Explore the significance of entrapment in Hosseini's The Kite Runner

By the end of the novel, Hosseini goes on to reveal the painful and uncomfortable nature of psychological entrapment as experienced by Amir, in his overwhelming guilt from his passivity in witnessing the abuse of Hassan at the hands of the callous Assef, and Sohrab, in his feelings of contamination as fear due to his traumatic abuse by the Taliban, which causes both suffering and pain until it’s has been overcome. Amir’s acute guilt at his passivity is referenced constantly by Hosseini such as in Amir’s perception of Afghanistan as a ‘city of harelipped ghosts’, but most notably in Amir’s exhalation at being freed of this guilt by his rescuing of Sohrab and his confrontation with Assef where the intense physical pain of Assef’s punches ironically only make Amir feel ‘healed’, ‘at peace’ and able to ‘laugh’. Furthermore, it is only when Amir’s entrapping guilt is alleviated that he can become active again in protesting against the oppressive, constrained Afghani society under the Taliban where ‘they don’t let you be human’ and there are ‘rubble and beggars everywhere’ to become involved in humanitarian work with Soraya, thus Hosseini can reveal the previously extent of the debilitation which guilt had mentally entrapped Amir in. Furthermore, at the end of the novel, while Sohrab had futilely attempted to protest against the sense of contamination he felt following his abuse at the hands of the corrupt Taliban, where he felt ‘dirty and full of sin’, it is only when he is led to liberation by Amir’s overcoming the barriers of social convention in which Hazaras are not equal to Pashtuns that Sohrab can finally find peace and become ‘alert, alive, awake’ in his ‘smile’. Hosseini can thus reveal how, despite the difficulties of overcoming the indoctrinated, entrapping social hierarchy in childhood, through active protest and the seeking of adequate atonement, as seen in the structural parallel of how Sohrab fulfils his father’s threat of Assef becoming ‘one eyed Assed’ if he continues his oppression as Sohrab shot Assef’s ‘left eye’ with his slingshot, this indoctrination can be overcome, allowing Amir to defiantly assert Sohrab’s identity and importance to General Taheri in ‘you will never again refer to him as “Hazara Boy” In my presence, (…) he has a name and it’s Sohrab’ as well as his promise to Sohrab ‘for you a thousand times over’. Thus, Hosseini demonstrates that while adherence to unbalanced social prejudices can entrap those at all levels, they ultimately only engender further suffering through their conflict with moral human nature in which all people are intrinsically equal and important, thus peace and equity can only be achieved if these restrictions are overcome, subsequently liberating society.