The Significance of Violence
Rape and war are both present in The Kite Runner, a novel, by Khaled Hosseini. The scenes displayed in the book are dramatic, vivid, and extremely violent. This novel focuses on Amir's experiences with these horrific events, and these violent scenes help shape Amir's life. Khaled Hosseini purposely put these acts of violence into the book, because they have symbolic significance and progress the story. The violence of rape and war in The Kite Runner are the reason why the search for redemption happened.
Rape is by far the most meaningful act of violence and has the most significant scenes of violence in the novel. There are many different occurrences of rape in the novel as well. Without the scene where Assef rapes Hassan, Amir would have never had to be redeemed. Amir witnessed, “Hassan didn’t move. Didn’t even whimper. He moved his head slightly and I caught a glimpse of his face. Saw the resignation of it. It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb.” (Hosseini 75-76). If this violent rape scene had not existed, Amir would have gone home with the blue kite that Hassan had run for him and also the kite fighting tournament victory. He also would have felt the approval of his father. Because of this, he probably would have been overjoyed and happy for the rest of his life. However, because he ran away in Hassan’s time of need, Amir begins to feel extremely guilty, and he cannot feel the approval from his father. Later in the book, as Amir and Baba are on a truck fleeing to Pakistan, Karim says, “the soldier wanted a half hour with the lady in the back of the truck.” (Hosseini 115). This woman was almost raped, until Baba stood up to the soldier. This scene reminds Amir of what he had done and his guilt grows. Within hours of this Amir learns of the rape of a boy he knew named Kamal. Once again Amir's guilt grows, and this guilt sends him on a life-long path to find redemption. Without these scenes of rape, Amir would not have been feeling guilty, and he would still be in Kabul living with Hassan. When Amir moves to the United States and finds out that Hassan has been murdered and his son Sohrab has been left an orphan he feels as if this is his ticket for redemption. Saving Sohrab could somewhat compensate for the mistake he made with Hassan. It turns out that Sohrab was being held captive and has been raped many times by the same man who raped Hassan decades earlier. The similarity in situations between Hassan and Sohrab are ironic, and it makes Amir's rescue of Sohrab even more meaningful and redeeming. If Sohrab had not been raped, the significance of saving him would not have been as high