The Path to Redemption free essay sample

The Kite Runner, a novel written by Khaled Hosseini tells the story of a boy, Amir, growing up in Afghanistan, living day by day with his best friend, Hassan. In Afghanistan, there are two diverse groups, the Hazaras and the Pashtuns. The Hazaras are a group of Muslims that are looked down upon in Afghanistan and are known to be the lower class, while the Pashtuns are higher in status. Amir, a Pashtun, is often mocked for having a Hazara best friend, and is frequently picked on by older boys. However, this never fazes him until one day he witnesses Hassan being raped by one of the older boys. Although Amir sees this happening, he is too afraid to step in and protect Hassan; despite all the other times Hassan has been able to defend him. This is seen as the turning point in the novel, because this forever changes the relationship he once had with Hassan due to his unending guilt for not defending his best friend. We will write a custom essay sample on The Path to Redemption or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Following this incident, Amir never wanted to forgive himself for not protecting Hassan, until many years later when he received a phone call from an old acquaintance. Answering that phone call pushed Amir to seek redemption for his past actions and leave his current home of San Francisco to return to Afghanistan and make matters right. In The Kite Runner Housseini uses psychological conflict to demonstrate the importance of redemption and to indicate that it is important for one to achieve redemption in order to reach an inner peace. In order for Amir to reach redemption he must physically fight Assef, which he failed to do so in the past, thus alleviating his guilt. When Amir returns to Pakistan for the first time in over twenty years, it is a vast shock because of the newly formed country based off of Taliban beliefs. While visiting and conversing with Rahim Khan, Amir finds out that the Taliban has murdered Hassan and his wife, leaving their son, Sohrab as an orphan. Rahim Khan requests that Amir goes to rescue Sohrab from the Taliban and bring him to an orphanage, a seemingly simple task. However, as Amir finally arrives where Sohrab is living, he faces the Taliban leader, whom he knows from the past, Assef. Once Amir realizes that Assef is the leader, he knows it is not going to be easy to just take Sohrab and leave, he knows that he and Assef have unfinished business that needs to be resolved. Eventually Assef brings Sohrab out and Amir notices that Sohrab has been abused, just as Hassan had by the same person, which brings back the feelings of guilt for Amir. Just as Amir believes he is able to just take Sohrab, Assef states that they will fight for him. Every day, leading up to this battle, Amir has fought with himself psychologically; never forgiving himself for the day he walked away from not only his own fears, but his best friend. After that day, all Amir wanted was to be punished for what he did, any kind of punishment, but it was never received. There was a day he and Hassan were outside sitting by the pomegranate tree in their backyard when Amir persistently throws pomegranates at Hassan in hopes for an angry reaction. However, Hassan never submits to Amir and his antagonizing ways, he just stands there and takes the pomegranates being thrown at him, which only angers Amir more. In Amir’s thoughts he thinks â€Å"I wish he’d give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I’d finally sleep at night† (92). Amir states that he craves a punishment, which indicates that his guilt is overwhelming his mind, consequently leading to his psychological conflict within himself. When Hassan was raped and Amir did not step in to defend his â€Å"best friend,† Amir immediately felt overwhelmed with guilt which remained with him until his fight with Assef. During his fight with Assef, Amir finally admits to himself that he feels â€Å"healed. † As the fight continues, Amir thinks to himself â€Å"For the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace†¦I felt healed. Healed at last† (289). When Amir ran away from Hassan in the â€Å"winter of 1975† he never forgave himself, but now he states that he â€Å"felt at peace† for the first time since that winter. This expresses the redemption that Amir feels due to the physical abuse Assef is thrusting upon him. After all the years of living with his guilt, he is finally freed from it after the â€Å"punishment† he coincidentally receives from Assef, the antagonist that was the sole cause of the guilt Amir had lived with for a major part of his life. Amir also achieves redemption by bringing Sohrab back to America to relieve his guilt from his haunting past of abandoning Hassan. The winter of 1975 was when the friendship between Amir and Hassan was shattered forever. After Amir witnessed Hassan being raped, and did not do anything to stop it, his mind was filled with endless amounts of guilt and ultimately distanced himself from his once best friend. This distance became so severe that Hassan and his father moved out of the house that was before shared with Amir and his father, and never returned. Years passed and finally Amir and his