I worked with Alice on this, we discussed that the main destination in The Kite Runner is Redemption. We both came up with a few ideas- here are mine:
- Baba's redemption. In Kabul, Baba never connected with his son Amir: "If I hadn't seen him being pulled out of his own mother with my own eyes, I'd never have believed he was my son." Yet in America, Baba becomes dependant on Amir, which allows them to grow closer. "'I am moftakhir, Amir,' he said. 'Proud.'"
- You could argue that Baba's whole life was spent trying to redeem himself from sleeping with Ali's wife, Baba's servant. This is illustrated by Baba's orphanage and other good deeds he did.
- It could be argued that Rahim Khan's redemption (perhaps for not telling anyone about Hassan's rape) is helping Amir find his. After Amir has left to find Sohrab, Rahim Khan is said to have gone away and is unreachable.
- When Amir stays with Fahrid's family, he gives his watch to the children. Although he is ignorant about what the kids are really looking at, it shows Amir is on his way to redemption, and he knows what he must do.
- It could also be argued that people, and the characters in the book, are driven to do good in order to achieve redemption. An example of this would be Baba's orphanage. He does all these good things in order to excuse himself from the bad thing he has done and redeem himself. Amir is also like this, throughout his life he feels guilty of what happens, yet he drives himself in Afghanistan to find Sohrab- he takes a beating from Assef and risks lives to keep him safe.
Merry Christmas!
Another example of redemption is when Amir is 'healed at last' when he saves Sohrab and sacrifices himself for him, as Hassan sacrifed himself for Amir at the beginning of the book.
ReplyDeleteYou could say that Amir achieves redemption when Sohrab agrees to help fly the kite, seens as what Amir felt he most needed redemption for was when Hassan got raped after he had ran to get the kite, so when Sohrab joins him in flying the kite, its like he has a chance to have Hassan back and start a clean slate, like when he runs to fetch the kite for Sohrab.
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