Amir Abusing Power In The Kite Runner

Amir questions his relationship with Hassan and says, “I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that” (Hosseini 25). This is the first occurrence in the novel of Amir acknowledging that him and Hassan are different. Amir is superior to Hassan in the eyes of Afghani culture. Later Amir almost says to Assef, “But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant!” (Hosseini 41). Amir later questions what he says, and does not understand what he really thinks Hassan is to him. Another example of Amir realizing his superiority is when he was not not beaten by a teacher like the other students. Amir says, “But my father was rich and everyone knew him, so I was spared the metal rod treatment” (Hosseini 90). Amir recognizes his father’s wealth and realizes he receives special treatment because of it. This thought of being superior is inevitably capable of being installed in a child’s brain that they are above others and deserve special

Throughout the whole book, Amir has been vying for love from his father, often against Hassan, and feels powerless when he does not get it; this causes him to attempt to assert power in other aspects of his life, usually over Hassan. Amir feels as if Baba does not love him, and feels powerless to fix it; he says, “I always felt like Baba hated me a little, And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I? The least I could have done was to have the decency to have turned out a little more like him. But I hadn’t turned out like him. Not at all” (Hosseini 19). He believes there is nothing he can do to make his father love him; after all, he cannot change the past, and he cannot change himself substantially. This feeling of powerlessness affects him in such a way that he feels the need to compensate for this loss of power elsewhere in his life. He would exploit the kindness and forgiveness Hassan always showed him, and would try and prove his superiority and worth in that relationship. Amir once asked if Hassan would eat dirt if he asked him to, and afterwards said, “I knew I was being cruel, like when I’d taunt him if he didn’t know some big word. But there was something fascinating--albeit in a sick way--about teasing Hassan. Kind of like when we used to play insect torture. Except now he was the ant and I was holding the magnifying glass,” (Hosseini 54). Amir is filling the power gap he feels in his life with power over Hassan, and is trying to show Hassan how much control he has over him. Hassan, Amir’s servant and a genuinely kind person, is in a vulnerable position against Amir,

Throughout the novel, The Kite Runner, courage plays a large role in determining the fate of each character. All of the characters show courage in different ways. For example, when Baba lost his wife and the mother of his children, he chose to raise his two sons on his own. Baba’s son, who is also the main character, Amir, is seen as the opposite of his father. Baba is a courageous, smart and very public man. Amir, on the other hand, struggles to stand up for himself and never feels the need to be courageous during his youth. He feels inferior to his best friend, Brother and loyal servant, Hassan. Hassan is constantly being praised by Baba for being brave, loyal and Baba views Hassan as his proudest achievement. Amir has a strong craving for respect from his father which influences the choices Amir makes throughout his life. He is constantly battling between choosing his morals or his father’s approval. However, during a conflict that happens later in the novel, Amir finally shows his courage and

Best friends typically have loyalty that comes with the friendship, and Hassan was all about the loyalty, whereas Amir had trouble giving Hassan what he deserves. For instance, after Amir had won the kite race, Hassan had caught his kite to then be met by a bully, Assef, and his friends in an alley way. Amir is a bystander to what would be the raping of Hassan and Amir tells it as “I could step in to that alley, stand up for Hassan-the way he’d stood up for me…” to then finish with, “In the end, I ran.” (Hosseini 77). Amir immediately regrets his self-proclaimed cowardly decision. As Amir grows older, the circle of life catches up to him and he has the opportunity to stand up for Hassan’s son, Sohrab, against Assef. Revisiting the experience, he had of standing up for Sohrab, he admits “That was the first time I’d fought anyone.” (Hosseini 288). Amir is aware that he messed up with his opportunities with Hassan, in turn he ironically is the first to stand up for Sohrab who was up against the same person that troubles Hassan.

Amir's entire life had been haunted by what he saw happen to Hassan. Although he was a child at the time, he couldn't accept his shortcoming during a time of need. He was jealous of his father for being able to stand up for himself and others and Hassan's undying loyalty to him. He developed a pattern of behavior - of covering up his mistakes and hiding his past – that he could not rid himself of until he suffered like Hassan did. He made it up to Hassan by saving his son, and he made it up to himself by suffering the way he

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

Hassan is considerably Amir’s sidekick, but he is also Amir and Baba’s servant. Amir is completely discourteous towards Hassan, and Amir is notorious to take advantage of him throughout the novel. Subsequently, following Hassan’s death, Amir discovers himself and Hassan are brothers, but as for Hassan it is too late. Regardless Hassan seeming benevolent, the story is completely being told

