How many times in our life have we felt the kind of fear that paralyzes us and does not let us do what we want to only because we are scared that something bad will happen or that it will not end as we wish?
Everybody goes through fearful situations in their life but there are some that have everlasting consequences just as the guilt that does not let your life continue normally. Some can change your perspective of the world and it is up to you to make this guilt disappear and find redemption. Although it is not easy, there are people for whom this takes years. “I remember the precise moment crutching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek[…] Looking back now, I realise I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years”(page 1). This is how The Kite Runner begins, a book that tells us the story of Amir, a boy who controlled by fear betrayed his best friend Hassan, and how his life continued after that.
As it happened to Amir the most complicated and harmful consequence can be the necessity to make the guilt of what he did desappear, “Hit me back” I spat “Hit me back, goddamn you!” I wished he would. I wished he’d give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I’d finally sleep at night”(page 92). Or the necessity to find the way back the situation. ”That was the night I became an insomniac”(page 86). To ask for some help instead of evading it. ”School gave me the excuse to stay in my room for long hours. And, for a while, it took my mind off what had happend that winter, what I had let happen”(page 21).
It is the same fear that leads you to make a mistake and after that it does not let you confront the situation. Just as it happens in the book, it is his fear that made Amir betray Hassan, the same that did not let him fix his error and then determined his shyness.This trait did not help hi make some decisions in his life. He found a way out of his fear by redeeming himself.
You find redemption when you pay in some way for what you did wrong.In this way the good things you do will replace the bad ones and you will feel like you have paid for your error. Having betrayed his best friend, Amir was looking for it. “…for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt in peace[...] in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this”(page 289). These words let us know that as every person who has made a mistake, he was looking forward to the relief of knowing that in some way he had paid for it.
“A way to be good again”(page 192) said Rahim Khan, Amir’s close friend. This helped him to realise that it was time,after twenty-six years to let the guilt go away. It was time to confront the past and to search for redemption. He finally redeemed himself when he started doing the right thing as Rahim Khan has recommended him ”…I believe,is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good”(page 302).
Amir decided that to find redemption he would look after Hassan’s orphan son..In order to do this, he had to leave his home and wife in America to travel to Afganistan to look for the boy. There he would have to fight against his childhood enemy, the man who had caused his twenty-six years of suffering and guilt. Once he had been brutally snapped by this man, he started laughing. ”My body was broken-just how badly I wouldn’t find until later-but I felt healed. Healed at last.I laughed”(page 289). These words show that his guilt and anxiety of finding redemption were really huge.He felt he deserved to be punched to the point of almost dying, he needed to feel punishment for what he did.
The Kite Runner is a wonderful story about love, honour, guilt and, mostly, fear and redemption. It is a story that illustrates very well what happens when fear is so big that it controls your
actions, and the way you can over come this kind of situations.
Everybody goes through fearful situations in their life but there are some that have everlasting consequences just as the guilt that does not let your life continue normally. Some can change your perspective of the world and it is up to you to make this guilt disappear and find redemption. Although it is not easy, there are people for whom this takes years. “I remember the precise moment crutching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek[…] Looking back now, I realise I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years”(page 1). This is how The Kite Runner begins, a book that tells us the story of Amir, a boy who controlled by fear betrayed his best friend Hassan, and how his life continued after that.
As it happened to Amir the most complicated and harmful consequence can be the necessity to make the guilt of what he did desappear, “Hit me back” I spat “Hit me back, goddamn you!” I wished he would. I wished he’d give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I’d finally sleep at night”(page 92). Or the necessity to find the way back the situation. ”That was the night I became an insomniac”(page 86). To ask for some help instead of evading it. ”School gave me the excuse to stay in my room for long hours. And, for a while, it took my mind off what had happend that winter, what I had let happen”(page 21).
It is the same fear that leads you to make a mistake and after that it does not let you confront the situation. Just as it happens in the book, it is his fear that made Amir betray Hassan, the same that did not let him fix his error and then determined his shyness.This trait did not help hi make some decisions in his life. He found a way out of his fear by redeeming himself.
You find redemption when you pay in some way for what you did wrong.In this way the good things you do will replace the bad ones and you will feel like you have paid for your error. Having betrayed his best friend, Amir was looking for it. “…for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt in peace[...] in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this”(page 289). These words let us know that as every person who has made a mistake, he was looking forward to the relief of knowing that in some way he had paid for it.
“A way to be good again”(page 192) said Rahim Khan, Amir’s close friend. This helped him to realise that it was time,after twenty-six years to let the guilt go away. It was time to confront the past and to search for redemption. He finally redeemed himself when he started doing the right thing as Rahim Khan has recommended him ”…I believe,is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good”(page 302).
Amir decided that to find redemption he would look after Hassan’s orphan son..In order to do this, he had to leave his home and wife in America to travel to Afganistan to look for the boy. There he would have to fight against his childhood enemy, the man who had caused his twenty-six years of suffering and guilt. Once he had been brutally snapped by this man, he started laughing. ”My body was broken-just how badly I wouldn’t find until later-but I felt healed. Healed at last.I laughed”(page 289). These words show that his guilt and anxiety of finding redemption were really huge.He felt he deserved to be punched to the point of almost dying, he needed to feel punishment for what he did.
The Kite Runner is a wonderful story about love, honour, guilt and, mostly, fear and redemption. It is a story that illustrates very well what happens when fear is so big that it controls your
actions, and the way you can over come this kind of situations.
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