THE KITE RUNNER AND THE THEME OF REDEMPTION “BABA” by Sam Carson

DEFINITION OF REDEMPTION 1.The action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil 2. A thing that saves someone from error or evil 3. The act of redeeming or the condition of having been redeemed.

REDEMPTION IN THE KITE RUNNER Amir is the character who most often faces the task of redeeming himself; to his father, and his best friend and half-brother, Hassan. Amir feels like he has stolen the life of his mother, along with his father Baba’s right to a spouse. He sees himself as a failure in Baba’s eyes, and is trying to win back Baba’s affection. Baba has always favoured Hassan over Amir because Amir favours a more academic lifestyle. This drives Amir to compete for Baba’s affection and eventually leads to one of the biggest events in “The Kite Runner”.

Due to Amir’s actions, Hassan is raped in an alley way by Assef, the antagonist in “The Kite Runner”. Amir witnesses this, and does not stop to help; instead ignoring the event in favour of returning the blue kite he won in the kite fighting tournament to redeem himself to Baba. This event cause Amir to feel incredible guilt across most of his life, and he eventually begins to seek redemption by returning to Kabul. Rahim Khan has located Hassan’s son Sohrab, and Amir has to seek him out and take him to safety in America. He finds Sohrab has been taken from an orphanage by none other than Assef, Hassan’s rapist from many years ago. He finds out that Assef has been raping Sohrab and this becomes Amir’s chance at redemption. He takes a beating from Assef, and sees this as the beating he should have received from Assef when he was first in the situation where he could’ve saved Sohrab.

PURPOSE OF THIS THEME The purpose of these events in the book “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Housseni was to show that no matter what act we commit, however wrong, we can atone for our sins; as long as we are willing to fight for it. Amir spends his whole life struggling under the weight of his sins, and this shows us that it is much easier to simply try to atone for our sins early on, before they cause us too much harm. “That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can 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.” - Amir