Amir redeems himself at the end of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini when he adopts Hassan’s son Sohrab. Amir goes back to the Middle East to get Sohrab and bring him to the United States. He adopts the boy and, along with his wife Soraya, raises him as their own child.
Even his friend Rahim Khan, who has known him since Amir was a baby, says to him over the phone when he calls Amir to ask that he come to see him in Pakistan, “There is a way to be good again.” This is a clear signal that Amir’s actions going forward can win his redemption, depending on what he does.
He then proceeds to tell the story of his boyhood and the actions that have haunted him throughout his life and cause his search for redemption.
Although Amir is reluctant at first to face his past, he does travel to Pakistan to see Rahim Khan. He decides to take Sohrab back to America and raise the boy. Importantly, in addition to raising Sohrab, Amir announces that the child is actually his nephew, the son of his father’s illegitimate son Hassan. This admission is significant, because Amir embraces Hassan as his own brother, although this is done after Hassan’s death. Moreover, Amir forcefully tells his disproving father-in-law to never refer to Sohrab as a lower-class Hazara child.
I would say that he did. There are several major factors to consider with his redemption, not the least of which was going to find Hassan and ask for his forgiveness near the climax of the novel. This act alone would have reconciled himself to his friend and helped ease his guilt, and attempting to do so, in spite of learning of his friend’s death, helped that guilt. Additionally, however, he saved Hassan’s son from Assef. By preventing the destruction of another young boy’s life and striking back at the villain from their childhood, Amir stepped up to cast out his boyhood demons.
In addition to all of that, the story comes full circle with Amir running a kite for Sohrab, Hassan’s son. This is a reversal of how Amir was treated by Hassan, with Amir now playing the kindhearted servant role, showing devotion and care for the boy.
Yes, Amir redeems himself by the end of the novel. Throughout the story, Amir harbors deep feelings of guilt for not intervening when Hassan was raped by Assef. Amir's overwhelming feelings of guilt lead him to accuse Hassan of stealing his gifts in order to get him kicked out of their home, which ends the relationship between Baba and Ali. After moving to America to begin a new life, Amir eventually becomes a successful author and gets married. One day, Rahim Khan calls Amir and tells him, "There is a way to be good again" (Hosseini, 2). After Amir travels to Pakistan to visit his dying friend, Rahim Khan asks Amir to save Sohrab,...
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Hassan's son. Amir then learns that Hassan was his half-brother and agrees to enter the Taliban-occupied country of Afghanistan. Amir atones for his past sins by rescuing Sohrab from Assef during a bloody fight and escaping to Pakistan. Amir then decides to adopt Sohrab and takes him to America to begin his new life. Amir redeems himself by the end of the novel when he risks his life saving Sohrab and chooses to adopt him.
Amir does redeem himself at the end of the story. He always wanted to impress his father and always admired him. He admired him mostly for his bravery, an attribute that he did not see in himself. Sadly, Baba realized his son’s weakness and directly expressed his reservations. He was afraid that his son would never be able to stand up for himself. Amir, on the other hand, squandered his early opportunities to demonstrate his ability to not only to stand up for himself but also for those he loved. When Amir was confronted and almost assaulted by Assef, it was Hassan who stepped up and defended him. Amir did not have the courage to stop Assef when he was sexually assaulting Hassan. In addition, he framed Hassan for theft to escape his guilt. However, at the end of the story, Amir saves Sohrab after a fight with Assef, and he eventually assumes Hassan’s role as Sohrab’s father. Through his actions, he was able to gain a sense of relief from his past.
Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner revolves around the sins and guilt of its protagonist, Amir. In his childhood, and at the beginning of the text, Amir witnesses the rape of his friend Hassan during a kite running contest. Hassan is raped because he refuses to give up Hassan's kite to the local bully when he is running it in the kite running contest. Amir says and does nothing to prevent the rape. In his confusion and shame, he rejects Hassan. Amir lives with this guilt for the rest of his childhood, and it ends up shaping many of his adulthood decisions.
At the end of The Kite Runner, Amir has rescued Hassan's son, Sohrab, from sexual slavery. This rescue causes Amir significant physical, mental, and fiscal sacrifices. It's not until the final scene, in which Amir runs the kite for Sohrab, that Amir finally redeems himself. By making the decision to assume Hassan's role, Amir absolves himself of his childhood prejudices and sins.
In The Kite Runner, how does Amir seek redemption by returning to Afghanistan?
Amir might have hoped that the migration to the United States would help him forget some of the negative aspects of his past. However, his deeds as a child continue to haunt him in his adulthood. He discovers that Hassan was not only his friend, but he was also his brother. The discovery and the memory that he betrayed his brother unsettle him greatly. He also learns that Hassan and his wife were both killed, and they left behind a son.
