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Amir and Hassan

Good Essays

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

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