Finding a Path to be Good Again Guilt is an emotion of a sinner, but guilt is not an emotion of evil. In fact, guilt is only felt by a conscientious individual who is aware of doing wrong, and through this strange emotion, people learn what wrong is. Therefore, guilt can be an emotion of opportunity to fix wrong if responded in the right way. However guilt can also intimidate as it is a forceful emotion that haunts people when it is not dealt with. In the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni, relinquishing guilt is a process that happens along with characters’ maturation, as they go through stages of avoidance, attempts to be good and confession of past sins. A first action taken in order to relinquish overwhelming emotion of guilt is avoidance. An act of avoiding sins is an impetuous but a natural response. After committing a despicable act, the first instinctively triggered emotion is fear. Fear obscures one’s conscience and causes a person to be cowardly and selfish. Even Baba, a man who is rich, strong, and respected; a man who seems to be perfection in others’ eyes, inevitably becomes fearful when his own sins pressure him. As …show more content…
The true relinquishment of guilt does not happen only by forgiving self, but being forgiven by a person sinned to. As Amir loses Sohrab’s trust, he confesses “[he has] done a lot of things [he] regrets in his life and maybe none more then going back on the promise [he] made [Sohrab]” (374) and tells Sohrab he will wait until he is ready to forgive. Amir sincerely apologizes for what he has done to Sohrab instead of avoiding like as he did during his childhood. Through his confession, Amir acknowledges that he is the one to blame for Sohrab’s tragic action. And he will be only able to relinquish this guilt when Sohrab gives him forgiveness and accepts Amir’s confession and apology. Therefore, guilt is relinquished by confession when there is