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The Kite Runner Close Reading Analysis

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Recommended: The kite runner as a struggle for redemption

Close Reading of The Kite Runner The book The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, tells the tragic story of two boys, Amir and Hassan, who, despite being master and servant, manage to be friends in a torn Afghanistan. However, in an incident during which Hassan is raped, Amir stands by,watching, and then he runs away. The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, who is attempting to recover from his betrayal of Hassan, which has landed him where he is now. The last pages of this novel specifically target his redemption, with Hassan’s son Sohrab. The entire book, by being about Amir’s fall from grace, denotes a key idea: to advance in your future, you must first face your past. In the last pages of this riveting book, this theme is developed through …show more content…

Amir has not mentioned his betrayal of Hassan to anyone, and ran away to America to escape his past. If Amir hopes to rewrite his past to move forward into his future, he must first “read” the old one. Amir decides to tackle this problem and as a result of this, “I smelled turnip qurma now. Dried mulberries. Sour oranges. Sawdust and walnuts. The muffled quiet, snow-quiet, was deafening. Then, far away, across the stillness, a voice of a man who dragged his right leg”(pg 370). Amir is beginning to face his past, by remembering the people he had betrayed, as well as the childhood he had with Hassan. Amir equates Sohrab with Hassan, because when Sohrab flies the kite in these last pages, Amir sees the “chipped-nailed, calloused hands of a harelipped boy”(pg 370) i.e. Hassan. This imagery further sets the scene for Amir to face his past, for not only is he where he fell from grace, but he is less than three feet from the person he betrayed. Then, something interesting happens- “Watch, Sohrab. I’m going to show you one of your father’s favorite tricks…(pg 369) Amir’s portrayal as a character is beginning to change. This new characterization places Amir in an important role- the teacher and the close family friend. Perhaps by extension, a father…… like Hassan. Amir has remembered his past, the first step into advancing into his future. But can he forgive himself for the betrayal of his best …show more content…

For years, these words have haunted Amir with self-loathing and made the knowledge of his betrayal even more painful for him. Yet on page 371, Amir says those exact words to Sohrab. This shows Amir has forgiven himself for the former betrayal of his friend, becoming like Hassan in the aspect that Hassan always forgave others, no matter the crime. This use of characterization (as well as literary symmetry) shows Amir has forgiven himself, the second and last step in the process that will allow him to advance into his future, by facing his past. “But I’ll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting”(pg 371). This metaphor (and irony- he used to hate spring) shows the long cold winter of Amir not facing his past has been replaced with a renewed spring of uncertainty (the

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Since he was a child, Amir has been struggling with the guilt he has because of his betrayal to Hassan. Khaled Hosseini uses the theme of redemption to show the reader the difficulty of Amir trying to make up for his actions. Amir goes through many difficult trials through his life but the most prominent is the road to redemption he goes on to forgive himself for his betrayal to Hassan. At the beginning of the novel we see Amir in America answering a call from Rahim Khan. After the call Amir says “That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it.

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The author provides the reader with mixed feeling about Amir. In his childhood in Kabul Amir comes off as heartless person. He is this because he has done evil stuff in his life. In the beginning of the story something bad happens to Hassan, Amir says,¨In the end, I ran.

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A significant point when Amir understands that he must change his actions was at Baba’s funeral, “Listening to them, I realized how much of who I was, what I was, had been defined by Baba and the marks he had left on people’s lives… now he was gone. Baba couldn’t show me the way anymore; I’d have to find it on my own. The thought of it terrified me.” (Hosseini, 174) This thought process was the start of Amir’s personal journey; it was what led him to return to Afghanistan and later to adopt Sohrab.

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For you, a thousand times over” (Hosseini, 2003, p. 371). Amir finally feels that he has earned redemption from his mistake. Redemption is a difficult to achieve, and it can only be gained by learning from your mistake and changing. When Amir made his mistake, he didn’t learn from it. His problem was being scared of confrontation.

