Every human has something they are guilty about. Whether it is something big or something small. However, when guilt -that affects your life- begins to snowball, it will eventually eat away one’s soul. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Hosseini portrays the theme of one’s guilt and one’s redemption through Amir’s coming of age story as he is faced with a difficult decision between saving his best friend versus being acknowledged by his father.
In the beginning of the novel, an adult Amir is reflecting back on his life in Afghanistan when he was an innocent child trying to gain his father’s acknowledgement. “The novel is written in a confessional tone, using extended flashbacks to reveal the source of Amir’s profound guilt” (Gale Student …show more content…
He ends up moving to America where he is given a chance to forget his past. “For me, America was a place to bury my memories.” (Hosseini 129). Amir believes that he is able to forget his wrong doings. However, Amir still feels the horrors of his childhood. “A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the name of Hassan’s name.” (Hosseini 134). He still feels constricted whenever he hears Hassan’s name because it reminds him of what he wasn’t able to do. Amir wished he was able to stand up for Hassan. “I suspected there were many ways in which Soraya Taheri was a better person than me. Courage was just one of them.” (Hosseini 165). Amir wishes that he had courage to help Hassan when he needed to because then he wouldn’t be so guilty. “Hosseini’s narrative manages to maintain a steady balance of tragedy and optimism” (Gale Student Resources in Context). In order to depict Amir’s life more …show more content…
Amir wants to get another chance at doing something he wasn’t able to do before. “He was gone now, but a littler part of him lived on. It was in Kabul. Waiting.” (Hosseini 227). Amir believes this is his chance at redemption for neglecting Hassan and how he was kept from the truth that Amir and Baba were his real family. Amir relives the horrors of the past but with Hassan’s orphaned son. “Sohrab’s eyes flicked to me. They were slaughter sheep’s eyes.” (Hosseini 285). This is significant because Hassan had the same look when he was being harassed by Assef who happens to be the same person harassing his son. This shows how Sohrab was going down the same path as Hassan and how Amir was faced with the same situation and the same decision whether to save Sohrab or not. When faced with the same predicament, Amir ends up choosing the path that he wished he took in the beginning with Hassan. Amir is able to rekindle with Hassan by saving Hassan’s son, Sohrab. In the last page of the novel, Amir is flying a kite with Sohrab when he says, “For you, a thousand times over” (Hosseini 371). These words were the same words that Hassan told Amir before they won the tournament and before Hassan was harassed. This is significant because Amir is willing to do anything for Sohrab just like how Hassan did anything for Amir and it shows the connection and bond between the two as blood is thicker than
In the beginning of the novel, an adult Amir is reflecting back on his life in Afghanistan when he was an innocent child trying to gain his father’s acknowledgement. “The novel is written in a confessional tone, using extended flashbacks to reveal the source of Amir’s profound guilt” (Gale Student …show more content…
He ends up moving to America where he is given a chance to forget his past. “For me, America was a place to bury my memories.” (Hosseini 129). Amir believes that he is able to forget his wrong doings. However, Amir still feels the horrors of his childhood. “A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the name of Hassan’s name.” (Hosseini 134). He still feels constricted whenever he hears Hassan’s name because it reminds him of what he wasn’t able to do. Amir wished he was able to stand up for Hassan. “I suspected there were many ways in which Soraya Taheri was a better person than me. Courage was just one of them.” (Hosseini 165). Amir wishes that he had courage to help Hassan when he needed to because then he wouldn’t be so guilty. “Hosseini’s narrative manages to maintain a steady balance of tragedy and optimism” (Gale Student Resources in Context). In order to depict Amir’s life more …show more content…
Amir wants to get another chance at doing something he wasn’t able to do before. “He was gone now, but a littler part of him lived on. It was in Kabul. Waiting.” (Hosseini 227). Amir believes this is his chance at redemption for neglecting Hassan and how he was kept from the truth that Amir and Baba were his real family. Amir relives the horrors of the past but with Hassan’s orphaned son. “Sohrab’s eyes flicked to me. They were slaughter sheep’s eyes.” (Hosseini 285). This is significant because Hassan had the same look when he was being harassed by Assef who happens to be the same person harassing his son. This shows how Sohrab was going down the same path as Hassan and how Amir was faced with the same situation and the same decision whether to save Sohrab or not. When faced with the same predicament, Amir ends up choosing the path that he wished he took in the beginning with Hassan. Amir is able to rekindle with Hassan by saving Hassan’s son, Sohrab. In the last page of the novel, Amir is flying a kite with Sohrab when he says, “For you, a thousand times over” (Hosseini 371). These words were the same words that Hassan told Amir before they won the tournament and before Hassan was harassed. This is significant because Amir is willing to do anything for Sohrab just like how Hassan did anything for Amir and it shows the connection and bond between the two as blood is thicker than