Kite Runner Shame
The novel The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini is about a grown man who looks back to 26 years before in his life when he was a boy in Afghanistan and looks at the events which helped shape him to become who he is now in America. There are various types of shame displayed in the text which all have a destructive force damaging them forever, this includes Amir’s shame felt from watching Hassan get raped and doing nothing about it except running away, Baba felling shameful for sleeping with Ali’s wife and getting her pregnant and Soraya is shameful for running of with an Afghan man disobeying her parents.
The novel shows Amir feeling shame throughout the whole novel as one bad decision as a child begins to haunt him forever trying to destroy him emotionally. Amir looks back to the time in his life where he watched his best friend and servant get raped whilst he does nothing about it. He holds on to this regret forever as his shame overwhelms him. When he sees Assef raping Hassan, Amir just stands there watching doing nothing about it then he “ran because I’m a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me”. Because of this situation Amir felt guilt as “the thing with Hassan was because he was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him”. Amir was responsible for Ali and Hassan moving out of their house as Amir framed Hassan to look like he was stealing despite the fact that was not like Hassan at all this was because Baba once told Amir that theft was the only sin. Because of Amir making Hassan move out, the brothers never got to see each other ever again and every time Amir heard Hassan’s name he tried to ignore it but deep down the shame was still following him everywhere as it was such a destructive force.
Baba felt shameful for sleeping with Ali wife and making her pregnant and when she ran away Baba lived with his son, Hassan, although no one would ever know that it was his as Hassan was a Hazara and “all he (Baba)
The novel shows Amir feeling shame throughout the whole novel as one bad decision as a child begins to haunt him forever trying to destroy him emotionally. Amir looks back to the time in his life where he watched his best friend and servant get raped whilst he does nothing about it. He holds on to this regret forever as his shame overwhelms him. When he sees Assef raping Hassan, Amir just stands there watching doing nothing about it then he “ran because I’m a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me”. Because of this situation Amir felt guilt as “the thing with Hassan was because he was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him”. Amir was responsible for Ali and Hassan moving out of their house as Amir framed Hassan to look like he was stealing despite the fact that was not like Hassan at all this was because Baba once told Amir that theft was the only sin. Because of Amir making Hassan move out, the brothers never got to see each other ever again and every time Amir heard Hassan’s name he tried to ignore it but deep down the shame was still following him everywhere as it was such a destructive force.
Baba felt shameful for sleeping with Ali wife and making her pregnant and when she ran away Baba lived with his son, Hassan, although no one would ever know that it was his as Hassan was a Hazara and “all he (Baba)