Rahim Khan relays to him the unfortunate message and convinces him to go back to Afghanistan in search of his nephew, Sohrab. Amir agrees to go on the journey in part to rescue his nephew and face his “demons." He knows that if Hassan were alive, he would have wanted nothing else but the survival of his son. Thus, Amir steps up as a way of seeking forgiveness from his late brother.
Amir arrives in Afghanistan and finds Sohrab’s location. His rescue mission is complicated by the fact that Sohrab is held by Assef, his longtime nemesis. Assef is a military leader, and Amir is still afraid of him. He disguises himself and tries to rescue Sohrab. However, Assef discovers the ploy and asserts that they must address their old score, and the winner gets to keep Sohrab.
Amir has always had someone protecting him from Assef, but this time he agrees to face him in a fight to the death. Amir takes a beating, but instead of yielding to pain, he is glad that he is fighting Assef for his nephew. Sohrab intervenes with a slingshot and incapacitates Assef by shooting him in the eye. Amir and Sohrab manage to escape alive.
In The Kite Runner, how does Amir seek redemption by returning to Afghanistan?
As was mentioned in the previous post, Amir seeks redemption by traveling back to Afghanistan to save Sohrab from a terrible life in Kabul. After receiving a call from Rahim Khan, Amir discovers that there is a way to redeem himself from his past mistakes. Amir has lived his entire life with the guilt of not defending Hassan while he was being raped by Assef. Decades later, Rahim Khan calls Amir, who is living in California, to tell him that there is a way "to be good again." Amir plans on traveling to Kabul and removing Sohrab from a dangerous orphanage. However, when Amir travels back to Kabul, he discovers that the Taliban has control over the entire city. In addition to seeing the dangerous state of Kabul, his old nemesis Assef has also been sexually molesting Sohrab. Amir finds redemption by fighting Assef in order to save Sohrab. Fortunately, Amir is able to defeat Assef with the help of Sohrab and they escape Afghanistan. Amir finds redemption by not only standing up to his enemy but saving Hassan's son Sohrab from a terrible life in Kabul.
In The Kite Runner, how does Amir seek redemption by returning to Afghanistan?
Amir's return to Afghanistan comes from his realization that Hassan was more than a childhood friend he betrayed, but his half-brother. At the behest of a family friend, he resolves to find and save Hassan's own son, who is stuck in an orphanage. By helping Hassan's son, Amir hopes to remove some of his own guilt at first not helping him and then framing him for theft, causing the shaming of Hassan's father and deep grief of Amir's own father.
...my entire life, long before the winter of 1975, dating back to when that singing Hazara woman was still nursing me, had been a cycle of lies, betrayals, and secrets.
There is a way to be good again, he’d said.
A way to end the cycle.
With a little boy. An orphan. Hassan’s son. Somewhere in Kabul.(Hosseini, The Kite Runner, Google Books)
If Amir can save Hassan's son, although he can never apologize to Hassan, Hassan's father, or his own father, he can begin to do something worthwile and make up for the pain and suffering he caused. Amir sees Hassan's son as the symbol of everything he did wrong, and desires to do something right. It won't make everything better, but it will help his own shame and guilt, and it will save a young boy who may live and die in endless suffering.
How does Amir gain redemption in The Kite Runner?
In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir, the narrator, opens the book by saying,
I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.1 remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek.
He is referring to a pivotal moment in his life when he witnessed the assault of his childhood companion, Hassan. He sees the attack in the alley and anguishes over it for years, consumed by guilt that he did not step in to help Hassan.
Amir ultimately gains redemption when, years later, he adopts Hassan’s son. Specifically, Amir is an adult. He has been living in California for many years. One day, he receives a telephone call from Pakistan from his friend Rahim Khan. Rahim asks Amir “to come see him,” and Amir says, “I knew it wasn't just Rahim Khan on the line. It was my past of unatoned sins.”
With that one phone call, his past becomes a vivid reminder of Hassan, who was his only real companion throughout his boyhood. Before ending the phone call, Rahim says, “There is a way to be good again.” Whether Rahim understands all the factors behind the guilt that haunts Amir is unclear. It is clear, however, that Rahim is offering Amir a way to achieve redemption.
Moreover, in some ways, Rahim is almost a father figure for Amir. In fact, Amir says that in one old photograph of Rahim Khan and Amir’s father, Baba, “Baba is holding me, looking tired and grim. I'm in his arms, but it's Rahim Khan's pinky my fingers are curled around.” Amir’s fingers are holding on to Rahim Khan as if he, along with Baba, was also Amir’s father. Thus, after some internal debate, Amir welcomes the opportunity to gain Rahim’s approval, vanquish his demons, and potentially “be good again,” as Rahim says.
