Friendship and redemption in The Kite Runner

by Daniela Calvo

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship, betrayal and the price of loyalty between two boys growing up in Kabul. Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a rich man, and Hassan is the son of Amir’s father’s servant, a Hazara. The Kite Runner describes the life of these boys and how they and the place where they live, Afghanistan, changes.

FRIENDSHIP is clearly shown on page 54 when Amir asked Hassan if he would eat dirt if he tells him and Hassan answered “if you asked, I would”. Amir was not always a good friend because he was an immature boy, like when he bothered Hassan when he did not know some big word, but Hassan was a loyal and honest friend and he would do anything for Amir.

Amir was served breakfast every morning by Hassan; then he was driven to school while his friend stayed home to clean the house. Hassan had no resentment to Amir and was a loyal companion to him, like when he protected Amir from neighborhood bullies. Then, during the Kite-flying tournament, Hassan was raped by a boy called Assef. Amir never defended his friend and that is why he could not forget that episode for the rest of his life.

This friendship is also presented in Hassan’s letter to Amir, written when both of them were older, living in different countries. On page 218 Hassan tells him “”...I dream that someday you will return to Kabul to revisit the land of our childhood. If you do, you will find an old faithful friend waiting for you”. This quote clearly represents Hassan’s loyalty to Amir he had forgotten about that terrible episode and he had continue with his life, something that Amir could not do because he felt responsible of what had happened, because he had only stayed there to watch when he could have done something about it. Amir was sorry for leaving his friend there and this could not let him continue with his life, mostly because they had never talked about it they just acted as if nothing had happened.

The main theme of The Kite Runner is REDEMPTION this friendship and feeling of guilt lead to it. Amir’s life changed when Hassan was raped by Assef. On page 289 Amir says “...for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt in peace”. This happened when Amir went to look for Sohrab, Hassan’s son, to take him home. In order to do this Amir had to find the man who was in charge of Sohrab and when he found this man he discovered it was Assef, his old enemy. If Amir wanted to take Sohrab home he had to fight with Assef and win him. During the fight Assef hurt Amir, because he was bigger and stronger, and at some point Amir started laughing because he remembered of Hassan and the fact he had not been happy or felt better in all those years. He felt guilty and hated himself for not talking with his friend during all the time they were separated, and now it was too late, he laughed because he had kept the truth for so many years and now he was there. Like in the beginning, with that same boy who destroyed everything.

Another important episode is Rahim’s letter to Amir. On page 302 he says “...true redemption is, Amir jan. When guilt leads to good”. In this letter Rahim is trying to say that there is a way to be good again, that Baba had make a big mistake and for this he made good actions and helped people because it was his way of redeeming himself. He also said that he hoped Amir could forgive his father, him, and most important, to forgive himself because Rahim knew everything and he knew Amir he was like a father to him.

Amir decided he was finally going to end with this guilt by taking responsability of Sohrab, by giving him a home and most important love and after all those years he finally finds peace.

The Kite Runner is a great book about father and son relationships, betrayal, loyalty, friendship and redemption. It describes the life of two friends, how they changed after a horrible episode takes place, and it also describes the process that leads to the destruction of Afghanistan. It is a useful book to learn about the history of that country and while reading it you will discover new things that will increase your interest in the book.

Love remained the same

Creative writing - Rosario Gonzalez Plaza

For my writing task I chose to write a fictional letter from Sanaubar, a minor character in The Kite Runner, to her son Hasssan. In it she finds the atonement she had been looking for for so many years. Despite the very little information the readers are given about Sanaubar’s character, I felt this fictional letter would return her the honor she was deprived of. On the other hand, I felt that Hassan’s character, his tenderness and kindness, had to have a more profound origin, and by giving the creation of his life such a passionate encounter I believe the reader would have another reason to feel touched by the story.

