Kite Runner Final

Kite Runner Final-Truth.

One of the recurring themes in Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner is the concealment of truth and the consequences that follow.  The fact that Amir hid while Hassan was raped caused Amir to experience major psychological stress as his actions differed from his morality, beliefs, and conscience. With no support structure to help him reconcile this, Amir began to act on the effects of cognitive dissonance. Conflict avoidance, guilt, and shame are all common tell-tale signs of the cognitive dissonance that Amir displays through his distancing from Hassan ever since the initial kite running incident. 

There is some irony that lies in the fact that Baba, a man who repeatedly stresses the importance of standing up for the right thing, never told Amir that Hassan was his brother. Baba even stated “There is no act more wretched than stealing, Amir. A man who takes what’s not his to take, be it a life or a loaf of naan… I spit on such a man”.Yet, through this ironic advice, Baba was displaying conflict avoidance, hiding the truth from Amir because he was afraid that the fact that he committed adultery with Ali’s wife, a Hazaran woman, would be revealed. Baba had his own cognitive dissonance to address, but with higher stakes as his reputation would be tarnished and it would not be out of the picture for the Pashtun people to kill Hassan and his mother. Yet, in a more perfect world, if Baba told the truth to Amir and Hassan, their lives would most likely have been drastically different than the one told in the book. For starters, Hassan might have survived as he would have been able to follow Baba and Amir to America. Even if Amir could not save Hassan from being raped, Amir may have been able to rebuild his relationship with Hassan. At the end of the day, Baba only wanted the best for both his sons, but in his attempt to protect them he may have caused more harm to the entire family.

Baba, a product of the traditional society in which he lived, mainly viewed the world through the lens of religion and culture. As a result, Baba’s worldview mainly deals with moral absolutes, as is necessary when prescribing behavior norms for large populations. We can see the effects of Baba’s worldview on Amir , as Amir’s desire to be “good” again most likely stems from Baba’s teachings and the culture Amir was raised in. Moreover, we can see additional evidence of a cultural belief in moral absolutes through Rahim Khan’s words to Amir: “Come, There is a way to be good again”. This implies that “good” and “bad”are distinct states that follow from specific actions or events. Simply put, it would be against their culture to admit fault or reveal one’s sins, but appropriate action must be taken to undo even the darkest sin. These themes of morality and sin are also prevalent within the christian worldview. An example of the harms of cognitive dissonant behavior would be the story of David and Bathsheba in the Old Testament. After committing adultery, David, a divinely appointed king of Israel, first tried to hide his sin by attempting to trick Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, to spend the night with her as well. When this failed, he simply sent Uriah off to the front lines to get killed so he could marry her legitimately. Although he did sin and lie, he came clean and asked for forgiveness. Just as Amir had to endure Assef’s brass knuckles to become “good” again, David’s house would come to ruin before he could regain God’s grace.

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Reflection

When I first started reading the kite runner I viewed it as a waste of time and I felt that the kite runner was a inherently boring book. However, as I progressed further along the book I became invested in the story and wanted to learn more about what happened to Amir. This interest then sparked different questions and I eventually found myself reading to find out more rather than reading for the sake of reading.

Rough Draft

One of the recurring themes in Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner is the concealment of truth and the consequences that follow. The fact that Amir hid while Hassan was raped caused Amir to experience major psychological stress as his actions differing from his morality, beliefs, and conscience lead him to act on the effects of cognitive dissonance. Conflict avoidance, guilt, and shame are all common tell-tale signs of cognitive dissonance that Amir displays through his treatment of Hassan after he watched Hassan get raped. There is some irony that lies in the fact that Baba, a man who repeatedly stresses the importance of standing up for the right thing, never told Amir that Hassan was his brother. Baba even stated “There is no act more wretched than stealing, Amir. A man who takes what’s not his to take, be it a life or a loaf of naan… I spit on such a man.”.Yet, BBaba never told Amir the truth because he was afraid that the fact that he committed adultery with Ali’s wife, a Hazaran woman, would be revealed. Moreover, Baba’s reputation would be tarnished and it would not be out of the picture for the Pashtun people to kill Hassan and his mother. If Baba told the truth to Amir and Hassan, their lives would most likely have been drastically different than the one told in the book. For starters, Hassan might have survived as he would have been able to follow Baba and Amir to America. Even if Hassan was still raped, Amir may have been able to rebuild his relationship with Hassan. At the end of the day, Baba only wanted the best for both his sons, but in his attempt to protect them he may have caused more harm. Amir’s father, Baba, seemed to view the world mainly through the lens of religion and culture. While it may be difficult to discern the different aspects of a religion/culture based worldview, it seems that Baba’s worldview mainly deals with moral absolutes. We can see the effects of Baba’s worldview on Amir , as Amir’s desire to be “good” again most likely stems from Baba’s teachings and the culture Amir grew up in. Moreover, we can even more evidence of a strong belief in moral absolutes through Rahim Khan’s words to Amir “Come, There is a way to be good again,”. Simply put, it would be against their culture to admit fault or reveal one’s sins.