Selflessness In The Kite Runner

In the words of American author Gretchen Rubin, “Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they’re big flashing signs that something needs to change” (brainyquote.com). In Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, he talks about true redemption only being achieved due to guilt leading to good. Ultimately, One can achieve redemption from the guilt they struggle with but only by acts of extreme selflessness and by putting your life at risk. There are multiple ways Hosseini demonstrates selflessness in his novel, The Kite Runner, whether it’s Amir risking his life to rescue Sohrab or going into the heart of the Taliban’s organization where Sohrab was living. But there were also times where he was …show more content…
Take for example, his birthday party, when Amir gets tons of gifts both from people he knows and from people who he 's never seen before. One of those gifts was a brand new red Schwinn Stingray with gold colored spokes (Hosseini 101). It was an amazing gift that would make any kid jealous of Amir. But Amir was so depressed and upset from the guilt he was experiencing, he tells us his first thought was that “Any other kid would’ve hopped on the bike immediately and taken it for a full block skid. I might have done the same a few months ago” (Hosseini 102). In this moment, Amir is depressed but it is also motivation for him, it is pushing him to want to do more for Hassan, he wants t be good again. You could even say this moment was a motivational moment in his life that pushed him to seek the better part of him that was got locked away after Hassan was attacked “a few months ago”. Soon after that party, Amir decides he’s ready to finally attempt to be good again, to try and seek redemption for the first time. The following morning Amir waited for Hassan and his father to go to the market as usual but did something a little differently soon after. After a couple minutes of waiting for them to leave, Amir took a couple of envelopes of cash and his new watch and tiptoed out to Hassan’s living quarters, that’s when he “lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it” (Hosseini 104). Although it’s not clear if this was an attempt at redemption or an act of shame, I believe he was trying to make it up to Hassan by giving him a good sum of money as well as a brand new, and expensive, watch. This wasn’t a completely selfless act, but it was at least an attempt. He tried to give Hassan something that he thought was a meaningful gift in order to make Hassan and him feel better about what had taken place in that alley. This was the starting point for many other acts