Religion and fanaticism in The Kite Runner Essay

Religion and fanaticism in The Kite Runner - Essay Example n is like the biblical David in his childhood, but he takes on a martyr’s ending perhaps to preserve the sainthood the author assigns him (Hosseini 54). These characteristics then set a base for description of some of the celebrated aspects of the Islamic religion. One of the aspects is adherence to love, forgiveness, redemption, and sacrifice to achieve or show honor for the first three mentioned aspects. All these beliefs derive from Allah’s ability to forgive and love even those who out rightly and knowingly transgress against him. Instances where the actions of a character are as a result of religious grounding include Hassan forgiving Amir for the things he did to him. He later on sacrificed his life protecting Amir’s Property while he was hiding from the Taliban in America a clear sign of forgiveness. Courage is also a vital character â€Å"requirement† in the Islamic religion. Some analysts’ confer that, the Islamic religion places women who stay home to protect their families at the same level as men who do not war for the cause of the religion. Amir, the Main character and narrator, lacks courage , and this puts him in an awkward position even with his father (Hosseini 76). Amir’s lack of courage causes him to do awful things. He betrays Hassan’s honor by failing to help him and then cunningly getting rid of him to avoid the guilt. These circumstances lead to the emergence of yet another theme associated with the Islamic faith, redemption. Amir wallows in feelings of guilt from as early as twelve years. Amir, in addition to his cowardice, has not tried to seek redemption. The author explores this theme by relaying that the narrator attributes unfortunate events to punishment. Amir punishes himself in several ways during the course of this book. For instance, he marries a tainted woman because of his personal guilt for his past actions. When Sohrab attempts suicide Amir cries out to Allah let this not be fate! All the while, Amir subtly commits