...The worst pain in the world, It is the betrayal of a friend and a family. Usually, we like to fight by ourselves in order to achieve our goals but, what we do not understand is that there is always someone who can and willing to help us through our problems. And sometimes the people who we think will help us do not stand up for us. Both main characters faced challenges. Their life stories shows that sometimes you cannot fight alone in order to stand up for your beliefs. The death of their lost ones, the guilt, they got confidence from it to stand up for what they believe and for the people they love, their parents abandon them because people would talk and they will lose their respect and their name, the characters were betrayed by...
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...Mr. Lane A touching tale of bravery and weakness, fathers and sons, friendships and betrayal, blood and tears. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini takes us on a heroic, epic tale from the final days of a cherished, peaceful absolutely stunning Afghanistan monarchy, to the horrific, disgusting, disturbing Taliban ruled Afghanistan of today. It exposes a better understanding of traditional ways and the isolation of religions throughout this once decent land. The kite runner is an utmost tragedy because a young boy by the name of Hassan is raped, seen, yet not helped; a father is accused of his son being a thief, innocent, yet driven out of his house due to his sons miserable past, a peaceful country destroyed and taken over, strong, yet scared to fight for what’s right. “Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.” The kite runner is a tragedy because an illiterate, naïve, young boy is raped right before his friend Amir’s eyes who also happens to be his master, because of his race and appearance. Amir is also the partial reason of his rape, Amir stood is grief, watched him get tormented yet didn’t raise a voice or even a hand, didn’t call for help just watched his friend suffer. "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...
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...“The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” – Victor Hugo. In the novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Khaled effectively portrays guilt as being destructive to oneself and affecting others around it. The violence that the main character, Amir, experiences leads to him feeling guilty for rest of his life, which breaks up the relationships that he once had in his previous years. Amir’s guilt turns brother against brother and friend against friend. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled uses the character, Amir, to demonstrate how violence leads to betrayal, which creates guilt within oneself, and ultimate destroying relationships. The impact of violence on Amir leads him to betray Hassan, his only friend, brother and servant by running away from helping Hassan. Amir’s first experience of violence is when Amir wins the Kite fighting Tournament, and Hassan, runs off in pursuit of Amir’s trophy. Hassan is gone long enough to alarm Amir, who begins to search for him and once he finds him, he sees Assef, a bully, raping him. Amir at first is scared of Assef but later convinces himself by says, “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba (Amir’s Father) Was it a fair price?” (Hosseini 82). As Amir never helps Hassan, this shows that Amir will do anything to get Baba’s love and intention. Amir uses Hassan as a tool even though Hassan was his best friend from birth. Hassan’s...
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...“The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” – Victor Hugo. In the novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Khaled effectively portrays guilt as being destructive to oneself and affecting others around it. The violence that the main character, Amir, experiences leads to him feeling guilty for rest of his life, which breaks up the relationships that he once had in his previous years. Amir’s guilt turns brother against brother and friend against friend. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled uses the character, Amir, to demonstrate how violence leads to betrayal, which creates guilt within oneself, and ultimate destroying relationships. The impact of violence on Amir leads him to betray Hassan, his only friend, brother and servant by running away from helping Hassan. Amir’s first experience of violence is when Amir wins the Kite fighting Tournament, and Hassan, runs off in pursuit of Amir’s trophy. Hassan is gone long enough to alarm Amir, who begins to search for him and once he finds him, he sees Assef, a bully, raping him. Amir at first is scared of Assef but later convinces himself by says, “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba (Amir’s Father) Was it a fair price?” (Hosseini 82). As Amir never helps Hassan, this shows that Amir will do anything to get Baba’s love and intention. Amir uses Hassan as a tool even though Hassan was his best friend from birth. Hassan’s...