father moved to better their lives in America, where Amir graduated, married, and lost the only family he had, his dad. Shortly after his father’s death, Amir received a phone call from his father’s best friend, Rahim Khan asking him to return home to Afghanistan where he could find â€Å"a way to be good again† (2). Amir immediately finds a way to return to his home country only to find out from Rahim Khan that Hassan married and had a son named Sohrab. Unfortunately, Hassan and his wife were killed as an act of terrorism by the Taliban ultimately leaving their son, Sohrab as an orphan. After retaining this information, Amir is requested by Rahim Khan to find Sohrab, who is currently residing with the Taliban, and take him to an orphanage run by Thomas and Betty Caldwell. At first, Amir is hesitant to find Sohrab, but after discovering that he and Hassan are half-brothers, he feels as if this is the opportunity to reach redemption. After a strenuous battle to save Sohrab from the Taliban, Amir finally realizes that the orphanage run by Thomas and Betty Caldwell never existed and that he is the one responsible for caring for Sohrab. Although, this responsibility took Amir a long time to accept, he finally realized that bringing Sohrab to America would only change their lives for the better. Finally Amir thinks to himself â€Å"I’d been looking for the right time, the right moment, to ask the question that had been buzzing around in my head and keeping me up at night† (320). Amir admits to the fact that â€Å"the question†¦had been buzzing around in [his] head† which implies that he has been struggling with himself to bring up the question. It is possible that the question was â€Å"keeping him up at night† because he was afraid of rejection. Moving to America from Pakistan is not a simple transformation for a child who has been through more turmoil than most. However, in order for Amir to relieve himself from the guilt he has let built up inside of him and eventually reach redemption, he feels the need to bring Sohrab home to America to raise him in a proper environment. All these years Amir has never forgiven himself for abandoning the strong friendship he had with Hassan, and now that Sohrab is the only thing left of Hassan, Amir feels it is necessary to care for Sohrab in the ways Hassan could not, thus reaching redemption. When Sohrab finally agrees to return home to America with Amir and start a new life, it is complicated in the sense that Sohrab does not talk or socialize with Amir or his wife. This pains Amir and his wife Soraya, because they feel as if it is something they did for Sohrab not to connect with them. However, this does not stop Amir from attempting to connect with Sohrab. At the end of the novel, Amir, Soraya, and Sohrab attend an Afghan celebration at the park where there are kites being sold. It has been more than twenty years since Amir has flown a kite, yet this does not stop him as he approaches the kite seller. As Amir purchases the kite, in the back of his mind, he hopes that this will intrigue Sohrab and create a new bond between them. Shortly after he starts to fly the kite, Amir witnesses Sohrab share a smile which leads Amir to feel the redemption and relief he has been craving for the past twenty-seven years. Amir proceeds to state â€Å"I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on my lips† (371). This is a significant event in the novel, because this is the first time Amir truly feels redeemed. He states â€Å"a smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on my lips† proving that this is a genuine smile and how he truly has found peace within himself. This can also be proven, because in the beginning of the novel, Amir also runs, he says â€Å"In the end I ran. I ran because I was a coward† (77). Amir states he is a â€Å"coward† because he ran away from defending Hassan when instead he should have stepped in and protected Hassan â€Å"the way he’d stood up for [him] all those times in the past† thus proving the guilt that has compiled into Amir’s thoughts. When Amir ran the first time, he ran away from the problem, running away from the issues he felt as though he could not face, he ran because he was a coward and afraid of what was to come. However, at the end of the novel, Amir runs with â€Å"a smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on [his] lips† indicating that the guilt has risen from his soul and finally been replaced with a sense of redemption. Amir running towards finding the kite expresses that he has forgiven himself and is running towards a new beginning in life. Amir’s struggle to achieve redemption throughout the novel exemplifies that in order for one to reach an inner peace with oneself, it is essential to relieve guilt. Though it may seem easier to forget about the past and pretend as if certain incidents never happened, the past will always find a way to resurface, in which a person will then strive to heal old wounds. However, in order for the guilt to be relieved, a person must want to redeem themselves and attempt to make things right. One cannot simply forget about the past and expect to live a happy life, in order for a happy, peaceful life, all wrongs must become rights.