The Kite Runner Quotes Analysis

When Amir, the son of a wealthy Afghan man, witnesses a terrible act committed against his childhood best friend, he spends the next 20 years of his life trying to redeem himself from the guilt that haunts him. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a book that revolves around the main character, Amir, and his life leading up to and after he witnessed his best friend, Hassan, get raped. Amir stood by and watched the bullies attack Hassan, but he did not dare to interfere for fear that he too would face the same fate. In this moment where Amir chose to be a coward, he made a decision that he would carry with him throughout the rest of his life. The theme that was most prevalent in The Kite Runner was redemption due to guilt. This is embodied

Amir feels responsible for the death of his mother who died giving birth to him. Amir was nothing like his father, he instead was much like his mother. This leads to Amir and Baba having a strained relationship. On page 19 Amir said how “I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I? The least I could do was to have the decency to have turned out a little more like him.” This quote really shows how Amir felt about his relationship with his father. He was just a little boy who wanted his father’s love and appreciation. When the annual kite tournament came around, Amir saw it as his chance to finally redeem himself to his father. He says “I was going to win, and I was going to run that last kite… show it to Baba… show him once and for all that his son was worthy” (Hosseini 56). This is when Amir finally realizes how he was going to redeem himself, he was going to win the kite competition. Amir’s character is defined by his guilt, the book starts off with him saying, “I became what I am today at the age of

From the instant Amir failed to save his friend from being raped he became plagued with never-ending guilt. It became his ultimate and secret sin that he has carried with him since he was twelve years old. Right after Amir decided not to save Hassan, he says “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.” (Hosseini 77). This ties into the previous paragraph talking about how Amir wanted to redeem himself to his father. Amir realized that everything has a price and how his guilt from not saving Hassan was the price he had to pay to finally redeem himself in his father’s eyes. It is twenty years later when one of Amir’s old business associates Rahim Khan contacts him and tells him “there is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 2). Amir now lives in America and is married but he is still suffering from his guilt. Rahim Khan gives Amir an opportunity to finally redeem himself and be free from his guilt. Amir goes to Pakistan and learns new things about Hassan, such as how they are brothers and how Hassan was killed. Rahim Khan tells Amir that Hassan had a son, Sohrab, and how he must go and save him from the orphanage. The ending scene of the book is a kite competition like when Amir and Hassan were kids, except now it was Amir