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Archetypal Themes In The Kite Runner Essay

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III. The Archetypal Themes of Christian Culture Represented in The Kite Runner A theme consists of various ideas and broad meanings in literature work, even can be summed up in a simple word. The Bible, considered as the beginning of western literature generally, embodies many themes, namely the archetypal themes. Here, it aims at exploring three core archetypal themes expressed in The Kite Runner : sin, redemption and rebirth.
3.1 Sin Sin, the most important theme in The Bible, is the start-point. In The Bible, Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit and violate the order of God, committing the original sin. Then the actual sin comes. Their descendant lives in the earth where is full of disaster and evil spirits, suffering a lot. Under the considerable influence of The Bible, Hosseini adopts this archetypal theme in his novel, The Kite Runner, to link plots and sublimate the whole story. …show more content…

This original sin takes root in almost all human beings, causing countless evil things. Next, betrayal, cruelty and abuse are another original sin rooted in the deep nature of human beings. Baba’s betrayal to Ali, together with Amir’s utilization and abundant of Hassan demonstrates the statement. Besides, Assef is an extreme racist who is cruel and evil. He rapes Hassan at the kite-flying tournament deliberately. More intolerable thing is that the older Assef is fond of abusing kids, and Hassan’s son Soharb is one of the victims. In addition, wars, so-called revolutions and terrorist attacks talked in The Kite Runner are original sins that cannot be

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By leaving Hassan defenceless against Assef, Amir’s disloyalty and inability to stand up for his friend truly emphasises his cruel nature. Amir physically and mentally turns away from the rape. He justifies his decision to leave Hassan by saying “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.”

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Assef raped Hassan and Amir saw it but he did not help him; his guilt plagues him into adulthood, and he is seeking redemption. Although both the book and the movie include the scene where Assef beats up Amir, Amir does not laugh in the movie; this is important because the book demonstrates how Amir felt happy by deserving the punishment of not helping Hassan when he was little, while the movie cannot convey these

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Firstly, one of the many unforgiving things that Amir did yet was still forgiven for, was the fact that Amir did not stand up for his friend who got beat up and raped by a group of boys in an alleyway. This happened because Hassan stood up for Amir and did not give the kite to the

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According to Assef, his ways of thinking was always to eliminate the Hazaras. To him, Hazaras were the Jews of Germany when Hitler had been a ruler. Without considering him, he raped Hassan as a child. His act of cruelty didn’t only affect Hassan but it affected his relationship with Amir. Assef continued his Hazara executions and got rid of most.

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Amir first realizes the depth of his cowardice as he watches Assef rape Hassan in the alley and thinks, “I could step in into that alley, stand up for Hassan—the way he stood up for me all those times in the past—and accept whatever happened to me. Or I could run” (Hosseini 77). He has an epiphany that he could choose to be brave and selfless like Hassan and step up to Assef regardless of any physical consequences. However, despite his understanding that the noble choice would be to interfere and stop Assef, Amir is unable to act on it because his fear of Assef overwhelms him. The guilt that consumes Amir in the weeks following Hassan’s rape indicates that he understands the extent of his selfish behavior and needs to resolve it before he can forgive himself.

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Assef appears to be a sociopath and is even told to us by Amir that he is a sociopath. Amir from childhood knew that something was wrong with Assef and his thoughts are confirmed after Assef’s first and worst inhumane act to Amir and Hassan. “I’m letting you keep the kite, Hazara. I’ll let you keep it so it will always remind you of what I’m about to do” (73). Sexually assaulting Hassan was not only cruel to him, but it also damages and creates long-lasting grief in Amir.

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Later, the character Assef is constructed to depict the epitome of pure evilness since, as teenager and adult, he harasses and torments innocent people for no significant gain other than personal satisfaction and amusement, without ever feeling the slightest bit of guilt or regret. Hosseini demonstrates the distinct disparities between being truly evil compared to merely doing evil actions through Amir’s own actions and subsequent feelings of guilt and regret, and his attempts to redeem himself compared to Assef’s lack of any emotions resembling remorse. Amir is someone who has done evil actions in his life, but should in no regard be considered to be evil himself. Amir’s first act of evil is when he witnesses his friend, Hassan, being raped, thus resulting in him having to choose between two alternative courses of action - to “stand up for Hassan - the way he’d stood up for [him] in the past - and accept

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What is the main theme of the Kite Runner? The main theme of the Kite Runner is forgiveness and redemption. The whole novel was based on Amir search to redeem himself. He has a strong pull to find forgiveness after leaving Hassan to get raped and not helping him.

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