...Sins and Forgiveness How could one mistake affect someone's life forever? Amir is a young boy who lived with Baba, his father, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir and Baba had secrets that affected a dramatic portion of their lives. Both had spent most of their days trying to atone the mistakes that had been made to finally be in harmony. “But it's wrong what they say about the past , I've learned about how you can’t bury it because the past claws it’s way out”(169). They both wanted to make it up to a boy named Hassan. Hassan was Amir's loyal friend and their family servant. He was also Babas child but no one had known that except Baba. Amir felt the need to make it up to Baba as well because his wife died giving birth to Amir. As a young child...
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...Forgiveness is a necessary part of human existence, although it is rarely easy to give, and sometimes even harder to give ourselves. Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner demonstrates the struggles of seeking forgiveness for past mistakes and granting forgiveness to others for theirs. Although many characters seek forgiveness, only Baba, Rahim Khan and Amir find the closure they are looking for. Baba spends his entire life seeking forgiveness for his past transgressions. He uses his connections with his community as a way to clear his guilty conscience: “I think that everything he did, feeding the poor, giving money to friends in need, it was all a way of redeeming himself” (Hosseini 316). Everything that Baba does for Kabul and its citizens, in a way, is contradictory. He does good, helping those who need to be helped, but for reasons that are entirely selfish. He hates himself for the mistakes he once made and he thinks that by being successful and by supporting those in need, he can make himself feel better, maybe even forget what he has done. Baba makes people believe he is a good man, because if everyone else believes it, then he can too. Rahim Khan says that true redemption is “when guilt leads to good” (316), so Baba is successful in redeeming himself but continues to struggle on his search for true forgiveness. Baba, who believes that theft is the only sin, steals the identity of his second son, Hassan. Baba never forgives himself for this, but he seeks forgiveness from...
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...English A The Kite Runner Ending the Cycle of Violence The movie I chose was The Kite Runner along with the theme “There is a way to be good again.” I will be focusing on the character of Amir and how he uses forgiveness to move on from his past and to end the violence. He shows this through many ways throughout the movie with different people. Amir had a tough childhood in many ways but also was very privileged. He had challenges being friends with Hassan. They were from two different social classes and Amir got teased and ridiculed because of it. When things got tough Amir froze Hassan out. For example when Hassan was physically assaulted. Finally Amir and his dad left altogether when there home got taken over by soldiers after the fall of the Monarchy in Afghanistan. Amir was so guilt tripped for leaving his friend, in the movie he takes us on his journey of how he finds forgiveness and gives forgiveness to move on from his violent past. Amir does not try to contact Hassan when he left, trying to push it behind him but the guilt is too much and he is curious to what happened to his friend. He becomes a successful writer and takes a trip back to his home and finds out Hassan was killed when things got dangerous. Amir sets off to right his wrongs and starts with Hassan’s son. He tracks him down in an orphanage and makes a plan to rescue him from the dangers of Kabul. Seeking to do the right thing and right his wrongs from the past. He tries to forgive himself through...
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...The Kite Runner Essay Questions Due Date:________________ Directions: Write a clear, concise, and coherent essay on one of the following topics. Your essay should be a minimum of 400-500 words. • Proper essay format: organized through proper paragraphing, indenting, double-spaced, typed, etc. • Clear thesis statement in the introduction, along with an indication of title and author. • Supporting quotations properly integrated (with page numbers). • Spell checked, edited, and submitted with pride. You may choose from one of the following topics. 1. Explore the way in which courage is portrayed in the novel. What constitutes true bravery? What are the key moments when characters are brave and who is the bravest character, if any? Use specific examples from the text to support your argument. 2. "Like father, like son." "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." "Monkey see, monkey do." Use one of these cliches as a starting point to consider the way characters in the story behave. Characters to consider: Amir, Hassan, Assef, Baba, Sohrab, Rahim Khan. 3. Make a list of instances in the novel where someone is forgiven. What constitutes true forgiveness? Why is forgiveness so important? You may want to consider moments between Hassan and Amir, Baba and Hassan, Hassan and Sanaubar, Amir and Sohrab, General Taheri and Soraya, and Amir and himself. 4. "The past is always there"- How is this quote central to the themes of the novel? 5....