Amir travels back to his birthplace and, in a way, travels back in time to his youth and Hassan. He learns from Rahim that Hassan is dead and that Hassan’s son, Sohrab, will need a home. Amir decides to take Sohrab back to America with him and raise him as his own son. Amir’s redemption unfortunately comes after Hassan’s death. However, he stands up for Hassan posthumously when he tells his father-in-law:
You see, General Sahib, my father slept with his servant's wife. She bore him a son named Hassan. Hassan is dead now. That boy sleeping on the couch is Hassan's son. He's my nephew. That's what you tell people when they ask… .And one more thing, General Sahib… You will never again refer to him as "Hazara boy" in my presence. He has a name and it's Sohrab.
How does Amir gain redemption in The Kite Runner?
After Amir witnesses Hassan being raped by Assef and does not intervene, he becomes overwhelmed with guilt and eventually succeeds at distancing himself from his best friend. Amir ends up blaming Hassan for stealing some gifts, and Ali and Hassan move out of Baba's home. Amir then moves to America with Baba and begins a new life. Despite the new atmosphere and passage of time, Amir is still filled with a sense of guilt as an adult.
Decades later, Amir receives a phone call from Rahim Khan saying, "There is a way to be good again" (Hosseini, 2). Amir then visits Rahim Khan in Pakistan, where he learns that Hassan was killed by the Taliban and has a son named Sohrab living in an orphanage in the dangerous city of Kabul. After learning that Hassan was his half-brother, Amir decides to travel into Taliban-occupied Afghanistan to rescue Sohrab. Amir ends up saving Sohrab from a desperate situation and is forced to fight Assef in a brutal fight. Amir narrowly escapes with his life, thanks to Sohrab's help. Amir atones for his past sins by risking his life to save Sohrab. Amir also finds redemption by adopting Sohrab and giving him a new life in America.
How does Amir gain redemption in The Kite Runner?
Amir's redemption process possess several steps.
1. Shortly after Amir's betrayal of Hassan in Chapter 7, he frames Hassan as a thief so that Baba will fire Ali and force Ali and Hassan to leave. Amir chooses the sin of theft because he knows that Baba considers it the only sin; thus, he hides his new birthday watch and some money in Hassan's hut. His plan does not work quite the way he wants it to. Baba forgives Hassan and Ali, but they choose to leave willingly, making Amir feel even worse about what he has done. Years later on his way back to Kabul, Amir stays with Farid's brother and his family. Recognizing their hunger and need, Amir leaves behind money and his watch with Farid's family as a form of redemption for what he had done to Hassan.
2. Amir's most significant step in his redemption is first believing that he can redeem himself for what he did to Hassan and then traveling to Afghanistan to get Sohrab. At that point, he does not know that he will face Assef again, but when he does confront the bully and "fight" him for Sohrab, he is doing what he should have done years earlier for Hassan. This time he does not hide or back down.
3. Finally, at the novel's end, Amir runs the kite for Sohrab. He puts himself in the "servant's" position instead of lording his Pashtun, wealthy status over a Hazara. He takes the opportunity to do all that he can for Sohrab since he cannot do so for Hassan.
How does Amir achieve redemption in The Kite Runner?
Amir fails Hassan in multiple ways in his youth, but as an adult returning to Afghanistan, he finds redemption through saving Sohrab, Hassan's son.
Hassan has died never knowing that Baba was his father and Amir his half brother. Amir can no longer help Hassan, but he does try to rescue Amir from Assef, who is now an official in the Taliban. Assef and other Taliban members are keeping Sohrab as a sex slave.
Sohrab only finds freedom after Amir fights Assef, and Sohrab hits Assef in the eye with a stone from his sling. Sohrab and Amir escape. Amir wants to adopt Sohrab and take him back to the United States, but he is told he must put Sohrab into an orphanage to establish that the boy has no parents. This prospect causes Sohrab to attempt suicide through slitting his wrists.
Amir is eventually able to coax Sohrab back to speech and joy through kite running. He is even able to play the role of kite runner, serving Sohrab as Hassan once served him and quoting what the loyal Hassan used to say to him:
For you, a thousand times over.
Through saving and serving the boy who is Hassan's son and his nephew, Amir is able to redeem himself.
In what ways do Baba and Amir seek redemption in The Kite Runner?
