The Kite Runner

Ronny Yaya
English 11
The Kite Runner Essay
April 21, 2011

“Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.” Amir, the main character in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, has an entire life full of guilt and full of lack of attention. Amir always feels as if he has to work for his father’s appreciation. Amir strives to redeem himself by trying to prove his abilities to his father, by searching punishment, and by always wanting to have Baba all to himself. Early on in Amir’s life, Baba and he are not very close. Baba says this to his friend Rahim Khan as they discussed Amir’s lack of character. “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son.” (23) Amir overhears this and is why Amir feels like he is just not good enough for his father. He feels he needs to prove himself to be worthy of his father during the kite contest. The words he says during the kite contest were, “I was going to win, and I was going to run that last kite. Then I’d bring it home and show it to Baba. Show him once and for all that his son was worthy.” (56) Amir always takes his father’s judgment toward him to consideration; he feels like he needs to impress Baba and never feels comfortable with him because he feels he is always judging him. How can it be any different, though, after hearing his father say that he is ashamed of him because he doesn’t think he’s strong enough? When Amir actually wins the kite contest, Baba starts treating him very nicely and shows him he’s proud. Amir’s reaction to this special treatment was feeling guilt for Hassan. However, Amir was finally getting close with his father and he says, “And that right there was the single greatest moment of my twelve years of life, seeing Baba on that roof, proud of me at last.” (66) Baba has a lack of character because he only shows Amir he is proud of him when Amir proves he is skillful or better than others. Amir is a troubled child because of his father’s lack of character. When one has a son or daughter, they must show them they’re proud of them at all times because, if not, the child will think he or she is not loved. When Amir graduates, Baba shows him he’s proud and Amir’s words for describing the scene were, “He walked to me, curled his arm around my neck, and gave my brow a single kiss, ‘I am moftakhir, Amir’ he said. Proud.” (131) Baba’s change after immigrating to the United States is what helps Amir to forgive himself and changes his hatred towards his father into love. He had always been mad that his father was never proud of him and, for this, he was always trying to prove himself worthy of his father. However, when Baba changes, Amir gains the peace with himself and stops hating himself. Baba not treating Amir with love was adverse for Amir. He was guilty of betraying Hassan but he only did this because he did not want to dishonor his father. If Baba were to hear about Amir lacking the character of a strong courageous boy he would eternally be ashamed of him, he felt. Assef had raped Hassan, and Amir witnessed it all, yet he said nothing to anyone about it. Amir could not get over the fact that he did nothing about it and he became an “insomniac.”(86) Not sleeping and not being able to get Hassan out of his head, Amir wishes that anyone knew about his cowardly actions and punished him for them. “I hurled the pomegranate at him.” (92) Amir pelted Hassan with pomegranates after all the harm he has done to him he hurts him more by hitting him with pomegranates. This action, though, was not Amir trying to be prerogative, or because he hated Hassan. He wanted to anger him so he would hit him back and get what he feels he deserves. He wanted to be able to sleep at night. Amir wasn’t a big fan of that he had betrayed Hassan and no one notice. To redeem himself he felt he needed to get punished, to sort of “call it even”. When Amir is getting the beating of a lifetime as he is trying to save Sohrab, Hassan’s son, from Assef’s evil and perverted clutches, Assef’s remark was, “WHAT’S SO FUNNY?’ Assef bellowed. Another rib snapped…”(289) Amir was laughing, even though he was getting severely beat by Assef, even nearly dead he still laughs. Amir feels at peace for once after what he had done to Hassan. Amir got what he yearned for for about twenty-five years and this is his redemption. Although this made him elated in a way, he was close to death. In short, Khaled Hosseini stresses out the theme of redemption. Amir was a troubled soul who lacked the love of a father. He redeemed himself in the end by taking care of Sohrab for Hassan and by forgiving himself. Baba helped a lot, though, by showing him the love of a father in his last years, leaving him calm. If Baba had been more meticulous in caring for Amir by showing him a father’s love since birth, then Amir would have been a different person. He would not have lacked as much courage because he would have had Baba by his side and Amir would not have to have gone through all of the pain of redeeming himself.