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THEME: Betrayal and Redemption - Coggle Diagram
THEME: Betrayal and Redemption
Seeking redemption for Baba - Amir is already searching for redemption from 'killing' his mother in childbirth
Thinks winning the kite tournament and bring home the winning kite will repair his relationship with Baba (Amir can redeem himself to Baba)
Amir has an internal monologue about who if he were to win the tournament Baba will love him and forgive him for killing his mother (pg60)
Talks about Baba always winning never being close to winning
(quotations on this page)
Wins the tournament redeemed/ is problem will be fixed because of winning
“And that moment of my twelve years of life, seeing Baba on that roof, proud of me at last” (pg71)
“Then the old warrior would walk to the young one, embrace him, acknowledge his worthiness. Vindication. Salvation Redemption. And then?... happily ever after, of course. What else?” (pg72)
Though he finally feels redeemed in Babas eyes, this events leads to the situation with Hassan in the ally. Amirs story of seeking redemption for someone else turns into seeking self redemption
"All I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption."
“Because the truth of it is, I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, beautiful princess, hadn’t I?” (pg20)
“I wished I too had some kind of scar that would beget baba’s sympathy. It wasn’t fair. Hassan hadn’t doen anything to earn baba’s affections; he’d just been born with that stupid harelip” (pg50)
“(...) and told him I'd written a story. Baba nodded and gave a thin smile that conveyed little more than feigned interest. ‘Well, that's very good isn’t it’” (pg33).
“One time, I took on the whole class and won. I told Baba about it later that night, but he just nodded, muttered ‘good’ “ (pg20)
Amir seeks self redemption - after witnessing and not acting on Hassan being raped
Almost immediately after the incident, Amir recognizes his guilt (and loathes for a long time before really acting on it)
“That should have been fun, spending a day like that with Baba, hearing his stories. I finally had what I wanted after all those years.Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into” (pg90)
“Kaka Faruq patted my back with his clean hand. I felt like sticking a knife in my eye” (pg91)
“Except he’d been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake. It had grabbed Hassan by the ankles, dragged him to the murky bottom. I was that monster” (pg91)
“ We’d (Amir and Baba) actually deceived ourselves into thinking that a toy made of tissue, paper, glue, and bamboo could somehow close the chasm between us” (pg93)
recognizes his need for redemption with Baba was superficial (it wasn't Amir's fault) - by realizing he needs true redemption now
questions is 'redemption' with Baba now - because he questions himself and his morals
“- it was all blood money. Baba would have never thrown me a party like that if I hadn’t won the tournament” (pg107)
Still feels guilt/ want to redeem self after 7 years have passed
“ [Baba speaking’] ‘I wish Hassna was here with us today’ he said. A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan's name. I rolled down the window. Waited for the steel hands to loosen their grip” (pg141)
try to seek redemption by getting Hassan to throw pomegranates at him - but only backfires by Hassan crushing a pomegranate on himself
Amir wants to get hurt by Hassan - like Amir hurt Hassan - but here shows how his seek of redemption is deeper/ can't be solved that superficially
Thinks about trying to mend things before Hassan goes away - misses his chance
“I;d pull Hasan out of the backseat and tell him I was sorry, so sorry, my tears mixing with rainwater. We’d hug in the downpour. But this was no Hindi movie.” (pg115)
*Amir Betrays Hassan by letting him get raped
countless times Hassan shows his loyalty towards Amir - making it that much worse when Amir betrays Hassan
“How can you call him your friend? But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant! Had I really thought that?” (pg44) - “I turned and came face to face with Hassan;s slingshot. “Please leave us alone, Agha” (pg45) (Hassan saves both himself and Amir from Assef and his gang - showing loyalty)
After Hassen says he would eat dirt Amir asked, Hassen asked if Amir would make him eat dirt (pg58) - Amir “forced a smile” and said he wouldn’t, but from the context, Amir isn’t set on never asking him to eat dirt (or do something) for Hassen
"For you, a thousand times over" (pg72)
“ I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassen - the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past - and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran. I ran because I was a coward” (pg82)
“ I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassen was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer floater to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (pg 82)
Amir betrays Baba but 'letting' his mother die at childbirth
Finally as an adult, he decides to embark on a journey to redemption
“ There is a way to be good again, he’d said. A way to end the cycle. With a little boy. An orphan. Hassan’s son. Somewhere in Kabul” (pg239)
knows he is ready to be redeemed when he has grown - growth and time lead to his redemption
“ earlier that morning, when I was certain no one was looking, I did something I had done twenty-six years earlier: I planted a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress” (pg254)
“ ‘Best to forget’ ‘I don’t want to forget anymore.” (pg276)
Baba and I were more alike than I’d ever known. We had both betrayed the people who would have given their lives for us. And with that came this realization: that Rahim Khan had summoned me here to atone not just for my sins but for Baba’s too.
Amir finally feels redeemed when he risked his life for Sohrab, Hassans son - he was finally protecting 'hassan' from Assef like he should have done in the alley
“ I hadn’t been happy and I hadn’t felt better, not at all. But I did now. My body was broken - just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later - but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed” (pg303)
“Lets just say we both got what we deserved” (pg313)
Baba seeks to redeem himself by helping his community after betraying Ali
“Sometimes I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building orphanages, giving money to friends in need, it was all a way of redeeming himself” (pg316)
“And that, what I believe,is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good”
“So he took it out on you instead - Amir, the socially legitimate half, the half that represented the riches he had inherited and his sin-with-impunity privileges that came with them. When he saw you, he saw himself. And his guilt” (pg316)
Baba feels redeemed when they move to American and struggle to get by (like Ali and Hassan did in Kabul)
“Maybe that was why Baba and I had been on such better terms in the US, I wondered. Selling Junk for petty cash, out menial jobs, our grimy apartment - the American version of a hut; maybe in America, when Baba looked at me, he saw a little bit of Hassan” (pg317)
Baba betrays Ali (a life long friend) by sleeping with Sanaubar (Hassans mother/ Alis wife)
Soraya
In her youth (18), Soraya betrayed Afghan tradition and customs and Feld with an Afghan man who was into drugs. Together they were rebellious
Redeems herself in her family eyes by coming home and settling down, she becomes a better (and kind) Afghan.
Sohrab
feels he betrayed himself when he got abused by the Taliiban - maybe also when his parents were shot
Sohrab thinks Amir is going to betray him when he mentions that he might have to return to an orphanage
attempts suicide to 'redeem' himself for living, for being involved in inappropriate acts
After time, finds self redemption by agreeing to fly the kite with Amir
Shows that he is meant to be alive - it can't feel guilty for his past trauma
Although everybody seems to betray something and eventually redeem themselves - author plays on the question 'can anybody really be redeemed?' 'is redemption truly a thing that can save us?"
“If someone were to ask me today whether the story of Hassan, Sohrab, and me ends with happiness, I wouldn’t know what to say. Does anybody’s? After all, life is not a Hindi movie.” (pg376)