Connections: Amir and Angel

Redemption:

–noun

1.	an act of redeeming or the state of being redeemed.

2.	deliverance; rescue.

3.	Theology. deliverance from sin; salvation.

4.	atonement for guilt.

Amir and Angel are extremely similar in the sense of their desire for redemption. Both have dark occurrences in their past that they run from for many years in hope to escape the guilt that accompanies it. While the horrors they have done and caused are extremely different, both try to move on and forget what is inevitibly to be remembered in similar ways.

To understand this connection, you first must understand Angel, or Angelus. Named by his "face of an angel", this character was turned into a vampire by a woman named Darla in the mid-seventeen hundreds. Throughout his first two hundred and fifty years as a vampire, he became part of a group known as the Scourge of Europe, made up of Angelus, Darla, and two other vampires, the extremely insane Drusilla and Spike. In the early nineteen hundreds, Angelus was cursed with a soul, therefore forced to bear with the pain and guilt of killing, raping, and torturing thousands across Europe.

Throughout the entire Buffy and Angel series, we see the more human, ensouled counter-part of Angelus save and sacrifice many times in his strong desire for redemption. The turning point for Angel, where he truly begins to believe that he can redeem himself is early in Buffy season one when he kills Darla as she's about to kill Buffy. At this moment, we see Angel change from a vampire who's afraid and constantly brooding about his horrible past actions to someone who truly believes he can make a positive difference in the world, if only to counteract what he's done in the past.

Amir's interaction with Assef is much like Angel's with Darla. On page 289, as he is being attacked by Assef, Amir says, "What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace." To me, this symbolizes the turning point in the book where Amir stops running from what he didn't do for Hassan, and begins to believe that he has finally started redeeming himself for Hassan, Sohrab, and himself.

Between these two intricately detailed characters, it is obvious how the two suppplement each other. As Angel rips the innocence and purity from a young Drusilla, Amir watches his best friend get raped and stays in the shadows. Angel broods and tries to hide his fears and doubts away, at the point in the story where Amir tries to leave his sins in the past and not atone. As Angel begins to hope in his redemption, Amir saves Sohrab from Assef and starts to see that there is a chance for him to be helped, redeemed, and healed.

In essence, both Angel and Amir have very similar stories within different cultres and periods of time. They both experience a carefree beginning to life, with a disturbed middle and a guilty concience throughout. But by the end, their balance has been restored and both become heroes in their own ways.