Amir and Hassan seem to have a "best friend" type relationship. The boys showed their trust for eachother by carving their names into a tree. The two boys, Hassan and Amir, are main characters in the book titled, The Kite Runner. The two boys have a relationship that is significantly different compared to most. The boys do write their names in a pomegranate tree as the "sultans of Kabul" (Kite Runner 27) but, their friendship is not strong and it is one sided. Hassan is seen as lower than human. The story is placed in Afghanistan. The relationship between the two boys is emotionally wearing and rather gloomy for the most part. The main reason for this strange relationship is the fact that Amir is Pashtun, and Hassan is Hazara. The Afghan …show more content…
It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood.....How can you talk to him, play with him, let him touch you?" (40-41). When Hassan is harassed, Amir does nothing; rather, he almost blurts out that Hassan is nothing but a servant when in fact he spends all of his free time playing like true friends play. Amir wants to be accepted by his peers, peers such as Assef, Wali, and Kamal. He wants to be accepted with such a passion that he chooses to disregard his friend in order to gain approval from these boys. Amir ends up sacrificing his morals for popularity. Another example of how Amir is a coward and only wants to be accepted by his peers and his father is when he turns his back on Hassan when Hassan desperately needs his help. Hassan gets raped by Assef while trying to complete the task of kite running for Amir. Amir witnesses this horrible act and does nothing to stop it; he does not step in to help his friend because he believes that Hassan is sacrificing himself for him. This is a completely selfish thought on Amir's part because no one should have to bear another persons burden, even if one person is another person's servant. The choice made by Amir to sacrifice his morals and rationalize his decisions forever haunts him. Amir is clearly an emotionally unstable person, but his resentment towards Hassan is
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.
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Amir was the son of a wealthy social worker. He was brought up with the son of his servant, and perhaps his only best friend, Hassan. Amir had a rocky relation with his father. At times, it seemed as his father loved him but those moments didn’t lasted forever. He thinks Baba (his father) wishes Amir were more like him, and that Baba holds him responsible for killing his mother, who died during his birth. Despite being best friends, Amir thinks that Hassan is beneath him because he belonged to an inferior cast. He used to mock him jokingly or tried to outsmart him. In all fairness, it was Amir’s cowardly nature that
Amir, the main character in The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan. He lived with his father Baba, their servant Ali, and his son Hassan. Baba was a strong, loyal and well-respected man in Afghanistan. Amir believed his father thought he was weak. Hassan and Amir were best friends until Hassan was assaulted and Amir did nothing to help him during or after the assault. Hassan and Ali were eventually forced to leave their home after Ali finds out Amir betrayed them. Despite Baba’s loyalty to Ali they part ways. Eventually war breaks out in Afghanistan and Baba and Amir also are forced from their home. They fled to America. Amir and Baba build a life in America with Amir continuing to admire his father and
“ Assef unbuttoned his winter coat,took it off,folded it slowly.--- I opened my mouth, almost said something .Almost.The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had.But I didn’t. I just watched.” When witnessing first hand Hasan get rape Amir decides to ultimately be a bystander. Amir comes from the ethnic group of Pashtun and Hassan comes from the ethnic group of Hazara they are both viewed and treated very differently due to their economical stance.Being from two different social classes Amir decides to be a bystander due to the fact that he fears getting hurt, he wants to get Baba’s approval and the way he wants to be viewed by others.
As a foreword, the story of The Kite Runner focuses on a man named Amir. In his childhood, he enjoyed a high-class life in Kabul, Afghanistan, living with his father Baba. They have two servants, Ali and his son Hassan. They are Hazaras, a lower class ethnic minority in Afghanistan. In one Winter of their childhood, Amir and Hassan participate in a kite-fighting tournament; the goal is to be the last kite flying. When a kite is cut, boys chase after it as a
The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini establishes a theme of selfishness through Amir’s eyes through the course of the novel. Amir was an Afghan boy who was born in Kabul, Afghanistan who lived the majority of his life behind enemy lines. Amir had been living in a large mansion with his father Baba, and two family servants Ali and his son Hassan. Throughout the novel, Amir began to become annoyed at how Baba had almost favored Hassan over his own son. After a kite flying tournament in downtown Kabul that Hassan and Amir had participated in, Hassan had begun to track down his kite that had flown away. Upon finding it, Hassan had found himself cornered in an alleyway with the biggest bully in Kabul, Assef. Followed by two other boys, Assef and the boys had threatened to steal Hassan’s kite because he was of a religion that wasn’t “pure” in Kabul, Hazara. When Hassan refused to give up his kite, he had been raped by the boys with Amir watching and not acting to help Hassan. Through the course of The Kite Runner, Amir often felt sorry for himself for the incident with Hassan, when in reality he kept watching as the events unfolded in front of him, which ultimately transformed him into a selfish character.
