SSC Stenographer 2026 PYQ — Question 186

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions based on the passage:
The Kite Runner is a story of love, faith, loss, betrayal, guilt, and redemption written by the Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini and first published in 2003. Though honest, it is a painful story, and that pain stems from a cowardly and cruel act committed in childhood. A hint of the author's own childhood can be studied in his writing. Like Amir, he left Afghanistan as a child and returned only as an adult. The novel is a work of historical fiction and drama; it depicts the political and social landscape of then-contemporary Afghanistan. Themes of betrayal, love, family relations, discrimination, and violence prevail throughout the book. What inspired Hosseini to write this novel is the cruelty of the Taliban inflicted on the people of Afghanistan. Hosseini grew up flying kites in Kabul, but when he heard that the Taliban had banned the activity of flying kites, and that's how he came up with The Kite Runner. The novel beautifully depicts two different lives that coexist yet are so different from each other. The divide between the high class and the low class, the oppression of the minority community by the majority community. It is a story about 'to be good again' and overcoming evil despite adverse circumstances. The idea is to atone for past sins and make the necessary sacrifice to redeem yourself.
In the passage, the word 'atone' is used. Which of the following words acts as a synonym for 'atone' in this context?