How Does Amir Change In The Kite Runner

The bildungsroman novel The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, follows the story of a Pashtun boy named Amir who spent his childhood in Afghanistan. The reader observes Amir’s character transformation as he experiences a great amount of suffering through broken friendships, the loss of his father, and Amir’s continual guilt from the past. Amir struggles to recover from this sorrow until an old friend calls him and tells Amir, there is a way to be good again. From the beginning to the end of the novel, Amir experiences internal, physical, and, at surface level, unnoticeable scars that cause Amir unimaginable pain, until he learns that if one can not face scars from the past, there will be no healing. In the beginning of the novel, physical scars,

However, throughout Amir’s struggle to become accepted and loved, Amir only experienced disappointment from his father. This uncertainty of being loved created jealousy in Amir of his friend Hassan. This jealousy would lead to future pain for Amir and an unnoticed scar of internal doubt that would stay with Amir for most of his life. After Amir had won the kite tournament, Amir dreamed of his father’s reaction to his victory. He envisioned himself making “a grand entrance, a hero, prized trophy in [his] bloodied hands” (pg. 67). The bleeding silts in Amir’s hands, was from flying his winning kite. Amir’s main motive in the kite flying competition was to make Baba, Amir’s father, proud. It wasn’t for the glory or the popularity, but Amir just desperately wanted to be loved. Amir’s scared and bloodied hands resulted in Baba taking pride in his son for the first time. An actual father son relationship formed from this, which Amir had always wanted, but unfortunately it lasted for less than a year. Amir had many doubts about being not good enough, and felt he was too weak and not manly enough. Amir’s attempt in gaining Baba’s love and making Baba proud, did not result in a long

When Rahim asks Amir to bring Hassan’s son, Sohrab, who is living in the Talib ridden nation of Afghanistan to Pakistan, Amir is fearful of the danger involved. For this reason, Amir almost does not go and save Sohrab from his horrifying situation. Amir was right to fear of danger, for the trip was not injury free. In the climax of the book, Amir encounter’s his childhood enemy, Assef, who is in the way of Amir retrieving Hassan and taking him out of Afghanistan. Assef forces Amir to fight him for the boy, resulting in Amir’s “Ruptured spleen. Broken teeth. Punctured lung, busted eye socket” (pg. 297). However, the pain Amur endured turned into relief. For Amir had hidden his internal scars for so long, but once the pain was brought to the surface, Amir was able to feel at peace again. Because of Amir’s guilt, he believed there was not a way to be good again. But after sacrificing himself for Sohrab, he completed a task that he was unable to do for Hassan 25+ years ago. As a result of the fight, the doctor told Amir, “‘The impact had cut your lip in two,’ he said, ‘clean down the middle.’ Clean down the middle. Like a harelip” (pg. 297). The scar Amir receives from this cut is significant because it is a scar just like the one that Hassan received after his plastic surgery to fix his lip. This shared scar can symbolize Amir’s forgiveness of himself for all the pain he