To add to Hassan’s admiration for Amir, Hassan would take the blame despite the fact that it is Amir’s fault. “But he never told on me. Never told that the mirror, like shooting walnuts at the neighbor’s dog, was always my idea (4).” It is bizarre that Amir did not confess when Hassan was getting punished, like if someone has a friend, he/she would not want that friend getting hurt. Then he acts like nothing happened and does not even thank Hassan for covering for him, but instead he acts like it was Hassan’s fault and that Hassan deserves the punishment. Amir is most likely jealous that Hassan receives Baba’s attention while he needs to work for it, which is why he lets Hassan take the blame for him. “The group felt that Baba shows more kindness to Hassan as a way of overcoming his guilt for the affair, which in turn makes Amir feel unwanted: his literary talents are not appreciated because his father would prefer a son interested in football (Dennys).” It is assumed that Amir does not like Hassan because he can gain Baba’s attention easily while Amir has tried for years to get a little bit of attention. Amir thinks that if Hassan gets in more “trouble” then Baba would like Hassan less and start liking him more and pay more attention to him. Amir treats Hassan kindly when they are alone, but in public he degrades Hassan and acts like Hassan is nothing to him. “But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant (41)!”

After he nearly convinces himself Hassan is “not [his] friend,” Amir is ashamed for neglecting his best friend in pursuit of his own safety. By portraying Amir’s guilt, the author displays Amir’s conflicted feelings for Hassan—the person who he has always treated “like a brother”—thus highlighting his inability to be decisive. Hosseini seems to believe that, although humans make mistakes, the following guilt can strengthen a person’s relationships in the long-term, provided they avoid making similar mistakes in the future. Later in the story, Amir and Hassan have a second encounter with Assef when Hassan is raped, but Amir simply watches the scene as a bystander, traumatized and scared to stand up for his friend. Amir continues to carry the burden of guilt for the rest of the novel and expresses his frustration by attempting to cut ties with Hassan. In chapter 9, Amir frames Hassan for stealing by placing his birthday money and his watch under Hassan’s mattress. When Baba finds out that Hassan had “stolen” from Amir—as Amir had planned— Hassan shockingly admits to stealing the watch and money, even though he was not responsible. However, Baba forgives Hassan, leaving Amir in a

The beginning of Amir’s journey causes him to feel guilty enough that he causes a chain reaction where he inflicts more cruelty upon himself and others. Amir and Hassan used to live a simple life with the biggest negative in Amir’s life being the fact that his father liked Hassan more. Right after a kite tournament that Amir won, Hassan goes to run the kite for Amir, and Amir finds him being abused by Assef in an alley. Amir decides to do nothing and feels guilty about it for most of his life. Although the initial cruelty is inflicted upon Hassan, it is Amir who is hurt the most. His guilt causes him to inflict cruelty upon Hassan in order to cause Hassan to “give [Amir] the punishment [he] craved, so maybe [he]’d finally sleep at night” (92). Amir’s cruelty leads Hassan and his father to walk out of Amir’s life, leaving Amir and his father, Baba,

An individual tends to treat another inadequately when they believe they are more superior than the other. This is sometimes caused by the act of influence. In this book, Amir being a Pashtun makes him “superior” compared to Hassan as he is a Hazara; this causes Amir to do and say uncivil things. However despite all the bad behavior Amir has portrayed, throughout the book he has shown love and care for Hassan, Amir specifies that “history isn't easy to overcome -- “I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara,” (Hosseini C4) Prior to this Amir was talking about how Baba and his relationship with Ali.. He is implying that “history” is referring to Baba, as he never referred Ali as his friend. Amir may have gotten influenced to not consider Hassan a friend

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.

Amir is often threatened by Hassan which Hassan is oblivious to, resulting in Amir feeling jealous and misusing his authority over Hassan, ‘though I stopped reading those when I saw he was far better at solving them than I was’, implying that Amir can’t handle an ‘inferior’ person exceeding him in any way. This jealousy develops into abuse towards Hassan when Amir uses his intelligence to make a fool of Hassan who is illiterate, ‘”When it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile.” “Aaah” he said, nodding’. However, Amir would then feel ‘guilty’ for this and would give him an old shirt or a broken toy, ‘I would tell myself that was amends enough for a harmless prank’ displaying Amir’s malicious behaviour towards Hassan.

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.

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