‘The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies… It comes from friends and loved ones’ 1 this quote is quite competent here. What is betrayal? Betrayal is a very menial act of breaking the trust or the social contract with someone. It is probably the most devastating loss a person can experience. It is utterly copacetic that not all friendships are meant to last but it is very heartbreaking when bonds meant for eternity break due betrayal. In true friendship there is an ear to hear, and shoulder to lean on; there is a sense of safety, affinity, and acceptance. The ease and comfort. All of which was there between Amir and Hassan but there was also a sense of prominence that caused all predicament.
‘There is a brotherhood
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Aseef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba’ 4 Amir was present there and saw Hassan getting raped he savored cowardice he was afraid of Aseef he just let it happen. Now Amir saw Hassan as a lamb rather than a competition that he had to slay to win Baba again his urge to win Baba’s heart compelled him to deceive Hassan. He not knowing that Hassan is his brother betrays him. This act left a very toxic and corrosive impact on Amir himself. His self conscience left him remorseful for life. The course of life for him and others would have changed drastically had he taken the stand against the bully.
Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me…He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again’ 5 Amir did not betray Hassan once but twice. The deleterious effects of the first betrayal against his best friend lead him to betray his friend again. But again for his own greed as he wasn’t able to face Hassan so he thought of charging him of theft and making him leave the
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Taking a look back the tyrannical ruler of Rome Julius Caesar came to a very sticky end when his best friend, Marcus Brutus, took part in the cons pirated against him and planned his murder. Although Brutus joined the Roman senate to revolt against Caesar for the goodwill of Rome only despite objection from his wife, Brutus accompanied a group of disgruntled senators who savagely attacked Caesar. Caesar also ignored see it coming – particularly since the iconic line, “Et tu, Brutus?”7 the last lines before his demise.
Even in the Indian history during 18th century Mir Jafar was the head of army. However his ambitions were much higher and better quality of life and income, Jafar conspired for the throne of Bengal, and he joined hands with the British forces during the decisive Battle of Plassey. The battle was fought between the East India Company forces, led by Robert Clive, and the Indian force led by Nawab Sira-ud-Dowla of Oudh, which was result of tension and suspicions between the two sides. Though the Indian force greatly outnumbered the British, Mir Jafar’s actions ensured British victory. He and his large troop sat idly by as the battle waged, and without his help, the British force was able to defeat the Nawab’s men and gain full control of the Indian
It is not often that Amir’s love for Baba is returned. Baba feels guilty treating Amir well when he can’t acknowledge Hassan as his son. Baba discriminates against his son Amir by constantly making him feel weak and unworthy of his father. Baba once said to Rahim Kahn, “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son” (Hosseini 23). Amir doesn’t feel like a son towards Baba since he seems like such a weakling. This neglect towards Amir causes him to feel a need to be accepted by Baba to end the constant discrimination from his father and he will do anything for it. “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (Hosseini 77). Amir did not stop the rape of his good friend for one sole purpose. Amir felt that he had to betray his own half-brother to gain th...
