Guilty Conscience

     While reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, I began to notice the amount of guilt that Amir is feeling. The amount of guilt placed on him comes from his lack of action during the alley scene. During this scene, he watches his friend get raped and does nothing to stop it. The novel goes on to talk about how Amir spends time avoiding Hassan while he tries to forget what he saw. Through this avoidance, the guilt in Amir begins to build rapidly. As the novel continued, Amir reveals the story of how he once purposely framed Hassan by placing money in his mattress to try and get him kicked out of the house. In chapter 22 of the novel, the past begins to be revealed. The guilt in Amir from trying to get Hassan kicked out of the house causes him to want to protect the son of Hassan, Sohrab, from Assef. In chapter 22, Amir is faced with Assef in order to save Sohrab. In the process of saving Sohrab, Amir was severely beaten including a dislodged kidney stone which caused him pain. Ironically, while he in pain he was laughing. Amir stated "I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in the corner of my mind, I'd been looking forward to this" (Hosseini, 289)." Following this, I believe that Amir forgave himself both for what happened in the alley and in the housing situation with Hassan.