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Examples Of Evil In The Kite Runner

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The idealistic goal of humans is to achieve goodness. However, many become lost on the path to reach this goal as they are ignorant of how to find it. Goodness is procured through basing personal choices on love and loyalty, no matter the circumstance, while evil is made through selfishness, power pursuits, and the causing of pain. In “The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini, the author paints a picture of moralistic conflict throughout the story to shed light on the main point of human character: goodness and evil are made by the choices an individual makes and partially shaped by their circumstance that develops the character they become. For example, in “The Kite Runner,”the character Hassan is described as someone who is “incapable of hurting …show more content…

Assef is the prime example of someone who chose evil, power, and selfish gain in times of both easiness and hardship. Due to this, he becomes a psychopathic figure, who delights in abusing power to cause pain. He grew up similar to Amir, surrounded by riches and given everything he could possibly want, and granted a great standing in society due to his race and wealth. However, from a young age he chooses to violently wield this power as he is introduced as someone who has a “well-earned reputation for savagery,” (Hosseini 38). He commits the act of rape, a sexual act that is used as a sign of power, against Hassan to show that he was in charge. When he was finally in a position of pain, he used it to add fire to his rage and become more cruel. A soldier who hurt him suffered a fate of “Being shot in the balls, “ (Hosseini 284). Assef’s joining of the Taliban further illustrates Assef’s evil personality as he joins them to “take out the garbage,” (Hosseini 284) to refer to the ethnic cleansing of the Hazaras. The Taliban are a reflection of his values as they abuse their power through violence. A certain story brings an understanding to the kind of people they are: “The worker, who was running a project north of Kabul, said he had tolerated a series of petty thefts by his Afghan workforce until his transistor radio, his only means of getting news of the outside world, went missing. He complained to the local mujahedin commander. A couple of days later the radio reappeared in his room, and he thought no more about it until the following morning, when he found the bodies of two men, shot through the head, in the road outside his compound. After that he kept any complaints of theft to him,” (Whitaker). The Taliban used murder as punishment for a petty theft, a clear overreaction for the purpose of solidifying fear into people’s hearts to keep their power, something Assef does by raping

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