Internal Conflict In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

Internal conflict relies on the struggles within a person that are based on interpersonal impulses. In literary works, internal conflict can focus mainly on the psychological struggle of a character, whose solution creates the suspense of the story’s plot itself. This concept is quite vital throughout the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan-born American novelist and medical doctor. In the book, Amir, the protagonist, is constantly battling himself and his own skewed logic as to what it means to redeem oneself. Redemption, defined as a person saving himself from any sin, error or evil, comes out through Amir’s strange notions about how he can forgive himself for wrongdoings, mainly with the alley rape of his father’s young servant.

In the story, Amir feels guilty for being a bystander of Hassan’s sexual assault. The guilt eats him alive, so he feels the need to be punished by Hassan or just in general for his cowardice. One day, when he and Hassan are hanging out under a pomegranate tree nearby, Amir “[hit’s] [Hassan] with [a] pomegranate, in the shoulder…” The juice from the pomegranate “splattered [Amir’s] face.” Amir shouts: "Hit me back… Hit me back, goddamn you!" Amir “[wishes] [Hassan] would give [him] the punishment [he craves], so maybe [he can] finally sleep at night. Maybe then things could return to how they used to be between [Amir and Hassan]” (Hosseini 92). Amir doesn’t know how to approach him or to appease him in any sympathetic way, so he just uses his attempt as an excuse to be the same way to him that he has always been. He believes that if he gets a small punishment of getting fruit thrown at him, as if taking a few pomegranate shots from Hassan would make amends between them, he will be free from the chains of his culpability. He sees the “punishment [he craves]” as lifting a large weight off of his chest, rather than something to do out of the genuine integrity he should have. It seems as though he does not care as much about Hassan’s benefit as he does about getting himself off the hook from his guilt. To make matters worse, Amir feels that he must somehow discard Hassan

After Amir and his father flee Afghanistan, as a result of of the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979, they both end up residing in San Francisco, California, where Amir receives the remainder of his education. Hosseini plays with the timeline in the novel, by starting at the beginning, and then flash forwards to December of 2001, not too long after the September 11th Attacks. Amir receives a phone call from his old friend, Rahim Khan, who gives him terrible news that brings back old feelings of guilt. After the call is over, he sits and reflects on Rahim Khan’s words just before he hangs up: "There is a way to be good again." (Hosseini 2). These words by Rahim Khan are a basic way of telling Amir that he can still undo the damage that he has placed upon Hassan, by adopting his child, Sohrab. He indirectly lead’s Amir towards the child so he can save him from the hell hole that still is Afghanistan. Towards the end of The Kite Runner, Hassan passes away, and Sohrab learns that he could be sent to an orphanage. In reaction, Sohrab attempts to commit suicide, and is sent to the hospital. On the hospital bed, Sohrab tells Amir that he is tired of everything, wants his previous life back, and that Amir should have just abandoned him to perish. Amir responds: “I can’t give you your old life back, I wish to God I could. But I can take you with me… You