Theme Of Redemption In The Kite Runner

In the novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini tells the story of Amir, a young, Afghan boy who learns about what it means to be redeemed through the experiences he encounters in his life. The idea of redemption becomes a lesson for Amir when he is a witness to the tragic sexual assault of his childhood friend, Hassan. As a bystander in the moment, Amir determines what is more important: saving the life of his friend or running away for the safety of himself. In the end, Amir decides to flee, resulting in Amir having to live with the guilt of leaving Hassan behind to be assaulted. Hosseini shows us how Amir constantly deals with the remorse of the incident, but does not attempt to redeem himself until later in his life when Hassan has died.

To feel redeemed, Amir wants Hassan to harm or hurt him so that he can feel better or less guilty of his situation. As Amir and Hassan walk up a hill behind their house, Amir has an idea to make Hassan throw pomegranate at him as compensation for what he did. Amir throws the fruit at Hassan and exclaims, “Hit me back! Get up! Hit me!” (92). Amir yells at Hassan to throw a pomegranate at him since he had hurt him before. Amir wants Hassan to “get even” with him because it will make him feel like being a witness to his assault was not as bad and relieve the guilt within him. After Amir shouts at Hassan, Hassan takes a piece of fruit and smashes it in his own face. He then replies, “There...Do you feel better?” (93). Hassan will not hurt Amir, even after all he has done to him. Because of Hassan’s response, this makes Amir feel worse and he becomes one step farther away from redemption. This signifies how redemption cannot be earned by making the mistake seem not as tragic than it was because this ultimately makes the guilt grow. Amir learns that redemption is not achieved through more mistakes, but through actions that fix the mistake