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At the end of the first chapter, Rahim Khan tells Amir, “There is a way to be good again.” Why does this become so significant once we see what happens at the end of chapter 7? Then at the end of chapter 12, Soraya divulges the secret of her past, and Amir forgives her but is also envious of her courage. Why does he envy her? Why is this significant? How have your mistakes in the past haunt you? Have you ever wanted to tell someone your secrets and be forgiven so that you could be good again? How did that work out? Write a short essay of three paragraphs or less that demonstrates your understanding of The Kite Runner up to this point in the story.

The Kite Runner is a book where the main character Amir recalls an event that happened twenty-six years ago when he was still a boy in Afghanistan. He claims that this event made him who he is. Before the event, he lives in a nice home in Kabul, Afghanistan, with Baba, his father. They have two servants, Ali and his son Hassan, who are Hazaras, an ethnic minority who are heavily discriminated in society. The story so far mostly revolves around the event that happened to Hassan after he defends Amir from a bully, Assef. What happens afterward, is something that will haunt Amir for the rest of his life. Therefore, when Rahim tells Amir that “there is a way to be good again”, Amir tried to convince himself that he can be forgiven for what he’s done wrong. 

The story continues with Amir and Baba running to America, Amir eventually meets General Taheri’s daughter, Soraya. When Amir finally speaks to her, General Taheri catches him and tells him there is a proper way to do things. Not long after, Baba is diagnosed with lung cancer. Amir asks Baba if he will get General Taheri’s consent for Amir to marry Soraya. As they get married, the closeness between the two allows the two to communicate and to discuss their previous mistakes. Amir wishes that he had the gall to do what she did and this is significant because, in Soraya, Amir sees a better version of himself. He sees someone who was able to stand up and to do the right thing, and he wishes he was able to do the same thing.

Personally, I have made mistakes in the past that I regret, but I don’t have anything that haunts me. I feel most people don’t do something that serious which ends up haunting them for the rest of their life. However, I have also envied people who are better than me and were able to do the same thing. In my old school, there was someone who I was friends with, but I abandoned when everyone else left him. I wish that I had stayed with him because he was my best friend. He was the person who I confided with but after he made a rude comment to someone popular, he was ostracised and cast aside by many. The only person who stood by his side was his brother and because of that decision, he too lost many friends. Now that I have grown up, I can see why he made that decision and I respect it and wish that I had done the same.

link to rough draft:https://docs.google.com/document/d/17sfSqX__UugqRgHwBeimyfm6yXgMkO8J0yiCiSUBHqE/edit

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