The Kite Runner Rhetorical Analysis

Though not the main character, Assef influences the characters and events in an impactful way. At a very young age, Assef rapes Hassan, this trend of sexual assault manages to continue later on in the story. He is the ultimate antagonist. Assef’s character does not change at all from his teens to adulthood, an unrealistic characterization because few people exist in the world who never change. Assef is very cruel and displays his cruelty many times in the book. “Because to [Assef], you're nothing but an ugly pet. Something he can play with when he's bored" Assef is very opinionated and is clearly not willing to change his views/thoughts for anyone.

Amir was beat badly by Assef, but his courage gave Sohrab time to fire his slingshot and hit Assef in the eye. Returning to the idea that the rapes show the development of Amir’s character, the violence proceeded Amir’s character towards what the audience believes to be a better person.

As a child, Amir constantly wants to impress Baba because he shows so little interest in him. Before the kite-fighting tournament, Baba tells Amir to win, which puts “a seed in my head...I was going to win. There was no other viable option.... Then maybe my life as a ghost in this house would finally be over”(Hosseini 56). Here, Baba has put at stake all Amir’s hopes of affection on winning the tournament. After Assef rapes Hassan, Amir decides that “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.” (77). Instead of stopping Assef from raping Hassan, he lets it happen so afterwards he can get the kite and earn Baba’s respect. This would not have happened if Baba had not pinned all Amir’s hopes for his affection on winning the tournament. Therefore, Baba is a bad father because by not showing affection to Amir, he caused Amir to have misguided morals.

The raping of Hassan, done of Assef, mentally took away his pride, dignity, and spirit as when the Taliban metaphorically raped Afghanistan. When Assef raped Hassan, because the marks he could have left on Hassan from his brass knuckles would eventually go away. Raping Hassan took away Hassan's sense of self, and when Amir saw Hassan getting raped it made Amir a coward. "Hassan dragged his sleeve across his face, wiped snot and tears... He began to say something and his voice cracked, " (Hosseini, 78). Assef always knew that he was hurting those around him, and he enjoyed him, making it no surprise that he was apart of the Taliban that took over and ruined Afghanistan.

He has never been stable or happy, so he looks to destroy everyone else’s happiness. Two of the people who are the most responsible are his parents. “He led them toward us, like he had brought them here. Like he was the parent, and they his children” (Hosseini 95). Assef had become so evil that even his parents were terrified of him. They never punished him, therefore he got away with everything as a child. This led him to think that he was entitled to whatever he wanted. So if he was ever humiliated he wanted revenge. Assef’s parents made Assef into the person he was. They wanted to avoid conflict with him but in return they unintentionally made him an evil person who looked to harm anyone who even looked at him wrong. Now it was too late for them to do anything so instead they simply conformed and let Assef take over. This conformity is what Assef was used to so when Hassan defied him, Hassan payed the price. “‘I’ve changed my mind,’ Assef said. ‘ I’m letting you keep the kite, Hazara. I’ll let you keep it so it will always remind you of what I’m about to do’” (Hosseini 73). Assef thinks critically about how he can hurt someone the most. He realizes that taking Hassan’s childhood and innocence would be much more harmful than simply taking the kite. Assef wanted to hurt people because he gets pleasure out of it. It didn't matter that everyone around him told him that it was a sine and a bad

I no longer wished to hear the news of the events of last night, so I went with Hassan to our tree. I encountered the neighbourhood bully, Assef, “the Ear Eater”. Assef was not a nice boy, he tormented Ali because of his disabilities and called Hassan “flat-nose”. He talked to us about the new republic and he bragged how his father was close to Daoud Khan, close

Hassan and his wife Farzana have passed recently because of the invasion of Taliban’s, the result of this is that Sohrab is left in an orphanage. Assef recognizes that Sohrab is Hassan’s child and takes him “captive” for say and takes advantage of the him the same way he had done to his father. This helps show he needs this to feel in charge and in power. He robs the happiness of Sohrab too, but Amir stands up for him and saves him and he no longer has to suffer through Assef’s cowardness.

This shows the sacrifices his father made for Amir although he also did not agree with the life path Amir had chosen but still stuck through. Additionally, Baba succeeds in protecting Amir as he gets into a fight with Assef, this is the central climax where he finally stands up to his lifelong tormenting bully who has been a threat to him and his half-brother, Hassan for far too long. In the novel, Amir states, “I DON 'T KNOW if I gave Assef a good fight. I don 't think I did. How could I have? That was the first time I 'd fought anyone” (Hosseini 136). Assef, the antagonist, had always been a threat to Amir, physically, mentally and emotionally. Amir is successful in defending himself for the fate of Sohrab against the threats in society. Amir says, in a way he welcomes the beating. It is the punishment he deserved for his actions toward Hassan, but which he never received. It is the reason he feels relief and a sense of healing as Assef beats him, and why he begins laughing. For Amir, the situation means he can now intervene in Hassan’s rape, at least symbolically, by saving Sohrab from further sexual abuse. Amir is left with a scar on his lip, which symbolizes the hare lip Hassan had that had to be repaired.  Amir has finally faced his fears and lets go of his guilt and shame. Baba’s upbringing of Amir is finally proven successful in

