Betrayal In The Kite Runner

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Betrayal and Forgiveness The act of betrayal and love is very apparent in the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. In the novel, a boy named Amir, and his ‘friend’ Hassan are being raised in Afghanistan in a time of great social divide. Amir is Pashtun and a Sunni Muslim, while Hassan is Hazara and a Shia Muslim. Amir’s people are thought of as better and have a higher ranking social class than Hassan’s people. Throughout the novel, Amir betrays Hassan, but Hassan always forgives him. Three themes that build upon one another and develop over the novel are betrayal, forgiveness, and loyalty. The novel first puts out the idea of betrayal early in the book. There’s a scene where Amir is toying with Hassan. Amir is persistent, and keeps asking …show more content…

After seeing Hassan be raped Amir can’t live with his guilt of not doing anything. He sees Hassan and it brings back the memory of Hassan being raped and him standing there, doing nothing to help his most loyal friend. In order for Amir to stop feeling guilty, “one of [them] had to go” (86). Amir continues the theme of betrayal by setting up Hassan, in order to get him and his father Ali, removed from their job as servants. Amir carefully plans our his biggest act of betrayal “[waiting] until Ali and Hassan went grocery shopping to the bazaar” (87). Amir “[takes] a couple of envelopes of cash from the pile of gifts and [his] watch” (87) and “[lifts] Hassan's mattress and [plants his] new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it” (87). Amir informs his father Baba, that his watch is missing and suspects that Hassan might have taken it. They find the ‘stolen’ items under Hassan’s mattress and the four of them gather together to settle the ordeal. Baba simply asks Hassan if he was the one who stole the items and Hassan says that he did. Amir “flinched, like [he’d been slapped]” (88) in response to what Hassan says. This truly shows the level of forgiveness that Hassan would to in order to be loyal to Amir. Amir acknowledges that he isn’t “worthy of this sacrifice” ( 89), that he’s “a liar, a cheat, and a thief” (89), but Hassan doesn’t care. The ultimate act of betrayal is

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