ipl-logo

Examples Of Courage In The Kite Runner

435 Words2 Pages

Courage is an important theme throughout this story especially within the family values in Kabul. Baba had always believed that Hassan was very courageous and stood up for himself, but Amir was warned on multiple occasions that “a boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything” (chapter 3). Amir proved this on his own when he ran away from problematic situations, for example when Hassan was raped by Assef. Whenever there was danger around when Hassan and Amir were together, Hassan always stepped up and fought for his friend. The concept of friendship shifts through Amir and Hassan’s understanding of their relationship. Assef takes advantage of this confusion of whether Amir was his friend or simply like an owner to a dog. The last time Hassan took action for Amir, Amir had a choice to either stand up and prove how much Hassan meant to him, or run away from the problem. He chose the latter. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was …show more content…

This was a clear act of courage made by Amir because he had grown up having others stand up for him. He especially made the connection with what he had done to save Hassan’s son with Hassan’s loyalty from the past when he first showed Sohrab how to fly a kite like his father. “Do you want me to run that kite for you? His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he swallowed… I thought I saw him nod. For you a thousand times over, I heard myself say” (chapter 25). Especially “for you a thousand times over…” is very meaningful for Amir to say. This shows how he feels he is doing right and trying to make up for all the terrible things that happened to Hassan. He also is keeping Hassan’s memory alive by saying something Hassan used to say to

Show More
Related
1795 Words | 8 Pages

As a result, Amir is seen mocking Hassan at various times and making low comments that show how Amir bellows Hassan because of his caste. This is shown in the scene where Amir asks Hassan if he would eat dirt if Amir told him too. This mindset ultimately divulges Amir into a world of regret and guilt. Moreover, every winter, districts in Kabul held a kite-fighting tournament. Likewise, Amir realized that if he became victorious and was the last kite flying, he would finally see the love and pride in his Baba’s eyes; he was right.

Read More
1449 Words | 6 Pages

Amir lets Sohrab smiles again by running the kite for Sohrab just as Hassan ran his last kite for him half a century before. He pushes himself into a “servant’s” position. Through Amir’s self-sacrifice, hope for the future is restored. Amir can stand up for others and he is willing to sacrifice himself for protecting his family. He has forgiven himself due to his self-sacrifice, kite fighting reminds him of pleasure instead of pain in the end of the novel.

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

The author provides the reader with mixed feeling about Amir. In his childhood in Kabul Amir comes off as heartless person. He is this because he has done evil stuff in his life. In the beginning of the story something bad happens to Hassan, Amir says,¨In the end, I ran.

Read More
489 Words | 2 Pages

“Assef gritted his teeth. ‘Put it down, you motherless Hazara.’ Please leave us be, Agha’ Hassan said’” (Hosseini, 41). This scene is an example of how daring Hassan is because he is threatening someone who could easily hurt him, but he’s doing it because he feels as if he has no choice, and he believes he needs to protect not only himself but his friend, Amir.

Read More
1067 Words | 5 Pages

Amir stands up to their childhood bully, Assef, who is known as a leader of the Taliban, to help him repent his sins and save Sohrab for the sake of Hassan. Amir was scared and didn’t want to fight, but he knew there was no other choice. OR Amir, a boy who was once very timid, saves the day as he attacks one of his childhood enemies for the sake of his passed friend. Amir always avoided any sort of conflict as a child, but now that he has matured he fought his way through and confronted the issues in front of him. At the beginning of the book, Amir was nothing like Baba and that’s what made him such a disappointment to him.

Read More
1089 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
906 Words | 4 Pages

While being beaten up by Assef, Amir feels at peace. He feels this ways because he feels that as he is taking the hits from Assef, it shows that he would do anything for Hassan. He is redeeming himself in a way that he is standing up not only for Hassan but also for Sohrab. Amir also stands up for his family, redeeming himself. " Hassan is dead now.

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

More than Baba himself, it was what he didn’t receive from him. He might have gotten a big house—in fact, the prettiest place in Kabul—but it was so big and so empty, a place without love and affection, not what we call home. In Amir's eyes, "the face of Afghanistan" was always by his side. Yet that wasn’t enough; he craved acceptance from his father and would do anything for it. He only had to win a kite-running tournament; he had been so close in the past years, but this year he was determined to get it—the win and Baba’s love.

Read More
561 Words | 3 Pages

He also learns that Hassan has a son named Sohrab, who is in a lot of danger in an orphanage in Kabul. Amir feels that he should take on the responsibility to get Sohrab because of what he did to Hassan in their past. Baba once said “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.” (Hosseini 78 ) Amir really took that to heart and not only wanted to prove his redemption to himself but also to

Read More
931 Words | 4 Pages

He would do anything for Hassan to make up for his childhood. After finding Sohrab, Amir comes face to face with Assef, Hassan 's rapist. “Another rib snapped, this time lower. What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in the corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this…

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

The saddest part was that Amir was there watching from a distance and was unwilling to help his best friend due to his lack of courage and inability to stand up for himself. Up until adulthood, Amir had to carry the baggage of betraying Hassan by not being there when he most needed him, this guilt tormented him to the point where he moved to America with his dad, Baba, as a way to escape his

Read More
685 Words | 3 Pages

He resists for Amir whom he loves with his whole heart. Amir witnesses this struggle, but he does nothing; he runs away since “he was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 77). Amir has always believed, deep down, that his father favored Hassan, a Hazara, the dirt of Afghan society, over him, his own son. Seeing Hassan reduced to that level of baseness is perversely satisfying for him.

Read More
765 Words | 4 Pages

Hassan, on one hand, was brave and did not fear defending people he cared about, like when he, “held the slingshot pointed directly at Assef’s face,” (42) when the bully confronted Amir in an aggressive fashion. When the tables turned and Assef proceeded to rape Hassan, Amir proved to be cowardice by running away because, “[he] was afraid of Assef and what he would do to [him],” (77). Loyalty was also one of Hassan’s prominent qualities as shown when although, “[h]e knew [Amir had] seen everything in that alley,” he was willing to rescue Amir, “once again, maybe for the last time,” (105). Contrastingly, Amir not only betrayed Hassan but attempted to have him and his father dismissed from service by lifting, “Hassan’s mattress and [planting his] new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it,” (104). Yet despite all this, the two boys still had a sincere love for one another, although it may have been temporarily painful.

Read More
1264 Words | 6 Pages

This is once again another attempt to relieve guilt from Amir’s life. Amir tries to become a good father figure for Sohrab. Amir’s father was rarely proud and happy for

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

In most coming-of-age novels, authors define childhood as the period of rose-colored glasses and complete innocence that comes to an end with a sudden profound revelation of reality; however, in Hassan, Amir, and Sohrab’s childhoods that was not the case. Their innocence was stolen from them; their rose-colored glasses shattered. The loss of the rose-colored glasses forces Amir, Hassan, and Sohrab to see reality before they could have a profound revelation and fully understand the harsh realities of life; they come of age and lose their innocence at far too young an age. Throughout the coming-of-age novel, The Kite Runner, loss of innocence is a very common theme made apparent via Amir, Hassan, and Sohrab; the theme, loss of childhood innocence, shapes the novel by introducing the themes of betrayal and redemption. Hassan’s loss of innocence assists in shaping the novel because when Hassan loses his childhood innocence, the novel’s protagonist, Amir, loses his childhood innocence as well.

Read More

More about Examples Of Courage In The Kite Runner

Related Topics

Open Document