Love remained the same

Hassan agha,

There are certain things about life we are not given the right to understand. There must be, for unfairness seems to be present in our blood.
Memories, my dear, have the power to shed tears of joy… and pain as well. I remember the moment I saw your eyes for the first time while you were being delivered as well as I remember the moment I turned to see my front door for the last time …
The word LOVE never made more sense than the day I found out I was pregnant. It s out of my capacity to describe the million things I felt at that moment. Because the creation of a new being whose soul is the fusion of two passionate lovers can only be compared with the elation of daydreaming.
And that’s why my heart bleeds so much when I think of the pain and loneliness lies might have caused you, the most innocent of all. But I am not writing to discuss my feelings, I am not writing to be reasonable either. And I don’t want to preoccupy myself either with what my actions might have caused you. Instead I just want you to know the truth you deserve to hear despite all the years you were deprived of it. I want you to feel, for once, the love that’s inside you.
So this is love, this is you. I remember the first time I crossed looks with your father. Your father, not the honorable man who raised you. Yes, I remember. It was an unspoken secret; we had fallen for each other. We shouldn’t have. Yet we couldn’t help it. It was not meant to be. He took the risk of coming to my window one night and stared into my eyes… I will never forget the tenderness of his look, window of the sweetness of his temper, the benevolence of his heart and his sparkling soul. We kissed. There was no need to chat. Kisses reveal the unspoken. We made love with the clarity of passion. There were not two people on earth with more purity of love than ours. There were no two people on earth with more opposite destinies either. I opened my eyes the next morning to find myself next to the man I loved and praised, and to shed a tear for what was about to come.
Baba loved you, he loved you infinitely. He loved you so much he would give his dear son to his servant and best friend to make sure you had a better future than the one already written for you and to have you close to him, even if that reminded him of his guilt daily. He would love you so much he would do everything in his hands to be sure I was still alive, saving me from my fatal destiny for violating my family’s honor. There were lies to disguise the truth … lies whose cost you probably had to pay; lies about me that my imperfect memories try to vanish but the burden on my consciousness is still on my fragile shoulders.
We never saw ourselves again closely enough to find in each other’s eyes again the peace we both so much longed for. I had to run away right after you were born, for we could not risk the life of the three of us. If someone else had found out we would have been chased and stoned to death .Our family honor would have been stained forever and we, remembered as criminals. It was only me who ran away, but we all made sacrifices. And we did it for love. We did it for you, the blossom of our connection.
There’s no shame in truth. Men seem to find shame in freedom. Regardless of everything and upon reflection I have felt like the most blessed woman on earth ever since I saw your father for the first time. There was no room in your father’s heart, great as the world, to feel anger or resentment as he understood about honor and responsibility. But I understood about unfairness and sorrow. Away from the man I loved and my adored son, it took me a long time to find peace with myself and the world again. It took me more than it should have. But that’s why I came to you, my son, with no more mourning or crying or pain, but with just the treasured gift of truth and the healing power of love.
I hope you can forgive us.

Loved you always.

Sanaubar

Caught from the beginning in The Kite Runner

The novel read in class The kite runner by Khaled Hossein caught my attention from the very first chapter. The fact that something that seemed very important was mentioned in the first chapter by the protagonist made me interested in the story behind that unspecified event that seemed to cause huge effects on the protagonist.
The author’s method on how to catch the reader’s attention worked on me, since after reading only a few pages I felt like reading the whole book. The depth of some of the phrases used by the author captivated me, and made me curious about what I was going to read next. These were the reasons why I decided to analyze the author’s methods used on the first chapter that proved to be so effective in catching my attention. In my review, I intended to go beneath the words of the novel to discover where the real hook was. As I could conclude after writing it, the mentioning of some ghosts from the protagonist’s past was what caught me from the begging of the story and incentivized me to keep reading it.


