Amir has clearly stated that he has tried to bury his past, his mistakes, but they eventually “claw” back out, forcing Amir to face his guilt and redeem himself. Also, later in the book Amir says “I flinched, like I’d been slapped… Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me… And that led to another understanding: Hassan knew. He knew I’d seen everything in that alley, that I’d...
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...e Runner begins with our thus-far nameless protagonist explaining that the past cannot be forgotten. A single moment in time defined him and has been affecting him for the last twenty-six years. This moment was in 1975 when he was twelve years old and hid near a crumbling alleyway in his hometown of Kabul, Afghanistan. When the protagonist's friend, Rahim Khan, calls him out of the blue, he knows that his past sins are coming back to haunt him even in the new life he has built in San Francisco. He remembers Hassan, whom he calls "the harelipped kite runner," saying "For you, a thousand times over." Rahim's words also echo in his head, "There is a way to be good again." These two phrases will become focal points for the rest of the novel and our protagonist's story. Chapter Two The protagonist remembers sitting in trees with Hassan when they were boys and annoying the neighbors. Any mischief they perpetrated was the protagonist's idea, but even when Hassan's father, Ali, scolded Hassan, he never told on the protagonist. Hassan's father was a servant to the protagonist's father, Baba and lived in a small servant's house on his property. Baba's house was widely considered the most beautiful one in Kabul. There Baba held large dinner parties and entertained friends, including Rahim Khan, in his smoking room. Though the protagonist was often surrounded by adults, he never knew his mother because she died in childbirth. Hassan never knew his mother, either, because she eloped with...
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...Book Review of ‘The Kite Runner’ “For you, a thousand times over”, this sentence said by Hassan to Amir has been on my mind since I finished reading the novel. The story took place in the 70s in Afghanistan. Amir was a child of a wealthy family and Hassan was the son of Amir family`s servant, Ali. They played and grew up together; the strong friendship bonded them like brothers. As can be seen from the novel and the sentence at the beginning, Hassan was willing to do anything for Amir whenever Amir encountered any troubles. Nevertheless, Amir made a terrible mistake when he watched and stood by, while Hassan was raped by Assef after winning the unprecedented grand kite game. In order to drive Hassan out of the house, Amir put his watch under Hassan`s pillow, implying that Hassan had stolen it. When Russia invaded Afghanistan, Amir left his hometown with his father and fled to Pakistan. In 1988, Amir and his family/father had a nice life when Amir graduated, having attended a public college in California. Afterwards Amir became a famous novelist. However, Amir suffered agonies of remorse as he could not forgive himself for his unatoned sin for betraying Hassan. At the end, Amir started his journey of redemption and came back to his home town and saved Sohrab (son of Hassan) from the Taliban after he received a phone call from Rahim Khan. The characters of this novel feel real because it is a biography of the author. The destiny of Hassan was miserable, not only was he born...
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...‘The Search for Redemption’ The expression “riddled with guilt” is a good way to describe the main character‟s life, Amir, in the novel „The Kite Runner,‟ written by Khaled Hosseini. „The Kite Runner is a tale about an Afghan boy, Amir, who faces many hardships throughout his life as he grows from a boy living in a war-torn Afghanistan, to a successful writer living in America. Amir experiences many events that caused him to carry a great deal of guilt throughout his life. He needed to find a way to make amends which would allow him to forgive himself. Over the course of the novel, Amir sought forgiveness from his father, Baba; he looks for redemption for his betrayal of his friend Hassan, and by the end of his tale he manages to ease his conscience by saving Sohrab; Hassan‟s son. Guilt is a main theme that constantly occurs throughout the novel. Amir can trace his feelings of guilt back to the moment he was born since his mother died during childbirth; this causes Amir to believe that his father blames him for the absence of his mother. Amir often felt like he lets his father down, this can be seen when Amir states, „I will never forget Baba‟s valiant efforts to conceal the disgusted look on his face‟ (Hosseini, 23). This was Baba‟s, Amir‟s father, reaction to seeing Amir cry after witnessing a horseback rider being trampled to death. According to the Evidence-based CBT for Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents, a study lead by Elizabeth Sburiati, „when a parental...
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