Accountability In The Kite Runner

In his novel, The Kite Runner, the author, Khaled Hosseini explores the themes of accountability and redemption through the experiences of his characters. Ultimately showing us that choosing to run away instead of taking accountability comes back in a full circle, and redemption can only be attained by taking that step of accountability. This is shown to us through many characters but Amir and Baba, are prime examples.

In the beginning, Baba is portrayed as a man who lives by his principles, a man who preaches the importance of honesty, integrity, and owning up to one's mistakes. Even lecturing his son about the crime of theft, "When you kill a man, you steal a life," Baba said. "You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?"- pg 18, So the revelation that Rahim Khan throws at Amir and the audience later in the novel about Baba's adultery with Hassan's mother and Ali's

Rahim Khan reveals the truth about Hassan and his son, Sohrab, and Amir reluctantly decides to travel to Afghanistan to make up for what he had failed to do in the beginning. In a life-or-death situation, he is able to find the courage to stand up for all the guilt that he had felt, to risk his life for a boy he really doesn't even know. And through this act of he finally becomes content and gets a sense of closure that he really hasn’t felt since he was a kid. “I don't know at what point I started laughing, but I did. It hurt to laugh, hurt my jaws, my ribs, my throat. But I was laughing and laughing… hadn't been happy and I hadn't felt better, not at all. But I did now. My body was broken--just how badly I wouldn't find out until later--but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.”- 289