Kite Runner Theme Essay

Amir’s main enemy is guilt because it leads him to blame himself for the death of his mother and for his father’s lack of acceptance of him. Amir takes it upon himself to say that it is his fault that his mother is dead, and that he is the sole reason why his father does not like him for the way he is. He blames himself instead of blaming the possible natural causes of why his mother is dead - he does not let it go. He also does not accept who he is for who he is to his father, he feels the need that his father’s acceptance is not good enough; thus, he seeks the love he needs by doing what his father likes despite disliking such activities himself (examples, sports). Amir does not take in account that there are more reasons outside of his control for why things happen, why the

The Kite Runner by Khalid Alhussaini is very inspiring and powerful novel about a Pashtun named Amir who is looking back over his life during the transition from childhood to adulthood. Amir grew up in a prosperous district of Kabul, Afghanistan. His father was known and respected by others, Amir tried his best to follow his father steps and always craved his love and attention.

Throughout the novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini was able to provide various ways in which cruelty had been exposed to each character. Cruelty can cause betrayal which later on creates guilt for many and satisfaction for others. Assef, a perpetrator, proved that it is possible to be cruel from childhood to adulthood. As well as Amir, a victim who had proved that it is possible to be cruel from childhood but transformed into a loyal and compassionate person throughout adulthood.

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.

Lastly, Amir sacrifices his life to accommodate for Sohrab, Hassan’s son, after being taken by the Taliban. Amir resembles Baba because he too takes up redemption for the awful things he did. He understands the great danger Sohrab is in. He risks his life to help Sohrab; this shows loyalty to Hassan. Even though Sohrab is not Hassan saving his son shows that Amir is loyal to him. He would do anything for Hassan to make up for his childhood. After finding Sohrab, Amir comes face to face with Assef, Hassan 's rapist. “Another rib snapped, this time lower. What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in the corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this… My body was broken – just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later – but I felt healed” (Hosseini 289) This scene depicts the acceptance that Amir finally faces. He starts coming to terms with his past because he feels at peace over the fact that he is finally getting justice for Hassan. That he is brave enough not to run away just as Hassan would stay to fight. Amir sacrifices everything for Sohrab just as Hassan did for him once. Amir finally shows the love for Hassan that was given to

In this essay I will be reflecting on the seminar that our class had about the Pashtunwali and its influence in the characters of ‘The Kite Runner’. First of all Pashtunwali is an ethical code that Pashtuns follow. In the book it talks about two main groups of people; the Pashtun live by an unwritten code that that is flexible and changes over time. The core belief of Pashtunwali is: self respect, independence, justice, hospitality, love and forgiveness. (although this doesn't seem to apply towards hazaras.) During the story Rahim Khan stated to Amir that “There is a way to be good again.” This quote refers to an event that happened elear in Amir’s life when he let his close acquaintance Hassan get raped for his own selfish gain. After not being able to deal with the guilt he then blamed Hassan for stealing and forced him and his father to leave out of shame. The one of the teachings of Pashtunwali is

Everyone has done something that they regret. Everyone has made mistakes at some point or another in their lives. Those who are sound of mind would feel many emotions due to these events. Regret, remorse, anger, and most of all, guilt, are created by these. Everyone has experienced these emotions at one point in their lives, barring only those that are not sound of mind. What does not stay the same is how people react to them. Guilt can cause anyone to do the greatest of deeds and the worst.

The novel “The Kite Runner” is about a young boy who grew up in Afghanistan during the 1970’s, and later moved to America as an adolescent: during his life’s journey, he betrayed a close childhood friend, discovered a betrayal, and was finally able to right the wrong he had done. The protagonist Amir is an eleven-year-old boy living in Kabul, Afghanistan with his father, Baba, and their Hazara servants, a man named Ali and his young son Hassan. In the year 1975, there is a kite tournament where Amir and Hassan fly a kite together. Hassan is running the kite for Amir when he is cornered in an alley and is sexually assaulted by the town bully, Assef. Because Amir witnessed the rape and did nothing he frames Hassan so his father will send

By leaving Hassan defenceless against Assef, Amir’s disloyalty and inability to stand up for his friend truly emphasises his cruel nature. Amir physically and mentally turns away from the rape. He justifies his decision to leave Hassan by saying “I actually aspired to cowardice because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right. Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.” (Hosseini, 77) This correlates how Amir’s selfish nature convinced him to “sacrifice” Hassan to gain his father’s respect. In that

Throughout life, people will find themselves facing guilt or shame, some more significant than others. An individual experiences guilt knowing that they have committed some form of wrongdoing. To relieve themselves from this offense, they will try to be redeemed, or relieved from their sin. In Khaled Hosseini novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini described Amir’s journey to redemption after he betrayed Hassan during their childhood years. The five steps for redemption are categorized as Conviction, Confession, Repentance, Restitution, and Reconciliation. Although, Amir shows many acts of kindness and selflessness, in the end, he was not able to truly redeem himself.