The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein is a novel that takes place mostly in Afghanistan in the 1970s. It tells the story of a young boy growing up and how he has to deal with several realities from his country that he cannot understand. The novel is narrated by its protagonist, who starts the story of his life at the age of 12, when he experienced his first life-changing event. The first chapter of the novel serves as a proper introduction of the whole book; it sets up how the whole story is going to be developed and gives a hint of what the main conflict will be.
The narration of the protagonist’s life starts when, in his adulthood, he receives a call of someone from his past in Afghanistan, who brings back a very important issue for the protagonist. After this the story goes back twenty-six years in time, to the point in his life where he experiences a traumatic event. Later in the novel we learn that this event, the rape of his best friend and the protagonist’s inability to stand up to defend him.
The narrator lets the reader know that this event will haunt him for the rest of his life. ‘Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.’ This quote gives a clue of the impact that this unmentioned event in the first chapter will have on the protagonist. Its importance is clear in the fact that it’s been in his mind for twenty-six years. The passage of time and the fact that the protagonist still looks back on this event tells that this has been very painful, and we can infer there’s still some guilt in the protagonist.
The narrator’s feeling of guilt underlies the whole quote, since it shows a process of reflection on what happened from the part of the protagonist. The quote gives the idea that he has thought countless times about this hurtful past event and that he still cannot face the whole situation. The fact that the narrator writes the story many years after it happened enables him to state that he did think about this memory and can now try to look at it from a different perspective than the one he did years before in his life.
Another characteristic of the protagonist is showed on the quote. His peeking into that deserted alley’ gives the undeniable hint that he was, or still is, afraid or coward. Cowardice is showed as part of the character’s personality because he clearly says that he was afraid of really looking at this bad memory. The narrator’s fear may have two reasons: he cannot look at this ‘deserted alley’ because he cannot face the fact that he was a coward and did not respond in the way he should have; or because he cannot accept that although he covered his eyes, the rape did happen.
Although it is the real place where the event took place, the deserted alley mentioned in this quote has a symbolic meaning. The fact that the alley has no way out and is deserted, is a symbol on how the character feels about what happened. The loneliness within the alley shows that the protagonist knows that only he can solve this issue, since no one can take the guilt of him but himself.
The first chapter in The Kite Runner clearly shows what the whole story is going to be based on. Many characteristics of the character are presented in it, as well as a preview of what the main conflict will be and how the protagonist feels about it. His guilt and his fear are the ghosts from the past that he will later face in the course of the novel. The intention of the writer was to show a clear introduction to what the whole novel will develop. The author’s method can be considered to be effective since he manages to build a strong base for the future development of the story and also creates a bridge between the historical past, present and future in the story.

My Confession

Through this short story I tried to give a voice to Sanaubar, a minor character in The Kite Runner. The only thing we know about her character is that she leaves her family and runs away. I wrote a story narrated by her, trying to explain the reasons why she did this. She is a very cold woman who blames life for her own faults and who is not sorry for the things she did. This is my version of her personality and this is also how I felt when I read about her in the book.


It is really hard to describe what I felt when I got the news: it was simply… unbelievable. I felt guilty enough already, that feeling of bretrayal was eating me inside, but we all make mistakes, don’t we? We’ve got to deal with them and just get over them, and I thought I had, until I found out I was pregnant and it wasn’t my husband’s baby, it was actually his best friend’s.
It might seem terrible, but it wasn’t. I mean I don’t want to sound like an awful person, but let’s be realistic: a woman’s dream is, and will always be, getting married with the perfect man, have the perfect family and live happily ever after in a perfect house. At least that was my dream, my idea of the perfect life, but it never came true: I married a man who, to be honest, was really far from being perfect, we didn’t have babies and we lived miserably, but when you’re young and in love… again, I guess we can make a lot of mistakes in life and this was a really big one.
There was something I couldn’t live with, and it is hard for me to face, but I was so jealous of her. She had everything I had ever dreamed of, my ideal of the perfect life: she was married to that strong, powerful and wealthy –wealthy above all- young man. They lived in the perfect mansion and she was pregnant, and the baby was obviously supposed to be as perfect as they, as their love, as their family, as their life. And who was I? The insignificant wife of that hideous servant and our lives were devoted to serving them. Why was I supposed to watch how their lives blossomed every single day while I was sleeping next to a man who would never give me babies? I didn’t even choose to live with him, my whole life had been planned since I was young: our families knew each other and they figured we should get married, even though we weren’t in love, at least I wasn’t. I have to admit it wasn’t that bad, Ali was a nice man and all but once you start to realize none of your dreams is becoming true, it all gets boring and life just doesn’t make sense anymore.
Oh… it makes me so mad even to think about those times. I never, ever felt like a woman until that unique day came, one of those days you remember for the rest of your life even though the consequences were terrible. It was another happy and lovely day for the perfect family: that child was already born and their lives couldn’t possibly get better. But it happens, I mean, nothing can be THAT perfect, can it? She died, some complications after labour, I heard. She seemed fine at first, but she didn’t last too long, those weak women who know nothing about life never do so.
A couple of months later, Baba and I made what he calls ‘the worst mistake of our whole life’. What were we supposed to do? Lie? We all knew Ali was infertile so the baby was obviously not his. So we just pretended, the three of us, that everything was just fine, I still cannot understand Ali’s reaction: he didn’t say anything, anything at all! Always with that smile and that understanding look on his face. What the hell was going on? Some months after the big news he confessed he could understand me as he was never able to give me what I always wanted: a family. How can someone understand something like that? I cheated on him and all he could say was that he understood my reasons? So he forgave me and promised to raise that child as if he was his own, but no! It wasn’t his baby! That made him even more disgusting to my eyes. Couldn’t he get mad for once in his life? I hated him for loving me so much and for being so forgiving. What can I say? Women can be very complicated sometimes.
Don’t missunderstand me, it’s not like I felt fine with the situation. I had made a terrible mistake but it was already too late to do something about it and at least I had a moment of happines in my life, I deserved it. The lousiest 9 months of my life went by slowly, and they were torturing: Ali was around me all the time and Baba played the friend role the whole time, as if the baby wasn’t his. It was absloutely irritating as you can imagine. That fake situation was driving me crazy. The day Hassan was born finally came. I didn’t know what to feel: I was not happy or pleased at all, but everyone around me seemed to be so, again, I had to pretend that that was the happiest moment in my whole life but I kept feeling so depressed. Wasn’t this what I’d always wanted? Maybe it was, but that wasn’t how I wanted it to happen.
A few days after giving birth I grew restless, suffocated. I couldn’t stand that situation anymore: we were still servants at that luxurious mansion and there was something even worse than that, Hassan was in our lives now. Having to look into Hassan’s eyes every day of my life made me feel really nervous, it’s actually kind of hard to explain. Who was he? It seemed it was Ali’s baby even though I knew very well who his father was, a small version of the man I hate, it was exactly like him, that smile, that gentle look… Running away was my best option. So that’s what I did.

