Redemption in the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseinis - Literature Essay Example

From Khaled Hosseinis, The Kite Runner, quite a number of in-depth themes come to play. The most open of these themes being the idea of redemption for ones wrongdoing in his or her past. The Afghani-American Amir, the protagonist, provides a description of his childhood years and all the issues that later on try to shape the events relative to the plot of the novel.

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It is common and naturally claimed to be in the nature of human beings to make mistakes, similar to the character Amir in the novel. It is however argued that making these mistakes is not what matters rather how an individual chooses to resolve these mistakes is what will dictate a persons fate. Amir, the main character clearly has knowledge of making mistakes, but the issue that he really fights through the entire novel is attaining redemption for the mistakes he did. It is vivid that at each stage of Amirs life, all that he is striving for is redemption. Despite the fact that he tells a lie or tries to hide from a painful truth, Amir tries to find every new thing that he will try to redeem himself for. This is the reason why redemption is a bolded theme in The Kite Runner. He tries all that he can imagine or think about to try and make peace for the mistakes he committed in his past. The novel also brings out the aspect of conflicts among the characters. There is a conflict of person vs. person majorly covered under Amir and Baba which is not shown directly but both have a clash in views. Baba wished to have a more athletic and a physically capable son. He proceeds to say that if I hadnt seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, Id never believe hes my son.

From the age of twelve, Amir has also been struggling with his sin against Hassan, majorly because of the fact that he had not come to the rescue of his friend. He chose to be a coward when Hassan was raped. Just few days after the incident, guilt is already drilling through his conscience, I said to no one he proceeds to say .a part of me was hoping that someone would wake up and hear All those years he feels that he should have done something or at least taken an action to help his friend Hassan. He however feels awful due to the fact that he had chosen to do nothing and due to this nagging guilt, Amir is incapable of living a peaceful life as he grows up. As the lays in the dark, he feels the pain of guilt biting down into his spin, chocking life out of him as he slowly peruses through his thoughts. The idea that he will get away with the kind of betrayal he portrayed makes him feel even more terrible. He resolves to ignore Hassan as the cure for the remorse he was feeling. He chooses to lock out Hassan due to the fact that he cannot be able to handle the fact of even sharing the same roof with Hassan.

The in-depth guilt he feels due to the Hassan case makes him commit another sin. Amir goes ahead to lie to the father accusing Hassan of stealingI took a couple of the envelopes of cash from the pile of gifts and my watch, and tiptoed outI lifted Hassans mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under itI knocked on Babas door and told what I hoped would be the last in a long line of shameful lies." The urge to avoid Hassan makes Amir to have himself in the jaws of yet another awful sin by framing Hassan to being a thief of his property. Amir now proceeds to imagine that his life can be much peaceful after separating himself from his friend Hassan. This however doesnt prove to being close to what he anticipated as his burden just became heavier over time. The intense guilt that he carried with him comes back to haunt him much later in life. Amir has a dream about Hassans death and he actually sees himself in it. I see the barrel first. Then the man standing behind him. He is tall, dressed in a herringbone vest and a black turbanThe rifle roars with a deafening crack. I follow the barrel on its upward arcI am the man in the herringbone vest." The weight of the guilt he experienced becomes too much that he even pictures himself responsible for Hassans death.

From the flow of the novel, guilt becomes a major theme considering all the betrayal and lies that character such as Amir had exposed himself to. Guilt is seen to worsen over time and can get to a point that it has a major impact on the decisions individuals make. Guilt also possesses the power to destroy ones life if he or she does not own up to his or her sins and confess them. The point of confession then draws in redemption. We seek redemption at that point in life where the wrongs in our pasts have set up a wall so huge that has separated us from the beauty of having a free mind and peaceful heart. Redemption comes in at the point where we need to rebuild and to reconcile with the darkness that is clogging our hearts and thoughts. Guilt has proven to be a major factor that broke the characters of the novel. From the beginning, guilt is portrayed as a genetic makeup passed down to Amir from his father. When he was young he blamed himself for his mothers death and he deeply believed that it was the reason why Baba had a problem with him. He says, I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadnt I? The least I could have done was to have the decency to have turned out a little more like him. Every time the kite competition was happening, Amir took it as an opportunity to prove to his father that he was capable of being the ideal son he expected. This was his way of seeking redemption of the fact that he was less of what the father had expected of him. Amir sees his father as the perfect father figure due to the fact that everyone looked up to him. He however brings a rift between Ali and his father, Baba, when he goes ahead to frame Hassan as being a thief. This is again an extra burden of guilt that he is left with even to his adult years after the death of his father and Ali.

