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Thus, it is plain to see that Amir's lack of reaction in front of his friend's sufferance is not determined solely by cowardice. Hassan is raped by Assef and his friend while trying to recuperate the kite flown by Amir in the tournament. Thus, Amir allows this tragic scene to happen before his eyes, while fixing the kite that will bring him closer to Baba's affection: "Hassan was standing at the blind end of the alley in defiant stance.... Behind him, sitting on piles of scrap and rubble, was the blue kite. My key to Baba's heart."(Hosseini, 83) Amir thus deserts his friend and unconsciously thinks that he has the right to use him for his personal interest since he is his social inferior. Amir's mixed feelings for Hassan are also influenced by the sense that somehow his father prefers his friend to him. It is obvious that he does not perceive his friend as his equal, and this is why it is difficult for him to admit to Hassan's nobility of heart and his many other talents: "That was the thing with Hassan. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him."(Hosseini, 95) Through his inactivity, Amir thus participates in the terrible and unjust discrimination against his friend.
Moreover, Amir's cowardice does not stop here. To escape the pangs of guilt that he feels when he sees Hassan, he sets him up, leaving a pile of jewelry and presents that he himself had received for his birthday on his friend's bed. Hassan and...
Although Amir sees the pain that this separation causes on everyone, including his father, he is again inactive, holding on to his secret and letting thing happen. The atonement does come but only after many years when the now mature Amir returns to his country to save Hassan's son from the hands of his old enemy, Assef. Sohrab is the abused and mistreated prisoner of Assef and to redeem for his past actions, Amir decides to save him. The truth is revealed and Amir discovers that he is moreover his nephew, given that Hassan was his half-brother. Assef agrees to relinquish Sohrab only after a mortal fight between him and Amir. The action comes full circle when Sohrab unknowingly fulfills his father's threat and injures Assef in the eye with his slingshot, thus saving Amir's life. The two of them return to the United States afterwards.
The significance of this denouement is obvious: Amir not only atones for his past mistakes by saving his friend's son, but he also actively fights political discrimination and Assef's fascist terrorism. The novel is thus structured by Amir's guilt and his secret, and by the final atonement. The relationship between him and his Hassan reflects the influence of the political on individual life and on friendship especially.
Works Cited
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003.
Works Cited
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003.
Kite Runner In Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner, the protagonist Amir is haunted by his childhood memories of Hassan. The memory of Hassan's rape in the deserted alleyway resurfaces throughout the novel. This persistence of the past is one of the main themes of The Kite Runner. Recollections of his personal past, and also the history of his native Afghanistan cause Amir emotional anguish and guilt. The persistence of the
Kite Runner Annotated Bibliography Bennett, Tony. Formalism and Marxism. Routledge, 2003. In the United States, Marxist literary criticism was most important during the Great Depression in the 1930s, especially during the era of the Popular Front up to the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939. Unlike formalists, Marxists were less concerned about the formal devices, construction style and structure of art and literature as opposed to its social and economic context and political relevance (3).
Kite Runner: Character Analysis of Amir The author Khaled Hosseni wrote and published the book, The Kite Runner, in the year 2003 (Miles 207-209). It was during the year 2005 that the book became a bestseller in the United States. It was made into a movie by the year 2007, however it is considered a very challenged book. It faces many issues regarding the Afghan culture. Yet, in some way the
Her natural involvement in raising Sohrab, however, serves as a completion of Soraya's own personal redemption -- she is saving one of the many lost children of Afghanistan -- as it does for Amir, making redemption not only achievable but the natural result of its earnest pursuit. Conclusion The sins that are committed by the various individuals in the book are largely defined and described by the characters themselves. Their various
For Amir, this is the only way to redemption. The boy, he learns, is living in an orphanage in the Taliban afflicted Afghanistan. In resolution, Amir determines to travel to Kabul to bring the boy back to America and adopt him. Another character of importance is Amir's wife Soraya, who serves as a source of support and comfort to the guilt-ridden man. The story revolves primarily on Amir's response to his actions both during a childhood
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