Betrayal And Redemption In The Kite Runner

1159 Words5 Pages

Literature is known for its underlying messages and ability to personally affect people worldwide. One author, Khaled Hosseini, is said to have influenced readers around the world with his novel The Kite Runner. In the award winning book, Hosseini brings up a variety of issues present in Afghanistan, which causes conflict between characters in the novel. He discusses betrayal and redemption, while giving readers a glimpse into the unfortunate lives of people living in war ridden countries. Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner uses personal experiences and some imagination to tell a story about friendship and betrayal, while also opening reader 's eyes to the harsh conditions caused by ethnic discrimination and abuse of power in Afghanistan. Betrayal and redemption are two concepts commonly associated with each other. Both of them appear several times in Hosseini’s novel through …show more content…

The Kite Runner is a story about the struggles in a friendship between two boys of different ethnicities. The major conflict throughout the book revolves around Amir 's act of betrayal towards Hassan, and the guilt he deals with. Amir does nothing to help Hassan while he is being raped. He feels like a coward for not standing up for him, and is unable to tell anyone what he saw. One night Amir says to himself, “‘I watched Hassan get raped,’ [he] said to no one...A part of [him] was hoping someone would wake up and hear, so [he] wouldn’t have to live with the lie anymore. But no one woke up and in the silence that followed [he] understood the nature of [his] new curse: [he] was going to get away with it” (Hosseini 86). After 26 years, he finally realizes that he cannot continue to ignore what happened, “because the past claws its way out” (Hosseini 1). After risking his life to adopt Sohrab, Amir’s guilt and cowardice begins to fade. The Kite Runner shows readers that in order to eliminate guilt and deal with the consequences of betrayal, one must face their problems and work towards

More about Betrayal And Redemption In The Kite Runner