In The Kite Runner, Hassan got raped by Assef, a neighborhood bully, and Amir watched this happen, but did not intervene. “Assef knelt behind Hassan, put his hands on Hassan’s hips and lifted his bare buttocks. He kept one hand on Hassan’s back and undid his own belt buckle with his free hand,” (Hosseini 75). This quote is so important because it provides an image in detail of what Hassan was going through at that very moment. In the midst of all this, Amir is just standing behind the alley observing like a spectator at a sports game! The betrayal is not solely Assef raping Hassan, it is much much more; the fact that Amir, Hassan’s best friend, did not do anything whatsoever to attempt to help Hassan: “I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan- or I could run. ...In the end, I ran,” (77). This quote is providing the audience with evidence to the fact that Amir had acted in a passive way towards …show more content…
The betrayal probably had arguably the most prominent impact on Amir, the main character. “He hurt him in a very bad way, and I...I couldn 't save your father the way he had saved me,” (319). Obviously, after all that time, Amir was living in guilt and had regretted what he’d done to Hassan back when they were kids. He also felt sorry for Hassan that he had to go through that on his own, and that no one was there to help him out. Guilt and regret are two dangerously serious traits to have, and it was unhealthy for Amir to be living with that pain all his life. When he finally did confess and accept what he had done, however, he felt a thousand times better. Another character who was affected by this betrayal was without a doubt Hassan. “I haven 't seen much of Hassan the last few days,” (82). This quote said by Baba is a good example of how the betrayal affected Hassan, because on the immediate days after, the realization of what really happened struck him like lightning. A third character that was affected by the initial betrayal is Soraya, Amir’s wife. “By the time I was done with my story, she was weeping,” (326). Soraya is heavily affected by this, because she most likely did not suspect that Amir had done something as serious as this early in his childhood, and it causes her to feel immense remorse for her husband, and she becomes sympathetic for