摘 要

佛教思想隐藏在文学作品中，并且也是推动故事发展的情节之一。因此借助佛教思想去理解文学作品是有益的。关于《追风筝的人》本文将从阿米尔的恶因，恶报以及自我救赎三个方面来阐述，第一部分，儿时阿米尔对其朋友哈桑做出坏事，正是其恶行种下了恶因。由于阿米尔的懦弱，不能在哈桑遭到凌辱时挺身而出保护他，以及通过陷害来驱赶哈桑一家，这便是他的恶因之一。第二部分，由于苏联入侵阿富汗，阿米尔随父去往美国。随着时间流逝，阿米尔成为作家并与塔赫里将军的女儿索拉雅结婚，多次尝试要孩子却不尽人意。做坏事必将会在今生来世受到惩罚。这是他的惩罚，也是他的报应。第三部分，虽然他在不良环境中变坏以及犯下种种罪过，但最终他意识到了，尝试得到心灵救赎并且找到“重新成为好人的路”。所以他的自我救赎行为将会被详尽讨论。总而言之，通过佛教的因果报应观点，本文将会分析《追风筝的人》中的业报轮回，并且也研究因果、自我救赎以及善恶报应三者之间融合过程，进而重新审视人性中的救赎。

关键词：追风筝的人；因果报应；自我救赎

Abstract

Buddhist view can be found in literary works, and is a part of the plot to develop the story; therefore, Buddhist view is quite helpful to understand literary works. This paper about The Kite Runner elaborates from three aspects: Amir’s bad deed, his retribution and behavior of self-redemption. For the first part, Amir did something bad to his friend Hassan in an early age; it is Amir’s action that causes his bad deed. Because of his cowardice, Amir did not step forward bravely and protect Hassan when Hassan was raped, and Amir chased Hassan and his father away by framing up. It is his bad deed. For the second part, because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Amir went to the US with his father, and as the time goes by, he became a writer and got married with General Taheri’s daughter Soraya, and they tried to have children, but not successful. Therefore, if one does bad things, one will suffer painful results now and in the hereafter. This is a punishment for him, his retribution. For the third part, although he deteriorates in the terrible environment and does all kinds of bad deeds, finally he realizes that; he tried his best to get his soul redeemed and find “a way to be good again”. So his self-redemption is discussed in more details. All in all, through the Buddhist view of karma samsara, the paper analyzes the retribution of karma samsara in The Kite Runner, the fusion process between karma, self-redemption, and retribution for good and evil, and then re-examines redemption of humanity.

Key Words: The Kite Runner; karma samsara; self- redemption

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Bad karma in Amir 4

2.1 Akushala in Human Nature 4

2.2 Amir’s Karma 5

3 Amir’s Retribution 8

3.1 Vipaka in Physical Body 8

3.2 Retribution in Amir 9

4 Amir’s Voyage of Redemption 11

4.1 Redemption in Bodiless Soul 11

4.2 Amir’s Redemption 13

5 Conclusion 15

References 16

Acknowledgements 17

Retribution of Karma Samsara:

The Kite Runner

1 Introduction

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-born novelist in America. In three novels with his homeland as the background, The Kite Runner is the most influential. He changed his job from physician to author when the first novel became well-known. The Kite Runner published by Riverhead Books in 2003 became the bestseller and beloved novel. And it is sold in at least 70 countries and remained for nearly two years on the The New York Times Best Seller list. In May 2007, his second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns was a Times Best Seller for nearly two years, and debuted at number one on The New York Times bestseller list, remaining in that spot for several months. The Mountains Echoed followed the success of the first two novels and became the bestseller.

Because of his distinctive life experience, he has a special feeling for Afghanistan. When Soviet invaded Afghanistan, Hosseini was taken by his father to leave for the United States, and became the local citizen. Memory of childhood left a deep impression on him. He returned to Afghanistan when he was 36, and it is a strange feeling for him in his own homeland. Therefore, the idea to write a novel came to his mind: ancient culture and miserable situation of people in Afghanistan need to be known by the outside world.

The novel tells Amir’s voyage of redemption that he eliminates the evil made by himself when he was a child through his goodness. Amir wants to find “a way to be good again” by remedying his inner sin, and rescuing Sohrab from a horrible life. Themes of redemption is the key for people to understand this novel, Amir can not protect Hassan from Assef’s violence, so Amir attempts to get soul’s redemption by rescuing his son many years later. He must return to Afghanistan and confront Assef who abused Hassan in the past and now abuse Hassan’s son. He must face his father’s and his sins, and Sohrab’s fate. He must face the responsibility he has for Hassan’s son and his past to seek redemption.

Many experts and scholars have done a lot of research on the theme of self- redemption, and its unique historical factors and a previously obscure nation that is not known by the outside world. From the aspect of Initiation Story, Jiang Xiaoqing analyzes Amir’s spiritual redemption in his dissertation A Spiritual Journey to Redemption—A Bildungsroman Perspective to The Kite Runner, and discusses how Amir abandons selfishness and solipsism, and grows from childishness to maturity. In A Thematic Study of The Kite Runner from Trauma Theory, Li Xin takes the trauma theory as the breakthrough point to discuss the theme of redemption, and analyzes the healing process in Amir’s journey of redemption. In Theme Interpretation on The Kite Runner from Cognitive Poetic Perspective, Guo Qiaoyi interprets the theme of The Kite Runner from the perspective of cognitive poetics, and analyses the protagonist’s spiritual growth and human betrayal and redemption, in order to dig out the connotation and value of this work. In To Be Good (Again): The Kite Runner as Allegory of Global Ethics, David Jefferess analyzes the theme from the view of contemporary ethics, and he thinks that redemption needs to meet moral requirement. But related research findings and materials are rare from the perspective of Buddhist thoughts. Karma keeps a record and is ready to punish every wrong, the retribution will be given to the doer, and finally people get self-redemption by themselves. It is essential to make a thorough research on the redemption of humanity through Buddhist thoughts, the principle of cause and effect will provide a better idea to understand this novel, and then help to understand self- redemption on the Buddhist level.

This paper sets its goal to study the fusion process between karma, self- redemption, and retribution for good and evil and re-examines redemption of humanity through Buddhist thoughts. And this thesis elaborates from three aspects: Amir’s bad deed, his retribution and behavior of self-redemption. For the first part, Amir did something bad to his friend Hassan in early age; it is Amir’s action that causes his bad deed. And because of his cowardice, Amir did not step forward bravely and protect Hassan when Hassan was raped, and Amir chased Hassan and his father away by framing up. So it is his bad deed.

For the second part, because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Amir went to the US with his father, and as the time goes by, he became a writer and married General Taheri’s daughter Soraya, and they tried to have children, but not successful. Therefore, if you do bad things, you will suffer painful results in both worlds; this is a punishment for him, his retribution.

For the third part, although he deteriorates in the “bad” surroundings and commits all kinds of sins, finally he realizes; he tried his best to get his soul redeemed and find “a way to be good again.” So his behavior of self-redemption will be discussed in more details.