Since childhood, both children were together. Amir's father Baba displays signs of affection towards Hassan despite Hassan being Amir's servant. Amir gets quite envious because of these acts and developes hatred towards Hassan. One day, there was a kite fighting tournament to which Amir won. Hassan offered to run and get the kite for him and that was when he was ambushed by Assef, a sociopath who hails Hitler. Assef commits an extremely abhorrent and disturbing act towards Hassan and Amir sees this. Amir takes no action into saving Hassan. The guilt that came with not telling anyone about the disgusting things that he saw obstructed his mind and caused him to be scarred with these memories for

Amir’s character represents a development of the human spirit. He is inherently good in his thoughts and actions early on in the story, but the reader can see him begin to evolve. The actions of others, more specifically his father and Hassan cause him to become plagued with aforementioned themes of evil. He sees himself largely influenced by greed and an ability to abuse his power over Hassan. The evil metamorphoses Amir into a character driven by self interest at the deprivation of others. Amir feels challenged for his father’s love by Hassan and uses his social status and educated ability to impose himself over Hassan when they read together. This abuse of power shows the corruption within Amir that develops into greed as Baba continues to distance himself from Amir. This selfishness climaxes when Hassan is defiled by Assef and Amir says

Amir the narrator and protagonist of the story.Amir had a good life based on where he lived, unless you view it from Amir’s view. Amir would always feel neglected by his father and never felt like he was living up to who he was supposed to be. The moment that makes the possibility of Amir becoming static and a round character is when he sees Hassan getting raped by Assef. This gives him the chance to redeem himself later on in the story because Amir backs down from helping Hassan and it later leads Amir to trying to get rid of Hassan. Amir finally gets rid of him. “ I caught one final blurry glimpse of Hassan slumped in the back seat...I stepped back and all i saw was rain through windowpanes that looked like melting silver” (Hosseini 109). Go into the future where Amir is living in America and he gets the call from Rahim saying “ There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 2). Amir goes back to Afghanistan to find out the Hassan is dead, but he had a child and is his name is Sohrab. Amir needs to go to the orphanage and save him and take him somewhere safe. Sohrab is being held by Assef and is being abused sexually which kind of relates to Hassan being raped. Amir is getting hit and kicked until he's bleeding and he finally feels relief after what he let happen to Hassan. Amir feels a sense of relief since Hassan never wanted to pelt him with the pomegranates.

On account of his wealthy family, Amir has a privileged upbringing and he always can possess what he wants. In Amir’s mind, Baba believed he was responsible for killing his mother who was Baba’s beloved, because his mother died during Amir’s birth. On that basis, his father’s discount and overlook rankle in Amir’s mind. In addition, he was jealous of Hassan when he gets Baba’s attention. Before he knew that Hassan was his brother, he had subconscious thought that Hassan is not his friend. “But in none of his stories did Baba ever refer to Ali as his friend. The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either.” When Assef was furious about their relationship, what in Amir’s mind

Assef bullies Hassan to show him his position as a Hazara. He continues to use a variety of forms of bullying, throughout the novel. To begin, Assef is verbally demeaning towards Hassan. Assef makes a bold statement describing Hassan as, “A loyal Hazara, loyal as a dog.” (Hosseini 77) Assef explains to Hassan that as a Hazara he is loyal to someone such as Amir, who would not return this loyalty. This message is reinforced when Hassan is cornered by the three bullies. Amir watches, without the intention of

When life becomes complicated, naturally the easy way out is typically the most desirable option, even if this choice may harm others. Both Amir and I have demonstrated a proclivity for the selfish side of life. When Assef rapes Hassan, Amir behaves as a mere bystander and later even pretends to have never witnessed such a horror, “I pretended I hadn't seen the dark stain in the seat of his pants. Or those tiny drops that fell from between his legs and stained the snow black” (77). Amir fears Assef and the possibilities of what could become of himself if he were to interfere in this act of extreme immorality, “I was afraid of getting hurt. That's what I told myself as I

Amir is a selfish, self-centered individual and is not accepted for who he is but more judged by his actions/interest. He thrives for acceptance from his father, Baba who likes Hassan better. Amir’s best friend, Hassan is always there for him whether it be helping him or standing up for him. However, Amir is jealous due to Hassan’s qualities: nice, courageous and brave. He uses his advantages towards Hassan who is illiterate when reading. Amir says “Imbecile. It means smart, intelligent. I’ll use it in a sentence for you. When it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile” (Hosseini 29). Instead of being a true friend and telling Hassan the correct definition of the word ‘imbecile’, Amir lies. After Amir wins the kite flying tournament in the winter, Hassan runs to retrieve the last fallen kite of the tournament (trophy of honor) for Amir. On the way, Hassan approaches Assef; He is beaten up and raped in the alley. As this is happening, Amir’s weakness starts to appear. Amir has two choices: either he can go home and let Hassan get raped while fighting for the blue winning kite from Assef which is his ticket to Baba’s acceptance or stand up for Hassan like Hassan stands up for him. This choice changes Amir intensely, changes his character. Throughout the novel, the readers can infer that Amir is a dynamic character.