In the novel The Kite Runner, the protagonist, Amir, is a young boy growing up in a well off family in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir’s closest friend is Hassan, the son of his family’s beloved servant. Amir’s self image at the beginning of the novel is one in which he views himself as a coward, worthless and selfish.
Amir and Hassan both love each other in the book, “The Kite Runner”, even though they have two different personalities and physical characteristics. Amir is not athletic, nor does he possess the physical characteristics of his half brother, Hassan. Amir loves reading the Koran to Hassan and writing his own stories. On the other hand, Hassan is very athletic and is a servant to Amir and Baba. Hassan is illiterate during his childhood because he was never taught how to read or write, eventually that changes during his adulthood, when he writes a letter to Amir. Amir is a Pashtun or Sunni Muslim,
This is shown when Amir describes Hassan or other “normal people” in his life. Despite their ethnic differences, Amir and Hassan “fed from the same breasts”, took their “first steps on the same lawn”, and it’s learned later in the novel that they are half brothers (11). Countless hours of their childhood consisted of them playing pretend, flying kites, reading stories, and just talking with one another. This definitely falls in the parameters of friendship, but Amir “never thought of Hassan and [him] as friends” (25). In moments of chaos, Amir finds Hassan expendable in order to protect himself and his desires. When Hassan refused to give up a kite that Amir desperately wanted, Hassan was attacked and raped while Amir hid. Although Hassan was taking the beating for him, Amir thought that “he was just a Hazara” so there is no need to go out into harm’s way (77). This way of thinking can be traced back to the large majority of the people surrounding Amir viewed Hazaras as subhuman. Amir described a boy named Omar as “a pretty good guy” but refers to Hassan as “your hazara” and insults his “tight little eyes” (68). This perception of Omar being a good guy despite his degrading comments towards Hassan shows how much Pashtuns had influenced Amir. A Marxist, however, would say that Amir supported the dominant ideology thus keeping the bourgeoisie at the top.
In the novel, Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the protagonist, Amir, is torn between two truths as he lived associated with different kinds of religious groups in Afghan society: Pashtuns and Hazaras. Each identity played a unique part in Amir’s life. Whether they had a positive or negative effect, both changed his values and beliefs. Individuals also shaped Amir’s character. Baba, Assef, and Hassan were major influences upon Amir’s growth throughout the book; their differences shaped Amir into the man he later became as all three represented a different side of Afghan society.
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
Hosseini also states that Hassan’s lip symbolizes the cultural and social differences throughout the novel, and how Amir's slingshot symbolizes the loyalty, their childhood, and explains standing up for what is right. The Kite Runner is a story of about an AfghanAmerican boy named Amir who has flashbacks that visually depict how his life was when he was just a young boy living in Afghanistan. It was a time of injustice as he searches for a redemption of his past guilts. Hosseini shows readers how Amir matures, and how he felt about different experiences during his life back in Afghanistan. The Kite Runner employs symbolism to show the experiences and moments in Amir’s life that have meaning to him and have left an impact on his life forever. By using symbolism, Hosseini makes readers think about how much earlier experiences and moments have shaped Amir’s life in The Kite Runner.
"The Kite Runner" tells the story of two children growing up in the 1970s in Afghanistan. Amir-the protagonist is a young son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul. Hassan, son of his poor servant Ali, is his partner. The two boys are inseparable, even in an ethnically divided Afghanistan,
In The Kite Runner, Amir and Hassan have a complex and dynamic relationship that provides an underlying motive to the plot of the novel. Traditional definitions of friendship are questioned through the lens of this relationship, and analysis can lead to a deeper understanding of true friendship. Early in the book, Amir and Hassan appear to be friends. They play together, and Hassan is the only one who seems to appreciate Amir’s storytelling and writing. However, it is obvious that there is tension in the relationship.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a historical fiction novel set mostly in Kabul, Afghanistan and Fremont, California. The novel spans the time periods before, during, and after the reign of the Russians (1979-1989) and the Taliban’s takeover (1996) of Afghanistan. It is told through the first person perspective of Amir alongside his father, Baba, his half-brother, Hassan, and Baba’s companions Ali and Rahim Khan. Growing up, Amir and Hassan are practically inseparable, as they are always playing games, reading poetry, or simply spending time together. Hassan’s mother, Sanaubar, is never present during the children’s youthful years, but they both have Baba as a shared father figure in their lives. The themes of betrayal and redemption