Geraldine Galvez

Chapter between 9 and 10 for The Kite Runner

I didn’t even know why I had to leave. That Amir wanted me to had been obvious for days, but what was the reason? I could instantly notice the feeling of rejection in his eyes. He needed me out of the house as soon as it could be possible. I thought I was the one that should be mad with him after he ran away while I was being attacked by Assef and his friends, but it was the other way round, he didn’t even want to see me. After so many years living like brothers, being obliged in some way to quit the life with which I was happy, starting a new one sounded unfair to me. What did I do wrong? But it seemed not to have an answer. I had to move on.
Dad lied to Baba that day we were leaving about going to uncle Hazarajat’s house. We had to look for a new house, a new home, somewhere new to live. This was something that we had never had to do. We always had Baba’s comfortable mansion in Kabul. We had never had to worry about living in the street and be homeless. Ali, my father, had always lived with Baba and his father. We had always had the peace of a secure house and family. But this time there wasn’t any Baba, or any Amir either.
That was something about which I was really concerned. Being alone was new to me, I never had to deal a similar situation, it was something in which I had no experience at all. I was born and raised next to Amir, and he had never been absent for me through all these years. Thinking that those stories, games, runs to the pomegranate tree wouldn’t be there anymore terrified me. And all guided me to the same question, why?
Days passed and we had to move to a very old abandoned house and look for a job, and luckily maybe a new “Baba’s mansion”. At first it was very hard, and as days went by we started to get used to it. But for me there was nothing left to do. It was like being born again, a new life had started and this time I had to deal with it alone.
Our neighbours were quite nice people. They were Hazara servants, just like us. Their son, Borat, was a twelve-year-old boy. He reminded me of Amir. He was a natural leader, always knew some new game to play all afternoon. Why not give him a chance. I decided to try.
At first it was impossible to get along with this new lifestyle. All the comfortable aspects of our past life were gone and I started to learn what real life was like, and sometimes even without our basic necessities. Dad always reminded me that this experience would help me in my future, but how could I stand having less food and money? I suppose it was something of my age that I couldn’t understand, but dad was always right and I trusted him. Things should get better.
Borat taught me many things about how to get by in my new life. Playing with him always up till late was great, we never got tired, just like with Amir. It made me very happy to have a playing partner again, although I knew it wasn’t the same. Borat wasn’t Amir.
I talked a lot with him about Amir, I taught him all the games we used to play, told him all the stories he used to tell me, all the places we had visited and obviously the big kite tournament we won together. I avoided the details of my meeting with Assef when I was looking for the much desired blue kite for Amir. But he wasn’t really interested in it. In these situations he usually changed the theme we were talking about and proposed some new recently invented game. That made me feel a little uncomfortable sometimes. I liked to talk about Amir, he was part of my life and he would always be.
I missed him so much. But what made me so sad was the anger of feeling that I would never talk to him again. In some way my brother started to disappear. I began to forget his face, and also Baba’s too. But, in some way, I felt them in my heart. At that time, I started with the obsession of writing him letters that I thought I would never send him, like kind of pretending to be in contact with him. But they never got to his hands until I asked Rahim Kahn to do it many years later. I hope that they did.



