A journey is an expedition from one place to another. We all begin at the starting line setting off into the horizon in search of the finish line. What however, awaits us at the finish line? To some the human journey is the life span of a person, measured by time. To others, it's about reaching an objective. In popular opinion people believe the human journey is the pursuit of happiness, in whatever form that may come, hence why everyone's path is different, as we search for different things. . The most important things in life are hard andconquering is never smooth sailing; you will jump, get knocked back, but with courage and perseverance you will get back up and jump again. Texts that explore these themes are The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini and Montana 1948 by Larry Watson. By showing courage, persistence and endeavour you will ultimately come a lot closer to where you want be in life than if you cowered away from problems and gave up. Without these aspects life's purpose is lost, gone astray, and ultimately never going to reach that satisfaction, the point of why we set out on our journey. "The roughest road often leads to the top." ( Christina Aguilera) This road requires courage persistence and endeavour to reach the pinicle of our life journey. The kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini explores a young Afghani boy growing up in Kabul. It is a story of a father and two brothers, and how they endure the political and social transformations of Afghanistan from the 1970's to 2001.
Throughout the novel the protangonist, Amir, struggles to find a purpose in life, his objective is to face the consequences that shaped his life and ones of whom he loved, seeking redemption. . The Kite Runner follows Amir's endeavour to overcome his own weaknesses, to rectify his wrongs in hope to ultimately seek redemption. His weakness appears in his fear of Assef, his reluctance to enter a war-torn country ruled by the brutal Taliban, and even his carsickness while driving with Farid into Afghanistan. Amir carries the burden of betraying of Hassan in a moment of need, wich shapes not only his future but the course of everyone's life around him. Amir sets out on an journey to recover what is left of the ruins he left in his wake.
The novel follows Amir's' mission to resolve conflict that appears between society, others and most importantly his self. The Kite runner in itself is a novel of symbolic quest. Amir makes drastic sacrifices to pursue his quest to atone for precedent sins by saving his half nephew from a war-ravaged home. Sacrifice is an important theme of the novel, Symbolized by the kite runners bleeding fingers. Their fingers are cut by their kites string embedded with glass, in order to cut their oppositions kites out of the sky. At the start of the story Amir demonstrates that he is willing to make sacrifices to impress his father. During the kite fight he eagerly cuts his fingers to win the kite fighting tournament; near the end of the novel Amir cuts his fingers flying a kite to save his nephew from a deep depression. Sohrab watches the kite fight and for the first time smiles, suggesting redemption for Amir, who has never forgiven himself for what happened to Hassan on the night of that first kite-fighting contest in Kabul years before. The symbolism used in the novel depicts the journey Amir undertakes in order to seek forgivness from those whom he has wronged, and most importantly, to forgive himself.
Amir and Baba move to the United States; a place that represents a space for new beginnings and a way to expunge a past deamons. Amir adjusts more easily to the new country, Baba on the other hand, the move is more difficult, and his new life serves as a painful reminder that contrasts with his earlier position of power and stature in Kabul. "For me, America was a place to bury my memories. For Baba, a place to mourn his." Amir's statement in a few words expresses the pain of the transition to Baba.Immigrants to the United States of America, like Amir and Baba, live with intent to lead better lives as well as concurrently struggling to adjust to be accepted in a culture that may or may not recognise, understand and welcome their traditions.
Khaled Hosseini recurrently uses devices such as flashback and foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is a device used to prepare the reader for the fore coming drastic change of events. For example, during Chapter seven, the narrator describes to the reader that it was the last time he would see Hassan's smile except in a photograph, an interlude in the narrative is a forewarning the reader that something significant is about to take place. The use of these techniques sometimes appears to indicate moments when the lives of those who are altered forever by the crisis of violence, death, or the consequences of world events. In Amir's' case it is the consequences of his actions, or lack of actions, that is the foundation on which the future is based upon. That changes the course of his future forever. Foreshadowing is seen in Chapter 7 when Amir witnesses Hassan being attacked by Asseff on the night of his victory in the kite-fighting contest:"I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan-the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past-and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run."
This inner siliquae hints that in the future Amir will endure a crisis in identity. Later on in the novel, the recognition of his betrayal of Hassan becomes a burden he carries around for a majority of his life, and forces Amir to take extreme measures to forge an identity for himself through noble actions. This is important to Amir as he has always admired his fathers nobility, and in order to get his attention he sacrificed everything so his father to be proud of him ,to be worthy of his love. Amir's objective is to be forgiven and to be the man his father had wanted him to be, to not fall short of his expectations.
In Chapter 14
Come. There is a way to be good again, Rahim Khan had said on the phone just before hanging up. Said it in passing, almost as an afterthought.
A way to be good again.
In the summer of 2001, after living for many years in America, Amir receives a telephone call from Rahim Khan, his father's old friend. Rahim tells Amir that he is ill and needs him to come to Pakistan. Amir senses there is some other reason, so he agrees to return to the East. A chance phrase at the end of the phone call makes Amir think about the past: "There is a way to be good again."
Rahim knows all that he has done and that he has lived concealing the secrets of his acts of cowardice. Rahim knows his true character. With this return, Rahim is offering Amir a chance for redemption. Amir's road to redemption is a lifelong process. As philosopher William James says, "When you have to make a choice, and do not make it, that in itself is a choice." The choices that Amir made, beginning in his childhood, show what he truly is. Total redemption is not possible: the dead cannot be saved. However, through his search for Sohrab and bringing him home, Amir manages to make peace with himself. Amir's search for Hassan's son is an attempt "to be good again," to regain the honor that Hassan had in his self-sacrifice. He cannot heal the wounds that he inflicted on Hassan, but he can endeavor to gain redemption by sacrificing himself in his search for Sohrab. By taking him into his home, by acknowledging the relationship between the two, he places himself into a status of friendship with Sohrab, to whom he pledges, as did Hassan to him, "for you, a thousand times over."
Amir tells "him a lot about Baba, his job, the flea market, and how, at the end, he died happy."
Amir decides to go to Kabul to set right matters by bringing Sohrab to Peshawar and thus "atone not just for his sins but for Baba's too."
Wahid is impressed and praises Amir saying, "you are an honorable man, Amir agha, a true Afghan."
Amir reveals to us that he has put money under his matress for the children to find and buy food with. He also realized it had been 26 years since he had put money under someone's bed; the first time, however, was for a terrible purpose. This reveals how much Amir has grown and changed as a man.
Amir is Sohrab's kite runner and the novel ends with Sohrab smiling for the first time for Amir.
Soraya, in private,reveals to Amir her past: when she was eighteen and was living in Virginia she ran away with a man and lived with him for a month and her father searched for her and eventually brought her back home. Amir admits to her that he is slightly disturbed by her confession but that he loves her nevertheless. Amir recognises that she is a more courageous person than himself because he is unable to share his secret guilt with her of how he had betrayed Hassan:"I suspected there were many ways in which Soraya Taheri was a better person than me. Courage was just one of them." Soraya endures the persistent gossip in the Afghan community and dedicates herself to the care of her new husband and father-in-law while pursing her goal of becoming a teacher.
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
"Where there is no struggle, there is no strength."
Oprah Winfrey
