Guilt In John Steinbeck's The Kite Runner
When people care about people or things, they tend to protect it. When they see something attacking what they care about, they defend it. Sometimes people are selfish, they value their safety over the safety of the ones they care about. They’re afraid it would hurt them. Fear stops people from doing what they feel is right. When the do not protect what they love, they feel responsible for what happened to them. They feel guilty. What happens to Amir shows guilt as a result of caring and not taking the opportunity to do something about it.
The first guilt Amir feels is when he plays a prank on Hassan when they are children. Hassan is illiterate, so Amir reads for him. When Hassan hears the word ‘imbecile,’ he asks Amir what it means. Instead …show more content…
It was my past of unatoned sins.”(1) When he hears about what happened to Hassan, he feels responsible and feels the need to make it up to him.
It is almost impossible for Amir to escape his guilt. When he writes a story, he asks his father, Baba, to read it, but he shuts Amir down. Baba’s friend, Rahim Khan, reads his story and tells Amir to keep writing and praised him for what he did. Amir feels proud of what he has done, but was discouraged that his father did not agree with what he had done. Amir begins to wish Rahim was his father, someone more supportive and kind. He immediately regrets wishing this as he “was overcome by such sudden guilt”; it made him so sick that he “bolted to the bathroom and vomited in the sink.”(32) Guilt is a burden on Amir’s soul, as it affects him more drastically than anyone else in the book. Guilt is what drives Amir toward doing the right thing.
Amir cares about his friends and family. The use of guilt by the author shows this. The way Amir responds to guilt shows how he feels about the people around him. He cares about Hassan, and regrets not doing what he should have. Amir cares about his father, and his search of approval led him to do something he instantly regretted. He cares about Baba and he wants Baba to be proud of him. Amir just wants to do what is right, and guilt is his tool. He did the right thing to save Hassan's son, and guilt drove him to that. When he betrayed his father, guilt drove him to care for him even
The first guilt Amir feels is when he plays a prank on Hassan when they are children. Hassan is illiterate, so Amir reads for him. When Hassan hears the word ‘imbecile,’ he asks Amir what it means. Instead …show more content…
It was my past of unatoned sins.”(1) When he hears about what happened to Hassan, he feels responsible and feels the need to make it up to him.
It is almost impossible for Amir to escape his guilt. When he writes a story, he asks his father, Baba, to read it, but he shuts Amir down. Baba’s friend, Rahim Khan, reads his story and tells Amir to keep writing and praised him for what he did. Amir feels proud of what he has done, but was discouraged that his father did not agree with what he had done. Amir begins to wish Rahim was his father, someone more supportive and kind. He immediately regrets wishing this as he “was overcome by such sudden guilt”; it made him so sick that he “bolted to the bathroom and vomited in the sink.”(32) Guilt is a burden on Amir’s soul, as it affects him more drastically than anyone else in the book. Guilt is what drives Amir toward doing the right thing.
Amir cares about his friends and family. The use of guilt by the author shows this. The way Amir responds to guilt shows how he feels about the people around him. He cares about Hassan, and regrets not doing what he should have. Amir cares about his father, and his search of approval led him to do something he instantly regretted. He cares about Baba and he wants Baba to be proud of him. Amir just wants to do what is right, and guilt is his tool. He did the right thing to save Hassan's son, and guilt drove him to that. When he betrayed his father, guilt drove him to care for him even