‘Instructor’s Name’
Sin and Redemption in Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner"
‘Kite Runner’, written by Khaled Hosseini, chronicles the life of Amir, who is a troubled young boy, always trying to measure up to his father’s expectation. Amir forges a strong bond with Hassan, their servant’s son, but he secretly dissents the fact that Hassan is more like the son his father would have preferred. Hosseini uses a series of events to narrate how an innocent childhood friendship gradually become poisoned and corrupted. Amir becomes the reason for ousting, Hassan and his father, out of their household and the friendship deteriorates even more and become nonexistent once Amir leaves Afghanistan and moves to the USA. Though he becomes a successful writer, Amir is never able to put the haunting past behind him and finds it difficult to cope up with his guilt. The narrative then goes on to say how he redeems his sin by saving Hassan’s only son, Sohrab, after his parents’ death and bringing him to the USA. The story is a beautiful medley of friendship and hatred, love and betrayal, philosophy and cynicism. But the theme which resonates throughout the novel is that of sin and redemption.
The central focus of the novel is Amir’s quest of redeeming his sins. Amir at first try to redeem himself in his father’s eyes, as he somehow feels responsible for his mother’s death, as she died giving birth to him. He tries to win the Kite tournament primarily to please his father and to redeem himself in his father’s eyes. But the main source of the guilt Amir carries in his heart comes when he sins towards his friend after winning the kite tournament. First he did not come to the rescue of his friend, when Hassan is raped and then he becomes the reason for his ouster from his house. Sin and guilt are two main ingredients of the story. As Amir narrates the story as a flashback, even the incidents before the kite tournament are tainted with theme of sin and redemption.
The first chapter of the novel is used by Hosseini almost as the thesis of the entire book. As Amir narrates the story in retrospect he weighs each event against the sin he committed.
“Standing in the kitchen with the receiver to my ear, I knew it wasn’t just Rahim Khan on the line. It was my past unatoned sins.” (Hosseini, 2011)
The guilt of Amir drives the climatic events of the novel whereby Sohrab is rescued from Assef. The standard Amir should attain to earn his redemption, is laid down early in the novel, when Amir’s father says that a boy who could not stand up for himself will grow on to become a man who could stand up for nothing. As a boy Amir did not stand up for himself, and he redeems himself as a grown up by standing up for his friend’ son in his hour of need. As Renjie opines, one of the significant change observed in Amir’s journey is his transformation from a guilt ridden boy to a man seeking redemption. (Renjie, 2011)
Reference
Renjie, Tan. The Kite Runner as a Bildungsroman of Emotional Maturation with the Integration of Father-Son Relationships. University of Tunku Abdul Rahman. March 2011. Web. December 5, 2013. <http://eprints.utar.edu.my/262/1/EL-2011-0805058-1.pdf>
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011. Print.
