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Redemption in The Kite Runner

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Redemption in The Kite Runner
ISU: Redemption
It is only natural for humans to make mistakes, just like Amir in the novel The Kite Runner, but it is how the mistakes are resolved that will dictate ones fate. The main character of The Kite Runner, Amir, knows a thing or two about making mistakes. What he struggles with throughout the novel is finding redemption for those mistakes. Throughout all stages of Amir’s life, he is striving for redemption. Whether Amir is saying the wrong thing or hiding from a hurtful truth, he always finds new things he will have to redeem himself for. That is why redemption is a huge underlining theme in The Kite Runner.
When Amir is a child, he feels his father blames him for his mother’s death and cannot love him. He does everything he can think of to try and make up for the mistakes he made in the past. Since Amir feels his father does not love him, he thinks of ways to make things right with him. Amir sees Baba as a perfect higher presence that he could never amount to. When the kite running competition comes around he takes this opportunity to prove to his father that he can be more of an “ideal” son to Baba, ultimately getting redemption for everything his father has not approved of. Amir sees Baba as a perfect father figure because everyone looks up to him. Amir could never live up to Baba’s expectations of him and that is where the theme of redemption comes to play between these two characters. Although Amir impresses his father by winning the kite running competition, he ends the day by hurting his best friend in a terrible way and one day he will have to find a way to make up for it.
Amir and Hassan are two inseparable children, but their relationship is unusual because Hassan is Amir’s servant. Amir is never very nice to Hassan, but Hassan would never turn his back on Amir. This is evident when he says, “For you a thousand times over”. Amir makes a huge mistake one day by hurting Hassan and it takes a very long time for him to find a way to redeem

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