Loyalty In The Kite Runner

Amir tries to convince others, and himself he deserves this throughout the book. Amir's journey and challenges revealed that he is on his way to redemption. Amir feels as though he can earn redemption to Hassan through Sohrab. After being beaten brutally Amir thought “What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975 I felt at peace.

In the book, Amir burst into laughter while Assef was beating him, but sadly this did not happen in the film. This event was important because Amir at this point finally felt like he had received his punishment for what he had done to Hassan and felt totally at peace.

Once back in Kabul, Amir takes steps he would never have imagined, which truly define his character. On his venture back to Afghanistan he learns the truth about Hassan’s connection with Baba. After hearing this Amir feels robbed of the truth and is angry at how his own father could hold this back from him. Despite his feelings, Amir realizes he must not only pay for his betrayal of Hassan but for Baba’s betrayal of Ali too. Amir knows he must face his fears and he understands this when he reveals, “I remembered Baba saying that my problem was that someone had always done my fighting for me" (Hosseini 239). Following this he undertakes a personal mission to find Sohrab and finds the courage to stand up to the Taliban, nearly dying in the process. During his quest Amir comes face to face with the disturbing Assef and fights him for Sorab, the ultimate sacrifice for his dead half-brother. While he is beaten he begins to laugh, which angers Assef even more. Amir explains that, “What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace" (Hosseini 303). After successfully bringing Sohrab back to California, Amir defends his Hazara nephew when General Taheri insults him. Over the dinner

After the betrayal of Hassan, Amir feels ashamed of himself. He feels all of the guilt and does not know how to become good again. He feels this guilt for the majority of his life, even in America. Subsequently Amir and Baba moved to America, Amir meets a girl. He always finds excuses to go see her and finally decides that he wants to marry her. So Baba went to go ask her father for permission and he said yes. Shortly after receiving this news, Amir talks with Soraya, his wife, and she does something that Amir has wanted to do for quite a while, she tells him her secret. Amir “envied her. Her secret was out, spoken, dealt with. [he] opened [his] mouth and almost told her how [he’d] betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out, and destroyed a 40 year

He is characterized with all the contrasting qualities that make up Amir. Amir’s confrontation with Assef is one of the most important scenes in the novel. It is important because it is where he finally faces the demons he’s held at bay and also where he finally confronts the role of his complicity as a Pashtun over the ethnic discrimination of the Hazaras. Assef portrays his Afghanistan as “a beautiful mansion littered with garbage” and says that “someone has to take out that garbage” (The Kite Runner, 284). As part of the Taliban, that is exactly what he’s been doing and he lives for it and the suffering of the Hazaras.

Honesty and respect are among many qualities that deep relationships carry, especially loyalty. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, he uses two young boys to convey his theme, “loyalty is not freely given, it is learned.” This theme is portrayed as Hosseini uses examples of devotion from his character, Hassan, to teach Amir what defines loyalty. While these two boys grow up together and form a friendship, a life-changing event splits them apart, only to take Amir twenty-six years to discover the truth of their past, their fathers, and their lives.

Amir becomes fully aware that Hassan would not ever betray him for any reason possible, due to how he continuously tests his loyalty through different ways, one being the request for Hassan to eat dirt. Amir resents Hassan because of how he is the child that Baba had always wanted Amir to be and utilizes the loyalty of Hassan to gain the approval of

’s inclination to suppress or avoid confronting his guilt. He seeks to erase the memories associated with his past actions, believing that by doing so, he can free himself from the pain and remorse that haunts him. After years and years of being in a state of discomfort, Amir realizes that the only way he can overcome his guilt and forgive himself is not avoiding, but rather facing his internal conflict to relieve his external consequences. Additionally, even when Amir is finally given an appropriate opportunity to open up about the assault on Soraya when she is most vulnerable and shares her past, he

