Themes Write-Up

The first theme we came up with in the Kite Runner was "guilt is an effective motivator for people to fix their wrongs." The guilt of not helping Hassan that time in the alleyway haunted Amir for years. It was something so terrible, he just couldn't forget. The guilt he felt was almost an unbearable amount, and when he got the chance to "make up" for it by finding Sohrab, he did. The Amir without the guilt was unable to possibly risk his life or get injured for someone else, while the Amir with the guilt knew he was risking his life for Sohrab, and did it anyway. The second that the Amir with the guilt went to meet the "guy with the black sunglasses", (pg.270) he knew there was a good chance he wouldn't be coming out of the meeting ("I glanced at Farid sitting in the car and mouthed, I'll be back, not so sure at all that I would be." pg.287). The guilt that had built up after all those years pushed Amir to do everything he could not to "mess up" this time and allow an innocent life to be harmed because he didn't do anything about it.  We took this picture because it is of a person who feels guilty. We thought this showed the feelings of Amir. The second theme we identified was "broken promises lead to unfavourable situations for all parties involved." We came up with this theme because a broken promise was the cause of Sohrab's attempted suicide (which, in the eyes of most people, would be considered an extremely unfavourable situation). Amir had promised Sohrab that he would never put him in an orphanage again, and he ended up backing out on that promise. This caused Sohrab to get so upset to the point that he tried to kill himself. The picture we used for this theme was of two people doing a pinkie promise. We wrote Amir and Sohrab on our hands to show the promise between the two of them before it was broken. The third and last theme we found in the Kite Runner was "lying is unnecessary because eventually the truth is always unveiled." This theme revolves around the lie that was told to everyone by Baba, since forever. The lie that claimed that Hassan was not Baba's child, therefore claiming that Hassan and Amir were not related. Although this lie was believed for a very long time, Amir eventually found out that the people he trusted had been lying to him. Although the truth was never told to anyone else besides Amir, it is assumed the the truth eventually got out to all of those around him. This is because when General Taheri asked what to tell people when they asked why a Hazara boy was living with his daughter, Amir didn't even try to cover it up. He replied "You see, General Sahib, my father slept with his servant's wife. She bore him a son named Hassan. Hassan is dead now. That boy sleeping on the couch is Hassan's son. He's my nephew. That's what you tell people when they ask."(pg.380) If General Taheri did in fact decide to tell people this, the truth would have ended up being revealed. Even if he didn't, the truth was eventually revealed to Amir, and that was the most important part. The last picture we used for themes was a picture of a person with a sign that has truth crossed out. Since the sign is over the mouth, it shows that the person does not tell the truth and only lies. This tied into the theme because of the lies that were being told.