Inevitability Of The Truth In The Kite Runner

Amir’s struggles, on the other hand, are of an inherently different nature from John’s in that they are internal and Amir is more directly responsible for the cause of his alienation. Amir, having witnessed the rape of his childhood best friend and servant Hassan at a young age, failing to help him, and not telling anyone about it, bears the weight of his sins throughout a large portion of his childhood and adult life. Amir struggles greatly with what he has done in the weeks and months after the rape, leading him to emotionally and physically harm Hassan even more than he has already been

Stephanie Ericsson’s essay, “The Ways We Lie” describes the different types of lies that people use daily to avoid conflict, get out of unpleasant situations, and how lying is destructive. From the onset, Ericsson sets the tone of her essay citing personal examples and stating that it is natural to lie under certain circumstances, however we must consider the connotations of our actions. She explains that there are different categories of lies and begins the essay with white lies, justifying that these minor lies are most often used to avoid confrontation sparing people’s feelings. Ericsson then cites a more serious type of lying, such as facades where people create illusions about themselves and their lives, for personal gain. In fact, Ericsson uses a documented case where a Catholic diocese ignored the plain facts covering up the situation because the church was in

He knows that he needs to risk his life for Hassan’s son and be the person that Hassan had always been to Amir. Amir is finally able to make a good decision; a decision that would change his character and his life.

In the essay The Ways We Lie, author Stephanie Ericsson writes in depth about the different types of lies used by most people everyday. While listing examples of them, Ericsson questions her own experiences with lying and whether or not it was appropriate. By using hypothetical situations, true accounts, and personal occurrences, she highlights the moral conflicts and consequences that are a result of harmless fibs or impactful deceptions. In an essay detailing the lies told to ourselves and others, Ericsson points out one bold truth; everyone lies. Through her writing, Ericsson causes the reader to look into how they’ve lied in the past and how to effects others and the general greater good of society.

One of the main points of the story is when Baba, the father of the main character, dies. After he dies Baba’s close friend from Afghanistan calls and gets Amir to come to Pakistan to meet him, Rahim Khan ravelas that Amir and his best friend, Hassan, are brothers and now Amir must do what is right for Hassan after he is killed. Baba never wanted Amir to know that Hassan was his brother, so Hassan was his servant and friend. Baba wants to be successful and powerful and he couldn't do that if people knew that he had a second son from his servants wife. Deception drives this because without Baba lying to Amir, there would not have been any reason to go and save Sohrab, Hassan’s son and Amir’s nephew. Without Baba lieing a big chunk of the story would have not been created or would have been changed a lot. Another example of this is when Amir does nothing is help Hassan when he is being raped. He just watches and then runs away saying “In the end, I ran. I ran because I was a coward.” he betrays Hassan who has always been there for him helping and protecting him. The story without out deception would of been changed a ton.

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

Later, Baba comments it’s “Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie”. The section closes demonstrating clearly the jealousy Amir had of Hassan when Amir states “That was the thing about Hassan. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him”. (pg 51)

“The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either… Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites. Never mind that to me, the face of Afghanistan is that of a boy with a thin-boned frame… a boy with Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile. Never mind any of these things. Because history isn’t easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, 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.” (Housini

Amir’s life in America is tainted by his guilt which continues to grow as he matures because he realizes all the hurtful things he did to Hassan in his youth; he knows that confessing to his wrongdoings is the only way to mitigate his shame but is still too cowardly to do so. Even a milestone as important as high school graduation is clouded for Amir by the memory of Hassan when Baba expresses that “[he] wish[es] Hassan had been with [them]” (133). Amir is immediately put on edge because, despite pretending everything is okay, his remorse is constantly gnawing at the back of his mind. Had Amir confronted his mistake as soon as it happened, he would not still be dealing with the repercussions so many years laters. Baba, however, is not the only

Their happy-go-lucky relationship works out very well in the beginning of the book, and, even though Hassan does not play with Amir when his other friends come over, the duo still form a very deep relationship with each other. I would say the peak of this portion of their relationship is displayed when Hassan stands up for and protects Amir from Assef and his deadly brass knuckles by threatening to shoot Assef's left eye out with a rock. When Hassan threatens to permanently cripple another human's eyesight in order to save Amir from being beaten, I think it is pretty clear that he made a very risky decision purely out of concern for his closest and only friend's safety. Assef had two friends who I believe could have easily beaten both Hassan and Amir if Hassan shot Assef. In fact, the author even writes that Hassan "was scared, he was scared plenty," showing that Hassan did understand the danger he was in if Assef made a move. This is significant and shows how much the two boys really did understand each other because, after Assef let them go home without injury, Amir says that "Neither one of us said much of anything as we walked home." Can you believe that?! Hassan just saved Amir from certain serious physical injury or worse, and Amir says absolutely nothing to him about it! It is as if the two understand each other in such a profound way that they do not need

At first, Amir does not seek to earn redemption. We know that he is ashamed at what he has done but he prefers to hide his guilt rather than confess and redeem himself right away. After the incident, Amir attempted to avoid Hassan at all costs. Even when Hassan approached him to see if he wanted to go for a walk, like they used to do frequently, Amir refused to go with him and told him to go away (88). He knew that he didn't deserve his friends unwavering love and loyalty.

When you do something wrong and you know you shouldn't have done it you feel guilty, right ? Well so does Amir, at least his own kind of guilt. Amir watched Hassan get raped and did nothing to stop it. The summer following Hassans painful misfortune, Amir and Hassan spend less and less time together they don’t play outside as much they had before, so when Amir asked Hassan,

Hassan’s inferior character is presented by the way he serves Amir, ‘While I ate and complained about homework, Hassan made my bed’, which implies that no matter how close they may be, Hassan remains the servant which he accepts and is content with, ‘I’d hear him singing to himself in the foyer as he ironed’. Also, Hassan addresses Amir as ‘Amir agha’ which highlights his respect to Amir. However, despite their divisions, when they are alone together they consider themselves equal, ‘”Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul”’, creating irony as they are both aspiring the same hopes and dreams but we know that it is unattainable.

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.

Throughout the book, Amir mentions how he mistreated Hassan despite Hassan’s loyalty towards him. Firstly, his guilty conscience can be traced back to