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The next morning, Amir mirrors an action he committed twenty-six years earlier with a different purpose. He “planted a fist full of crumpled money under a mattress” for Farid’s family to show gratitude and so they would be able to feed their hungry kids (242). As he reminiscences back to the first time he did this, his tone is no longer remorseful and abashed. In fact, the more selfless actions he accomplishes, the more he starts to embrace the changes in his behavior. Amir progresses to forgive himself for getting Hassan and Ali kicked out by counterbalancing it with his selflessness in giving Farid’s family

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After rescuing Sohrab from Assef, Amir feels like he is making up for not being there for Hassan. Amir did something that was truly brave and noble. By saving Sohrab and giving him a better life in America, Amir was able to find a way to be good again. Just like Rahim Khan said he would over the phone. Amir will never be able to fully forgive himself for what happened in the winter of 1975, however, by working to become a better person, he can slowly redeem himself and move forward with his life.

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He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again,.. the last time." (Hosseini 89-90.9) After this act of Amir’s the reader’s pity for Hassan develops, as does their hatred towards Amir. This occurrence, in spite of the shame Amir bears throughout his life, shows Amir's misuse of Hassan for his own

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In the novel The Kite Runner we often see a connection between past and future events. The thing with the past always being there is the things you’ve done in the past that haven’t been atoned for come back to bite you in the butt. It also shows how history seems to repeat itself. The same themes that are around when Amir and Hassan are playing as children are around when Amir is called to go back to Afghanistan to “be good again” by Rahim Khan . Amir as a child is very selfish he’s stuck between knowing in his heart that he and Hassan have a close relationship and wanting to deny it because he is Pashtun while Hassan is Hazara.

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Amir does not like the choice he makes, to be a coward, when Hassan is raped. Amir immediately feels guilty and it gnaws at him. A couple of days after Hassan was raped, Amir’s guilt grows as well as his resentment. “I watched Hassan get raped… A part of me [hoped that] someone would wake up and hear, so [that] I wouldn’t have to live with this lie anymore…

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Although, Amir shows many acts of kindness and selflessness, in the end, he was not able to truly redeem himself. To begin, Amir started his journey to redemption with conviction and confession although he was not very successful. The guilt bothered Amir very often even in his adulthood when he believed he had been denied “fatherhood for the thing [he] had done.” (188) Almost immediately after Amir watched Hassan get raped he believed he had done something wrong. He believed he could not have children with Soraya because he did not help Hassan, but he does not confess until more than fifteen years later.

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Thus, glancing towards either direction to make sure that ‘the coast is clear’. He deprives Hassan and Ali from the house they have served faithfully for a long time, thereby stealing the truth from Hassan and depriving them of a home they knew well. Amir is driven by both the greed for his father’s attention and the guilt of being helpless when Hassan was raped. The reason why he couldn’t remain under the same roof as Hassan was because he felt guilty that he hadn’t tried to stop the rape and save his friend. The reason why he couldn’t step in to save his friend was because he was not strong enough and wanted to please his father at any

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The main character had to manage his father’s neglect while growing up. All Amir really wants is to be “looked at, not seen, listened to, not heard” (Hosseini 65), and while this conflict shapes the way that Amir grew up, readers are exposed to the

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Amir is not capable of asking for forgiveness from Hassan. He rather have the guilt reside in him then apologize. His reluctance to apologize for his actions prolongs the time he holds his guilt. Amir’s pride had stopped him from ever fully redeeming

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He resists for Amir whom he loves with his whole heart. Amir witnesses this struggle, but he does nothing; he runs away since “he was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 77). Amir has always believed, deep down, that his father favored Hassan, a Hazara, the dirt of Afghan society, over him, his own son. Seeing Hassan reduced to that level of baseness is perversely satisfying for him.

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To undo this guilt he does different actions in the positive way that show how his actions are now used for positive good deeds. Amir grows to become someone willing to die for Sohrab and believes Sohrab to be a part of his family which is ironic because Hassan was never able to become a part of their family due to social pressures. After Amir recognizes that Hassan knew all along Amir has a bigger feeling of guilt which is only washed away through constant deeds. One service is when Amir places the crumpled money for a positive outcome rather than to chase someone out, “ Earlier that morning, when I was certain no one was looking, I did something I had done twenty-six years earlier: I planted a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress ( 242) ”. As Amir grows as a character after ridding himself of different guilts he develops and grows by changing different actions that he has committed in the past as a sin.

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