“There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 2). Rahim Khan's first words to Amir in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner set in motion Amir's attempt to repair his scarred past. A mentally tormented man until Khan's call, he repressed memories of his childhood for decades. His journey to Afghanistan to seek redemption allows him to realize what is truly important in life. Although Amir's unintentional barbarity towards Hassan is terrible, he is able to overcome his past sins and achieve personal salvation by facing his actions and doing good. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Amir is a normal guy and although his behavior harms Hassan, he is not cruel or sadistic. Rather, his evil actions take a more benign form, disguised as a need to please his father. For example, when preparing to take part in the annual Kabul kite competition, he declares to himself that “he will spin the last kite… and show it to Baba. Prove to him once and for all that his son was worthy” (Hosseini 56). Amir's motivation for entering the competition is not to gain recognition or fame among his peers. Instead, his goal is to win over his father, who has constantly reminded Amir that he is not worthy of affection. Only a display of physical prowess, he reasons, will ever make Baba like him. Likewise, when he watches Assef brutally rape Hassan, Amir refuses to intervene, instead rationalizing to himself that Hassan was simply “the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to kill, to win Baba” (Hosseini 77). Amir refuses to stop Assef's violation of Hassan because he realizes that Hassan's fate is irrelevant to whether or not Baba will bestow praise on his son. Baba will not find out about Amir's cowardly behavior and will still get praise and recognition from Baba. Indeed, Amir “resents sharing his father's affection with the loyal and talented Hassan” and actually sees Hassan's rape as an opportunity to get closer to his father (“Khaled”). If Hassan, humiliated and shamed by the brutal act, cannot bear to face or talk to other people, Amir will eliminate a former contestant for his father's affection. Caught in an emotionally charged moment, Amir's only thought is to gain the praise of his dear Baba. In the process, he commits the biggest crime of his young life. However, Amir is not intentionally malicious towards Hassan, so he feels guilty afterwards. After finally celebrating the victory of his kite flying competition in Jalalabad with his dear Baba, Amir realizes that he is a "monster" (Hosseini 86). Amir fully understands the enormity of what he has done: he has committed an almost unforgivable sin against Hassan stemming from a childish and selfish desire to gain Baba's good graces. However, instead of cowering in shame and blaming others or cursing fate, he takes sole responsibility for his actions. Amir reveals that he is otherwise a good person, as he possesses a conscience and guilt. In fact, as Amir notes, the real danger from his actions is “the nature of my new curse: I wanted to get away with it” (Hosseini 86). What pains him most is the knowledge that there will be no turning back. No one would find out what he had done. Secretly, Amir wishes someone would find out and expose him for his true nature. He cannot bear to live with the secret of his shameful act, but he cannot face it. Even though he knows that no one will expose him, he tries to right the wrong he has done.Despite his good intentions, Amir's attempt to hide his evil leads him to perpetrate even more offenses. When he first talks to Hassan after the rape, Amir throws him a pomegranate and wishes Hassan would react in return and "give me the punishment I wanted, so maybe I would finally sleep at night" (Hosseini 92). Amir knows the extent of the crime he has committed and foolishly thinks that if he were, Hassan will react and retaliation will somehow mitigate the severity of his action. Amir begins to hurt others as he tries to make up for what he has done. His twisted logic is taken to the extreme when he decides that the only way to completely solve the problem he has created is to distance Hassan from the family: "To better hide his secret sin, Amir betrays Hassan a second time, resulting in Hassan leaves the relative paradise and safety of Baba's home” (Morace), the very thing Amir wanted so much (to win the kite flying competition), the same thing that ultimately brought him praise from his dear Baba. , it's time there which figuratively tears him apart. Hassan's mere presence is a constant reminder of Amir's shame and guilt, a dark shadow that lingers to haunt him despite Amir's terrible betrayal worst Hassan's naivety and devotion highlight his natural purity and goodness, in stark contrast to the emotionally tortured Amir. As a result, when he commits his second betrayal, Amir can only think of himself. He never considers the effect of his actions on Hassan or Ali. Unfortunately, in parallel with the dense web of lies and deception, Amir's behavior worsens. For example, after Baba confronts Hassan about “stealing” Amir's watch, Amir almost tells the truth, “except part of me was happy. I'm glad this will all end soon” (Hosseini 105). Amir's selfishness and short-sightedness have now become his defining