Kite Runner Redemption Quotes

How does one define a sin? Google Search defines sinning as to “offend against (God, a person, or a principle),” yet when it comes to what specific actions are considered sins, answers vary. We, as human beings, are known to condemn a sin before trying it, and give up hope before attempting to understand how to absolve your mistake. The way to rid of a sin is through redemption, but the real question is whether redemption is done out of selfishness or out of respect for the ones offended. The protagonist in the historical fiction novel The Kite Runner, Amir, begins as a twelve year old boy from Afghanistan who makes a harrowing decision, distorting his thought process for the remainder of his life. This one split decision, this mistake, as …show more content…
In The Kite Runner, Amir's attempt at redemption is motivated by his selfishness in the attempt to rid himself of guilt and burden, which conveys Hosseini's theme that there's a degree of selfishness required to achieve selflessness.
Being a child opens one’s mind up to many different ideas, perspectives, and personalities. You say what you hear, you do what you see, and you become what those you look up to are. In the novel, Hosseini states, “As it turned out, 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” (Hosseini 226). At this moment in the book, Amir was awed by the similarities between his father and himself. His father had raised him to be how he was, but unfortunately that came along with the price of selfishness. Baba, Amir’s father, too had made regrettable mistakes, some of which he was never able to exonerate. Both made mistakes regarding Hassan’s …show more content…
People began to question whether man needed redemption by Christ or if they could reach perfect innocence by the virtue of natural gifts given to us. “Both those of the Reform and the Catholic Church have accepted the basic argument that to be human is to be inevitably entrammeled in the state of original sin,” (Domning 97). It is emphasized not only in Catholic teachings, but in the world around us, that it is not just our community plaguing our mind with these horribly distorted thoughts, but is our own beings restricting us the ability to be unselfish in given situations. “Redemption [is] not a deliverance from sin, but a total affirmation of life, with all its pain, suffering and absurdity,” (Cybulska). The fact, we ourselves, are part of the human brotherhood, makes us susceptible to the opinions of others and more likely to agree with their stances. Humans have not only displayed their selfishness by the actions of conquering, and enslaving, other peoples of our same species, but by making the place we call home in bad of a shape as it is today. Even today’s redemption is done selfishly; not because we want to fix the place we destroyed, but because we are yet to find a new home for ourselves. Once we do we will get up and leave our current home, just as Amir left Afghanistan for America with the hopes of his sins being left behind, only to recognize the

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