Rahim Khan, as Amir’s mentor and friend, helps to support the ideas about redemption and why it is still possible, “there is a way to be good again”. Through Rahim Khan we see that Amir must complete his journey to achieve this and through the phone call from Rahim Khan in the opening paragraph, we can see Amir’s cowardice nature and repent. “I knew it wasn’t just Rahim Khan on the line. It was my past of unatoned sins”.
Although he does feel bad that he just abandoned him so close to the end of his father’s life, it didn’t stop him from doing it. “I went to look for him. But at the same moment this thought came into my mind: ‘Don’t let me find him! If only I could get rid of this dead weight, so that I could use all my strength to struggle for my own survival, and only worry about myself.’ Immediately I felt ashamed of myself, ashamed forever” (101). Here we saw Elie’s feelings towards his father really come through.
Amir, on the other hand, would have disappointed Pete for walking away from the rape and letting it continue. Although, by digging deeper into Amir’s situation, one realizes that Amir lives with and regrets his decision nearly every day of his young life. Amir did not realize at the time that the incident would change his life so drastically. Amir believed that if he turned his back to the rape, he would totally forget about it. People can run away from many problems and make some huge decisions in life, although making decisions can sometimes have some very detrimental or very beneficial consequences.
But doing this clearly does nothing toward redeeming himself, and thus his guilt endures. That is why he still cringes every time Hassan's name is mentioned. This is exactly what happens from Amir to his servant Hassan. Amir’s jealousy of Hassan really was when he asked his father, “Baba, have you ever considered getting new servants?”. This continuation of deception from Amir
He accepts the death of his brother as his fault, claiming he is the reason he joined the army. He tries to make it up to his father, “If you [Cal] want to give me a present, give me a good life. That’s something I can value” (Steinbeck 582). By denying and gifts asking this you can see just how selfish Adam has been and how unwilling he is to accept Cal since the very beginning. Fathers are supposed to be a role model to boys and both these father just bred
In a world full of hatred and crime, people often look towards the light. In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, such light is shed from the characters as they try and claim values about themselves that don’t seem all but there. Through some confusion within morals standards, the grandmother seems to contradict herself with the other characters in the story, and vise-versa. Moral revelations are depicted through the greater good, grace and the God-forgiven values. This proves true throughout the story as the “good man” is sought for.
In each case, both characters experience guilt due to a past breaking of faith and both hope to reconcile these acts with themselves and with others. Perhaps a direct result of Amir’s role as the narrator, the most significant act of betrayal in The Kite Runner is Amir’s betrayal of Hassan. Amir failed to stand up for his best friend and half brother Hassan, because he feared Assef, and he feared for his own fate. He did not want to risk the chance for him to be a victim of sodomy as well. “I opened my mouth, almost said something.
The more he thinks about his decision and makes connections to his own life; he realizes that leaving that man sobbing in the elevator was a very selfish thing to do. The man needed help, and he could have at least offered a shoulder to cry on. He did not know what horrible thing could have happened that made the man cry. He is now filled with guilt and sorrow for the mistake he made. He tries to seek help and reassurance that what he did was not wrong, but no matter how many times he heard that he did the right thing, deep down, he knew it was wrong and that would never change.
This time, it was a transgression committed on purpose instead of just the lack of courage for the first time. It was this sin that drove Hassan away and forever stole the friendship between them. Shown by how he drove Hassan away, Amir looked for avoidance rather than repentance. When he went to America with his father, he would shove this issue deep into his heart and would not think about it unless someone mentioned it, which rarely happened. It was not until his friend Rahim called him that he decided to finally repent for his sin.
After the death of Ali, Hassan and Baba, Amir was alone and left to not only sort out his own sins but also those of his father. Amir had learned to silence the guilt that bothered him. In The Kite Runner, Amir seems to have been born with the guilt of his father. When he was young he blamed himself for his mother’s death and believed this was why Baba had a problem with him: “ I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not?