English Orals
#3 focusing on the importance of the past and how ‘The Kite Runner’ shows no matter how deeply it might be buried, it finds a way to re-surfacing
Have you ever tried to run away from your past? And did it work for you?
Well in the book we learn that a lot of characters try to run away from their past, for instance Baba hiding the fact that Hassan is also his son or when Amir witnessed Hassan being raped. They all tried to run away from their past but it all caught up with them in the end, like Amir said “My past was like that always turning up”.
There is no way to hide from your past, whether you try to run away from it or bury it as deep as you can because the past always claws it way out. An example could be Amir trying to forget that he was a bystander to Hassan’s rape. He tried to forget everything, delete everything that happened about that night. ‘But even though life goes on memories remain forever’. He lied about Hassan stealing his watch and money thought chasing Ali and Hassan away might help him forget or ease his pain .When he received that phone call from Rahim Khan saying there is a way to be good again, he knew that it was time for him to face his fear. Going back to Kabul frightened him, he was about to face his deepest fear, everything in Kabul changed it was not the same. He wanted to make his father proud and be the brave man his father expected and longed for, just like Hassan.
Sometimes it’s not always our guilt that forbids us to forget but the judgement of people in our community. When she ran away with her older boyfriend and moved in with him, she was seen as a disgraceful girl with no respect in the Afghan community. Soraya status is later restored when she gets married to Amir who’s a much respected man in the afghan community.
Sometimes keeping a secret could be the cause of our death. In Baba case we learn that the cause o his death could be keeping the secret that Hassan was his son. When his diagnosed with cancer he refuses the treatment, possibly because he has accepted that was his punishment for his ‘sin’. On the end Baba dies as a tortured soul.
Furthermore we learn that we the past cannot be forgotten or ignored but we can make peace with it. The kite runner illustrates that we learn from our mistakes which helps to be better people and more accepting of others. Like Amir said,’for the first time since the winter of 1975 I felt at peace… Healed at last ‘
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