The kite runner

To what extent is the novel, ‘ The Kite Runner’ a story of redemption? In the novel, ‘ The Kite Runner’, written by Khaled Hosseini, is a story of a twelve year old Afghan boy, Amir seeking acceptance and approval from his father by entering a kite-fighting tournament along with his servant and friend, Hassan, the tragedy on that fateful day that tears the two boys apart forever. The Russian invasion forces amir and his father to flee to America where amir realizes that one day he will have to return to find peace within him. The novel is a story of redemption with the tale of Amir’s life which comes in full circle and redeeming himself for all the sins he had committed and had to live with, Amir learns stand up for himself and accept Hassan’s tragedy. Baba also redeems himself and helps Amir not to make the same mistakes he made. “ Your father, like you, was a tortured soul …We had both sinned and betrayed. But Baba had found a way to create good out of his remorse. ” Amir’s betrayal and insomnia began just after the kite-fighting tournament. Amir betrayed Hassan for his own selfishness for approval from his Baba. Amir described Hassan as the sacrificial lamb that he killed every year for the prophet Irahim that this was his fate, to let Hassan get raped to save the blue kite. Amir cowardly stood back and watched biting his fist to stay quite. “ Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. Was it a fair price? … He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he? ” Amir ran and acted as he didn’t see later the ‘ tiny drops that fell from between his legs and stained the snow black’. Hassan, from that moment no longer had the innocence of a child, his innocence had been destroyed, and Amir could have prevented this but didn’t help a friend in need. Hassan tried to play with Amir as usual, but Amir selfish as he is didn’t want to face his guilt and so planted his birthday watch and the ‘ blood money’ under Hassan mattress. “ I wasn’t worthy of this sacrifice; I was a liar, a cheat, and a theft. ” Ali and Hassan left the home of Amir and Baba. Baba and Amir fled to America when the Russians invaded. Amir used this country as ‘ a place to bury his memories’. Amir graduated from high school in the summer of 1983, eight years on from the terrible tragedy of Hassan, and Amir still felt the guilt of betraying him. “ A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan’s name. ” Amir envied his wife Soraya for the fact that she told her secret, she dealt with it; she had redeemed herself and was no longer bottled up with guilt. When they tried for a child, they were unsuccessful. Amir thought it was “ maybe, it was meant not to be. ” That he was not worthy to bear children, that this was his ‘ punishment’. A phone call from an old friend from Kabul, Rahim Khan, gave Amir hope to redeem himself for everything he did to Hassan as a child. To finally find peace within himself. Rahim khan asked Amir to go to an orphanage to find Hassan’s son Sohrab, and bring him back to Rahim khan who had found a couple willing to look after him. “ I think we both know why it has to be you, don’t we? ” Amir travelled to Kabul with his driver, Farid, to collect Sohrab from the orphanage. They found out from the orphanage director that he had sold him to a Talib official. Amir and Farid went to sports field the next day to find the Talib wearing sunglasses to arrange a meeting. At the meeting the next day Amir finally stood up for himself for the first time in his life. He stood up to the man that in his childhood Amir got Hassan to fight his fights for. “ For the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. ” amir returned to America with Sohrab which wasn’t speaking a word. Amir redeemed himself by saving a boy in need and adopting his half brother’s son. Baba showed redemption in a different way. He showed it in the way he treats people and the way he presents himself. “ That good, real good, was born out of your father’s remorse… and that is what true redemption is, Amir Jam, when guilt leads to good. ” Rahim Khan believed that if Baba didn’t betray his loyal friend, Ali, the way he did he wouldn’t have changed to the person amir sees him as, “ do you have to always be the hero? Can’t you just let it go for once? ” The story of ‘ the kite runner’ does posses the theme of redemption, of becoming good after betraying something bad. With the evidence of the characters Amir, Baba and Soraya. Each with a different story and a different way of redeeming themselves. The story of Amir is the main story of redeeming themselves, and towards the rescuing of Sohrab, Amirs finds out of Baba’s self salvation of betraying Ali. With the use of this theme, Hosseini is gets the readers interest through sympathy towards the character and to like them again or even more. gabby antonello 16 april 2008