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...The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini Novel The main protagonist in this novel would be Amir. Amir is the son of a wealthy muslim in Kabul. He is very sensitive and is always struggling for his father’s approval of him. After helplessly watching his best friend and half brother, Hassan, get raped, Amir runs off of his guilt while trying to discover a way to redeem himself. The main antagonist in the novel would be Amir’s father Baba, Hassan, Ali, Sorhab, and Assef. All the characters relate to each other in some way, shape, or form. In the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a young sunni Muslim by the name of Amir struggles to find his true path in life after experiencing traumatizing child hood events. Amir also struggles with attempting to have a strong bond with his father, Baba. Amir’s Shia’s Muslim servant, Hassan, is his best and only true friend. After Hassan is raped, their friendship was never the same. Amir and his father move to the states to escape war and terror in their home country of Afghanistan. After a few years Amir realizes that he will never be free from the history and turmoil of his homeland. Amir learns about relationships and how the relationships we have in our lives sometimes can over lap and make us into the people we are. Two major themes throughout the novel are betrayal and forgiveness. In the novel Amir deals with the guilt his has towards Hassan. Also, soon after learning about his father betrayal to Ali, Amir is disgusted with his father...
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...Forgiveness is a necessary part of human existence, although it is rarely easy to give, and sometimes hardest to give to ourselves. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini illustrates how humans have the tendency to dwell on past mistakes. As the novel progresses, the reader comes to a conclusion that is not one action, but a serious of actions that creates the characters personality and characteristics. As a child Amir longed for his father's affection and forgiveness for taking his mother's life after giving birth to him. ”Then I'd bring it home and show Baba. Show him once and for all that his son was worthy. Then maybe my life as a ghost in this house would finally be over"(Pg.56).Amir knew he had to do something courageous and honorable to earn his father's forgiveness, he had to win the upcoming kite tournament. Amir felt by winning the kite tournament Baba would finally see him in a better light. He wanted to make Baba so proud that'll he'd forget about the disappointments he brought. "All I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory” (Pg. 65). Amir was right, Baba was finally proud. Together they began to do more activities, Baba even began calling him Amir Jan. But the closer they became the farther him and his closest friend, Hassan, grew apart. Amir and Hassan were inseparable growing up. Minus the fact Hassan was Amir's servant, both loved and trusted one other. "For you a thousand times over," he said. Then, he smiled his Hassan smile and disappeared around...
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...Betrayal is something found in all places. Men and women betray each other everyday, but somehow we have the power to forgive. In the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, betrayal plays its way through the pages as a motif that haunts many of the characters. The novel progresses through the life of a boy named Amir and all the struggles he endures. He betrays others, he gets betrayed, and he learns to forgive. Amir allows his guilt to consume him and with that he becomes a man full of remorse and regrets. Forgiveness of not only others, but himself helps him overcome these hardships and allows readers to learn that yes, there is a way to be good again. Growing up wealthy in Afghanistan, Amir had a servant named named Hassan. Being the same age,...
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...Introduction Khaled Hosseini (born march 4, 1965) is an Afghan –born American novelist and physician. After graduating college, he worked as a doctor in California, an occupation that he likens to "an arranged marriage" for him. Hosseini is a relatively new author. He has published three novels in ten years. His first novel The Kite Runner is considered as first novel written in English by Afghan writer. Hosseini's works reflect a wide range of important current events and contemporary issues about ethnic tension, women, family ties, Afghan immigrant, political and social transformation of Afghanistan from 1970s to 2013. Certainly, the war of Afghanistan are encompassing in all three novels. Hosseini had received many awards for his work, all of his novels became bestsellers and the first two novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns had been adapted into movies. In this thesis, I will analyze the abuse of power in Khaled Hosseini's novels. The first novel is The Kite Runner (2003). This novel presents a story of strained family relationships between a father and a son, and between two brothers. How they deal with the guilt and forgiveness. The novel sets the interpersonal drama of the characters against the backdrop of Afghanistan, sketching the political and economical toll of the instability of various regimes in Afghanistan from the end of monarchy to the Soviet –backed government of the 1980s to the fundamentalist Taliban government of the 1990s.it also includes...
