Minor Characters In The Kite Runner

He never stood up for Hassan, always treating Hassan like he is no one important. Here is a quote about how Amir just watched Hassan get raped and did nothing to help him. Never stopped them from doing that to him. “I felt paralyzed. I watched them close in on the boy I’d grown up with, the boy whose harelipped face had been my first memory.” [Amir Pg. 76]. In this scene of the book this is where Hassan is getting raped by Assef. Amir is doing nothing to stop Assef and his friends from raping Hassan in the alley way. This show that Amir was scared to stop Assef from hurting Hassan. It shows that Amir was only thinking of himself and how Hassan desevers it, that he had it coming for him. When Amir and Hassan got home Hassan when straight to his room. A few weeks when by and Ali started to worry about Hassan because after he had made Amir breakfast and iron his clothes for school, Hassan would go back to bed. Ali ask Amir what happened the night of the kite fight tournament. Amir had the chance to tell Ali what happened that night but he kepted it to himself and never told

One of the primary characters that shaped Amir was his best friend and servant, Hassan. They were literally together as infants and both were motherless shortly after their births. As the boys grow up together you can see who Hassan is as a person, amazing friend, loyal, forgiving, and a good – natured child. Hassan is brought up learning that it

A complex character from the novel The Kite Runner is the main character of the book named Amir. Amir has conflicting motivations at the beginning of the story. He has the need to be recognized and praised by is father, who throughout the novel has seen him as a disappointment due to him being unlike him in many ways. However, he also has the unexplainable bond with his servant and best friend Hassan, who at times throughout the novel shows great amounts of loyalty and love despite being treated poorly by Amir. The Author develops Amir’s character by his actions or rather his lack of action in situations in which he showed himself to be more concerned with his well being than than the well being of others.

Both Hassan and Sohrab have gone through abuse at the hands of Assef, but Amir ends this cycle of abuse by rescuing Sohrab when he returns to Kabul. This shows how Amir has become nobler and made the decision to do what he feels as morally correct. When he was 12, he witnessed Hassan get raped by Assef in the alleyway and he did nothing to help Hassan. He tried

Amir takes action through the quote, “Sohrab, I can’t give you your old life back, I wish God I could. But I can take you with me. That was what I was going to tell you, you have a visa to go visit America and live with me and my wife” 229. This quote shows how Amir can't do much, but he’s still able to provide for Sohrab even though it’s not fully what he wants. Amir and Hassan's son redeem himself in that

While living in Afghanistan, Amir witnesses the raping of his loyal friend and servant, Hassan. Instead of stepping up and stopping the horrific event from happening, "[Amir] bit on [his] fist. Shut [his] eyes" (73). Amir harbored the pain of witnessing his best friend suffering and believed that if he told anyone what had happened that he would be a disgrace to his father. Throughout the rest of his life, Amir believed that every bad situation was God punishing him for not standing up for Hassan. Because Amir was not able to forgive himself, he was unable to move on with his life and be at peace. He believed he was not good enough for anyone's forgiveness. After about twenty-five years, Amir saw his chance at redemption--his chance for forgiveness. He learned of Hassan's death, and that his only son, Sohrab was in an orphanage. Knowing the conditions of Afghanistan, Amir went to save Sonrab and bring him back to America for a better life. Upon returning to America, Amir had admitted his horrific event to Soraya and gained her

From reading chapters one to four, one of the main aspects of Amir and Hassan’s relationship is the sense of control Amir has over Hassan. It becomes apparent that Amir is the one with the most authority in their friendship when he ‘talked’ Hassan into firing walnuts at the neighbour’s one-eyed German shepherd, ‘Hassan never wanted to, but if I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me’. This highlights the way Hassan looks up to Amir and obeys him due to their religious, cultural and social differences, ‘I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a’. Nevertheless, Amir does express his sensitive side towards Hassan and feels protective over him, especially when he can see he’s upset, ‘I reached across my seat, slung my