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...Being a hero is not something everyone can be. One has to make sacrifices for the better of others. If one is not willing to make sacrifices, they are not strong enough to be a hero. Specific heroes are hard to find. Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner”, revolves around characters portraying heroism. Although the story revolves around many characters showcasing the theme of heroism, the character that has been the hero throughout the story is Hassan. This is proved by the sacrifices Hassan made for Amir, Hassan accepting his mother back into his life and Hassan protecting Baba’s house after he left to America. Firstly, Hassan is the true hero of the story because he was constantly there for Amir. Hassan was loyal and was willing to do anything for Amir: “For you a thousand times over!” (Hosseini, 71). This quote specifically portrays that Hassan was willing to do anything for Amir, as he said he will do anything a thousand times over for him. This is a powerful quote because this exemplifies Hassan being heroic through his loyalty for Amir. Hassan also was willing to do anything for Amir without expecting anything back from. Hassan also proved his heroism when he stood up for Amir against Assef: “If you make a move, they’ll have to change your nickname from ‘Assef the Ear Eater’ to ‘One Eyed Assef’, because I have this rock pointed at your left eye” (Hosseini, 45). This quote portrays Hassan’s heroism because Hassan stood up against Assef. Amir was being threatened...
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...Research Paper on “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini Introduction: The international best-selling novel, The Kite Runner was first published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, written by the Afghan-born American novelist and physician, Khaled Hosseini. He was born into a Shia family in Kabul, and later on in his life when the family moved to Paris because of his father’s occupation, Hosseini’s family was unable to return to Kabul due to the bloody Saur Revolution; hence they had to seek political asylum in the United States. Being as young as he was, roughly 11 years of age, the actions of his home country must have left an impression on him. It is such a great read because among many other themes such as betrayal, redemption, bullying, inhumanities of revolution, discrimination, loyalty, hypocrisy, horrors of rapes etc. the main focus of this story is of a man who is haunted by his past demons. We see in some of the opening lines of the novel, “I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975… 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.” These opening lines gets the ball rolling on what is to come and to be expected from the story, of possibly an aged man who is looking back at the past and justifying how it has made him the way that he is to date. The setting vividly takes place in the disorderly country of Kabul, Afghanistan...
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...In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the author gives many examples of father and son relationships that help prepare a boy to understand right from wrong. The emotional bond be-tween a father and son demonstrate the necessity of a fatherly figure. The relationships between Baba and Amir, Hassan and Sohrab, and Amir and Sohrab in The Kite Runner are examples of the emotional bonds that demonstrate the need for a father. To begin, Amir and Baba, the protagonist and his father, are a prime example of the fa-therly figure needed in one’s life. Baba and Amir are nowhere close to the expression “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Amir is nothing like his father, and this causes Baba to not be the great fatherly figure that Amir needs because he does not understand why Amir is so different from him. Baba has little emotional attachment to his son because of their differences, and he tells Rahim Khan, his friend and business partner, “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son.” Despite...
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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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...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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...It is fact that shame can lead to low self-esteem, diversion of blame, acts of physical and/or verbal abuse, isolation, becoming a perfectionist, being overly nice, or any combination of those just listed (http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/guilt-shame, http://www.therapists.com/fundamentals/guilt-shame). In Khaled Hosseini's fictional novel, The Kite Runner, the characters Amir, Baba and Saunabar are used to demonstrate the constructive forces of shame. Baba was generous to make up for his shame of Hassan, Amir was more than willing to do whatever it took to make up for his unatoned sins and Hassan’s mother, Saunabar, came back to him after she abandoned him as a baby. Sanaubar’s shame and guilt for leaving Hassan when he was a child...
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...that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” Amir thought in the beginning of the novel “The kite runner”. In the novel we meet two boys from two different ethnic groups living in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir copes with his decisions 26 years after betraying his best friend, Hassan to get the attention and acceptance from his beloved father. The novel is written by Khaled Hosseini in 2003 and is a redemption story. In order for Amir to cope with his guilt, he needed to find redemption of his betrayal of Hassan. Amir develops through the story and is a dynamic person. The protagonist of the novel is Amir. He is the son of Baba, a wealthy man living in Kabul in Afghanistan. Amir and his father Baba are Pashtun, the larger ethnic group in Afghanistan. He thinks that his father blames him for killing his mother during childbirth, and he tries to get his father’s acceptance and attention. Amir as a young boy is very jealous of Hassan, and the attention Baba gives to him. The only time he really gets Baba’s attention and love is when he and Hassan wins the kite tournament i 1975. Amir describes himself as a coward, a description that is made clearly when Hassan gets raped by Assef, when Amir is watching without doing anything. “From just around the corner, I could hear Assef's quick, rhythmic grunts. 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...
