Friendship In The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini follows the privileged life of a Pashtun, or Sunni Muslim, Amir, clashing with the dissimilar lifestyle of his half-brother and best friend by the name of Hassan, his lowly servant. The novel explicitly depicts the prejudice against Hazaras, also known as the Shia Muslims, in Afghanistan, when Hassan, who is part of the inferior race, is raped because of his religious beliefs. Choosing cowardice over courage, Amir sees the crime being committed against his best friend, but does not try to stop it, and has to live with the guilt for the rest of his life. An internally afflicted man, Amir seeks to redeem himself and reach atonement for his past sins. Amir progresses from an adolescent, who is a coward, into …show more content…
Young and naive, Amir is fickle with his friendship with Hassan because he views them as social unequals. Regardless of their status, Hassan loves Amir without conditions and shows it by his steadfast loyalty, which indicates his awareness of the justice in their relationship. His cheerful, loyal, and loving demeanor is what causes him pain, as he loved Amir so much that he allowed himself to be abused in the name of their friendship. Amir notes, “But in none of his stories did Baba ever refer to Ali as a friend… I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either”(Hosseini, 25). Their friendship is a bond that is only publicly acknowledged by one party, Hassan. Amir continuously disregards Hassan and criticizes him because of his ethnicity. However, on the journey of his redemption, Amir finally understands the viewpoints and values, the words and kind gestures, and the milestones and the care of Hassan’s friendship. When confronted with Hassan’s rapist, Amir is finally able to atone for his past, as he encounters the identical situation that was his origin of shame more than twenty years previous: Assef carrying on the rape of Hassan, but with the only living piece of him, his son Sohrab. For Amir, this situation allowed him to conquer his cowardice and fight for their friendship, something Hassan did over twenty years previous. When Amir provides his nephew with a happy life and gives Sohrab a piece of their past by showing what him and Hassan use to do, Amir tells Sohrab in a kite-flying tournament that he will run his kite “ a thousand times over” (Hosseini, 391). By saying this, Amir redeems himself for the past and finally sees Hassan and Sohrab as true friends out of love, and not out of