ipl-logo

Personal Integrity In The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

515 Words3 Pages

The Kite Runner Theme The theme of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is that you redeem yourself when you develop a strong sense of personal integrity because of Hassan’s incident, Amir’s moral standard, and Sohrab’s rescue from Amir. Amir’s quest for redemption is a significant idea and is basically the center of the novel. Firstly, Hassan’s incident sets the most of the plot for the rest of the novel. This happens after the kite-fighting tournament when Amir goes asks Hassan to get his blue kite after Amir’s victory, “ Blocking Hassan’s way out of the valley were three boys, the same three from the day on the hill, the day after Daoud Khan’s coup, when Hassan had saved us with his slingshot.[...]I opened my mouth, almost said something. …show more content…

But I didn’t. I just watched. Paralyzed.”(pg.76 & 78) Here, Hassan gets raped by Assef when he was trying to retrieve Amir’s blue kite. In this part of the novel, Amir shows his poor sense of personal integrity because he “just watched. Paralyzed” him. Amir should be trying to help Hassan like “the day after Daoud Khan’s coup, when Hassan had saved us with his slingshot.” This reveals his cowardice because he is unable to defend a loyal friend unlike his friend once did for him. Here, Amir starts his quest for redemption because he couldn’t hold the guilt inside him. Secondly, Amir achieves his moral standard to help start develop his sense of personal integrity. Amir overhears Baba talking to Rahim Khan and picks up this,“A boy who can’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up for anything.”(pg.24) When Amir overhears this quote, he uses this as his moral standard as something profitable for him to redeem himself and Hassan. This is a significant quotation that sets the moral tone throughout the novel. Lastly, Sohrab’s rescue from Amir redeems himself. Amir is fighting Assef to try to rescue Sohrab, “WHAT’S SO FUNNY?’ Assef bellowed. Another rib snapped, this time left lower. What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Courage In Night By Elie Wiesel

    1067 Words  | 5 Pages

    Amir stands up to their childhood bully, Assef, who is known as a leader of the Taliban, to help him repent his sins and save Sohrab for the sake of Hassan. Amir was scared and didn’t want to fight, but he knew there was no other choice. OR Amir, a boy who was once very timid, saves the day as he attacks one of his childhood enemies for the sake of his passed friend. Amir always avoided any sort of conflict as a child, but now that he has matured he fought his way through and confronted the issues in front of him. At the beginning of the book, Amir was nothing like Baba and that’s what made him such a disappointment to him.

    Read More

  • The Kite Runner Worksheet Essay

    1205 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rahim Khan said, “Come. There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 168). This explains that Amir has the chance to be a good person. Amir’s guilty conscience had hunted his life since his childhood. Amir had the chances of telling the truth about what he’d done to Hassan but he chose to be deceptive.

    Read More

  • Betrayal In The Kite Runner

    659 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a story that mainly focuses on friendship, guilt and violence. Amir being the protagonist of the novel. His betrayal of his best friend, Hassan, is the major event of his life, making the main theme of the novel betrayal. The primary betrayal happens when Amir watches there and does nothing as Hassan is raped by Assef. Amir then causes issues by removing Ali and Hassan from the family..

    Read More

  • Moral Ambiguity In The Kite Runner

    844 Words  | 4 Pages

    The author provides the reader with mixed feeling about Amir. In his childhood in Kabul Amir comes off as heartless person. He is this because he has done evil stuff in his life. In the beginning of the story something bad happens to Hassan, Amir says,¨In the end, I ran.

