Maturity and redemption

In class we read The Kite Runner, a novel that I loved because it told a very realistic and interesting story which made the readers feel a great variety of feelings. Amir, the character is the one who writes the story, he tells his journey for redemption. We get to know him and in the end he and us learn to forgive himself. The character matures, grows and presents a great evolution through the story. This is what called my attention and that is why I wrote about it.

The Kite Runner is a fascinating novel about friendship, loyalty, guilt and redemption. Amir, the narrator, became obssesed by an event in his childhood that changed his life forever and led him in a journey for redemption, which he finelly gets.
Hassan was supposedly a friend of Amir’s, he was also his servant, they spent all day together playing and learning from each other except when Amir went to school. They shared their childhood, lived in the same house and were breast-fed by the same woman as Amir`s mother had died and Hassan’s had abandoned him. But Amir was jealous of Hassan as Baba (Amir’s father) gave his Hazara servant a lot of attention and accepted him more than he accepted Amir. Because of this and the fact that he was his servant, Amir did not feel Hassan was his true friend, but Hassan did consider Amir as a friend whom he loved and to whom he was extremely loyal. Also, Amir was a Pashtun and Hassan a Hazara which means that the latter belonged to a discriminated part of the society that Pashtuns felt was inferior.
“For you a thousand times over” said by Hassan to Amir, shows his loyalty, admiration and devotion to his friend. He said this the day he was raped by Assef while defending the kite he had run for Amir, the winner of the winter kite tournament. When Hassan was raped that day Amir saw it and did nothing, which marked his consciousness for the rest of his life. “I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan ... or I could run. In the end I ran”. Since that day he felt guilty and could not take it out of his mind, he could not be in peace with himself.
Around thirty years later, Rahim Khan, and old friend of Baba’s, very special to Amir and a great influence for him, appeared in his life through a phone call telling him “there is a way to be good again” and “true redemption is when guilt leads to good...forgive yourself”. He knew what had happened so many years ago in that alley and what a huge weight that meant to Amir. Those words transmitted hope to Amir and made him talk about that event for the first time in all those years. This pushed him to begin his journey for redemption, in which he rescued Hassan`s child, Sohrab, from Assef. Amir adopted him and took him to live with him and his wife, Soraya. Sohrab was not a happy boy, he had suffered too much and he did not communicate with his new guardians.
At the end of the novel Amir and Sohrab are running kites and at a certain moment Amir offers to run the kite for Sohrab. “For you a thousand times over”, Amir finds himself saying to the child. This reminds us of Hassan’s words to Amir and shows us how the role of Amir has changed and that this is a way of redeeming himself. It seems that now he is on Hassan’s side and he has learnt from him.
That same day Sohrab gives Amir a smile (he had hardly uttered a word) to Amir, “it was only a smile, nothing more ... but I’ll take it. With open arms” says Amir and shows how significant just a smile is for him now, how much he values it. This is important in his journey for redemption; here he shows he has learnt to appreciate little moments in life from Hassan.
Finally, Rahim Khan`s word became true, Amir forgave himself, learnt to live with that mistake and learnt that there was a way to be good again, to be in peace with himself finally, “I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn`t care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran” He feels free, the weight of the guilt he had on his shoulders had disappeared, or was still there but he had learnt to live with it, by forgiving himself.
To conclude, we can see the evolution of Amir’s character in his journey looking for redemption. There are some patterns that appear in two moments of the novel with different connotations that show Amir`s growth. When Amir says “for you a thousand times over” to Sohrab, he shows he has learnt from Hassan’s humility, learnt to value little moments in life as his old friend did. Assef also appears in two moments, he represents evil to Hassan and Sohrab; the first time Amir did not do anything, but the second he knew he would not make the same mistake, he fought Assef, this sacrifice is a way of making up for what he did not do for his friend and in that way he began to redeem himself. Also, the phrase “I ran” is at the beginning and the end of the story with different connotations, at first, it means cowardice, fear, betrayal, and immaturity and finally it means freedom, acceptance, happiness, humility, and growth.
In my opinion, at the end, Amir learnt that Hassan was his true friend but in the past he had not allowed himself to accept him as such because he felt superior, as he was young, immature and confused. When he grows up that changes, he does not feel superior anymore because he has realized and learnt he is not, he accepts his mistake and his situation, learnt to be less strict with himself and to love what he has, Soraya and Sohrab. So the character of Amir evolves throughout the story, he matures and learns to see things from a different and better perspective and in the end he is a happier man.