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...The definition of redemption is “The action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil” (oxforddictionaries.com). Amir, the main protagonist in The Kite Runner, watches his childhood best friend, Hassan, get raped and doesn’t tell anyone. He then goes through life living with the guilt and then trying to find redemption. The book follows Amir as he leaves Afghanistan when things went badly, and leaves to America. His good friend, Rahim Khan, tells him to come back to Afghan because “There is a way to be good again.” (Hosseini 192). Rahim has a dying wish that Amir saves Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Amir then goes through the process to try and take Sohrab to America, and by doing so he essentially receives redemption by bringing Sohrab...
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...‘The Search for Redemption’ The expression “riddled with guilt” is a good way to describe the main character‟s life, Amir, in the novel „The Kite Runner,‟ written by Khaled Hosseini. „The Kite Runner is a tale about an Afghan boy, Amir, who faces many hardships throughout his life as he grows from a boy living in a war-torn Afghanistan, to a successful writer living in America. Amir experiences many events that caused him to carry a great deal of guilt throughout his life. He needed to find a way to make amends which would allow him to forgive himself. Over the course of the novel, Amir sought forgiveness from his father, Baba; he looks for redemption for his betrayal of his friend Hassan, and by the end of his tale he manages to ease his conscience by saving Sohrab; Hassan‟s son. Guilt is a main theme that constantly occurs throughout the novel. Amir can trace his feelings of guilt back to the moment he was born since his mother died during childbirth; this causes Amir to believe that his father blames him for the absence of his mother. Amir often felt like he lets his father down, this can be seen when Amir states, „I will never forget Baba‟s valiant efforts to conceal the disgusted look on his face‟ (Hosseini, 23). This was Baba‟s, Amir‟s father, reaction to seeing Amir cry after witnessing a horseback rider being trampled to death. According to the Evidence-based CBT for Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents, a study lead by Elizabeth Sburiati, „when a parental...
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...The book that I’m comparing Atonement to is The Kite Runner, because the premise of both books are very similar: a protagonist makes an unforgivable decision and spends the rest of the plot trying to make it right. The Kite Runner is set in Afghanistan and follows Amir, a well-to-do child and his friend, a servant’s son named Hassan. A series of incidents test the nature of their friendship, and Amir ends up betraying Hassan, framing him for a crime he didn't commit. While he and his father escape to the United States when the Soviets overrun their nation and he tries to put his past behind him as he grows up, he is suddenly brought back to his country where he finds out that Hassan was actually his half-brother and that his loyalty to the...
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...Simrat Sangha Ms. Hommen ENG3U0 December 7, 2014 In the novel, “Kite runner” by Khaled Hosseini the childhood of a small town boy by the name of Amir unfolds, when we realize that he lives under a shadow of guilt. He grows up, changes and is affected by his environment –whether that is Afghanistan or California. Transforming into a portrait of an immensely likeable and dominant character. After proving himself honorable when he makes up for his mistakes, overcomes his fears and acknowledges his misdeeds. Amir is a credible protagonist as he took the recognition to become a better person and seek redemption for all his mistakes. Although at first he tried to bury his sins by forgetting the past and living in the present day America, he was called home with an unexpected opportunity to work towards forgiveness. “There is a way to be good again…Rahim Khan had said on the phone just before hanging up, said it almost as an after thought.” (Hosseini, 202) Amir’s opportunity to be “good again” appears unforeseen, when suddenly returning to Afghan seems like the only way to atone for his sins now. He seeks out for Hassan’s orphaned son, Sohrab as he risks his life in order to rescue him. Through saving Sohrab’s life in a way, Amir has saved his own. “Been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”(Hosseini, 1) This is a little teaser in the beginning of the book that hints an event that has largely defined the course of Amir’s life ever since. This foreshadows...
