Theme Of Deception In The Kite Runner

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Honesty is the Best Policy Why would a person lie to his sons about their identities? What problems could these lies cause in the long run? How can they influence a person’s life and choices? In the Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Baba, Amir, and Hassan face these problems. Baba lies, and Amir and Hassan are influenced by the deception, and Amir’s life is changed as a result. Deception leads to immense suffering and unintended consequences; Hosseini harnesses character’s internal conflicts to showcase the suffering and consequences the character’s had to cope with as a result of deception. Baba was very self-conscious about his image, and as a result he chose to lie to Amir and Hassan about their true fathers without thinking about the possible consequences. Baba thought he was justified in lying because he wanted to protect his Pashtun pride. In lying, Baba contradicted his beliefs; as he had told Amir “There is only one sin….. that is theft” (Hosseini 18). Baba, a thief himself, thought that his lies were going to help only him, and that they were not going to influence anybody’s relationship. He was wrong. Baba’s lies are considered a theft because they robbed Amir and Hassan of a special connection they would have shared as brothers. His “theft” caused many more problems than he might have anticipated; his lies split both …show more content…

Although Baba lied to protect himself, he ended up stealing Amir’s and Hassan’s knowledge that they were brothers. Baba’s lies forced Amir to make decisions he would later regret and caused him terrible suffering because Amir thought he was fully guilty of driving out Hassan and Ali. Lies sometimes come out to be harmless, but in most cases they create many more problems than they were intended to