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...Prophet Muhammad (SAWS), who set a perfect example of showing love and affection toward every other creation in this world. The Kite Runner is a complicated maze from beginning to end, therefore showing multiple examples of various types of love. This ideology has a starting point to it for everyone and in The Kite Runner this began from the interaction between Amir and Baba. This is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. 1 1 The first phase of love would be the on the basis of the parent to child relationship and this is the purest example of love where one must be the observable attention for another. Characters in The Kite Runner revolve around this belief of paternal love and they all have expectations of their surroundings. Amir is the sole character who experiences this phase of love at its peak. He has a very mystifying relationship with Baba where he feels the love is not complete. Amir believes that his father rarely shows affection toward him and that Hassan is being replaced for Amir at times. Amir experienced this with Baba when "Go on, now," he'd say. "This is grown-ups' time. Why don't you go read one of those books of yours?" He'd close the door, leave me to wonder why it was always grown-ups' time with him. I'd sit by the door, knees drawn to my chest. Sometimes I sat there for an hour, sometimes two, listening to their laughter, their chatter”(2.6). It's clear to us how affection develops in The Kite...
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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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...because “There is [always] a way to be good again” (2). In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini there are many examples of guilt and redemption. Amir, the main character in the story, commits many mistakes but he always finds a way to redeem himself and cover his mistakes. In order for Amir to beat the shadows that haunt him, he decides to rescue Sohrab, his best friend and half-brother’s son, and do for him what he did not do for Hassan. Baba also commits many mistakes, but he attempts to make up for them in his everyday life. There is always something people can do to expiate their guilt. Throughout Amir’s childhood, he constantly feels that his father blames him for his mother’s death and that he does not love him. Amir does everything he can to make up for the mistakes he made in the past. “I always felt like baba hated me a little. And why not? After all I had killed his beloved wife,” he says (19). Since Amir feels no love from Baba, he thinks of ways to make things right with him. Amir sees his father as a perfect man because everyone in their neighborhood looks up to him. In order to convince Baba that he is an ‘ideal’ son, Amir decides to sign up for the kite running competition, he sees it as the only opportunity to become closer to his father and prove his worth. Amir tries to redeem himself, so that Baba does not blame him for the death of his mother anymore. Overall Amir did redeem himself by winning the kite running competition. In Hassan’s attempt to make Amir;...
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...In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the main character, Amir, is in a constant struggle between morality and immorality. The relationship between Amir and Hassan shows dominance on Amir’s part, which is obvious when Amir constantly puts blame on Hassan, when he left his friend to be abused by other men, and when he delivers the harshest blow by attempting to frame both Hassan and his father for stealing in order to get rid of Hassan. This obvious mistreatment towards his friend indicates both his lack of ethics and his selfishness, therefore causing ill feelings towards him. Whereas characters with similar personalities as Amir would become instantly disliked by all, his intense desire to win his father’s affection and approval evoke a sense of both sympathy and understanding. Furthermore, later in the novel, Amir’s apparent guilt and attempts at atonement make up, to a certain extent, for all of the wrongs he did in the past. The novel opens with the introduction of the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Right from the very beginning, Amir’s establishes the class distinction between them by stating that both Hassan and his father are the servants of Baba, Amir’s father; thus, Hassan is automatically ranked “below” Amir. Further showing his believed superiority, Amir refers to Hassan as a “Hazara,” though he doesn’t mean in a derogatory way until later in the novel. However, Amir does not really use that against him, as he seems his as more of a brother or friend...
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