Abuse In The Kite Runner

Abuse; treat a person with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly. Amir’s constant abuse throughout The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, was in cause of his selfish actions, the horrendous mistreatment, and the degrading of Hassan’s educational level of understanding. Amir and Hassan had grown up together, neither with a mother but together they try to form a friendship that will never bloom to its full potential. In the beginning of the story Amir seems as if he is a kind friend to Hassan, but as times grow longer he realizes what he truly thinks of Hassan.
To begin with, one of the most horrific ways that Amir abused his and Hassan’s friendship was by using Hassan in his own selfish ways to attain what he desires. Despite

the fact that running away from the scene where Hassan was being raped was wrong in itself, Amir is thinking to himself, “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay […] to win Baba” (77). Amir within those few short seconds had made up his final decision; Hassan was going to be the price he paid to uncover his own selfish pleasures while including winning the love of his father, Baba. In addition, he believed that the only way he would achieve what he wanted, the blue kite, was to sacrifice Hassan to any destruction that could possibly come his way. Without a doubt Amir had not presented a single drop of compassion towards Hassan while witnessing Hassan being sexually assaulted by Assef. After witnessing his friend being raped, Amir’s selfish actions only evolved into a more complex form of abuse towards the supposed friendship. Being overwhelmed with guilt Amir chooses to do the unthinkable, “I lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it” (104). His reason for doing this was because he had hoped Baba would dismiss Hassan and Ali, relieving Amir all of his guilt, but unknowingly it was indefinite. Surprisingly Baba had forgiven Hassan for allegedly stealing Amir’s gifts, which had only enraged him more with his guilty thoughts disappearing from his mind. Becoming even more selfish, Amir still does not confess to Baba that he had put his watch and the Afghani dollars under the mattress, allowing Hassan and Ali to walk out of his life forever. Amir’s selfish actions made things unfixable between himself and Hassan. Selfishness was only one of the reasons that had torn the childhood friends apart.
Correspondingly, the way Amir mistreats Hassan in abusive ways and then shows no sympathy after committing the inexcusable mistreatment.

Before the actual occurrence of the rape, Amir and Hassan were having a normal conversation. Amir then made the entire situation spiral downward with a single question; “‘I’d sooner eat dirt,’ he said with a look of indignation. ‘Really? You would do that?’” (54). Even though Hassan said he would eat the dirt, Amir had to evolve the question even further than it needed to be. This does not show true friendship in any way, shape or form, Amir mistreated Hassan’s loyalty even further by considering the question, let alone saying it. Preceding the rape, Amir decides an unforgiving action in which he attempts to dispose of his guilty conscience. He meets Hassan beside the old pomegranate tree where they spent their days as a child when he decides to relieve his guilt in one of the most special places to Hassan; Amir says, “I hurled the pomegranate at him. It struck him in the chest, exploded in a spray of red pulp” (92). Believing the pomegranate incident would relive his guilt, Amir had felt no sorrow after the assault. Including the probability that Hassan was already torn apart by the rape, Amir’s actions could have only worsened Hassan’s self-esteem. This horrendous behavior before and after the rape would be considered mistreat in multiple ways. Amir’s guilty conscience made things difficult for Hassan to fully deal with the ongoing struggles of the

rape.

Within the same manner, Amir’s abusive ways developed into him constantly downgrading Hassan because he could not read and write like Amir. Hassan at the time was unable to gain the equivalent educational knowledge as Amir; therefore he was not as intelligent as Amir. While reading one of Hassan’s favorite stories Amir would come across a word that Hassan did not understand. Amir decides to badger Hassan by saying, “My favorite part of reading to Hassan was when we came across a big word that he didn’t know. I’d tease him, expose his ignorance” (28). Amir constantly belittled Hassan when it came to reading slightly larger words that Hassan could not understand. He also makes it a constant reminder that Hassan is illiterate. Amir also thinks very lowly of Hassan’s educational knowledge by thinking, “Hassan who couldn’t read and had never written a single word in his entire life. A voice, cold and dark, suddenly whispered in my ear, what does he know, that illiterate Hazara. He’ll never be anything but a cook. How dare he criticize you?” (34). Amir thinks nothing of Hassan, believing that his illiteracy will get him nowhere in his life. Although this was an inner thought of Amir’s he is still downgrading Hassan because of his lack of education. Thinking of himself as a higher educational status than Hassan only shows Amir’s ignorance towards the mistreatment that he is delivering to Hassan.
In conclusion, the abuse Hassan had received from Amir made life worse Hassan. Amir’s actions became far to abuse and wrong for Hassan to deal with, which is why he had to move away. Hassan doing nothing wrong to Amir did not deserve the abuse that had come his way, but it was Amir’s only way to get what he had wanted. Amir is a cold-hearted person who never deserved to even consider a friendship with Hassan who had no clue of the abuse that was going to come his way.