There is no good if there is no bad, a recurring motif throughout many fiction novels. This novel was narrated by Amir, the protagonist, but was named in honor of Hassan, a secondary character, who was “the kite runner”. The Kite Runner introduces an inspiring character like Hassan, he is one of the bravest characters, the heart of Afghanistan, and is one of the most complex characters, but has an instinctual nature which makes him a simple character to understand. Hassan’s purpose in the novel is to be the foil of Amir. Initially, the story came to be when Hosseini thought of giving Hassan an alter-ego, and contrasting it to Hassan’s purity and benevolence. “Whereas Hassan knows exactly what he wants in life, the alter-ego is troubled and wrenched with insecurities …show more content…
Hassan had it tougher than Amir at the very beginning, he was born into a difficult life by being raised by a Hazara servant. Which as a result, he learns that it is his duty to sacrifice himself for others. For instance, he wakes up every morning to get Amir ready for school while he is held back doing housework, and even tells Amir he is happy with what he has, although he clearly sees what he lacks himself. On other several different accounts he was taking advantage of his selflessness from being raped for the sake of keeping Amir’s winning kite in tack, which he knew meant a great deal to him. Yardley reviews Hosseini’s second book where it is about “the story of these two women, which reaches its climax in an act of extraordinary generosity and self-sacrifice (3)” Hosseini adopted the theme of sacrifice in both of his novels, where a character voluntarily sacrifices something so dear to them, in Hassan’s cases his innocence. By Hassan having the crucial trait of being selfless, it is the motor to all the event that foreshadow. Perhaps if Hassan was not as selfless, Amir and Assef would have not taken advantage of
Hassan and his family are ethnically Hazaras, predisposing them to brutal discrimination at the dregs of society. Even the intimate relationship between Amir and Hassan was not immune to these connotations, as Amir dictated the relationship by lying to Hassan about words (Hosseini 29) and speaking condescendingly to him. Eventually, Amir’s inadequate free will, like Foster described (253), accepted the rape of Hassan, as Hassan’s social standing contributed to reasoning that intervening wasn’t worth the vengeance from Assef, as Amir asked, “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 77). Unfortunately, his avoidance was ironic in multiple ways, transferring
Hosseini’s character Amir, started as a young boy who was not brave enough to stand for others and himself. As any other individual, Amir made mistakes that he has regretted since. However, Amir realizes his mistakes, and towards the end of the novel we see Amir as a courageous men, who was willing to do anything for someone he cared about. Amir was once selfish, however grew up to be a selfless person. He proves this when he went to get Sohrab in Kabul, he did exactly what he was afraid of and risked everything for someone he barely knew. In the beginning we see how Amir treated Hassan, and was at times jealous of Hassan for several reasons, primarily for the affection Baba had towards Hassan. However, towards his road to redemption, we see
While Baba is a large presence in the novel, the most prominent character in respect to self-sacrifice is Hassan, Amir’s servant and illegitimate half-brother. Very early on in the book, Amir describes Hassan as “incapable of hurting anyone” (Hosseini 11), and Hassan lives up to that nature. Hassan hurts nothing and no one, taking what is given to him without any complaint. For example, when Amir and Hassan make mischief by annoying their neighbour with a shard of glass, Hassan takes the fault. However, the most famous example of self-sacrifice in the novel is after
The Kite Runner is the first novel of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It tells the story of Amir, a boy from Kabul, Afghanistan, whose closest friend is Hassan, a young Hazara servant. Novel turns around these two characters and Baba, Amir’s father, by telling their tragic stories, guilt and redemption that are woven throughout the novel. Even in the difficult moments, characters build up to their guilt and later on to their redemption. Their sins and faults alter the lives of innocent people. First, Amir and Baba fail to take action on the path to justice for Ali and Hassan. Moreover, Amir and Baba continue to build up their guilt due to their decisions and actions. Although Amir builds up more guilt than Baba throughout the novel, he eventually succeeds in the road to redemption unlike his father. After all, Amir and Baba have many chances to fix their atonements but Baba chooses not to and Amir does. Baba uses his wealth to cover up his sins but never atone himself while Amir decides to stand up and save Sohrab and finally finds peace. Amir and Baba’s reaction to sins essentially indicate their peace of mind and how they react to guilt and injustice.
