The theme of guilt in The Kite Runner

Throughout the novel Amir is plagued by guilt. He constantly thinks about his actions, is bothered by them, but doesn’t seem to know how to resolve the situation, until Rahim Khan gives him a way.

In The Kite Runner it is like it is a genetic part of his make-up as Amir seems to have been born with the inherited guilt of his father. When he was young he blamed himself for his mother’s death and believed this was why Baba had a problem with him:

I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I? The least I could have done was to have the decency to have turned out a little more like him.

It was years before Amir learned the truth from Rahim Khan. After the death of Ali, Hassan and Baba, Amir was alone and left to not only sort out his own sins but also those of his father. Amir had learned to silence the guilt that gnawed away at him and he would need time to deal with the truth.

From the moment that he saw Hassan raped Amir defined himself by his guilt. The novel even opens with, “I became what I am today at the age of twelve.” Amir’s failure to act to prevent Hassan from being raped left him stained with guilt. He went through life with a secret sin and guilt. Amir feels unclean and realises that he is cursed. “I watched Hassan get raped … I understood the nature of my new curse: I was going to get away with it.” Amir is beginning to realise the connection and conflict between his inner desires and his behaviour. “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 learns that to win the prize there will be costs and sacrifices. Amir not only sacrificed Hassan and Ali, but he has sacrificed his own soul.

When Soraya confessed her past before they got engaged, Amir thought:

How could I, of all people, chastise someone for their past?… I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with. I opened my mouth and almost told her how I’d betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out and destroyed a forty-year relationship between Baba and Ali. But I didn’t. I suspected there were many ways in which Soraya Taheri was a better person than me. Courage was just one of them.

It would take Amir fifteen years before he would be able to tell Soraya the truth. When he gets the call from Rahim Khan Amir is set on a journey that will strip away all his protective layers. Layer by layer he loses the weight of guilt and he is able to find forgiveness. When Sohrab attempts suicide Amir prays that he lives. He asks God to forgive him but it took more time for Amir to forgive himself. Amir and Sohrab both found it difficult to forgive themselves. The fact that Sohrab feels guilt is so sad. He felt dirty because of Assef’s abuse and he even feels guilty for hurting his abuser. Amir assures Sohrab that he has done nothing wrong but his guilt and his fear of going back to the orphanage is too much to bear.

The novel ends with the first rays of hope that Sohrab is recovering mentally, emotionally and physically. Amir has put so much energy into saving Sohrab and through this journey he has also saved himself. Amir was able to finally forgive himself and he has been able to turn his guilt into good. He finds redemption.

Revision work for the holidays

You should be revising by:

• re reading ‘The Kite Runner’
• working through your notes and making study notes
• writing at least one essay on the novel

Write a 600 word essay on the following topic.

Evaluate the contribution that TWO minor characters make in a novel you have studied .

To do this well evaluate the contribution of your characters. They might:

• play a significant part in illuminating the major characters’ experience or nature, by contrast or parallel.
• have a brief but significant moment in the novel because of what is said or done.
• introduce a special tone or significance into the novel, so making an important contribution to its total meaning or effect, or helping in the reader’s understanding of theme/setting/situation.

If you don’t want to do that topic try the following one:

In what ways does the author of a novel you have studied make the reader aware of an important theme or themes?

1. Identify and discuss the theme(s)

2. Move onto “the ways” the reader is made aware of important theme/s.

Assef

It has been interesting to hear your comments on the film version of The Kite Runner. One of the most discussed portrayals was that of Assef. Many of you felt that his role needed expansion so as to show him as the fascist maniac and archetype of evil that he appears in the novel. I have added a few character notes below.

Assef is the neighbourhood bully; he intimidates the weakest children and pummels them with brass knuckles. He has an oily charm and he is able to flatter Baba. Assef is particularly good at sports and seems “the embodiment of every parent’s dream, a strong, well-dressed and well-mannered boy with talent and striking looks.” However, his eyes betray him and Amir always believed that he saw glimpses of madness in them. It is interesting that when Amir meets him again Assef is wearing sunglasses.