There were different kinds of betrayal in the book; one of those kinds is Amir's own betrayals where he shows cowardness. His first cowardness event was with Hassan, hit was the day of
Although Hassan is his best friend, there are many instances where Amir reveals his jealousy, most notable when Baba sees Hassan as the stronger boy, "self-defense has nothing to do with meanness. You know what always happens when the neighbourhood boys tease him? Hassan steps in and fends them off. I 've seen it with my own eyes…” (Hosseini 24). Clearly, Amir hears how his father compares the two, and unlike Hassan who manages to meet Baba’s expectations, Amir grows bitter towards Hassan. He is unable to fight off his envy which later causes him to sacrifice his best friend’s innocence: “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (82), and this is all because he realizes “his shame is complicated by his own realization that in part he doesn’t help his friend precisely because he is jealous of him” (Corbett, 2006). From here, Amir develops strong feelings of guilt that induces him to perform even more destructive acts, such as having Hassan and his father evicted from the house. Amir not only loses a close friend, but now he has to continue to live with remorse as he dwells on these memories. The only way for Amir to redeem himself of his repercussions is through a challenging process of sacrifice and self-discovery. Although one is unsure at this point whether Amir succeeds at his endeavors, it is clear that this story
While Amir is a Sunni, his childhood friend Hassan is Shi’a, an inferior division of Islam. Simultaneously, Amir and Hassan belong to different ethnic groups-Amir is Pashtun while Hassan is Hazara. During his childhood, Amir would constantly mock Hassan’s illiteracy and poke fun at him. But, the pivotal demonstration of pressure from his surroundings that makes Amir commit his own act of cruelty is when he watches Assef rape Hassan for refusing to give him the kite that Hassan caught for Amir. To this, Amir describes the look of Hassan’s face to “a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb” (76). Throughout his upbringing, Amir constantly believed that his father blamed him for killing his mother in childbirth. To Amir, Hassan’s rape is a sacrifice that Hassan has to pay the price, the lamb to kill, in order to win his father over. To justify his refusal to intervene, Amir reminds himself that “[Hassan] was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (77). Amir’s surroundings cause him to have a negative outlook on people that his society deem lower. Amir knows he is morally wrong for not helping Hassan, but his need for his father’s love overpowers his friendship. Adding to his pressures, Amir believes that Baba prefers Hassan over him, a belief that further drives him to be cruel to Hassan. As a result, Amir’s motivation for validation and love from his father
*Although they spent their childhood together, Amir was ashamed to say that Hassan was his friend because of history and religion.
Whenever Amir would ask Hassan to do something he was reluctant to do, Hassan would still agree if he begged because “[he] never denied [Amir] anything” (Hosseini, 4). Hassan loves Amir an extraordinary amount, so much that he would commit an action that he otherwise would never have wanted to commit. Even when Hassan figures out that Amir has betrayed him, he still sacrifices himself for the safety of Amir. When Hassan lies and tells Baba he stole the watch Amir had framed him for stealing, Amir says Hassan’s lie stung “like [he’d] been slapped… [Hassan] knew [he] had betrayed [him] and yet he was rescuing [him] once again” (Hosseini, 111). Hassan knew what would happen to Amir if Baba caught him trying to get rid of his servants, so he lied to protect Amir, even when Amir had wronged him. Baba and Amir flee to America, yet Hassan remains loyal to them while still in Afghanistan. Rahim Khan asks Hassan and his family to move into Amir’s old house, as he can not maintain the house by himself, but instead they move into the mud hut Hassan used to live in. Hassan’s reasoning is “’what will [Amir agha] think when he comes back to Kabul after the war and finds that I have assumed his place in the house?’” (Hosseini, 219). Not even during the war, when he does not expect Amir to come back, does he temporarily take residence in Amir’s old house. Out of loyalty and respect, he lives where he always had, even when Rahim Khan is
Amir's actions showed how much of a coward he was. Amir suffered his whole life living with the guilt of knowing that Hassan was raped, much like Baba lived his whole life in guilt knowing that he stole the truth from Ali by committing adultery. Baba ran from the truth, and so did Amir to protect the family name, even if that meant betraying the people closest to him. Baba was a man more worried about his image than anything, and that is what he taught his son as well. Slowly that is all Amir knew how to do: protect his family and himself, leading him into a life of guilt, and running from people when situations were challenging, instead of making the admirable decision and help a
According to dictionary.com betrayal means "an act of deliberate disloyalty,”. Betrayal is something that is very prevalent throughout the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini which is a story about the betrayal that a young boy named Amir does to his friend Hassan. Amir shows that he is a betrayer to Hassan when he belittles, plots, refuses to acknowledge their friendship, and walks away from Hassan. With each betrayal listed they progressively get worse and worse as Amir continues to show how little he really cares for Hassan.
The only reason that Hassan got raped was that he was trying to get a kite for Amir. Now the kite acts a reminder to Hassan of his wrong-doing and it will now begin to haunt him for a long time. Although when in America, Amir does not get reminded about Hassan, deep inside he still feels guilty. Amir immediately begins to feel the most guilt when he goes to Iran when Rahim Khan, Amir’s childhood friend, asks him to come. He feels that Rahim Khan has reminded him of his “past of unatoned sins”(Hosseini 2).