Apparently Amir is able to survive his childhood, makes quite a good life for himself and goes ahead to marry a very beautiful Afghan woman by the name Soraya. There is however one thing that he is deprived of, the ability to have children. The characters inability to have children of his own could be looked at a coincidentally symbolizing the need for him to proceed to making amendments for the mistakes and sins he committed in his past. Going back to the time before Amir and Soraya were engaged, Soraya was able to confess her past to Amir and something made Amir admire her even more. He wished that he could have been like her, to have the strength and courage to set the past free from inside him. He said to himself, How could I, of all people, chastise someone for their past? I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with. I opened my mouth and almost told her how Id betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out and destroyed a forty-year relationship between Baba and Ali. But I didnt. I suspected there were many ways in which Soraya Taheri was a better person than me. Courage was just one of them. A few years later, Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan one of his fathers old friends. On the verge of his death, he tells Amir to go visit him in Afghanistan. It comes clear to Amir later that the reason for Rahim having called him was not to see him before his death; rather he wished to help Amir on the journey to seeking the redemption he so dearly wished for. Rahim Khan had known about the kite competitions for Amirs entire life and he believed that he had just the way that Amir could now set things right. A way that would help him seek the forgiveness he so wished, the punishment he believed he was worthy of that could finally open a door to his redemption and avail peace to his heart. Hassan, who had by that time passed on, had a son who was left as an orphan. The Taliban had taken over Afghanistan and had ruthlessly murdered Hassan together with the wife. Hassans son, Sohrab, had been taken by the Taliban group as a form of payment to the orphanage. Rahim Khan now proceeds to challenge Amir to rise up and go find the young boy and offer him a good proper home where he can live peacefully and grow up to be a capable young man. Amir says to himself, I have to make things right again. In order for Amir to set things right and have the redemption from the past that deeply haunted him, he has to go and find Sohrab. Sohrab becomes the ultimate symbol of redemption in Amirs life. Even at the point where Sohrab tries to kill himself, Amir prays the he may live. Amir seeks forgiveness from God but it took quite a long time for him to be able to forgive himself. Amir and Sohrab both found it hard to forgive themselves. They both had heavy hearts full of sorrow and pain that was eating into them making them feel less worthy to even live. Sohrab felt dirty due to Assefs abuse and even feels more quilt for having injured his abuser.

At this point, the characters start rebuilding. With the onset of redemption, each character is now able to start on a clean page. Finding Sohrab was Amirs biggest achievements. This proved to be the ultimate redemption for all the sins and evil that had haunted him for so many years. He failed to stand up for himself and others in his childhood but he sets this right in his adult years by taking a road that sort to teach him courage, sacrifice and the need to fight for the people who matter in our lives, no matter how less important we might think they are. Amir has gone through a lot in life but one thing that is certain is that he has always found a way to redeem himself. Lies and covering up of truth has proven to break down the major characters in this novel. Nevertheless, the road to rebuilding is not easy as one seeks redemption. Redemption is the first step to starting afresh but the search for it may not always be easy as witnessed in the case of Amir. The novel comes to an end with the emerging rays of hope that Hassans son, Sohrab, is gradually recovering mentally, emotionally and also physically due to the conditions he was exposed to. On the other hand, Amir put so much emphasis in saving Sohrab and which along the way, he also saved himself.

Works Cited

Hosseini, Khaled. The KIte Runner. New York: The Berkeley Group, 2005.