Formal Writing- Kite Runner “There is way to be good again.” This remark of Rahim Khan suggested to Amir that he could make up for his past mistakes. This realistic novel highlights the tension between two ethnic groups the Pashtun and the Hazara living together in 1970’s Afghanistan. This is shown in the story through the two main characters and their childhood friendship as Pashtun and Hazara boys. A significant event in Kite Runner is the Assef’s violation of Hassan after the kite flying tournament. When Amir decided to run away from Assef’s attack on Hassan, it meant that he chose to protect himself rather than help his friend.
Amir seeks redemption for his disloyalty to his best friend when he was a child, Hassan. Because of his fearfulness during Hassan’s rape, his betrayal of Hassan after the rape, and his committing of the worst sin in Afghani culture, Amir has to take himself on a long and weakening journey for his ultimate goal of total redemption that will eventually take him back to his violent and war-torn home country. When they were young, Amir and Hassan were really best friends; the two of them were inseparable. They used to climb the poplar trees in the driveway of Amir’s father’s house and annoy their neighbors by reflecting sunlight into their homes with a shard of mirror”. Even though the two young boys were of different social classes and ethnicities, they were able to remain best friends no matter what problems would face them.
All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption.” (65) Amir felt early in the novel that Baba thought of him as weak. By bringing Baba the blue kite back he could end the disappointment of him, redeeming himself for his mother’s death, and end his longing for Baba’s love. For a moment Amir had redeemed himself, but created a new situation which he had to redeem himself from.
The violence that the main character, Amir, experiences leads to him feeling guilty for rest of his life, which breaks up the relationships that he once had in his previous years. Amir’s guilt turns brother against brother and friend against friend. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled uses the character, Amir, to demonstrate how violence leads to betrayal, which creates guilt within oneself, and ultimate destroying relationships. The impact of violence on Amir leads him to betray Hassan, his only friend, brother and servant by running away from helping Hassan. Amir’s first experience of violence is when Amir wins the Kite fighting Tournament, and Hassan, runs off in pursuit of Amir’s trophy.
Early on, Amir strives to redeem himself in Baba’s eyes, primarily because his mother died giving birth to him, and he feels responsible. To redeem himself to Baba, Amir thinks he must win the kite-tournament and bring Baba the losing kite, both of which are inciting incidents that set the rest of the novel in motion. The more substantial part of Amir’s search for redemption, however, stems from his guilt regarding Hassan. That guilt drives the climactic events of the story, including Amir’s journey to Kabul to find Sohrab and his confrontation with Assef. The moral standard Amir must meet to earn his redemption is set early in the book, when Baba says that a boy who doesn’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.
The silent animosity between father and son ends when Amir joins and wins a kite-flying contest and ties his own father’s record in the number of kites he cut down. Later, the relationship between the two strengthens as they flee from war-torn Afghanistan and in the process Baba shows Amir how he stood up even to the point of risking even his own life in order to save an unknown woman from a Russian soldier’s vile intentions. As immigrants in the United States Baba once again shows Amir how he can make personal sacrifices for his son’s sake. Forced to live in a foreign country, Baba dies broken hearted but fully resigned to what Amir had made of himself – a writer happily married to a wonderful
He thought that Hassan was like his own sacrifice; Hassan got raped just because he wanted to get the blue kite for his friend Amir. Amir wanted to impress his father, Baba, so he assumed that blue kite would win over his father’s love and approval. In this part of the story, Hassan was the sacrifice Amir had to make get Baba’s affection. After this incident, Hassan didn’t really speak to anyone, but Baba was praising
Amir starts off as a loving and caring person—when Hassen is insulted by the soldiers, “I reached across [Hassen’s] seat, slung my arm around [Hassen], pulled [Hassen] close. [Hassen] rested his head on my shoulder” and Amir says “He took you for someone else,” I whispered”(8). Then, he becomes dishonest and untrustworthy: Hassen “knew I betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time”(111). These examples in the book show how the
The Kite Runner Essay “With reference to your study of ‘The Kite Runner’ discuss how conflict is portrayed throughout the novel” ‘The Kite Runner’ novel is written by author Khaled Hosseini and published in 2003. Excellently written, the book describes a very different type of story about the lives of two boys, who grew up together like brothers but eventually were separated through some very upturning events throughout the novel. It contrasts between moments of hope and moments which seem like all hope could be lost. Using the topic of conflict and atonement, Hosseini displayed how the life of a young Afghan boy, also known as the protagonist Amir, had faced through an event which changed his life forever, including the relationships with him and Hassan, his guilt of not upstanding for Hassan when he was rape, how Baba’s thoughts about him evolved over time etc, all has revolved him into one result, atonement. Of course, this atonement came through many types of conflicts that Amir faced.
There is brotherly love, love for art, and love through compassion. Ironically, the narrator learns to love art through misery as he sees his brother pour his pain and suffering into his music. “I was remembering, and it made it hard to catch my breath, that I had been there when he was born; and I had heard the first words he had ever spoken. When he started to walk, he walked from our mother straight to me. I caught him just before he fell when he took the first steps he ever took in this world.” (5) It is this greater than sibling connection between the narrator and Sonny which causes the narrator to care for Sonny almost like a father.