When Amir joins with Rahim Khan he tells Amir that Hassan and his wife were shot in the back of the head, and their son, Sohrab, was put in an orphanage. Rahim Khan asks him to take him out and bring him to a better family, where he is safe; “Then I told him I was going to Kabul. Told him to call the Caldwells in the morning” (227). This is the first time Amir has stood up for Hassan, by saving his son. Even though Amir has no desire to go back into the danger place, Kabul, he is willing. He has a chance to be forgiving of his regret of not standing up for Hassan finally. This is the first major change of heart seen in Amir throughout the book. He does this to be forgotten of his past, and also for his “brother”. When Amir arrives to the orphanage Sohrab is not there. The owner said that a Taliban soldier pays him to take one child, to become a sex slave and it was Sohrab this time. Amir continues on his search for Sohrab, he goes to where the Talib is keeping him. After having a long conversation with Assef, he tells Amir he can take Sorab, but they have “unfinished business”. Assef takes out his brass knuckles and starts to beat Amir; “ I hadn’t been happy and I hadn’t felt better, not at all. But now I did. My body was broken-just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later-but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed” (289). This is when Amir finally stands up for Hassan. Amir knew when Assef told

He is told that Hassan had a son, Sohrab, and he needed a home. Amir was asked to adopt Sohrab, so he went back to Afghanistan to pick him up. Amir had a long, painful journey to get Sohrab because people were trying to kill Hazaras. Sohrab and Hassan were Hazaras, so sneaking Sohrab out of the country was not an easy feat. By the end of the book, Amir was proud of his sacrifice because he had his nephew with him and he knew he was

When Amir and his wife, Soraya, can’t seem to have a child, Amir believes that it is because of his wrongdoings in the past. Right up until Amir is in his 30’s does he confront his mistakes. It takes a call from Rahim Khan to persuade him that there is ‘a way to be good again’ (Pg. 2). Amir knows that he needs to make up to Hassan for the wrong that he did all those years ago, and so by confronting his mistake and trying to redeem himself by rescuing Sohrab, Hassan’s son. Amir’s confrontation with Assef when he is getting back Sohrab made him feel like he was confronting his mistakes and gaining redemption ‘For the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace… In some nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this.’ (Pg. 265). This is the punishment and redemption that he has been waiting all these years for, because Hassan wouldn’t punish him all those years ago when they were under the pomegranate tree.

Though Hassan was his best friend, Amir feelt that Hassan, a Hazara servant, was beneath him. He passively attacked Hassan by mocking and taunting him. Amir never learned how to affirm himself against anyone because Hassan always defended him. All of these factors lead to Amir not being able to stand up for Hassan when he needed him most.

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.

Throughout the book, Amir mentions how he mistreated Hassan despite Hassan’s loyalty towards him. Firstly, his guilty conscience can be traced back to

When Amir was looking for Hassan after the kite flying contest he is talking to someone asking if they had seen him. He refers to Hassan as “our servant’s son” (69). He and Hassan are best friends at home through their entire childhoods. Despite this, he still does not even refer to him as a friend to society; to the people around him Hassan is just his servant. Then later in the novel after he has witnessed Hassan getting raped, he does not want Hassan to be living with them anymore. He asks Baba “have you ever thought about getting new servants?” (89). He tries to exile his best friend for no reason at all even though they have been through everything together. This is the foundation of Amir showing this theme of exile towards Hassan, and it only gets worse. Hassan begins to notice what Amir is doing and tells him “I don’t know what i’ve done, Amir agah I wish you’d tell me. I don’t know why we don’t play anymore” (88). He ignores Hassan and shuts him out into exile even though all he has done is be loyal to Amir. Soon after Amir wants to completely exile Hassan and get him out of his home for good. Amir decides to frame him so he “lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted [his] new watch and handful of Afghani bills under it” (104). Amir lets Hassan take the blame for this act completely and exiles him out of his life forever. Hassan even writes to him but Amir does not respond. Amir exiles Hassan and shows the theme of exile through his actions toward Hassan throughout the

When Amir and Baba went to the lake one day when Baba had built the orphanage, Amir exclaimed, “he asked me to fetch Hassan too, but I lied and told him Hassan had the runs” (13). This associates the power Aamir wants in order to impress his father. Furthermore it embellishes the fact that Amirs quench for power over Hassan was growing since the beginning of the book, Hassan was always, “steps in to fend them off” (22), which made Amir feel weak and powerless. This enraged the evil that was brewing inside him, and created a dynamic of always wanting more. The power that came from Baba’s approval always came so easily to Hassan, However for Amir, he always went out of his way to be vengeful towards him. Hosseini depicts this constantly throughout his life, for example when he graduated highschool in California and Baba mentioned how good it would be to have Hassan there with them in the new car they had gotten, Amir said, “a pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan's name” (134). Hosseini wants us to see that Amir is constantly wants that power over his father’s relationship with him, but Hassan always gets in the way of that. Even when Amir was doing an act of good to save Sohrab, he “hadn’t felt happy and [he] hadn’t felt better, not at all” (289). Amir began to laugh during the time that he