Kite Runner Critcal Lens

Talya Rohde

‘Whoever does wrong, wrongs himself’ – Marcus Aurelius. I agree with this quote whole-heartedly. Even though by doing wrong you are wronging others, you are in turn, hurting yourself to an even greater degree. By hurting others, you are hurting yourself on two levels: internally, and personally. This quote relates to the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini because the protagonist, Amir, whose actions consistently wrong others, come back and haunt him for the rest of his life. This quote can also be associated with the book, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Peter Solomon, head of the Smithsonian Museum, wrongs his son. This too, comes back to haunt him, both mentally, and physically.

The Kite Runner’s protagonist, Amir, exemplifies the reality of this quote. Amir ‘wrongs’ his servant, Hassan, the person closest to him in his life, the person that always protected and stood up for him. While Hassan is defending Amir one day, the situation goes too far and Amir witnesses Hassan being assaulted and battered. Amir however, with the option perhaps saving Hassan much physical abuse and pain, neglects to intervene. This decision comes back to haunt Amir for the rest of his life. From here we can clearly see, that by Amir ‘wronging’ Hassan, Amir was damaged on multiple levels. Not only would he loose respect from people that would come to know this story, but also on a personal level he was scathed; the later haunting of this situation was more mental than physical anguish. He, day in, day out, regrets this choice of action that he had committed years ago. To prove this quote, I have used the literary device/element known as context. The definition for this literary device is: ‘conditions, including facts, surrounding a given situation’. I used context from the story to prove the authenticity of this quote. This literary device (context) is the story, so to explain the context, I will refer to the use of conflict, specifically that of internal conflict,...