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Betrayal In John Steinbeck's The Kite Runner

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The Kite Runner is a story that depicts the unique friendship between Amir and Hassan while they are currently living during a turbulent time in Afghanistan's history. Amir is the son of a wealthy Pashtun man while Hassan is his servant. The novel shows their odd friendship go through betrayal, lies, regret, and forgiveness. The Kite Runner also exhibits the struggles between father and son relationships. This thrilling novel shows the journey amid family and friends during a rough time in the history of Afghanistan.

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Character Analysis - In The Kite Runner, the protagonist and the narrator is Amir. During his flashback, he was in his teenage years but during the present time of the book he was in his …show more content…

The main event that betrayal is shown is when Amir did not speak up while Hassan was abused. Hassan has stood up for Amir in every circumstance. That is utter betrayal to do that to someone you consider your brother. To even worsen the situation, Amir said that Hassan stole his watch which led to Ali and Hassan moving away. Another instance betrayal is shown is how Baba is Hassan's father which means that he betrayed his best friend Ali. Another large theme is working for forgiveness. Amir tries to gain redemption for not saving Hassan from rape was saving and adopting Sohrab. Baba's redemption for betraying Ali was creating an orphanage, doing other charitable activities, and giving many gifts to Hassan each birthday. An obvious symbol for The Kite Runner is kites. Kites symbolize Amir's allowance of Hassan's rape. The kite symbolizes his disloyalty towards his faithful best friend. Hassan refuses to fly a kite until the end of the book. He flies a kite with Sohrab because adopting Sohrab was redemption for Amir's betrayal to Hassan. A motif in novel is a lamb. Lamb was brought up multiple times when discussing about sacrifice. The innocent lamb represents innocent Hassan because in a way he sacrifices himself to make Amir impressed by winning the blue kite. There is major historical significance in the novel due to the Soviets invading Afghanistan and the Taliban taking over the country. When the Soviets invaded, Baba and Amir had to flee to Pakistan because the situation back home was rough. When the Taliban took over, they killed Farzana And Hassan. That led to Sohrab being orphaned and physically abused by the Taliban. The authors craft was moderately casual. The words that were different were the words in Pashto (the Afghani language), but the definitions were in the back of the

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The author puts a lot of moral ambitious character in the story the Kite Runner. Amir is an example of a moral ambitious character. He is evil in the beginning of the story, but as he matures and grows up as an adult. The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini, is a novel about a young boy named Amir and how he grows up in the Afghan war and how life was during the war. Amir's Moral Ambiguity is important to this story because he provides readers to like and hate him.

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The novel, The Kite Runner, tells a story about two incredibly strong and courageous boys, who have to find their way back from a dreadful thing which they thought they could never forget. The two boys are guided by their father, Baba, who is also looking for forgivness in himself. In the end, all of the boys find redemption for their wrongdoings. One of the boys, Hassan, shows extreme courage from the very beginning of the book.

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The story ‘The Kite Runner’, written by Khaled Hosseini, takes place mainly during the war in Afghanistan. After the country became a republic instead of a monarchy, the former Soviet Union invaded the country. Many years later, the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement , seized power in Afghanistan. This was accompanied by intense violence and the consequences were immense. Not only was Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, almost entirely destroyed, but the cost to human life was also huge.

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Later in the novel, Amir is kite flying with Sohrab when he “look(s) up at those twin kites” and, “thinks about Hassan” (Hosseini 370). While flying, Amir “thought of the life (he) had lived until the winter of 1975 came along and changed everything. And made (him) what (he) is today” (Hosseini 370). The kite’s symbol develops into one of redemption and satisfaction as Amir helps Hassan’s son fly the kite, the way he should have helped Hassan in the past. It’s a full circle of Amir’s relationship with Hassan, and now his relationship with Sohrab.

