Absurdity, Choice And Redemption

The Kite Runner is the first Afghan novel written in English. The author KhaledHosseini, a physician of Afghan origin who immigrated to America after Sovietinvasion to Afghanistan, unfolds an epic picture of Afghanistan’s half-a-centuryhistory from an indigenous point of view. Against the historical background is theprotagonist’s personal tale of coming-to-age and redemption.This thesis, consisting of six chapters, aims to interpret The Kite Runner from theperspective of existentialism, analyzing how Amir, the protagonist, frees himself fromthe twisted relations with others and resumes peace of conscience by redeeminghimself in an absurd world.The first chapter introduces the author, the significance of research and theresearch question. Chapter Two provides literature review and theoretical framework,expounding especially on three main existentialist concepts: Absurdity, Other andFreedom.Chapter Three is about absurdity of wars and society. Afghan people are draggedinto ceaseless wars starting with the anti-monarchy insurgence. They yearn for the endof chaos, but the dawn of peace is blotted out by more fierce wars and crueler regimes.The discrepancy between people’s wish for peace and the coldness of the world bringsout “absurdity” in Camus’s sense.Chapter Four analyses Amir’s two kinds of relations with other. His relations with Baba and Hassan correspond to Jean-Paul Sartre’s declaration that “hell is otherpeople”. When facing Baba, Amir completely identifies himself with Baba’s look andbecomes a “being-for-other”, so he feels troubled and distressed. Amir doesn’t treatHassan fairly, so he is tortured by the sense of guilt. Meanwhile Amir manages tomaintain good relations with his friend Rahim Khan and his wife Soraya, both ofwhom are of great help in his journey to redemption.Chapter Five shows how Amir shuns responsibility at first and shouldersresponsibility to attain salvation at last. Amir acts on what Sartre called “bad faith”:he avoids the responsibility of helping Hassan, thus making himself a selfish coward.His plot against Hassan throws himself deeper in guilt. Eventually he decides to takehis responsibility and atone for his past sin, thus achieving “authenticity”.The last chapter concludes the thesis and points out that man can rightly assertshis freedom of choice and finds his authentic self in absurd environment.