    Read More

  • The Kite Runner Atonement Quotes

    1185 Words  | 5 Pages

    As Amir was on the phone explaining his story to Soraya he is able to reach a second step of atonement as he starts to redeem his guilt by letting go. His final redemption is seen as he takes Sohrab to America he is at peace. Through taking care of Sohrab Amir grows the most as a character and through reaching redemption he also is able to grow. While spending his life with Sohrab he repays Sohrab everyday by becoming more servant-like, loyal, and persistent waiting for him to open up. In the final chapter, Amir is seen waiting on the child like Hassan, which is ironic because the roles have switched and this shows how Amir has finally let go of his

    Read More

  • The Kite Runner Sacrifice Essay

    931 Words  | 4 Pages

    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…

    Read More

  • Kite Runner Parallelism

    734 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini, there are many structural elements that support the theme of redemption and how salvation is possible no matter how terrible an act is. Early in the book, the main character Amir watches his friend/servant Hassan get raped by the neighborhood bully. After realizing what he had done, Amir felt incredibly guilty and it became impossible for him to even be near Hassan. After moving to America and growing up, he continues to struggle with his guilt, and keeps it buried inside. Eventually, he is faced with an opportunity for redemption, and there are many signs leading him toward it.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Redemption In The Kite Runner

    882 Words  | 4 Pages

    Amir’s Redemption in The Kite Runner In The Kite Runner, Khalid Hosseini writes that Amir makes mistakes, and because of that, it takes his entire life to redeem himself. Throughout The Kite Runner, Amir is looking for redemption. One of the reasons why Amir redeems himself was to fix the wrong he did to Hassan in his childhood. On the other hand, many may believe that Amir didn’t earn anything and rather wasted his time in Afghanistan.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Conflicts In The Kite Runner

    1128 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, there are many different important conflicts throughout the story. These conflicts are brought upon by the recurring motifs, such as redemption and loyalty. The different dissensions support the ideas of characterization by how they react to the sudden adversity in their lives. Amir attempts to redeem himself through Hassan’s son, Sohrab, by saving him and giving him a better life. Further developing the meaning of the story, connoting the mental struggle and the way priorities change over time, keeping readers mindful of the motifs and how they impact each character.

    Read More

  • Kite Runner Sacrifice Quotes

    906 Words  | 4 Pages

    While being beaten up by Assef, Amir feels at peace. He feels this ways because he feels that as he is taking the hits from Assef, it shows that he would do anything for Hassan. He is redeeming himself in a way that he is standing up not only for Hassan but also for Sohrab. Amir also stands up for his family, redeeming himself. " Hassan is dead now.

    Read More

  • How Does Amir Change In The Kite Runner

    1184 Words  | 5 Pages

    Amir sees this big change as a chance to move on and escape his past. He goes on to be happily married, develops a closer relationship with Baba, and even becomes a successful writer. One day, however, he gets a call from Rahim Khan, Baba’s best friend, asking to see Amir, and is told there is a way to be good again. Amir then visits Rahim Khan in Pakistan, and is told that Hassan had been killed. Amir realizes he can no longer apologize to Hassan directly for what he had done, but Rahim Khan goes on to tell Amir there is still a way for him to redeem himself, in Hassan’s son, Sohrab.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Redemption In The Kite Runner

    1226 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Sin And Atonement In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

    1355 Words  | 6 Pages

    However, he also turned out to be someone who tried his best to confront his sins and redeem them by building orphanages, fixing Hassan's harelip, and helping others in general (Li Cunxin, Levy98's Blog). Unlike Baba, Amir was afraid of confronting his sins. In the novel, Baba, with reference to Amir, says, "A boy won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything" (page 22, chapter3) which foreshadows how Amir was unable to face his sin, unlike

    Read More

  • Redemption In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

    664 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the main themes of the novel The Kite Runner Is redemption. Throughout the novel, the main character, Amir, seeks redemption for his sins. Amir states in the first chapter of the novel that he has a past of “unatoned sins.” Throughout the novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses the following symbols to express the theme of redemption: The scar above Amirs lip, the lamb and the blue kite.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Courage In The Kite Runner

    435 Words  | 2 Pages

    Courage is an important theme throughout this story especially within the family values in Kabul. Baba had always believed that Hassan was very courageous and stood up for himself, but Amir was warned on multiple occasions that “a boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything” (chapter 3). Amir proved this on his own when he ran away from problematic situations, for example when Hassan was raped by Assef. Whenever there was danger around when Hassan and Amir were together, Hassan always stepped up and fought for his friend. The concept of friendship shifts through Amir and Hassan’s understanding of their relationship.

    Read More

More about Personal Integrity In The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

Open Document