Guilt In The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

The swelling subsided, and the wound healed with time. Soon, it was just a pink jagged line running up from his lip. By the following winter, it was only a faint scar. Which was ironic. Because that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling. ~Amir (50)

Throughout the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir struggles with guilt for standing idly by as his servant, Hassan, was raped. Amir felt so much guilt for his inability to stand up for Hassan, that whenever he had a mere thought of Hassan, Amir felt sick. However, by the end of the story, Amir finds atonement for his actions. Through adopting Hassan’s orphan son, Sohrab, and saving him from the harsh life in Afghanistan, Amir finds peace once and for all. It is when he finally stands up for someone else, and sees Sohrab smile that he has finally found happiness, and can move on in his life without any stab of guilt. Amir’s guilt starts in the winter of 1975, when he watched as Hassan was raped in an alley after running a kite for him. After this incident, Amir plants some money in Hassan’s possession to frame Hassan of theft, to which Baba says “there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft.” (19) In this

When on route to flee Afghanistan, Amir finally had the courage to tell his wife about his guilty past, “Then I did what I hadn’t done in fifteen years of marriage: I told my wife everything.”(342) this was his first step in making peace. However, Amir did not fully atone for his actions until he had adopted Sohrab. In the winter of 1975, Amir and Hassan flew their last kite together. After this event, Hassan was raped and Amir only felt guilt. Then, in March 2002, after adopting Sohrab, Amir flew a kite once again, this time with Hassan’s son, with Amir running for Sohrab, “For you, a thousand times over.”(391) The kite’s represent Amir’s freedom of guilt, his atonement. They flew once when he was innocent, and not again until he had found