Essay

Analyze how the strength and/or weaknesses of a character developed an idea in ‘The kite runner’

Plan

Character: Amir

Strengths

Writer 

Well educated 

Driven 

Personal growth 

Weaknesses 

Selfish 

Wuss/coward

Won’t stand up for self 

Sacrifices things instead of himself 

Self-centered 

Lacks confidence 

Proud/ego 

Disloyal 

The text ‘The kite runner’ by Khaled Hosseini, is about a boy named Amir who grows up unable to stand up for himself and constantly having to be saved by his servant/friend Hassan. During Amir’s childhood, he got into a very dire situation which involved him making a choice, and in the end, he made the choice that betrayed his best friend/servant, leaving him to live a life engulfed with guilt. In the text ‘The kite runner’, Amir had three key characteristics that can be seen as strengths/weaknesses. These three strengths and weaknesses included: that he is disloyal, a coward, and eventually, he is driven to atone for his sins. These characteristics that Amir possesses developed the idea that the choices you make in one aspect of your life, will have consequences.

Hosseini highlights the idea that your choices in one aspect of your life can create consequences, by creating Amir to have the weakness of being disloyal. Amir is shown to be disloyal in the text when he doesn’t stick up for Hassan in his biggest time of need and in many other times, Hassan needs help, even though Hassan has protected and stood by Amir for his entire life. When Amir made the choice to be disloyal and not stick up for Hassan, it affected his entire life in a negative way because of the guilt that was brought upon Amir. Amir developed his disloyalty trait because of his cowardly nature. This is because Amir’s lack of bravery has made him hungry for safety and his own selfish wants, which means that he values safety over being loyal to his friends and people who are loyal to him such as Hassan. Disloyalty is a weakness because if you do not show loyalty for people who are good to you and loyal to you, you will suffer guilt and will know that you have done the wrong thing and it gives a message that people should not be good and loyal to you because you would not return the favor. “For you, a thousand times over”. This was said by Hassan to Amir right before he chased the kite down for Amir and then got sexually assaulted in the alleyway due to Amir choosing to not even try to save him. This shows that even though Hassan is extremely loyal towards Amir, Amir would abandon him in his time of need. “That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” This quote is narrated by Amir and it emphasizes the guilt he feels. Hosseini used these quotes to highlight that when Amir was disloyal to Hassan and didn’t save him, he suffered extreme guilt, showing that the choices you make in one aspect of your life, can have consequences in the other aspects of your life.

The idea that the choices you make can consequently affect the entirety of your life was shown by Hosseini in the text by creating Amir to have the weakness of being a coward. Amir’s trait of being a coward is shown is the text first when he doesn’t help Hassan, and secondly when he plants the money under Hassan’s mattress. This is because instead of being a good person and helping Hassan get through his tough times, he decided to put money under Hassan’s mattress in order to get him kicked out of the house so that Amir didn’t have to be reminded of the cowardly decision that he had made. Amir develops the cowardly trait from all his years of being tormented by bullies, mostly Assef. Having the trait of being a coward is a major weakness because it means that you will not be respected by others. “I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had.” When Amir says this, he is explaining that he almost overcame his cowardly trait in order to save his friend, but in the end, he did not manage. “I finally had what I wanted all those years. Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into.” Hosseini uses this quote said by Amir, to highlight the idea that the choices you make can affect your life with large consequences because of how Amir’s choice to remain a coward brought him to feel empty.

In the text, Hosseini highlighted the idea that your entire world can be altered by the consequences of one decision made in one aspect of your life. One of the ways that he did this was by showing that Amir had the strength of being driven to atone for his sins. In the text, Amir goes all the way back to Afghanistan, even though he has a wife and a good life in America, to risk his life and attempt to save Sohrab and adopt him as a son. This shows that Amir is driven to atone for his sins and redeem himself by saving Hassan’s son. This trait is developed by Amir because of all those years of guilt that he had to live through because of how he betrayed his friend Hassan. Being driven to redeem himself was a major trait that Amir had because it helped him to lose some of his guilt that was ruining his life. “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.” This quote explains how painful the guilt that Amir had was and that the choice he made had impacted his life majorly. “My body was broken- just how bad I wouldn’t find out until later- but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.” Hosseini uses this quote to show that the choices you make can have major positive and/or negative consequences because Amir’s choice to be driven and redeem himself has brought him to feel healed and possibly able to enjoy life again.

In the book ‘The kite runner’, Hosseini highlights the idea that people’s choices have consequences. He does this by using three of Amir’s traits, including two weaknesses and then one strength: disloyalty, cowardness, and the drive to redeem himself. The first weakness Hosseini used was Amir’s disloyalty, and he used it to highlight the idea by showing that when Amir was disloyal to Hassan and didn’t save him, he suffered extreme guilt. He used Amir’s second weakness, which was his cowardness, to show the idea by creating the storyline so that Amir’s choice to remain a coward brought him to feel empty. He also used Amir’s drive to redeem himself as a strength to show how choices affect consequences because Amir’s choice to be driven and redeem himself has brought him to feel healed and possibly able to enjoy life again.