Even as a boy Assef admired Hitler and his vision of a pure Aryan world. Assef fits perfectly into the Taliban world because he also has a vision for Afghanistan – an Afghanistan for Pashtuns, the “pure” Afghans.  Assef is undoubtedly the villain of the novel and Hosseini not only links him to Hitler but also with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Taliban. Assef’s loss of an eye links him to the hated Mullah who like Assef was a towering figure with only one eye.

The character of Assef does not change as the novel progresses. He is unwaveringly evil and incapable of empathy or change. He matures into a sociopath and he is thrust into power by the rise of the Taliban. Assef’s paedophilia confirms him as completely evil and symbolises the destructive relationship between the Taliban and the vulnerable, disempowered people such as women and the Hazara.

The Kite Runner – Chapter 6

It is winter in Afghanistan and it is also the kite flying season. Baba buys Amir and Hassan the best kites at a specialist kite maker. Amir is a skilled kite flyer but wealth and privilege are also significent factors in his success.
As the boys prepare for the tournament Amir half-playfully tests Hassan’s loyalty by asking him if he would “Eat dirt if I told you to”. This test is another sign of Amir’s arrogance as a ruling Pashtun as well as an indication of his insecurity. The reader wonders why he has the constant need to exert power over the obviously powerless Hassan.
The tournament draws near and Baba takes a real interest in Amir and he confidently predicts he will win. Amir is worried that he won’t measure up but also hopes to bask in the glow of victory. He thinks taht if he wins the tournament that “maybe I would be finally be pardoned for killing my mother.”

Soraya

“I blinked, my heart quickening. She had thick black eyebrows that touched in the middle like the arched wings of a flying bird, and the gracefully hooked nose of a princess from old Persia – maybe that of Tahmineh, Rostam’s wife and Sohrab’s mother from the Shahnamah.”

One character that we have not discussed in any real depth is Soraya. When Amir sees Soraya at the flea market he falls in love. Soraya also suffers from the mistakes she made as a young woman, but accepts her humiliation for running away with a man and becomes a good, decent human being. Soraya is the perfect match for Amir who considers himself to be soiled and spoiled. She is instrumental in helping Amir to develop in maturity. Soraya’s honesty about her past is a lesson for Amir, “I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with.” Although she has been denied motherhood (perhaps to expiate her own sins) she is rewarded when Sohrab becomes her son and she and Amir finally have a complete family.

The Kite Runner – Chapter 5

Another day, another chapter. In this chapter the monarchy is overthrown and Amir and Hassan witness the coup. When Afghanistan changes so does the lives of Hassan and Amir, particularly because of Assef. Assef is the most evil character in the novel and he is a strong supporter of the fall of the monarchy. Assef wants, like Hitler did in Germany, to rid Afghanistan of unwanted minorities like the Hazara and save it for the Pashtuns. He uses this as a threat to Hassan. He asks Amir how he can he have someone like Hassan as a friend and Amir almost says  that Hassan is not a friend, but a servant. It would have done him no good, because Assef intends to hurt Amir as well since he and his father have “taken these people in.” Hassan bends down, picks up some stones, and pulls out his slingshot. Hassan orders Assef to leave them alone and warns him that he will take out his eye if he doesn’t. Assef backs off, because Hassan’s ability with a slingshot is wellknown. Assef, warns them  that he is a patient person and that what has happened that day is not over. Hassan and Amir  know Assef is capable of anything.

Afghanistan is declared a republic and for the next few years, life goes on as before. In 1974, on Hassan’s birthday Ali calls Hassan in, because Baba wants to speak to him. This year Baba’s present to Hassan is plastic surgery to repair Hassan’s harelip. Amir is once again jealous and thinks that Hassan’s present isn’t fair. He even wishes he had his own scar. The surgery goes well and by the following winter, Hassan is finally able to smile normally. Amir thinks this is ironic, because that is the winter that Hassan stops smiling.