One phrase Hosseini used that really stuck out to me was “My hands are stained with Hassan’s blood; I pray God doesn’t let them get stained with the blood of his boy too” (Hosseini 346). While reading the novel I found the connotative meaning to be very clear and easy to see that Amir is very submerged with guilt as of what happened to Hassan, but now the occurrences are happening again with Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Amir finally comprehends that he is forever Obligated to Hassan. It was because of Hassan that Amir learned true loyalty and friendship. Because of this Amir thinks he is the one who needs to be the hero and save Sohrab from his terrible situation. When a bad incident happens Amir prays to god for direction in what to do so he doesn’t
Hosseini tragically displays the betrayal of a so-called friend. When they were young, Amir and Hassan did everything together and they were inseparable. Amir’s obsession with gaining Baba’s love not only made him lose someone that adored him, but also someone that would always stay by his side. Later on, Amir redeems himself of his horrible past by taking in Hassan’s son, so he can have a clean future. Hosseini depicts good versus evil to question readers if Amir is forgiven for his one good deed compared to his many bad deeds.Was Amir really Hassan’s friend considering how disrespectful he is to Hassan? In the novel Kite Runner, Hosseini shows that Amir did
This view is carried out with the supportive character, Hassan, who plays a significant role in the novel by representing a Christ figure who is forever forgiving of Amir. Hassan is the, “harelipped kite runner” whose only friend is Amir (Hosseini 2). Hassan demonstrates the themes of second chances and forgiveness through his actions of kindness. For example, when Assef and his gang come to torment Amir, Hassan comes to the rescue with his slingshot. Although Amir never considers him to be his friend, Hassan proves to be a flawless servant to his half-brother, even after Amir betrays him. Throughout the story, Amir remembers Hassan by his kind-hearted phrase, “For you, a thousand times over,” which evidences how magnanimous and
One day Asseff rapes Hassan as an act of power, and Amir witnesses the actions but acts in a cowardly matter and simply avoids the matter by ignoring it. Amir then proceeds to cut off the relationships between himself and Hassan, “I actually aspired to cowardice, but the real reason I was running, was that Asseff was right. Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara. Wasn’t he?” Amir did it because the traditional and historical beliefs were more important than friendship. This action displays how being born in a different social class can outweigh all feelings of love and friendship with one of a different social group.
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.
Hosseini conveys the turning point when Amir gets on the right path to learning and understanding the true nature of sacrifice by attempting to redeem himself. Amir plants money and his new watch that he got for his birthday under Hassan's bed to make it look like Hassan stole it. Baba brings Ali, Hassan and Amir together and Amir explains that “They’d both been crying; [He] could tell from their red, puffed-up eyes...they stood before Baba, hand in hand, and [he] wondered how and when [he’d] become capable of causing this kind of pain” (105). Hosseini uses this scene to demonstrate the true colors of Amir that he is a liar. This scene also highlights the loyalty that Hassan has towards Amir and his family and but it is not the same from Amir to Hassan. This illuminates Hassan’s loyalty most more than other scenes because as you can tell Baba and Ali were very surprised about what (they thought) Hassan had done because nothing like this has ever happened before. This explains one of the many sins that Amir has and reveals the lying and
As much as the book showed growth within Amir and how he realized his mistakes, he primarily disregards Hassan as a friend because he put Baba’s love in front of the relationship and always took into consideration his race and his social class. While Hosseini writes about Amir fulfilling his destiny and fixing his wrongdoings with Hassan, it brings up questions about how to treat each other: can you always fix mistakes later, or should you do the correct decision right
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a story of a boy as he unravels his journey throughout his life. The novel consists of multiple themes such as love, friendship, betrayal, guilt, , secrets, loyalty, and redemption. As the main character, Amir recalls his past events, all of these themes start to unravel specific events that occurred in his life. “There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 2) is where the novel unfolds the deep dark life of Amir’s regret and guilt, Baba’s secret, and Hassan’s devotion. The book is a true masterpiece which keeps the readers glued to the story as it unfolds. One of the reasons, the story attracts many readers is due to The United States recent conflict with Afghanistan. However, the story has a personal
From the start of the novel, Hassan was made out to be the near perfect person who was “...incapable of hurting anyone” (10, Hosseini). Hassan’s only fault being his Hazara lineage. This mixed with the attention he got from Baba made Amir jealous for the same sort of affection from his father. This brotherly rivalry could be compared to Cain and Abel for in the same way that Cain killed Abel - Amir watched as Hassan’s captors took
Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, depicts the conflicting life of Amir, a young boy who lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. His life becomes complicated at age twelve when he witnessed his best friend and Hazara servant, Hassan, get raped and abused. Amir just idoly stood by but was he feeling helpless, or was Hassan just a servant that meant nothing to him. This is when the question of good and evil comes out. While Amir shows significantly redeemable qualities throughout the book of doing, it does not change that he was toying with the fact that he let such a vial ast be committed in the first place. Later Amir finds out that Hassan was his brother and he tries desperately to do whatever he can to do good things in Hassan's name like adopt
Hassan is a victim of discrimination, bigotry, and class structure in Afghan society. Hassan and Ali are members of the Hazaras, a minority group of Afghanis. Amir and his father are Pashtuns, the majority, who believes they are a better class than the Hazara. Religion was all that separated Amir and Hassan, as did tribe and class. Amir learned from his father that the Harara tribe to which Ali and Hassan belonged, were inferior people. Because of this bigotry and basic class structure, Hazaras are often victims of physical, emotional and psychological abuse. Thus when a crisis comes and Hassan is being attack, Amir not only doesn't come to Hassan's aid, but also allows him to be brutally abused. Morality lacks because of this class structure, which allows people to be treated as second-class citizens. Considerations towards morality and religion helps the reader to broaden there understanding of the novel and it would be impossible to appreciated the book lacking them.