Felipe Martínez Devoto

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.

Creative writing - The Kite Runner

FATHER AND SON.

In class we read the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I really liked the story but I considered that the end was too precipitate. In my opinion, how the relationship between Amir and Sohrab continues deserved more space, so I decided to write an extra section in the novel related to that. Besides, I also wanted to write a happier ending, where Amir has the possibility to redeem himself completely and where we can see how his relationship with Sohrab improves and they can be considered as a happy family from now on.
I also tried to make the reader feel relieved and, in a way, to make them “forgive” Amir. Another intention is to show that nothing is impossible, and that the most unbelievable things can happen if we have faith, tell the truth always and are willing to face the consequences of doing so.

Five years have passed since Sohrab moved to America. Now he talks and lives happily with Amir and Soraya. He went to school and loved running kites, just as his father did. The phrase: `for you a thousand times over´ was usually used in the house, as it used to be in Baba’s house in the old times. His relationship with Amir had improved a lot, and they liked spending time together, talking about Hassan and Ali, Rahim Kahn and Baba. They would sit for hours and remember all the moments Amir and Hassan had spent together, their adventures, their fights against Assef, the kite tournament, winter time in Kabul...

Amir loved Sohrab as if he was his own son. He would do his best to teach him what his own father taught him once. They always talked about Amir’s childhood in Baba’s house and Amir used his experiences as an example to teach Sohrab. He told him how Baba’s relationship changed over the years and he would also talk about the guilt he felt because of his mother’s death. He remembered once when Baba was talking with Rahim Kahn and said: “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he is my son”. They also talked about the important role Rahim Kahn played in his life since, unlike Baba, he gave Amir his support and understood him. “A boy who won’t stand up for himself is a boy who can’t stand up to anything” – remembered Amir that Baba would tell Rahim Kahn.

– “My father was worried because the neighbourhood boys pushed me and took my toys and I never fought back. Your father would step in and fend them off. You see Sohrab? We got home and Baba would ask, `How did Hassan get that scrape on his face? ´ and I would answer `he fell down´. That is not how things are supposed to happen, you know?”

This was a really useful way to teach Sohrab. Amir also told him about the day that Baba said “no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft (…) when you kill a man, you steal a life, you steal a wife right’s to his husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness…”

At that precise moment Amir knew what he had to do. He didn’t want to steal Sohrab’s right to the truth so he decided to tell him everything. He mentioned how jealous he was, he talked about Hassan being raped, he talked about the watch and the money, he talked about everything. Sohrab was confused. Actually, he was disappointed. He didn’t know what to say or think. He was sad because he thought Amir was different. He started yelling and said he would have preferred to stay in Afghanistan. Amir felt horrible…

As he already did once, Sohrab stopped talking. He needed to think and reorder his thoughts in his mind. He wouldn’t eat or get out of his room. He wouldn’t want to run kites or go to school. Amir let him alone, he didn’t bother or try to talk, he wanted to give him his space.

Sohrab was really sad because he knew that things could have been different. Hate started to grow in his heart. He couldn’t understand how it could be possible that what happened so many years ago could hurt him that much.
He knew that if Amir had reacted in a different way, now, his most beloved relatives would have been there with him, happy all together, being a FAMILY…

It was almost a month and Sohrab would continue locked in his room. He barely ate what Soraya jan gave him. Amir was really concerned about his health. He was afraid that he would try to kill himself again. The situation continued the same until one day Soraya went in the room to give Sohrab his meal and she stood there longer that she usually did. When she went out she sat in the sofa, next to Amir and told him: “Don’t worry, he will be fine. We just need to give him some more time. Don’t feel guilty, he also understands you, he just told me that. His problem is that he is too young and it is very difficult for him to accept this”

