Kite Runner Conscience

In the novel “The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the journey of betrayal, memory, and repentance by creating a shocking and harsh narrative to suggest to the reader that a guilty conscience can be revived with redemption.

In “The Kite Runner,” the protagonist Amir witnesses his friend Hassan get raped and does not intervene to help him. This creates a divide in their relationship and the guilt is too much to bear for Amir. Therefore, he forces Hassan to stop living in his home, where he worked as a servant for Amir and his father. Throughout the novel, Hosseini highlights relationships, betrayal, and redemption with a notable symbol, a kite.

Near the beginning of the story, Amir and Hassan participate in a kite-running competition,

He tells Amir “there is a way to be good again.” Upon hearing this, Amir travels from his current home in the United States to Afghanistan where he discovers Hassan has been killed and that he and Hassan are half-brothers. Rahim Khan asks Amir to rescue Hassan’s only son, Sohrab from Kabul and Amir eventually agrees. The journey to retrieve Sohrab is difficult, but they eventually make it back to the United States. Sohrab is experiencing intense post-traumatic stress from physical and mental abuse in his orphanage and a suicide attempt, so he becomes mute. At the end of the novel, Amir attempts to connect to Sohrab, by flying a kite. He tells Sohrab “Did I ever tell you your father was the best kite runner in Wazir Akbar Khan? Maybe all of Kabul?” He then asks Sohrab to help him fly the kite. Knowing that his father flew kites, Sohrab silently agrees and the two have a tender moment together. The symbol of the kite reflects Amir's recovered relationship with Hassan in that the event that once broke them has now brought together him and Hassan’s only son. The author wants the reader to see that Amir’s guilt has been fixed through