2.4 writing portfolio part 1: The Kite Runner

The novel by Khalid Hosseini the kite runner is about a young boy Amir and his upbringing in Afghanistan. His upbringing leaves a guilty trail of the past that he is dwindling on and doesn’t know how to remove from his memory “That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can’t bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” His guilty mistakes are weak points but weakness and the past are your greatest assets towards redemption. Amir’s weaknesses(his selfish actions) influences the idea of redemption by giving him a platform for something to redeem. Towards the middle of the story, Afganistan is torn apart by war in which Amir flees to America the land of the free for a fresh start. With the strength to chase his ambitions as a writer this part of the story influences the idea of redemption with his ambition and good doing in America. The final main pillar that influences the idea of redemption is the redemption itself when Amir travels back to war-torn Afghanistan to search for Hassan’s son Sohrab Amir summons the strength to deal with extreme adversity through this part of the text when Amir finds and rescues the boy this is when Amir is finally redeemed righting his wrong and has fully changed as a character putting someone before himself.

The idea of redemption is influenced by young Amir’s weaknesses being how selfish he is at the beginning of the story. His weakness of selfishness is the main catalyst for the story of redemption. Most of the reason for Amir being selfish is that Baba, his father, restricts his love for Amir and is very critical of him. Amir’s selfish output is Hassan, this is proven by the quote “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba”. This follows the main turning point in the story where Hassan is raped by the neighborhood bully Aseef, Amir as the narrator said: “Or those tiny drops that fell from between his (Hassan) legs and stained the snow black.” “How dark, almost black, Hassan’s blood had looked on the snow…” The snow represents Hassan’s innocence, the raping and the blood took away his innocence as you can’t take blood out of snow. This happened because Amir did not give Aseef the prize-winning kite which was Amir’s selfish gateway to get Baba to show affection. Amir seems to take advantage of Hassan’s obedience and loyalty, when Amir asks him to run the kite for him during the tournament he replies “for you a thousand times over” the author sets up Hassan’s character with such a true heart and Amir with such a selfish one. The author did this for when Amir betrays Hassan so that it’s hard to forgive Amir for betraying an honest character, Amir was aware of this dire honesty he even said himself “and that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too” These early stages of the text alone doesn’t hint at redemption but its impact on the story set up in the early stages along with Amir’s guilt for the incident is the building block for his redemption. This is why the author started the story with a traumatic event and the main character guilty for it so the character has to redeem themself.

Amir has the young years of his childhood to reflect his trauma, but that takes a back seat as Afghanistan is invaded by the soviets. Amir and Baba flee the country and after a hell-like escape, they make it to America. This new integration leaves baba and Amir with a significant drop in social status and financial security. However, it is like a fresh start where both characters work very hard, Amir is ambitious follows his dreams as a writer attending a college and blocking out the past saying “America was different. America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.” This metaphor dor drowning his past is represented by the river, this river also takes him far from his past in Afghanistan and sins with no memory of what happened years ago. How he momentarily dissolves his past leads to ambition and great character development as he faces new challenges and isn’t a spoiled wealthy boy his challenge becomes even more extreme when baba is diagnosed and dies from cancer. This forced adversity changes Amir as it would change anyone. These obstacles put in place by the author are not just to keep the story interesting they are deliberately molding the story into a story of redemption and this is part of the process of telling us that redemption has to come after great development and change of one’s self to make the reader agree they are redeemed. The purpose of this is to show the reader even if you have done something bad you can redeem it. Amir is not yet redeemed but America and his ambitions have put him on that road of redemption. After Amir has dealt with the upset of his father he changes and gains stability again but he is called upon his father’s old friend Rakhim khan back in Afghanistan who tells Amir to come to Afghanistan “there is a way to be good again ” as Rakhim khan knows of amirs guilty past and is giving him a chance to redeem himself.

Amir’s final strength outlined in the late stages of the text is bravery. Amir at the start of the story is a boy who is a guilty coward said by himself“I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world” This was said because he was a coward who did not know how to be brave but; Amir’s bravery shines when he is given the task to find Sohrab Hassan’s son back in Afghanistan who is fatherless and in the hands of the evil childhood bully himself Aseef. Amir’s strength of bravery to rescue Sohrab is a symbol of his atonement. Bravery isn’t being fearless; it’s being afraid and rising to the challenge despite the odds. In the attempt of rescuing Sohrab from Aseef’s house, he is beaten by Aseef, beaten badly.“my body was broken…But I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed” This is when Amir realized he had felt the pain Hassan felt all those years ago and he felt good for it he felt redeemed. Ironically Sohrab saved Amir from death with a slingshot his fathers calling hard. After the escape, all was not well. All Sohrab wants is his old life back, he and Amir share that in common. Sohrab tries to kill himself when he thinks Amir can’t take him back to America because of legal troubles. “Amir kneels down and prays to Allah, promising he’ll fast and pray and make a pilgrimage if only God will save Sohrab. (Amir also asks forgiveness.)” Amir asking for forgiveness is significant because he hasn’t asked for forgiveness before; he’s only buried his past and he’s finally changed through bravery. This is when I think Amir is indefinitely redeemed, his character has changed through bravery. this is when I think amir is indefinitely redeemed, his character has changed and he put someone else’s life before his own which is a huge contrast to his earlier character. After being in the hospital for weeks Sohrab is recovering, Amir says “Sohrab, I can’t give you your old life back, I wish to God I could. But I can take you with me. That was what I was coming in the bathroom to tell you.

The story of the kite runner ends with Amir and his wife adopting Sohrab into there family and bringing him back to America. This story with a happy ending is made possible from Amir’s weakness of his guilt past, his ambition, and bravery. Redemption in Islam culture is achieved through being Muslim and doing no action that would forfeit one’s identification with Islam, being of sincere faith, and doing virtuous actions. Amir after his selfishness induced trauma goes onto develop as a character and doesn’t forfeit his Muslim identification when chasing his ambition as a writer. Finally, he gets an opportunity to redeem himself by rescuing Sohrab an extension of Hassan who he betrayed in the beginning this links both ends of the story together just this time AMir has redeemed himself with his various act of bravery after ambition and development rather than acting selfishly. These are how the character Ami’rs strengths and weaknesses influence the idea of redemption in the kite runner. We get from this a valuable lesson taught by the author in the form of this story which is no matter what you have done you can redeem yourself through change and good virtue.