The Kite Runner: Post Three

In the past, I have been inside countless classrooms with a poster on the wall that says, "Ten years from now, it won't matter what shoes you wore, what clothing you had, or how popular you were... What will matter is how well you treated others" or something to that effect. Amir, the protagonist in The Kite Runner, is learning just how true this saying is as he tries to cope with his guilt for his crimes against his childhood friend, Hassan.

After Hassan was raped by Assef, Amir is filled with guilt for not stopping the crime. He avoids Hassan, shutting himself up in is room and reading rather than going out and playing with Hassan (Hosseini 88). Eventually, Amir's remorse becomes so great that he frames Hassan in stealing some of Amir's birthday presents. Baba forgives Hassan, but his father, Ali, refuses to stay any longer, and the father and son move to Hazarajat (Hosseini 105-107). None of this makes Amir feel any better. Even that which Amir had hoped to attain by his wrongdoing, his father's approval, soon wanes (Hosseini 93).

But life must go on. When Amir is eighteen, Russia takes over Afghanistan, so Baba and he flee to America. But still Amir does not escape his memories of Hassan. After he graduates from high school, Amir and his father is overjoyed. He says, "'I wish Hassan had been with us today...'" (Hosseini 133). Immediately Amir has a pang of regret. "A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan's name" (Hosseini 134). Even as Amir makes a new life for himself in the U.S., his past still weighs him down.

By now, I hope Amir has finally learned that doing the right thing and sticking up for one's friends is more important than the transient approval of others. In the short term, approval may be more comfortable, but as life goes on, doing the right thing is the only thing that will allow true peace of mind. At this point, it's hard to see how Amir will be able to overcome his conflict with his conscience. All that is left to do, it seems, is attempt to make fewer such mistakes in the future.