Redemption In The Kite Runner

In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses the motif of the desire for redemption, specifically how Amir and Baba feel about their impact on the world in comparison to the magnitude of his sins, to present the fact that the reluctance to face the undesired elements of one’s history will not provide shelter from remorse, and the only method of redemption is forgiving oneself.
Hosseini shows us Amir’s desire for redemption and how his reluctance to face his past only led to temporary satisfaction and not lasting peace of mind. During Amir’s search for Sohrab, he is involved in a physical conflict with Assef, who has become part of the Taliban that invaded Afghanistan. Assef offers to fight for Sohrab, to which Amir, with no other choice, agrees.

“What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this”(Hosseini 289). As Amir is being beaten, he starts to remember what had happened in his childhood during “the winter of 1975”. During that time he had not only watched Hassan be abused by Assef, but also had started to abuse Hassan himself due to his own self-hatred. During Amir’s fight with Assef, he started to laugh not because he was enjoying the moment, but because he had realized that he had finally reached a moment where his mind was at peace, which was when he was being brutally beaten. Amir claims that he had been looking forward to this since he believed that this was a form of punishment for what he has done in the past. Although he reaches a

When Amir receives the letter from Rahim Kahn, not only does he realize that his father had done many positive contributions to the world in an attempt to redeem himself, but he learns that Baba had also been suffering from remorse. Although this is the case, Rahim Kahn concludes that “good, real good, was born out of your father’s remorse. Sometimes, I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good”(Hosseini 302). Rahim Kahn believes that the good deeds that were committed by Baba were his attempted method of redemption, not only for the individuals who suffered from his sins but for himself. We can see a correlation between Baba and Amir’s similar issues when Rahim Kahn claims “When he saw you, he saw himself. And his guilt. You are still angry and I realize it is far too early to expect you to accept this, but maybe someday you will see that when your father was hard on you, he was also being hard on himself. Your father, like you, was a tortured soul, Amir Jan”(Hosseini 301). When Baba saw Amir, he constantly saw guilt and the sins that he had committed, which he attempted to avoid. Baba tried to redeem himself for the sins