The Kite Runner
The setting of the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini opens in San Francisco and then flashes back to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Amir, a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim, is the son of Baba, a successful businessman in Kabul, Afghanistan. Hassan, a Hazara and Shi 'a Muslim, appears as the servant’s son initially, but then Rahim Khan, Baba’s friend and business partner, reveals to Amir that Hassan is actually Amir’s half-brother. Amir treats Hassan in a narcissistic way by not understanding Hassan’s feelings and only concerned about his own safety and life. The author characterizes Amir as self-centered to embody that Pashtuns, the majority ethnic group, treat Hazara as slaves even now. Amir starts to feel guilt and remorse towards Hassan, so he chose redemption as the gateway to the freedom of his guilt. The Kite Runner illustrates a relationship of guilt and betrayal through the relationship of Amir and Hassan. The series of betrayal, guilt, and remorse keeps on being cyclical in The Kite Runner throughout characters of different era and will connect to next generations until Amir chooses redemption, the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil, and decides to break the cycle of contrition and guilt. When Amir is younger, he experiences guilt because his mother died after Amir’s birth, and his father didn’t pay attention to him because of it. He believes that the reason Baba doesn’t pay attention to him is that “[he] had killed [Baba’s] beloved