As a child Amir grew up with a young servant Hassan, who he considered his friend only in private, and treated him as a worker around others. Despite this poor treatment Hassan remained extremely loyal and kind. Amir then witnessed something horrific happen to Hassan and had the ability to stop the act from happening, but chose to run away out of a selfish fear of what would happen to him. “[Amir] ran because [he] was a coward…[he] was afraid of getting hurt”(Hosseini 77). With the heavy guilt this caused him to live with he framed Hassan for theft, the “one sin”(Hosseini 17). Hassan eventually chose to move away, which resulted in little relief for Amir. Amir continued his life attempting to forget from what he had done but realized “It’s
In Khaled Hosseini’s novel “The Kite Runner,” he illustrates a fine line between what is defined as moral good and evil. During their lives as kids, Amir and Hassan had always been close, but there had always been one problem. Amir was the son of a rich and powerful Pashtun man who was almost always given everything he wanted, while Hassan was a Hazara boy who had spent his life serving Amir and his family with his father. Although the two of them seemed to always be inseparable when they played games or flew kites, there was always the defining factor of who they really are, a servant and his master. Being a Muslim and living in Afghanistan, there are certain rules and morals that you must live up to.
Overall, Hassan’s life was dedicated to Amir. Hassan was loyal to him and was the absolute support system for him. Every time Hassan was told to run a kite, his commitment to Amir rang out with one single phrase: “For you a thousand times over” (67)! And each time, Amir knew that Hassan meant what he said because he had such deep dedication to Amir. In return, Hassan was betrayed Amir and was only important to him when no one else was around. Amir would gladly trade anyone else’s company for Hassan’s. Hassan was the one person that never betrayed Amir, but Amir was the one person who always betrayed
Trying to redeem himself for how he had betrayed Hassan, twice, when he was younger. He travelled to Pakistan, initially, to visit Rahim Khan, since Rahim was getting older and wanted to meet Amir for the last time. Then Rahim Khan asked Amir to bring Sohrab back, Amir had rejected bringing Sohrab back because he did not want to risk his life but he agreed once he knew Hassan was his half-brother. When he had fought with Assef, he was laughing while he was getting beat up by Assef, because he finally felt like he got redemption for what had happened with Hassan, "What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace"(Hosseini, 303). He did manage to bring Sohrab to the U.S, and when they were flying kites, Amir decided to run the last kite, and said the same thing Hassan had said to him when he ran the last kite during the kite tournament, "For you, a thousand times over,"(Hosseini, 391). That was the circularity of Amir
Not only did Amir ran away, but he never told anyone what he saw, this including Hassan. However, this is not his last sin, for in a few months later Amir frames Hassan for thief. Hassan, when faced with Baba, say that he stole the items in question to protect Amir. And shorty leaves Baba’s service with his father against Baba insistent to stay with them and solve the issue in a differ manner… In the end, Amir got the bonding time he what with his father, however, at a cost of not helping Hassan in his greatest time of
In the beginning Amir is a coward who cant defend himself and through out the book this begins to change and finally he fully changes in the end of the book. Amir never was the type of boy to fight or stand up for himself. For example, Amir over hears Baba say to Rahim Khan, “You know what happens when the neighborhood boys tease him? Hassan steps in and fend them off…Im telling you Rahim, there is something missing in that boy” (Hosseini, 23). Baba is complaining to Rahim and he doesn't understand why Amir lacks the courage to stand up for himself. He puzzles that Hassan is the one to step in and defend Amir. He also is very confused over the fact that a hazara is more courageous than his son. Baba knows that Amir is not violent and he wishes that he would just stand up for himself. Amir overhears this and is very troubled that Baba doesn’t approve of him. To Amir this is a realization that he is a coward and his father notices it. Later in the book, Amir sees Hassan being raped and he is contemplation jumping in and being courageous because he says, “I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide ...