Redemption in the Kite Runner

Redemption in The Kite Runner

Betrayal, which can be considered a form of sin, is enduring and ends up being cyclical in The Kite Runner. For most of the novel, Amir attempts to deal with his guilt by avoiding it. However, Living the life of a coward and betraying his best friend keeps calling for Amir to redeem himself.

The novel starts out with Amir receiving a phone call from his old friend Rahim Khan, who says, “There is a way to be good again” (2). This implies that Rahim Khan knows of Amir’s shameful past, and that he wants Amir to redeem himself. And later in the book, it is revealed that something very dark and life-changing is lurking in Amir’s past. Something he will never forget. Now he is debating on whether or not to go back to Afghanistan. Kabul was Amir’s former home, but was also one place where he was scarred for life. Amir can’t erase his past by attempting to redeem himself, but he can try to counter what he did with a positive future.

Throughout the story, Amir had never treated Hassan with the respect he deserved, or ever been as good of a friend to him as he was to Amir. Yet in his mind he still thinks of him as a brother-like figure. This is what causes the guilt to build up as time passes. He watched, and did nothing, as his best friend was raped. He was terrified when he saw it and wished he stopped it right then. But he didn’t do anything to help Hassan. To Amir, getting that blue kite back, and gaining Baba’s love was more important than his best friend. The more time that Amir has to think about what happened and what he did, or didn’t do, the more he hates himself for it. He feels so guilty and ashamed that Hassan still treats him as a best friend; it drives Amir to the point that he frames Hassan so he would be sent away. However, what happened to Hassan never leaves his mind. Even though Baba loved him now, and the fact that it’s been 26 years, Amir can’t erase that horrible memory. And now when Rahim Khan called him, the past had clawed its way out.

The call from Rahim Khan had once again reminded Amir of his conscience-stricken past and ignited the spark for him to go see Rahim Khan. In Pakistan, Rahim Khan tells Amir something that turns out to be one of the pinnacle points in the story; Amir and Hassan were half-brothers. Like father, like son. Amir and Baba both betrayed the people who would have given their lives for them. And suddenly, Ami realizes that Rahim Khan had summoned him here to atone not just for his sins but for Baba’s too. “There is a way… A way to end the cycle” (226). This quote shows Amir’s thoughts and that he wants to do something for his dead brother, and to do something no one would expect of him. Amir was going to redeem himself, and by saving Hassan’s son Sohrab, was that restitution.

When Amir finally finds Sohrab, and has the chance to save him from the Taliban, he does the most heroic thing he had ever done throughout the whole story. He fights the Taliban leader, Assef, risking his life to save Sohrab. In the middle of the fight, while Amir was getting beat viciously by Assef, something happened. Amir feels a satisfaction, a punishment that he has been looking for, for 26 years. Sohrab ends up helping Amir beat Assef and escape to safety. Saving Sohrab can’t erase Amir’s memory or guilt of what happened to Hassan, but he did what he could to make up for his mistakes, and had to pay a price. Both Amir and Sohrab got what they deserved in the end.