Soraya’s words were very important for Amir. Now he felt better and he was calm. She made him feel that way… she always did. Amir fell asleep and when he woke up, Sohrab was sitting next to him. Soraya wasn’t there anymore. At that moment, Sohrab started to cry and gave Amir something he had in his hands. Amir opened it and saw a kite Sohrab had made for him. On it there were some photos of the five of them; Baba, Amir, Hassan, Sohrab and Rahim Khan. Amir gave him a hug and after a while Sohrab said:
- “When guilt leads to good, that’s what true redemption is”. Rahim Kahn told me that once, Amir agha. Now I understand what he meant when he said that. I felt sad and disappointed when you told me the truth but now I see. It is hard to accept that things could have been different and we could all be living together now, but this is my reality, this is my life and you are my family. Thanks a lot Amir agha. And thank you for telling me the truth”

Amir didn’t know what to say. The only words that came out of his mouth were “for you a thousand times over”

At that precise moment Soraya came in the room again. In her face there was a tear and in her eyes a strange but happy look.
- I’m pregnant! – She said.
- I’m going to have a brother! – Sohrab answered while a big smile invaded his face.
Amir couldn’t believe what he was hearing...

creative writing: The Kite Runner

Friendship and betrayal

Friends are very important because we tell them our secrets, feelings and we can always rely on them. They play a primary role in our lives as we share most of our time with them. Although we trust friends and they can give us very happy moments, they can also fail to do so and betray us.In the novel The Kite Runner friendship and betrayal are two of the most important themes developed in the story. Even though Amir and Hassan cared for each other, they shared a strange friendship.
Hassan was loyal, he always stood up for Amir when other kids bothered him. Something very different happened with Amir as he was a coward. The day of the kite tournament, Assef and his friends caught Hassan because they wanted the kite Amir had cut off. As he didn`t want to give them the kite, they hurt him, but the worst thing was that Assef raped him. This episode was the begining of a big trouble in Amir`s life as he becomes the responsable of a big lie. He was watching the scene, he could have stood up for Hassan, but instead, he ran away, which expresses when he says “I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley,stand up for Hassan the way he`d stood up for me all those times in the past and accept whatever it would happen to me: Or I could ran. In the end I ran”. Here, Amir made a choice he would regret forever. In this part of the story their friendship changes.
Hassan felt worse than ever as he knew his best friend, hadn`t help him in that horrible moment of his life. After the rape, Hassan had to go away from Amir`s house in awful circumstances. As Amir felt so guilty, he wanted Hassan to go so he set a trap on him. Amir hid a wristwatch from his birthday presents, under Hassan`s bed and he claimed it had disappeared. After that, Amir`s dad asked Hassan if he had stolen Amir`s watch.” Hassan`s reply was a single word, delivered in a raspy voice: Yes”. This attitude shows Amir`s selfishness, cowardice and also here another betrayal is comited towards Hassan who was obviously innocent.
After Hassan left, years passed and Amir felt even more guilty, this feeling inside him wihch didn`t let him sleep. It`s interesting that everything turned round for him when he recieved a phone call from Rahim Khan in which he tells him something very important: “There`s a way to be good again”. With those words Amir prepared himself to deal with the most difficult burden in his life, his guilt. But also this phrase, let us know the other part of the story as here starts Amir`s real journey.
As Rahim Khan knows all his past sins, he asked Amir to save Hassan`s son Sohrab, who was an orphan and was lost somewhere in Kabul. Amir travelled miles and miles to find the boy, and when he finally gets to him he had a terrible fight against the man that had the child,and had almost killed him, Assef.
This is when Amir finally feels relieved with himself. While Assef was kicking and hurting him, he started laughing “I hadn`t been happy and I hadn`t felt better, not at all. But I did now. My body was broken but I felt healed. Healed at last”. It is here when Amir changes his attitude, he promised himself to take care of Sohrab and in this way also he felt better as he could finally get rid of that feeing of guilt that had tortured him since he was a child.
At the end of the book while Amir was flying kites with Sohrab, he said a few words that have a very strong meaning “ For you a thouthand times over”. Hassan used to say that to Amir everytime he asked or needed something. As now everything has changed for Amir, this phrase is very strong. He became a different person, the guilt was gone, and he was ready to live his life without it.
This story mentions friendship and betrayal as the main topics of it and they are perfectly reflected in the way each of the characters act. Every step, evey situation, was crucial to see how betrayal changes everything. Sohrab entered into Amir`s life and saved him as he was unhappy and sad. With him Amir`s selfishness and inmaturity were gone as he finally understood the real meaning of friendship. Even though he betrayed his best friend, Amir could overcome the situation but all the same, betrayal made their friendship change forever.
( 794 words)