The Kite Runner final essay

Society as we know is based upon truth. Our judicial system, our culture, every aspect of our lives relies on truth. Truth is what defines us, and dictates our perspective of the world. There are different forms of truth, objective and subjective . Most importantly, subjective truth is what you believe to be true, although it may not objectively be true. So if we are misled to believe something is true when it is not, it could massively skew your point of view and even your view of truth itself. If people started lying to one another without any second thought, no one would be able to tell what is true and what isn’t. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, truth is a very prominent theme. Although it may not be as explicit, The Kite Runner features many scenes where truth is very important. Baba says that theft is the root of all evil, but throughout his life he had stolen the truth from Amir. I believe that If Amir had known the truth, the events that unfolded throughout the remainder of the book would have been quite different. 

As we analyze the book about truth, what we are mainly looking for is deception. There is an abundance of examples of deception, and the first starting from Baba’s deception of Ali. Baba had slept with Ali’s wife and betrayed his best friend. This deception led to Hassan being born, and Baba left with a feeling of guilt which he repeatedly tries to atone for by helping others. Then, Baba further deceives the people around him when he doesn’t tell Amir about the fact that Hassan was his son and Amir’s brother. Had Amir known this, I believe their relationship would have been vastly different. I firmly believe that if Amir had known that Hassan was his brother, he would have treated him differently. Firstly, when Hassan was about to be raped in chapter 7, Amir had the chance to stop it,“I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost.” (Hosseini, 60), this shows that he was actually considering it, and I believe that had he known the truth, it would have been enough to push him to say something. After Hassan’s rape, the two boys drifted apart. The truth that Baba had withheld from them could have helped them through this time, and could possibly have mended the relationship between the two boys. Instead, the continued deceit drove them even further apart. Amir kept the rape to himself, and did not tell anyone, and Hassan kept it to himself as well. If either of the two boys had said anything about it, they could perhaps begin seeking help, and begin to mend their relationship. However, the farther that they stepped from the truth, the worse the situation became. Amir began to mistreat Hassan, something he would not have done to his brother, and eventually framed him for stealing. Amir was hoping that by framing Hassan he could get rid of him. He probably intended to get rid of Hassan so that he could get rid of the guilt he bore himself. However, when Hassan confessed to stealing the belongings, it forced them to leave Baba’s household. If someone had told the truth at any point leading up to this moment, then the outcome may have been different. Hassan and Ali would have probably stayed with Amir and Baba, Amir and Hassan’s relationship would have recovered, and most importantly the lifetime of guilt that Amir and Baba faced would not have happened.

The reason that Baba did not tell his secret was because of the culture that he was in. In Afghan culture, if Baba admitted to sleeping with a Hazara and having a child with one, he would be shamed. Baba had a high standing in society, and he did not want to lose it, he believed that social standing was more important than the truth. Although keeping this secret may have benefited him, it did not benefit anyone else, and especially hurt Amir. This was just the way of the Afghan people, and the entire book revolves around this truth that was withheld by Baba. In fact, by withholding this truth Baba was quite the hypocrite, he had committed the “worst sin” which was theft. He stole the truth from Amir and Hassan. 

My view of truth is rooted in the Christian value. In the bible, truth is one of the most important things and is treasured by God. In Proverbs 6:16-19, it says that God hates a lying tongue. The 9th of the 10 commandments has to deal with lying. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” In the Bible it says that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light. The bible also says that God is truth, and the word of God is truth. The theme of truth is recurring when talking about God, and truth is much more important than it is in other cultures. Personally, I think that truth is very important. There have been too many times when I would be told something, but the absolute opposite thing would happen. Whether with my friends or my family, it would still happen. In fact, Just a few years back, I was being told so many lies that I didn’t even know what was true and what wasn’t. I began questioning everything that others told and sent me, and I took everything with a grain of salt. Worst of all, the people that I had trusted with personal secrets had betrayed me. These incidents had caused me to become a very distrustful person, I became very distant, and didn’t want to develop any close relationships, for fear of being betrayed again. It took years for me to get over it, and have recently began to trust people again. Not telling the truth has a very big impact on people, even if they might not show it, that is why it is important to be honest, especially with your friends and family.

Truth is the basis of society, and all human relationships are developed through trust and mutual respect. You can’t have a healthy relationship with someone unless you trust them, and that is why truth is so important. If you can be totally honest with people, and they are able to be totally honest with you, that is a good indication of a healthy relationship. In court, truth is so important that you can be jailed for lying. In “The Kite Runner”, we can observe how important truth is when we see the impact that just one lie had on Amir. When he finally found out the truth about Hassan, he was overwhelmed with guilt and pain. If the truth had been told, the outcome of the story could have been vastly different. So although the truth could hurt you or your reputation, it is a very important step towards building a relationship. Thus, the truth should almost never be withheld as it only causes pain to those around you. 

link to rough draft:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EUMPCfMIMTGdy-0zQAYw39L3iPqYbJHUWZi32mUHL1Q/edit?usp=sharing

Sources:

Hosseini, Khaled. Kite Runner. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.

The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.

Reflection: This has got to be one of the longest and hardest essays that I have written this year. It was like one of the mini essays we did, but I had to stretch it out to be 5 times a long. I had to go through a really long process of brainstorming, scrapping ideas, and rereading sections of the book to find inspiration for this essay. I did research and looked up the bible. Finally after many edits, and thanks to my peers as well, I was able to piece together a compact essay that I got my point out.