Guilt In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

Has anyone ever done anything bad that has stuck with them their entire life? In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner Amir sees his best friend and servant, Hassan, getting beaten up and raped and does nothing to stop it. This leaves Amir with tremendous guilt and it lingers for the rest of his life. Amir even tries many things, including going to Afghanistan to save Hassan's Son, but in the end, Amir’s guilt has destroyed his life. Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner shows that guilt will destroy any life, no matter what a person tries to do to fix it.

The Kite Runner demonstrates that guilt will destroy any life. No matter what someone has done it can stick with them for their entire life and ruin themselves. For example, in the novel, Amir

For example, before Amir goes to save Hassan’s son, Rahim Khan, a friend of Amir and his father, call’s Amir to come to Afghanistan and then said “there is a way to be good again”(2). This is saying that if Amir goes to Afghanistan for Rahim Khan, he will be good again. Amir proves this is incorrect by going to Afghanistan, getting the boy and coming back, but in the end the guilt sticks with him. Another thing critics may say is Amir was not wrong in being a “coward” on the day of Hassan’s rape and beating. For example “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” (68). In Afghani culture, many sacrifice things in their life as a payment to god, Amir’s thought here was that Hassan was just a sacrifice. However, this is incorrect because even though Amir thinks this for a short period, he later feels the guilt and it has never left him since. Lastly, some may say that after Amir gets the child that he is “good again” even Amir says “My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed” (p. 289). This is saying at that moment Amir felt he had no

If someone makes a wrong decision, just like Amir has done it will linger for their entire life just like when everything is good in his life and he still thinks he does not deserve any of it. Even if someone does something to try to fix their guilt, it may not be enough. Not all guilt will destroy a life, but the longer it sits in the body the more damage it can do. In today's society guilt is prevalent when it comes to the suicide issue that we deal with on a daily