Throughout the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the conversation of truth is brought up repeatedly as Amir, Soraya, Baba, and many other characters in the story struggle in a battle of their secrets versus the truth. As readers, we witness the consequences of secrets and of stealing someone’s right to the truth. As Baba says in The Kite Runner, “‘When you lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth (page 18).’” Truth is very important because keeping the truth from others causes harm, because it is an essential value in the world we live in, and because truth creates and strengthens bonds.
Truth is important because keeping others from the truth causes harm, both to others and yourself. The Kite Runner tells the story of an Afghan boy named Amir who sees his friend and servant, Hassan, later to be revealed as his half-brother, get raped. Amir is overcome with guilt and as a result, sends Hassan away and later moves with his father to the United States. Amir seeks redemption through the eventual adoption of Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Within the book, Hosseini brings up countless examples of the consequences of denying others the truth. Truth, of course, can be hard to swallow, but it is critical that we can honor it as a value. Some would suggest that the largest secret in the book was that Amir and Hassan were brothers. Baba, understandably, had trouble revealing the truth to Amir and Hassan due to his guilt and shame of having a sexual relationship with more than one woman. However, them knowing the truth would have changed the course of their lives. Although I do not believe that the truth would have changed the sort of person Amir was in his childhood – selfish, insecure, and envious, I do believe that knowing the truth would have resulted in a different future for them. If Baba had told them they were brothers earlier, Baba would feel comfortable bringing both Hassan and Amir to America when Afghanistan went up into flames. Hassan may not have died. Therefore, when Baba kept the truth from Amir and Hassan, he caused harm because it indirectly resulted in Hassan’s death. In addition, if Amir had just told Hassan the truth that he saw him getting raped in the alley, Amir would not have had to wallow in guilt for the many years to come, and Hassan would not have been sent away. Through this, readers can see that secrets, or keeping others from the truth, causes consequences and harm to all the people involved.
Truth is important because it is an essential value in the world we live in, in running a society and in justice. Justice directly relies on truth, which is necessary in order for society to function. Since I believe that truth and general morality is absolute, truth is necessary. To illustrate the point, imagine a world where telling the truth was not a critical value, or even a value at all. Imagine you own a shop, one that sells jewelry. One day, someone comes in and steals your most expensive diamond ring. Naturally, due to absolute truth and general morality, everybody in our current, real, world believes that the thief should receive a punishment. However, since truth is not a value, when the thief simply says, “I did not steal the ring” while holding up the ring that he stole dressed as a bandit, those in this hypothetical world shrug it off because they would say, “Who cares if he’s telling the truth?” You lose your most valuable ring. What is justice without truth? Our society would not function.
Truth is important because it creates and strengthens bonds. At the end of chapter 12 in The Kite Runner, Soraya and Amir are about to get married but before they do so, Soraya feels like she has to tell Amir the truth. She tells Amir about her past with a man and the consequences of that on her family. As a result of this, Soraya’s and Amir’s relationship was naturally strengthened. Telling him the truth was a way to show that she respected him and didn’t want to let lies ruin their relationship. In fact, in The Kite Runner, the character Amir says, “I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with (page 165).” This is what happens when you tell the truth.
Because truth is something that is absolutely necessary for society to function and can allow bonds between people to be formed and prevent harm, I believe that truth is extremely important and crucial to our daily lives.
Works Cited
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Riverhead Books, 2003.
Writing Process (Click to open)
Reflection:
I would say this was the most challenging essay of the entire year. I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t know how to tie my thoughts to the book. After spending one entire class just trying to brainstorm and organize my thoughts, I started writing the essay to find that it was so difficult to put into words. Eventually, after a lot of work, I got to the final product that I have and I hope it makes sense!
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