This is above all else a story of redemption as both Baba and Amir, in their own way, have to struggle to make ammends for their past misdemeanours. For Baba, his crime was having slept with his best friend's wife. This secret is only something that emerges after his death, when Amir goes to Pakistan and finds out the truth of his relationship with Hassan from Rahim Khan. He discovers that Hassan is actually his half-brother thanks to his father's adulterous relationship with Ali's wife. Baba sought to make ammends by bringing up Hassan and Amir to be brothers and doing what he could to provide for them.
It is interesting that both father and son are placed in a relationship where they have more power, and which they abuse through that power. Just as Baba abuses his friendship with Ali, Amir abuses his friendship with Hassan by not intervening when he is being raped by Assef. Eventually, what he realises he has to do, is to return to Afghanistan and rescue Hassan's son, his nephew. The process he goes through to be successful in this aim involves considerable suffering on his own part, as he is beaten up very badly by Assef, but eventually his redemption is shown in Chapter 25, when he flies a kite in America with Sohrab, and, for a moment, is transported back to much happier times:
Next to me, Sohrab was breathing rapidly through his nose. The spool rolled in his palms, the tendons in his scarred wrists like rubab strings. Then I blinked and, for just a moment, the hands holding the spool were the chipped-nailed, calloused hands of a harelipped boy. I heard a crow cawing somewhere and I looked up. The park shimmered with snow so fresh, so dazzling white, it burned my eyes.
The way in which Amir returns to a younger version of himself and Sohrab becomes Hassan, and they are in a snow-covered Kabul, shows the extent to which he has been able to gain a measure of peace at this point in the narrative, compared to his guilt-ridden presentation in previous chapters. At the end of this novel, Amir is a man who is shown to have gained redemption through his rescue and adoption of Sohrab.
In The Kite Runner, to what extent is Amir able to redeem himself for his childhood mistakes?
Amir's most egregious mistake as a child was to betray Hassan and leave him to be raped by bullies. As an adult, he is still haunted by the memory, but manages to put it mostly behind him. However, when he discovers that Hassan was actually his half-brother, the guilt and shame returns stronger than before:
True, I hadn’t made Ali step on the land mine, and I hadn’t brought the Taliban to the house to shoot Hassan. But I had driven Hassan and Ali out of the house. Was it too far-fetched to imagine that things might have turned out differently if I hadn’t?(Hosseini, The Kite Runner, Google Books)
To redeem himself, Amir travels to Afghanistan to save Hassan's son Sohrab. While he is successful, Sohrab is cruelly abused and becomes almost catatonic; through hard work, Amir is finally able to connect with Sohrab over memories of Hassan, and in the end, runs to get Sohrab's kite as Hassan ran for his years earlier. His redemption is largely symbolic, but in his mind, he has done all that he can, and is comforted.
Discuss the following statement from The Kite Runner: "In order for Amir to redeem himself, he needs to undertake a journey of atonement to become a better man."
I think that the statement is quite valid and represents the most important elements of the book. Amir introduces this to the reader when he tells us that Baba Khan ended his phone call with the words, "to be good again." This mere inclusion helps us understand that Amir is plagued with a need for atonement, something that comes out later on in the chapter. The shadow of "unatoned sins" is something that bothers Amir. He understands it and the power of his narration helps us understand that he himself is aware that some level of redemption is needed. The call to go back to Afghanistan helps to bring focus to Amir, and to us, that this journey has to be physical. The language that Amir uses to describe how he behaved on that fateful day in terms of "crouching" and "the crumbling mud wall" helps to bring to light the idea that he has done something in his past that reflected a retreat from embracing the better angels of his nature and displays an action that requires a level of atonement and reclamation. It is through the very first chapter that the entirety of the text helps to bring out the full force of the statement. What Amir undergoes and what he does is in his hope to represent the essence of the statement.
In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, what are three things that Amir does to redeem himself?
1: After hearing that Hassan's son, Sohrab, is living in an orphanage in Afghanistan, Amir decides to travel to Kabul to save him. Rahim Khan tells Amir that there is a Christian missionary family living in Pakistan that is willing to take care of Sohrab. Amir begins his dangerous journey into Afghanistan to rescue Sohrab from the orphanage and bring him to Pakistan.
2: After arriving in Afghanistan, Amir learns that Sohrab is living with a member of the Taliban. Amir confronts his enemy, Assef, face to face and fights him in order to leave with Sohrab. Amir almost dies and suffers multiple injuries during the fight. Fortunately, Sohrab saves Amir by using his slingshot to knock out Assef's eye in the middle of the fight.
3: The last thing Amir does to redeem himself is to adopt Sohrab. Amir travels to America with Sohrab and adopts him. Although Sohrab is extremely traumatized from his past experiences, Amir hopes to develop a loving relationship with Sohrab by bonding over kite flying.