Amir as a young twelve year-old never stands up for himself, always letting Hassan stand up for him. When Hassan was in need of Amir to stand up against Assef for Hassan, Amir just runs away only thinking about trying to get Baba’s praise over having won the kite tournament. This action haunts Amir for the remainder of his life even when he is in America, Amir has just suppressed the memory. When Rahim Kahn calls Amir and tells him, “Come. There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 192). Amir then travels to Pakistan and hears Rahim Kahn’s final request before he dies; the request is to find Hassan’s son and get him out of Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan, Amir and Farid find Sohrab, Hassan’s son, under a Taliban official’s care. While meeting with the official to get Sohrab from said official, the official reveals himself to be Assef. Amir then is allowed to take Sohrab but only if he can beat Assef; Amir realizes this is his moment to redeem himself as he can stand up to Assef and defend some part of Hassan, that being his son. As Assef is beating up Amir with his brass knuckles, while lying on the ground bleeding Amir suddenly feels like a huge weight is removed from his chest. After Amir and Sohrab get away from Assef, Amir tries to find a way to bring Sohrab back to America with him when he discovers that Rahim lied to him about Thomas and Betty Caldwell being in Pakistan. The moment Amir fights Assef is Amir’s moment of redemption because that is when Amir feels that the past sins he has committed are no longer crawling over his

As a character, Amir experiences more change from start to finish than anyone. He is weak and selfish as a child. This leads to him making the worst decision of his life. As Assef approaches Hassan, Amir sat there, as Hosseini writes “I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had” (Hosseini 73). This moment changes the trajectory of his entire life. Hassan seems to move on from it quickly, trying to be Amir’s friend again a few weeks later, but Amir would be haunted by it for the rest of the novel. Into his thirties, he struggled to sleep and what he had witnessed was always in his head. It isn’t until he meets Sohrab that he starts to truly change as a character. He begins to make choices with other people in mind, despite how he might affect himself. This is the biggest lesson he could take away from Hassan.

When Amir distinguished himself as young, he made many poor decisions. Amir allowed Hassan to make many sacrifices for him. He watched Hassan get beat up and raped without doing anything to help because of his own selfish reasons. This only ended up putting a wall up between them. Amir knew he betrayed Hassan and couldn’t deal with the guilt. He then told Baba Hassan stole a watch and money from them, hoping Hassan would get kicked out. This act of betrayal just ruined Amir’s and Hassan’s relationship further. Amir wanted nothing to do with a boy who would do anything for him. Hassan knew he ultimately needed to leave, leaving Amir to only feel emptier than before. These acts of betrayal never left

Immediately Amir feels he is a coward for not sticking up for Hassan who was always so loyal to him. His feelings gave me hope that Amir was ‘the good guy’ I thought he was, although I expected Amir to have done what was right from the beginning. His overwhelming feelings of guilt strained their friendship and eventually Amir concocted a plan that made it appear that Hassan stole money and a watch from Amir which left me questioning again if “Amir is actually a decent character?” At times, I enjoyed the authors style how he would one minute portray Amir as selfish and then the next as caring and at others it annoyed me, I wanted everyone to know from an early on that Amir was also a good guy.. Hassan’s loyalty to Amir is overwhelming. He even identifies that he “would never lie to Amir” and that he’d “sooner eat dirt.” Hassan always protects Amir and chases off the neighbourhood bully by “holding the slingshot” to his face. When Hassan was questioned by Baba about the missing money and watch, Hassan told Baba that he was the one that stole the items. Even with the ultimate betrayal; watching Hassan being raped and doing nothing to stop it, Hassan was still was very loyal and would protect Amir at all costs, even if that meant lying for

He gets lead into the house by two guards, he is taken to wait. The official enters the room with the guards surrounding him. Amir is asked why he is in America, he answers by saying that he is looking for Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Amir discovers the official he must rescue Sohrab from is the same person that raped Hassan all those years ago. He tells Assef that he will pay him for the boy.

Amir is forced to commit an act of betrayal towards his best friend, because the war had left him with no safe choice. When Amir and his father flee Afghanistan for America, the story turns into one of Amir’s quest for redemption. While he is in America, he hopes to be able to meet Hassan again, to right the wrongs he committed all those years ago.

During the fight, Amir laughs, causing Assef to ask him what is so funny to Amir. Amir rhetorically responds, saying, “What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in a hidden corner of my mind, I’ve been looking forward to this.” (303) He finds that, in that moment, he is free of the guilt of allowing Hassan to be raped because he, too, has now been beaten and disrespected by Assef. He no longer lives with the intense amount of guilt that he once had. His decision also significantly impacted Sohrab’s entire future. Amir fought Assef to save Sohrab and free him from being Assef’s sex slave. This later leads to Sohrab’s attempt at suicide, but also leads to him find a new life in the United States. Amir’s decision to fight Assef and save Sohrab positively impacts both his and Sohrab’s future.