Amir is the villain of The Kite Runner because he is greedy for Baba’s love, this leads to his disloyalty to Hassan and demonstrates his cowards because of his feelings of his guilt. Amir, although living a luxurious life feels something is missing, and it’s his father’s approval, he would do anything for it. After winning the kite tournament went to search for Hassan to see him surrounded by Assef and his two friends but, “Behind him, sitting on piles, of scraps and rubble, was the blue kite. [His] key to Baba’s heart” (71). All he cared about was the kite he cut in the tournament, he even sacrificed his best friend just for his father’s love. Not only does he not help Hassan, but also has these thoughts afterward, Hassan put his life on the line and Amir starts to think, “Nothing was

The Kite Runner has three main parts to the story, it begins with Amir, a man who lives in California who refers back to his childhood memories in Kabul, Afghanistan. These memories affect him and mold him into the man he is. Amir as a child lived in Kabul with his father Baba, who Amir had a troubled relationship with. He had two servants Ali and his son Hassan. The relationship between them is more of a family rather that of servants. Amir’s mother died giving birth to him and Hassan’s mother ran away shortly after he was born. With Ali and Hassan being Hazarats or Shi’a Muslims they don’t have the same status as Amir and Baba being Sunni Muslims. Though Amir and Baba don’t mind it the neighborhood does, this tension occurs throughout the beginning of the story especially in one event the Kite tournament. This is when children fight with their kites and where they try and take out there opposing players kites. When the kite falls down, the person who ‘won’ it runs and get it. Amir wins the kite tournament and let’s Hassan run and get the kite that fell. When Amir goes looking for Hassan he finds him being raped by a group of neighborhood punks, Wali, Kamal, and Assef. Amir even as a grown man is still tormented by guilt that he never helped Hassan. Being a child Amir was too much of a coward to help Hassan, and with the feeling of guilt he couldn’t live with it. He frames

The story takes place in Afghanistan during the 70s. Amir lived with his father, Baba, in the street where the richest people in Kabul live. Amir’s mother died giving birth to him, and because of that, Amir has always thought his father hated him. The Hazaras’ were considered as ‘mice-eating, flat-nosed, load carrying donkeys’ by the Pashtuns because the Hazaras tried to rise against the Pashtuns in the 19th century and failed. Also, the Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims whereas the Hazaras were Shi’a.

Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’ exhibits a complicated relationship between the central characters Amir and Hassan. They are being brought up in the same environment, however, driven by strong influence of dividing factors. The novel is set in accordance to real political and social events in Afghanistan in 1990s. There was law and order crisis, a political fall in Afghanistan, and the Taliban in 1994; comprising of Pashtuns came in as a cleansing force to establish law and impose Islam which later lead to violence in the country (Poolos, 2001). Amir was a Pashtun and Hassan a Hazara. This social ethnicity difference between Amir and Hassan underlines the theme of betrayal and redemption in the novel.

Khaled Hosseini explores the theme of sin and atonement in his novel “The Kite Runner”. The rape of Hassan by Aseef and his friends left deep impact on not only Hassan but Amir too. This incident left an ever-growing mark of guilt in Amir’s life that led him to make some regretful choices in his life. Redemption is an act of atoning or making amends for a fault or sin. The Cromwell College very rightly claimed “Amir defined himself by his guilt”. Amir’s life was ruled by his guilt and all the decisions taken by him were somehow influenced by this guilt. Hosseini too writes in regard to Amir that “I became what I am today at the age of twelve”. This shows that Amir is driven by his guilt and that makes a large part of his life. Throughout the novel Amir’s guilty conscience plays a pivotal role in the atonement of sins committed in the past and the choices made by him were a make or break in his quest for redemption.