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  • Essay / Guilt and Perseverance as Motivation in "The Kite Runner"

    The present article explores guilt and perseverance in The Kite Runner as motivation for an individual to seek redemption and achieve the satisfaction of personal fulfillment . Developed through the first-person narrative mode, the novel is structured as the memory path of the protagonist Amir whose feeling of remorse and guilt for the sin of having left behind his always faithful friend Hassan, for reasons far too vague, forces him to commit acts of atonement through return. Amir's return to his homeland, tarnished and torn by war, fundamentalism and the turbulence of a Taliban-led regime, reveals his journey toward identity and redemption. Unlike Changez in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, in The Kite Runner Amir faces no sense of identity crisis in his adopted country. He feels rather alien when he returns to the changed realities of his hometown, Kabul. Amir's journey home in search of Hassan's surviving son Sohrab is filled with conflict, violence and violation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In the novel, the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is a volatile plane of clashes and clashes of identities and loyalties. As Seyham describes, the border inherently carries with it an idea of ​​perpetual movement and confrontation (201). The border is thus transformed almost into a real space in which confrontations between cultures, nationalities and languages ​​take place, and in which, ideally, the culture of hybridization replaces the traditional idea of ​​a national identity. Amir is a cultural hybrid which makes him distinct and unique. Thus, the novel revolves around the central axiom of the personal self imbued with prejudices and political permutations. Throughout life, everyone will face personal battles and guilt, some big and some small. parents a little white lie. People find peace of mind by making amends, in other words, we do something that makes up for the cause of the guilt. Khaled Hosseini's novel "The Kite Runner" revolves around betrayal and redemption. Redemption is the act of saying or being saved from sin, error, or evil, which the main character Amir seems to need most. Amir lives with the guilt he has accumulated over the years because of an incident from his childhood. The words of Amir's father still echo in his head: "A boy who does not want to defend himself becomes a man who cannot resist anything." p. 24. Although Amir has destroyed the lives of many people and has had more than one opportunity to redeem himself from his guilt, he is no longer the selfish little boy he once was. How often do we stop and ask ourselves, “How will this affect everyone in my life?” » Amir had a chance in the alley, to put Hassan first and change the path of both of their lives, but he made the decision to turn around and run because this was it. that he thought was best for him: “I had one last chance to make a decision. One last opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could walk into that alley, defend Hassan like he had defended me all those times in the past, and accept whatever happened to me. Or I could run. Finally, I ran. I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt. That's what I said to myself as I turned my back on the alley, on Hassan. That's what I made myself believe. In fact, I aspired tocowardice, because the alternative, the real reason why I was running, was that Assef was right: nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to kill to win Baba. » Amir's selfish ways were the result of his father's lack of affection in his life. As a young boy, he was forced to deal with his father's disinterest in him, which made him incredibly jealous of Hassan. Amir could not understand at the time why his father adored his servant's son more than his own son. As tension increases between Amir and Hassan, Amir can no longer stand seeing Hassan every day because of what Amir hadn't stopped and he couldn't stand seeing his father show love to Hassan and not to him. Hassan and his father are forced to leave their house after Amir places his watch under Hassan's pillow and accuses him of stealing it. Hassan didn't even deny the accusations because he understood what Amir was doing. “Hassan knew it. He knew I had betrayed him and yet he saved me once again, perhaps for the last time. p.111Even after the alleged theft of the watch, Amir's father is willing to forgive Hassan, which stunned Amir and made him realize that his father's love for Hassan is greater than he realizes. 'imagined. Amir didn't just ruin Hassan's life; he also ruined many people's lives with his decisions after the alley incident. Baba lost the opportunity to see his son Hassan grow up and also lost the opportunity to bring him to America so he could start a new life. Sohrab lost both his parents to the war because they were still living in Afghanistan, lost his childhood to the war, and attempted suicide because Amir went back on his promise to protect him from the orphanages. Soraya lost her right to the truth when Amir kept her past a secret even though she told him about hers. It's one thing to destroy your own life through guilt, but it's quite another when you destroy the lives of others. Before Amir can embark on the path to redemption, Amir must realize that he cannot go back and change what he has experienced. he did it as a child, and he needs to find inner peace. Although without Amir's actions as a child, Sohrab would never have needed to be saved in the first place, but saving Sohrab, the latter part of Hassan's life, makes a difference. From the moment he chose to turn his back on Hassan, there was every chance that "There's a Way to Be Good Again" p. 238 for all his wrongdoings, but he chose not to accept any of them. Sohrab was his last and only chance at redemption. “I have a wife in America, a home, a career and a family.” But how could I pack my bags and go home when my actions could have cost Hassan a chance to achieve the exact same things? And what Rahim Khan revealed to me was a game changer. Made me understand that my whole life, well before the winter of 1975, going back to the time when this Hazara singer was still breastfeeding me, had been a cycle of lies, betrayals and secrets. p.238Amir admits that he cost Hassan a chance at a good life and that he had many opportunities to change the outcome of Hassan's life. But in that moment, he realized that he could lose everything he had built in America, but for the first time in his life, Amir didn't just care about himself, he accepted what he had done and was ready to make amends. at all costs. Amir ultimately became the man who stood up for himself and his sins. Throughout his childhood, Amir craved his father's affection and he was never able to get it. His father told him: “I.