Was honor and certainty shown in The Kite Runner? Source: “Discuss the ideas developed by the text creator about the ways in which individuals struggle to restore honor and certainty.” In the book “The Kite Runner “by Khaled Hosseini, the major theme in this book way the way in which individuals struggle to restore honor and certainty. It is evident in the story with Amir and his journey for redemptions for the sins of his past mistakes. Amir dishonored himself by not helping out his half-brother in his time of need. Amir is the character that is extremely similar to his father Buba, because they both have committed sins in their past.
Amir’s first experience of violence is when Amir wins the Kite fighting Tournament, and Hassan, runs off in pursuit of Amir’s trophy. Hassan is gone long enough to alarm Amir, who begins to search for him and once he finds him, he sees Assef, a bully, raping him. Amir at first is scared of Assef but later convinces himself by says, “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba (Amir’s Father) Was it a fair price?” (Hosseini 82). As Amir never helps Hassan, this shows that Amir will do anything to get Baba’s love and intention.
In Chapter 7 Amir states, “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.” In this quote Hassan stole the blue kite for Amir but Assef and his two friends wanted it, but Amir did not help Hassan. Instead, Amir ran away like a coward. He wanted the blue kite that Hassan stole for him, but he didn’t want to help pay the price, instead he felt that Hassan was the price to pay. 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.
With nobody to tell him otherwise, Cole convinces himself that neither of his parents want him. Cole is always angry and irritated as a result of his bottled up emotions, but after he is sent to the island, he learns to release his anger by preforming physical disciplines. The first physical discipline Cole preforms while inhabiting the island is dancing out his feelings. When Edwin and Garvey introduce Cole to this new way of releasing his anger, Cole is skeptical (pg.167). In Cole’s eyes, dancing and prancing around a fire is stupid and embarrassing, but gradually, his attitude towards this exercise changes.
This event happened after several days of Hassan’s rape. In that hill, Amir, who felt guilty, hit Hassan with pomegranates several times. He hoped that Hassan would do the same thing. But Hassan didn’t hit him back, instead he hit himself. Then Hassan did pick up a pomegranate.
At this time, Assef the local bully approached Hassan to get the kite. As a Hazara, Hassan would have been expected to hand the kite over to the Pashtun Asssef. However in his loyalty to Amir he disobeys Assef’s command, the result is that Assef proceeds to violate him to punish him. The incident in the alleyway was watched by Amir without
In one situation, a bully named Assef is about to violently attack Amir for socializing with a Shi'a, but Hassan stands up for Amir and threatens to shoot Assef in the eye with his slingshot. Betrayal is one of major themes in this story. One day, Amir and Hassan win a kite tournament and as Hassan goes to run the last cut kite, Assef confronts him and says that he must give him the kite. Knowing how important this kite is to Amir in order to make his father proud, Hassan refuses to give the kite up. Amir goes in search of Hassan and as he hears Assef voice, hides.
This is apparently a problem to them, for the boy had no desires, given his incurable mental illness, “Mad-made objects…could be found in his abstract world.” The couple finally picked a basket with jellies for their son. This makes the reader deeply sympathise the boy’s plight, for a “young man” like him would usually have no interests in jellies which are a suitable present for children. It reflects what his sickness has reduced him to – a teen with intelligence of a child. The boy repeatedly contemplates suicide, and has had yet another failed attempt to do so, and the couple is unable to see him, for fear that “a visit might disturb him”. The couple is revealed to be at a rather old age, “At the time of his birth…now they were quite old.” Their son’s illness has put a huge financial burden on the little family – the father used to be a successful businessman, but is now “wholly dependent on his brother Isaac”.
However, Helena should take more blame for causing these infirmities and being a selfish mother to bring her son such a life. First of all, Kingshaw should take part of the responsibility because he lacked enough confidence to challenge Hooper. Kingshaw had chances to take away Hooper’s dominance, yet he didn’t make use of them. For example, when the thunder came in the woods, Kingshaw comforted Hooper who was afraid of the deafening sound, and took care of him, witnessing Hooper’s hidden fear. He could have mocked Hooper the same way Hooper used to call him ‘scaredy-baby’, hence taking revenge.
Hassan refuses to give up Amir's kite. Amir searches for Hassan but hides when he hears Assef's voice. He witnesses the rape but is too scared to intervene, and returns home ashamed, guilty for not being able to help his best friend. He feels that his cowardice in Hassan's rape would destroy any hopes for Baba's affections, so he says nothing. Afterwards, Hassan and Amir keep a distance from each other.