The Kite Runner Essay -- Literary Analysis, Khaled Hosseini

"There is a way to be good again". By putting this quote at the very first beginning of the book, "The Kite Runner", Khaled Hosseini has introduced a theme that goes throughout the story of the book, redemption. Everything has a path that leads to the final destination, sometimes there are more than one path to go. It depends on people to choose which one that suitable for them. In the book, by telling the story, the author has shown a road to redemption. Baba, Sanaubar and Amir, different characters in the book represent different types of people in reality, stories of how they would do to redeem their mistakes. Redemption, the definition of this term is a controversial subject. Through the book, the author shows his side of understanding the word. Redemption is an act of goodness from the regretful heart, from guilt of the past. A person who had made a mistake before would be corroded slowly by his regret and the pain that haunts him days by days. However, "there is a way to be good again", he may have killed a life, but he can save another life to pay back for the sin. That's how redemption simply works. People could not change the past; therefore, they would do a good thing that brings to a better future, which makes them become better people than the ones in the past. The road to redemption is not from when the person makes up for his guilt, but it starts when he feel regretful, a difficult start, and ends with a relief of redemption. The author puts characters into different situations of sins and how they try to resolve problems, as examples for his ideas of road to redemption. For instance, Baba is always an honorable man in people's eyes. They admire him for his power, they are jealous with his wealth and they love ... ...uilty feeling inside people. It is pointless for doing thousands of good things in the present when they could not change a sin in their past. Redemption can be considered as a comfort, that gives people "the illusion", a feeling of believing that they could pay back for their sins. However, it is not true; what has been done could not be inversed again. For example, Amir may have saved Sohrab's life by rescuing the boy from Assef, but that is what he does for Sohrab, not Hassan. His half-brother had still been raped by Assef, he got shot and already died. That truth is unchangeable. In fact, redemption is an action that may be kind of selfishness because most parts of redemption are all about sinners, when they try to make themselves feel better. Therefore, the author's statement of the redemption, "there is a way to be good again", is not always true.