kite runner essay

Analyse how the weaknesses and/or strengths of a character relate to an idea.

Intro

The novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini shows us how the weaknesses of Amir take a toll on his life and cause him even more pain from his guilt. The weakness that are shown to us by Amir are cowardliness, disloyalty and selfishness. These weaknesses link to the idea of guilt. Throughout the novel we learn that guilt plays a big part in the novel and is the main idea that is shown through Amir’s life.

First paragraph

In the novel, Amir’s guilt is firstly shown when Amir leaves Hassan in the alleyway and doesn’t defend him. Because of this, Amir reflects on the incident for his entire life. In the start of the book when Amir is reflecting on this event he says “I ran because I was a coward. I ran because I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt ”. The use of this quote show how being a coward was the start of Amir’s long life of regret and guilt that was caused by his own fear and selfish nature. This contributes to the idea of guilt as it is the start of his long trip of guilt. We see many more incidence later throughout the book where his guilt seems to driver to his life as it is a reminder to himself of what not to do. Amir also mentions “The past always claws it way out”. The use of this quote shows how much Amir’s past was effected by a single cowardly action. This action caused such a resonating felling of guilt that it still effects Amir into his late life. This quote also adds to the idea of guilt as Amir knows how much effort he puts into trying to hide his past he will always be reminded of flaws such as being a coward. But also shows his mistakes such as leaving Hassan behind. Khaled Hosseini’s purpose of this section of the book is to show us that guilt is a feeling that can stay with you forever you can never forget what you did when you do something ‘wrong’ .

second paragraph

In the novel, Amir shows disloyalty as a trait that has been a contributor to his long life of guilt as it is one of his many weaknesses that weighs him down in his life. Amir shows this disloyalty to us when he tries to get rid of Hassan to get rid of his problems. As Amir is setting up the attempt to get rid of Hassan he thinks to him self “I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief. And I would have told, except that apart of me was glad. Glad that this would be all over with soon”. The quote highlights Amirs disloyalty as it shows how much he is thinking of himself as it says he is a “thief”. This is the only crime that his father sees and it shows how Amir is stealing the right of the truth from his father and Hassan. This quote adds to the idea of guilt as no matter the amount of lies that Amir spills it will never be enough to cover up his shame and guilt as his guilty conscience. All of these lies and shameful actions that keep Amir from moving on as they act like anchors to this guilt weighing it down and keeping it present. Later in that same part of the book Amir goes up to his fathers study “I knocked on Baba’s door and told what I hoped would be the last in a long line of shameful lies.” This quote shows us how much of a effect his guilt has on his morals as he has a sad sort of sense to this quote. This tells us that Amir does not like how he has to lie to be able to make himself feel better as he feels “shameful”. This adds onto the idea of guilt as all of the lies Amir tells have even more of an emotional impact on him as it impacts his morals as he has now become a thief. The purpose Khaled Hosseini is trying to show us is that you can’t just move on even when the thing you feel guilty about isn’t around. Out of sight isn’t always out of mind.

third paragraph

In the novel, Amir shows selfishness as a trait that has been adding to his life of guilt as it his main weakness that is shown in life as he is very self centered and all of his decisions made involve selfishness. Amir displays selfishness in many ways but the one we see later in the book is when Amir wants to leave sohrab behind in Afghanistan after saving him and clearing his guilt. “Why me? Why cant you pay someone here to go?”. This quotes shows us how Amir is only thinking for him as he sees no benefit to his life cause. He shows his selfish self and has no thought of what this could do to change his life. This quote adds onto the idea of guilt with how it shows Amir will always think for himself. The more he does this the more it adds to his guilt and it all just keeps adding onto the list of things Amir has to fix in his life. Another quote that displays Amir’s selfishness is “I opened my mouth, I almost said something. But I didn’t. I just watched paralyzed”. This quote shows how Amir was given the opportunity to be a loyal friend as Hassan had always been but Amir was only thinking of himself. This quote adds to the idea of guilt with how it shows us that Amir has many times where he can speak up and change his future. But he never does as he always puts the thought of himself first and never others. This is what keeps on happening and what leads to his pile of guilt to grow. The purpose Khaled Hosseini is trying to show us is that there is a way to move on from your guilt and feel free but is comes with a price.

conclusion

In the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini displays how the weaknesses of Amir affect his life and his guilt causing him to go deeper into his life of lies. Amir’s weakness of disloyalty, cowardliness and selfishness highlight the main idea of guilt. This teaches us as a reader that if you make a mistake its best to sort it out before guilt breaks you and leads you into a long string of lies.