Ok, so me and Steph have worked on 10 ideas of where and how redemption appears throughout the novel, and we're writing up 5 of the ideas each (Mr Francis, if we needed to do 10 each then please comment on here and tell me!). Just to let you know, the ideas are absolutely not in any order at all. So, here we go, 5 examples of redemption.....
1. When Amir puts money under Farid's mattress- shown in the quote 'fistful of crumpled money under a mattress'. This mirrors the way Amir set Hassan up to drive him out of the house in Kabul. It is the first real act of kindness on Amir's part, and we know that he does it because he is trying to redeem what he did to Hassan. The reader realises he is becoming a good person who is capable of redeeming himself.
2. Amir accepts being beaten up by Assef in order to save Sohrab- as Assef almost kills him, Amir begins to laugh, because 'for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace'. This laughter shows that Amir felt he is finally being punished for not preventing the rape, and can finally feel redeemed by saving Sohrab, 'we made it outside... my arm around Sohrab's shoulder'.
3. Farid's change of character- Farid originally dismisses Amir as someone who is only coming back to 'sell off your Baba's land? Pocket the money..?' but later finds out that he's actually saving Sohrab. After this Farid warms to Amir in an attempt to redeem his previous cold attitude towards him. His 'voice... lost the rough edge' and he dutifully decides to 'help you find this boy'.
4. Baba redeems his lack of support for Amir- after they move to America, Baba finally becomes proud of Amir's writing talents, for example when Amir graduates Baba says 'I am moftakhir, Amir. Proud.' Also Baba tells people 'Amir is going to be a great writer', and the night of Baba's death Amir catches him asking Soraya to read Amir's stories to him. This is a way in which Baba has redeemed himself for being so dismissive and disappointed with Amir's talent throughout his childhood. Baba may not redeem the way he practically ignored Amir for his entire childhood, but he does redeem his lack of support for Amir.
5. The end of the novel when Amir runs the kite for Sohrab- Amir says 'I ran', mirroring his act of running away from the rape scene in 1975, but this time he is running for a good, selfless reason. When Amir looks at Sohrab and sees 'A smile', this seems to be the moment that redemption is complete, because up until then Amir has managed to save Sohrab, but not make him feel happy. Amir is finally running towards the future, rather than the way he used to run away from anything he could not cope with.
My other task is to comment on the other themes people have worked on, and give an extra idea to what they have given. I'll do that once everyone has posted their work :)
No comments:
Post a Comment