FINAL EXAM WRITING 20

Main Conflict

The pivotal event in the novel was when Amir finally got to seek redemption, and was able to become “good again”. As a child, he didn’t stick up for his half-brother Hassan when he was brutally raped in an alley, because he desired the blue kite he would have to sacrifice, along with his father’s admiration he has always longed for. He was selfish, and could never forgive himself for his mistake, that is until he was put in a situation where he had to risk his life for Hassan’s son Sohrab. He came face to face with Assef as an adult, and had to battle him with his bare hands to win over Sohrab. The fight is brutal, Assef breaks his ribs, knocks out his teeth, cracks his eye socket, breaks his nose, shatters his jaw, all the while little Sohrab is watching and screaming. Then Amir does something completely unexpected, he begins to laugh. Even though it pains him to do so, but he continues to laugh harder and harder. He is in the worst physical pain of his entire life, but ironically he is now at peace. He is now happy because he finally got to feel the pain he had caused Hassan so many years ago, that had led to his life of misery and guilt. He states “my body was broken-just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later-but I felt healed. Healed at last.” Another irony in this part of the novel is that Sohrab stood up for Amir, just as his father did. He held up his sling shot and released a brass ball straight into Assef’s left eye, and miraculously Sohrab and Amir managed to get away without being killed.