So in chapter five, we see some significant events taking place – Amir once again shows his need for love and acceptance from his father, because he is envious of Ali’s tenderness toward Hassan, we find out about the bully, Assef, who has anti-social ideas that are similar to those of Hitler. Assef’s decides to attack Amir and Hassan which shows us the discrimination against the Hazara and foreshadows later events. We see that Amir is a coward, because he wants to tell Assef that Hassan is not his friend, but his servant. He is in contrast to Hassan who plans to use his slingshot against a Pashtun to save Amir. In this chapter Hassan continues to be the better of the two boys in terms of the strength of his character. We also learn that Hassan will take out Assef’s eye if he doesn’t leave them alone. This foreshadows what his son Sohrab actually does to Assef many years later under.

Hassan’s surgery is an unexpected gift for a Pashtun to give a Hazara, it leaves us wondering if there is something more in this relationship and again it foreshadows future events.Amir himself uses foreshadowing and irony when he tells us that the following winter something will happens that makes Hassan stop smiling.

Year 12 work

I am on a course today and I would like you to answer the question below and then continue with  your other work.

Discuss the difference between Baba and Ali and between Amir and Hassan. Are Baba’s and Amir’s betrayals and similarities in their relationships of their servants (if you consider Baba’s act a betrayal) similar or different? Do you think that such betrayals are inevitable in the master/servant relationship, or do you feel that they are due to flaws in Baba’s and Amir’s characters, or are they the outcome of circumstances and characters?

Essay introduction #4

This introduction is from Rose. Any comments?

Baba sighed “it May be unfair, but what happens in a few days sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime, Amir” to what extent was Baba prophetic?

Baba understood that a single day, a single moment, had the power to change a whole lifetime. That in that moment, a persons could be changed so completely, that they would live under the shadow of what happened for the rest of their life. Though Baba may not have realised it at the time, his words would be true of Amir. When Amir watched Hassan’s rape, and decided to run, he made a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his life. But what Amir doesn’t realise is that Baba too made a decision, that Baba knew first hand what it meant to make a decision and live with its consequences for the rest of his life.

Kite Runner Questions

I would like you to answer the following questions about The Kite Runner.

1. Why is it significant that Soraya is unable to bear children? In what way does this tragedy relate to Sohrab and the atonement of Amir’s sins?

2. Why is it significant that Amir runs after the kite that Sohrab has defeated? What does Amir mean when he tells him, “For you, a thousand times over?”

3. Discuss the significance of the pomegranate tree where Amir and Hassan play and read and then carve their names into the trunk.

4. How does Hosseini succeed in bringing the horror of the Taliban to life? Why did he choose the role for Assef that he did?

The Kite Runner – Chapter 4

This post will look at chapter four. In this chapter we find out about Ali. We learn that he is an orphan, the son of a Hazara couple killed on the road by two brothers who were high on drugs and alcohol. Baba’s father had been the judge who had ordered the brothers to serve in the army for a year as punishment and who had then taken Ali into his own home. Ali and Baba grew up together just as Amir and Hassan have done a generation later. Amir says Baba never referred to Ali as his friend. Amir notes that he never thought of Hassan as his friend either. He is Pashtun and Sunni and Hassan is Hazara and Shi’a and nothing will ever change that. Of course, they had also fed from the same breast and nothing would change that either.

In this chapter Amir emphasises the differences between his father and Ali and Hassan and him: there are differences of class and wealth and the two classes can never really cross into each other. Amir goes on to describe all the different activities that he and Hassan shared, such as launching pebbles from Hassan’s slingshot and watching westerns but he stresses that Hassan also fulfills the role of his servant. Amir goes to school, but Hassan doesn’t so Amir reads to him. He even carved into the pomegranate tree: “Amir and Hassan, the Sultans of Kabul.” One of Hassan’s favorite stories was about Rostam and Sohrab, a tragic tale in which two warriors battle each other and one kills the other, only to learn that he has killed his own son. One day, instead of reading the words of the epic as written, Amir substitutes his own stories. Hassan loves them and begs him to read them again the next day. Amir is so amazed at Hassan’s reaction that he sits down that night and writes his first short story. He takes it to Baba but he doesn’t show any interest in even reading it. Luckily, Rahim Khan is also there and asks to read the story. Baba is relieved and leaves the room – Amir wishes he could “open his veins and drain his cursed blood from his body.” He feels he can never live up to what his father wants and that Baba hates him. The ending of the chapter is an ominous one because the life Amir and Hassan have always known is about to come to an end.