Novels by McEawn and Hosseini explore the themes of crime, guilt and attempts to atone. The main protagonists of these novels committed their crimes in the childhood and only lately in their adult lives understood the heinous nature of their actions and tried to fix the past and regain inner peace. In this essay, I will try to compare and contrast the key personages, their victims, their actions, a sense of guilt, and a pursuit of forgiveness.
The main protagonists
Briony of Atonement and Amir of The Kite Runner are children in transition to adult life (13 and 12 years old respectively). ...