Response Paper #1: The Kite Runner
Question: Does the book send the message that conflicts can be resolved only through violence? While The Kite Runner does have a lot of what can be seen as unnecessary violence in it, in fact, violence is not the resolution to many problems, but the cause. The main conflict in the book (Amir’s internal conflict with himself) is caused by witnessing Hassan’s rape and doing nothing about it. Amir says, “... the past claws its way out. Looking back now I realize that I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years” (6). One could argue that his guilt is resolved when Assef beats him in chapter twenty-two and Amir feels as if his own pain has atoned for the pain the Hassan had to go through all those years before because of the…show more content… When Amir felt healed he was only chasing after a way to rid himself of his own shame. We saw him trying to solve the conflict through physical pain before when in chapter eight Amir takes Hassan up the hill and throws pomegranates at him. Amir throws pomegranate after pomegranate at Hassan, yet even as juice stains him from head to foot the other boy refuses to retaliate. Hosseini writes, “‘Hit me back!” I spat. “Hit me back, goddamn you!”…I wished he’s give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I’d finally sleep at night…But Hassan did nothing as I pelted him again and again” (98). What Amir wanted was for Hassan to hurt him physically so that he could forgive himself of what he’d let the other boy go through. Toward the end of the book however, when Sohrab attempts to take his own life, Amir is faced with the fact that no matter how bad the physical pain was that he went through it would never be comparable to the pain that Sohrab had had to suffer his entire life. When Amir prays in the hospital he feels as if he’s being punished yet again for his