John Peterson November 3, 2010 Road To Redemption What is redemption? How does Khaled Hosseini incorporate it in his book The Kite Runner? The Kite Runner and the main character, Amir, are all based around redemption. Amir is eaten away by guilt and a painful past his whole life and finds that pain and regret have a very close relationship. Living the life of a coward and the betrayal of his best friend calls for Amir to redeem himself.
The novel I have studied is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The reoccurring theme running throughout this novel is the theme of atonement. “The Kite Runner” suggests that individuals can atone for the bad things they have done in their past. Hosseini suggests that atonement is possible if the person who seeks redemption first admits their guilt. He explores the ideas of guilt and atonement through Amir, the novel protagonist and to a lesser extent through Baba, his father, and a wealthy Afghan man.
“Do you want me to run that kite for you?” Amir was doing anything for Sohrab, he cared so much for this little boy and he finally realized that he had to live for someone else. When Sohrab tried committing suicide, Amir said “Now I was the one under the microscope, the one who had to prove my worthiness”. Sohrab wanted to die, and was not happy that Amir saved him, so he tried everything he could to show Amir would be an amazing father. 4) Amirs spirituality changes over the course of the novel. At the beginning, Baba dismisses religion out of Amir’s life.
Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into.” (p. 85). It is in this way that Hosseini uses the kite symbol to develop irony; Amir believes that the kite would be the savior of his relationship with Baba, but in reality, it is only superficial love. Amir wanted to be like Baba, but he didn’t realize that he already was like Baba. He was incapable of having a real relationship with a person, and valued things like kite fighting over actual relationships. It is because of this that he betrays Hassan, and says, “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (p. 77).
I ran it fairly” (P.77) and later got raped. Despite the consequences that Hassan was going to go through he believed that risking his life to satisfy Amir was worth giving up for than disappointing him. Near the ending of the book, Amir tries to redeem the broken bond between him and Sohrab. Amir used the kite in order to gain redemption, he flew the kite and used it in a battle against a local kid and won with the help of Sohrab. Right after Amir offered to run catch the kite for Sohrab and repeated the same quote that Hassan had said once, “For you, a thousand times over” (P.391).
The color Blue has a negative color language of depression, materialism, and loss. In the beginning of the novel, a kite tournament in Kabul becomes the desperately desired key to finally obtain his father’s love. This is the blue kite’s initial symbolism; the only key to a meaningful, close relationship with Baba, Amir’s father. “All I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory.
By Amir knowing this, it comes to the realization that letting Hassan get raped was really for nothing. In The Kite Runner, Amir and Baba’s relationship encounters a drastic change. The two of them become close once Amir wins the tournament, but Amir remains unhappy. This is partly due to the contribution of Baba. After some time their relationship returns to the way it was
At the beginning of the novel, Amir strives for redemption in Baba’s eyes and figures that by winning the kite-tournament he would be seen as a fellow man. However, Amir does not become a man when he brings back the kite for Baba because he sacrifices his loyal brother Hassan for the paper kite. Amir finally understands what it takes to become a better man in his moment of redemption when he instead, retrieves the kite for Sohrab. A symbolically selfless moment dedicated not only to Sohran but to his faithful brother Hassan; “For you, a thousand times over” (391,
However he redeems himself, after Rahim Khan declares that there is a way to be good again, by rescuing Sorab from his harmed homeland. Amir learns to make peace with his incident with Hassan and at the end of the novel is able to use one of Hassan’s most heart wrenching quotations, “for you a thousand times over”, to build a relationship with Hassan’s orphaned child. Thus Amir is displayed to have acquired a heroic nature. This is illustrated though Amir’s willingness to save Sorab, a boy he knew nothing about, yet cared so much for. Although Hassan is a silent hero throughout the novel, Amir matures and adapts to become the ultimate hero by rescuing Sorab and through those actions rescuing himself in the way that his fatal flaw is finally forgiven.
Amir knows he missed the chance to make things right with Hassan, but it’s not to late with his son Sohrab. By confessing Baba’s sin and giving Sohrab an identity, Amir had begun to atone for his childhood