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Kite Runner is a story about a young boy named Amir and his loyal servant, Hassan. Even though

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The Kite Runner is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini, this novel shares the story of a young boy named Amir and his transition from childhood to adulthood. Amir makes many mistakes as a child, but the moral of the story is to focus not on the mistakes he has made, but how he has grown, and become a better man by redeeming himself for the mistakes he has made. The mistakes he has made mostly revolve around his friend Hassan, and his father Baba. Three of the most prominent mistakes are when Amir doesn’t help Hassan when he is being attacked by the village boys, lying to Baba about Hassan, and not appreciating and abusing Hassan’s loyalty to him.

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The Kite Runner, aggressors evoke guilt and shame in their victims in order to maintain their power, bespeaking the human need to be in control. Characters understand the appeal of power at a young age. Even as a child, Amir manipulates Hassan’s loyalty in order to make himself feel superior. Amir has always felt inferior to Hassan, mainly due to his yearning for Baba’s love.

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As The Kite Runner approaches the end of the story, Amir undergoes a change in his characterization which leads to events

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The kite represents Amir’s happiness because it connects him with Baba, this is very important for Amir because Baba believes his son is a coward who isn’t strong enough to stand up for himself. Although to impress Baba Amir lets Hassan get raped by Assef so he can bring home the blue kite, he states, “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.” Amir has just witnessed Assef rape Hassan and instead of intervening he runs away. Amir says he aspired to cowardice because he believed that what he did was worse than cowardice, he feared that by intervening Assef would hurt him and that was the reason he ran.

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Not only does fleeing a violent situation prove Amir’s selfishness, but comparing Hassan to a lamb, dehumanizing him, shows his inhumanity. Amir believes that Hassan is just a price, that he has no human value, and that mindset is both a result of his deep desire to feel affection from his father, and an intrinsic value of demoralizing a lower class such as the Hazaras. Amir’s explicit betrayal of Hassan is further exemplified when he and Hassan meet face-to-face after the act of violence against him. As Amir approaches him, he notes that Hassan had the “blue kite in his hands” which was the first thing he saw, and says that he “can’t lie now and say [his] eyes didn’t scan it for any rips” (78). Amir admits that the first thing he sees after witnessing Hassan being sodomized was the kite, the ticket to Baba’s affection.

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In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, there are many different important conflicts throughout the story. These conflicts are brought upon by the recurring motifs, such as redemption and loyalty. The different dissensions support the ideas of characterization by how they react to the sudden adversity in their lives. Amir attempts to redeem himself through Hassan’s son, Sohrab, by saving him and giving him a better life. Further developing the meaning of the story, connoting the mental struggle and the way priorities change over time, keeping readers mindful of the motifs and how they impact each character.

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Betrayal is an issue many can relate to, whether it is done by a family member or a friend. In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, we witness betrayal play a vital role in the downfall of the main character’s Amir and Hassan’s friendship, and how betrayal was the reason for why Amir sought redemption in hopes to move on. The novel begins with Amir as an adult, recalling an event that took place in 1975 in his hometown Kabul, Afghanistan and how this event was what changed the rest of his life and made him who he now is. Despite this heartbreaking occurrence of Amir’s reluctance to help Hassan while he was being raped, it was the reason for why Amir later decided to be brave and stand up for what he believes in.

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The Kite Runner beautifully depicts the friendship between Amir and Hassan, and portrays the raw turning point in their friendship which will forever change the both of them. The theme of guilt and redemption is strongly evident throughout the film and in the end, the kite not only serves as a symbol of friendship but that of triumph. The opening scene shows two boys flying kites. Kite running was an ancient Afghan hobby

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Amir, Baba’s son and the main character throughout The Kite Runner, betrays Hassan many times due to the fact of jealousy of the attention Hassan receives from Baba. First, when Amir tries to justify his actions he shows his motivations behind the betrayal. Amir states, “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (Hosseini 77). Amir craves Baba’s attention so much that

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Amir then travels back to Afghanistan, fights the aforementioned neighborhood bully, and brings Hassan’s son, Sohrab, back to America for him and his wife to adopt. In time, Amir feels that this compensates for his failure to help Hassan when he needed it most. In many ways, The Kite Runner is a very historically relevant novel. It takes place from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s.

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