Alisa Feng

Ms. Wilson

AP English Literature and Composition

January 29, 2014

The Justice in Redemption

AP Open Prompt 2011: In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.” Choose a character from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole (40 minutes).

        In his novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini tells a tale of redemption. Amir, the main character, had betrayed his friend and half-brother, Hassan, while they were children and revisits Afghanistan on a mission to fulfill justice by rescuing Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Though he is overly critical of himself at times, Amir’s introspection is a redemptive quality of his character and allows for his deepening understanding of justice as the story progresses. In his determined pursuit of Sohrab, Amir successfully restores the kinship he had once shared with the now-deceased Hassan and advances Hosseini’s argument that no matter the destruction of the past, there is always “a way to be good again” (Hosseini 2).

        Throughout the novel, Rahim Khan’s quote, “There’s a way to be good again” (Hosseini 2) resurfaces multiple times. This serves as a reminder to Amir as well as the reader that, al though “the past [may] claw its way out” (Hosseini 1), there are always amends that can be made. The character of Amir is the most relatable as he experiences the jealousy, longing, and eventual guilt that plague majority of humanity. However, though his past is most arguably darkened, he embarks upon a quest to redeem himself-- to essentially right his wrongs. In this, his understanding of justice evolves from the simple ideal of an eye for an eye to the realization that justice is neither simple nor fair. Acquisition of this matured understanding of justice is the main turning point in the bildungsroman: With the realization and acceptance that he can never change the past, Amir decides to take action in the present in order to help better the future.

        In the search and rescue of Sohrab, Amir successfully redeems himself after betraying Hassan as children. When he first meets with Rahim Khan, Amir is reluctant and initially refuses to go. However, when Rahim Khan tells him “‘we both know why it has to be you’” (Hosseini 221), Amir realizes that there is “a way to end the cycle...of lies, betrayals, and secrets” (Hosseini 227) and decides to find Sohrab. Nonetheless, although the dangerous mission itself is ultimately successful and Sohrab returns to America with Amir, the success is bittersweet. After Sohrab attempts suicide, Amir realizes how reckless he still is, asking himself if he had “Actually gone to sleep after [he] had given Sohrab the news he feared most” (Hosseini 351). Even though both are safe at the end of the quest, Sohrab still struggles against the demons of his past and Amir maintains a number of his old weaknesses. However, Amir is undeniably a changed man, shown most clearly through his courage and determination-- traits of a “man” that he had lacked as a child (Hosseini). At the end of the book, Amir runs a kite for Sohrab, telling him, “‘For you, a thousand times over’” (Hosseini 371). This shows the transformative effect of the journey in Afghanistan on Amir’s character-- whereas once Amir had cared only for himself, he now prioritizes the well-being of Sohrab above his own.

        In his search for justice, Amir must revisit his past, something he has dutifully avoided for a quarter of a century. In this, Hosseini enforces the idea that wrongs of the past can be and must be righted, not ignored nor buried. Hosseini introduces this teaching in the very first page when Amir receives a call from his “past of unatoned sins” (Hosseini 1). However, after this idea is introduced, the book rewinds to recount the thirty years Amir spent hiding from his past. Despite this, Amir was eventually summoned back to Afghanistan to face it, physically in the confrontation with Assef and mentally in the rescue of Sohrab. In both endeavors, Hosseini reinforces the idea that the longer one procrastinates in the confrontation of wrongs, the more issues may arise. For example, had Amir rescued Hassan twenty-five years ago, the following events and tragedies may never have occurred. Nonetheless, through Amir’s ultimate success and restoration of justice through his journey towards redemption, Hosseini assures his audience that, no mattered how scarred the past may be, the pursuit of justice will always carve a path for a brighter future.

        40minutes