Recommended: Atonement guilt
In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the theme of shame is shown through the character of Amir, and through the culture of Kabul. Amir represents shame in his recognition of his actions. While his actions during Hassan’s rape were cowardly enough, he realizes that he should have done something, or at least tell someone. In not doing either, Amir acknowledges what he was supposed to do, and ignores it, berating himself all the while for what he knows he ought to have done.
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.
Guilt and shame are invisible forces that bind us to what if’s, and keeps us from pursuing life in a carefree manner. If we so feel that we are choosing the path that’s wrong for us even if it is what we believe is best, guilt will be there to pull us back into our place and shame will follow to remind us of our mistakes. Tim O’Brien, from the short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, essentially succumbs to the guilt he feels from attempting a flee to Canada in order to avoid the Vietnam War, and the consequence of feeling shame that arises from that. Family often plays a significant role in the way we live our lives. It is not uncommon that even as grown adults we will revolve our own decisions based on the ones around us and how they would feel about our actions.
Shame: A Destructive Force to Man Shame is a very destructive force, especially in the two lives of a father and son, Baba and Amir. In Khaled Hosseini’s book, The Kite Runner, shame is developed as a destructive force. There was an extreme amount of shame generated widely throughout in The Kite Runner, primarily in the lives of Baba and Amir. Although shame can have an effect on people to act in the wrong ways, it can also encourage them do what is most honorable. In The Kite Runner, shown in multiple ways, shame can be an extremely destructive force in an individual’s life by destroying relationships between loved ones.
Psychological Warfare in The Things They Carried Unless you have been in war or have read The Things They Carried, you can't fully understand the psychological toll on a person's mind and body, you can't understand the psychological hardship soldiers go through in war. However, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is written to where it shows the overall psychological effects of war on soldiers in and out of Vietnam; as shown throughout the story, the recurring themes of trauma, love, and guilt give the clear psychological implications of war.
It is delineated by natural inclination that people sympathize with others who undergo an unfortunate circumstance or event. However, this type of behavior is dependent on how one uses prior knowledge to judge whether someone is worthy of sympathy. The idea that people tend to draw conclusions based on other people’s decisions and character remains as one of the many underlying themes in literature. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, Amir’s character is considered worthy of sympathy by his redeeming actions towards the end of the novel, his good intentions toward Baba, and his ability to empathize with others.
Journey to Redemption Throughout life, people will find themselves facing guilt or shame, some more significant than others. An individual experiences guilt knowing that they have committed some form of wrongdoing. To relieve themselves from this offense, they will try to be redeemed, or relieved from their sin. In Khaled Hosseini novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini described Amir’s journey to redemption after he betrayed Hassan during their childhood years. The five steps for redemption are categorized as Conviction, Confession, Repentance, Restitution, and Reconciliation.
Redemption in Family and Friends Holding a terrible truth that can lead to so much guilt can tear a person apart. Not only from themselves, but from others too. In the novel, The Kite Runner, there are many characters with many secrets that the others don’t know about. Two characters of many others are Amir and Rahim Khan.
In the fiction novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, happiness and redemption are two separate occurrences in life that are achieved in different ways. A critic of the novel writes that The Kite Runner is a “thoughtful book in which redemption and happiness are not necessarily the same thing,” The happiness and redeeming qualities of the characters in the novel are not one and the same; sometimes, one is without the other. This leads to a disconnection between these two aspects. When Amir was a young boy in Afghanistan, the one thing that brought him true happiness was when Baba was proud of him.
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.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, provides readers with an idea of what life was like in Afghanistan and the hardships and betrayals the people of Afghanistan had to endure. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines betrayal as, “the act of failing or deserting especially in time of need” (Merriam-Webster). Throughout The Kite Runner, many of the characters choose to betray someone they love because of how they were raised or who they are as a person. The motives behind the betrayal vary depending on the person. However, the consequences of the betrayal are always long lasting and have sever effects.
Sakshi Verman Ms Kanika Dang English Thesis Paper 27th November, 2015 Khaled Hosseini explores the theme of sin and atonement in "The Kite Runner" It is human nature to sin but it is also the responsibility of humans to redeem those sins. According to Li Cunxin, redemption means "The salvation or deliverance from sin or evil of human being" (Li Cunxin, Levy93's Blog). For redemption, it is necessary for an individual to confront their sin.
Sacrifice, one the most prominent themes in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, clearly determines a person’s unconditional love and complete fidelity for another individual. Hosseini’s best-selling novel recounts the events of Amir’s life from childhood to adulthood. Deprived of his father’s approval and unsure of his relationship with Hassan, Amir commits treacherous acts which he later regrets and attempts to search for redemption. These distressing occurrences throughout his youth serve as an aid during his transition from a selfish child to an altruistic adult.
The final guilt Amir struggles with is his guilt of apathy where he physically commits the action and instead of standing as a bystander becomes the person who committed the act, which gives him a different form of guilt. Amir feels apathy guilt through betraying his friend and kicking Hassan out of the house because he is a witness to the crime Amir has committed. Amir has guilt because he chases Hassan out, “I flinched, like I’d been slapped… Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me… And that led to another understanding: Hassan knew.
It helps one to redeem and forgive oneself for all the sins committed in life. This paper will prove that atonement of past sins is possible by using ‘The Kite Runner’ as the primary source and several secondary sources. Amir is one of the main characters of the novel and has committed many sins during his childhood. Unable to forgive himself he goes back to Afghanistan to make things right and become good again.