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...Guilt and the search for redemption are two very important themes in “The Kite Runner”, as the reader watches Amir, the main character, deal with his guilt over the betrayal of a friend and the lengths he would go to gain forgiveness. Amir has always felt guilty over the loss of his mother. She died giving birth to him and he sees himself as his mother’s killer, the one who took Baba’s “princess” away form him. Amir believes that this is the reason why his relationship with his father is so strained and spends most of his childhood attempting to win his father’s love and forgiveness. His constant need of Baba’s approval is what drives Amir to want to win the kite fighting competition, to show Baba that he could also be a winner and make him proud. Amir is convinced that if he brings Baba the blue kite he will finally forgive him for his mother’s death and truly accept him. In his search for redemption Amir commits a terrible crime when he watches his friend Hassan get raped but does nothing about it. Instead of standing up to his friend and try to stop Assef from raping Hassan he hides and after pretends he never saw anything. He tries to justify his actions by saying that if he had intervened he would have gotten hurt, but he knows that the real reason why he did not defend Hassan is that he would have lost the kite and with it Baba’s love, so he sacrifices his friend for the approval of his father. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real...
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...‘The Kite Runner’, written by Khaled Hosseni, tells the story about part of the protagonist----Amir’s life from Afghanistan to America from his own perspective. It’s a story about destiny, friendship, redemption and forgiveness. And it’s also a story about father and son’s difficult relationship, Baba is the only person who is with Amir from the start to the end. However, Baba and Amir’s relationship eventually works out. The difficulties of Baba and Amir’s relationship starts from the time they live in Afghanistan. Because of Amir’s different characteristics from Baba, Baba doesn’t like Amir in many situations. He presents his dissatisfaction and dislike towards Amir to Rahim Khan and even says if he didn’t physically see his wife’s child birth process, ‘(he’d) never believe (Amir) is (his) son’. From Amir’s perspective, Baba find it difficult to accept him because he likes books but not sports. Moreover, in Amir’s mind, it is himself who ‘had killed (Baba’s) beloved wife, (Baba’s) beautiful princess. This sort of self-accusation intertwines in Amir’s mind for a long time. It has such a deep impression that Amir can’t stop thinking about this question, ‘didn’t all fathers in their secrets hearts harbor a desire to kill their sons?’ However, from readers’ perspective, Baba’s attitude towards Amir is comprehensible, as Baba has to divide his love between his two sons. It also interprets the reason why Amir is always trying to win Baba’s love from Hassan, and teases Hassan in...
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...“Redemption” The Kite Runner Kati Hernandez 3/3/15 AP English 12 Period 1 Three Questions 1. Why do you think Baba refuses to refer to Ali as his friend? Is it the divide between servant and master? 2. Does a character like Assef even choose between good and evil? Could Assef be innocent in ways Amir is not? 3. Why doesn't Amir admire Rahim Khan as much as he admires his father? What does this tell us about admiration? Literary Criticism New historicism criticism insists that to understand a literary piece, readers need to understand the author's biography and social background. Every human action is actually the effect of a network of material practices. Every act of unmasking, critique and opposition uses the tools it condemns and risks falling prey to the practice it exposes. No discourse, imaginative, scientific, or archival, gives access to unchanging truths, nor expresses inalterable human nature. A critical method and a language adequate to describe culture under capitalism participate in the economy they describe. What makes a legend, is it someone who is a hero or someone who is infallible from making mistakes? In the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the character described as a legend is Baba. Seen as the most perfect figure to be looked at for its bravery, generosity and caring for others. His actions describe him better than words can, as he always defends others in time of need and stays loyal to his home and country...
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