traits, causing more chaos than he could have imagined. In reality he is able to paint his terrible betrayal towards Hassan as an inconvenience to himself, a burden that he would be happy to free himself from. Amir begins to stop feeling emotions for others, replacing his feelings for them with his own distorted view of reality. He has gone from a normal boy to one who uses a deformed view of others to inflict suffering on them. When he finally fully recognizes the extent of his betrayal and sins, Amir is shocked by the pain he has caused others. As a result, Amir relentlessly tries to escape his former friend's betrayal, but fails. However, in his desperate search for escape, he learns the healing power of confronting the past. Soon, the Soviets invade Afghanistan and force Amir and his father to flee to America, a place that Amir “embraced” because it contained “no ghosts, no memories, and no sins” (Hosseini 136). Amir supposes that by physically distancing himself from his past he can finally be at peace with it. He welcomes America because it is a place where he will not have to find the courage to face what he did to Hassan. He is, as Stella Algoo-Baksh observes, “convinced that his soul can be at peace now that he has put the past behind him. Still . . . Amir soon discovers that such liberation is not easily achieved” (143). Even if he doesn't think about it, his past still lurks in the deepest recesses of his mind, haunting him, mocking him for his cowardice. Ironically, however, it is in America that Amir learns his first lesson on how to remember the past. His wife, Soraya, had a shameful story, but she immediately came out and told him about it, and for that he “envied her. His secret was revealed. Spoke.Confronted” (Hosseini 165). Amir admires how Soraya frees herself by revealing her past. She likes knowing that people accept her as she is, even with her flaws and mistakes from long ago. However, Amir refuses to acknowledge his past and constantly lives in fear that those he loves will reject him after learning what he has done. Despite his major realization, Amir is reluctant to face his past as he is still afraid that others will criticize him for it. Only when pushed by a close friend, Rahim Khan, does Amir finally find the strength to face his past. Early on, when Khan calls to ask Amir to return to Afghanistan, Amir wishes “Rahim Khan hadn't called me. I wish he had let me live in my oblivion” (Hosseini 226). This statement is the last remaining fragment of Amir's crumbling resistance to facing his past. Although Amir verbally expresses dismay at Khan's call, he has secretly hoped that this moment would come. He realizes that it is impossible to forget his past, and he actually wanted someone to spur him into action and give him the courage to face his past misdeeds. The decisive factor is secrecy. Now that someone already knows what he did, Amir can face his story without fear that his past actions will later be discovered. In essence, he is freed from the threat of new shame because his secret is already known. Later, when he returns to Pakistan to meet Khan, Amir learns that Baba was Hassan's father and is shocked by his father's behavior. However, as Khan notes, the good Baba did in his life “was all his way of redeeming himself. And this, I believe, is true redemption, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good” (Hosseini 302). Amir recognizes that Baba has not been disgracefully hiding from his past; instead, he tried to make amends by building orphanages and helping society. Amir notes that he himself did exactly the opposite: he simply took out his shame on the same people he had already hurt. Only by straightening out his past will he be able to atone for his sins; oblivion will lead to nothing. And so Amir leaves for Afghanistan, a trip that Geraldine Pearson describes as "a way for Amir to deal with his guilt towards Hassan and ultimately creates a story of redemption and resolution" (66). He returns not only to end his own denial and guilt and atone for his sins, but also the sins of his father. His father committed the crime that gave birth to Hassan. The rescue of Hassan's son Sohrab will lead to the resolution of this problem started by his father and which Amir exacerbated. Amir is determined to finally face his past and leaves for Afghanistan, determined to make good out of bad. Subsequently, his new knowledge and determination to correct his mistakes give him new strength, both physically and mentally. Later, when Amir's teeth are broken, ribs cracked, and skin torn from Assef's violent beatings, Amir strangely feels serenely calm: “I felt at peace. . . . My body was destroyed. . . but I felt healed. Finally healed” (Hosseini 289). Amir doesn't care about Assef's blows because for him they are weak compared to the personal fulfillment he found by redeeming himself by saving Sohrab. He knows that now he, just like his father, has performed an act of service to help him correct his past mistakes. Assef's blows pale in comparison to the weight of decades of shame, guilt and lies lifted from Amir's shoulders. Similarly, after Amir takes Sohrab to America, and Sohrab smiles a small, barely perceptible smile, Amir runs “with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the valley of>.