Amir's Conflict In 'The Kite Runner'

Amir’s Conflict with his Moral Values

What is the difference between a servant and a friend? For Amir, this was a problem that caused a great deal of trouble during his childhood. Hassan has been Amir and Baba’s servant ever since Amir can remember. With Hassan and Amir always being together, they created a great friendship between each other that faltered in multiple ways. Amir always was in the ethical dilemma about whether or not to call Hassan his friend in public or his servant like his father as already taught him. This moral conflict that Amir faces through the entire novel prevails in many situation such as when Amir made Hassan and Ali leave Baba’s house, when Amir had to choose whether or not he wants to save Hassan's child, and

finally when Amir watched Hassan be raped by Assef.
Hassan has always been the character that the readers always love and there is a good reason for it. Amir is always making himself look bad by how he treats Hassan. When Hassan and Amir were not getting along, Amir wanted nothing to do with Hassan which lead Amir to make the irrational decision to make it appear Hassan stole so that they Ali would make them leave Baba’s house. As the readers, we know Amir’s plan and we despise him for the terrible thing that he is doing. This shows Amir’s greatest flaw which is his cowardliness. Amir’s cowardliness lead to him just makes Hassan leave rather than trying to work out the issue. Amir knew his father believe that stealing was the worst sin because all other sins revolved around it. This can be shown by the quote "There is no act more wretched than stealing, Amir," Baba said. "A man who takes what's not his to take, be it a life or a loaf of naan...I spit on such a man. And if I ever cross paths with him, God help him. Do you understand?" (pg 29). So he knew that if he made it look like Hassan stole, Baba would have no choice but to kick him out. Sadly for Amir, the opposite happened. Baba instantly forgave Hassan and was willing to let them stay however Ali was ashamed of that happened and made them leave just like Amir wanted them to. This also goes to show how Amir makes irrational decisions that usually do not work how he plans them to leaving him with a greater problem most of the time.
The next instance that showed Amir’s cowardliness was his reluctance to go and save Hassan’s child. When Amir was first asked to go and find Sohrab, he did not want to go. Amir even said, “Why me? Why can’t you pay someone here to go? I’ll pay for it if it’s a matter of money.” (pg 221) This statement shows how Amir wanted to do anything but save Sohrab himself. He was willing to pay someone to do it for him so that he would not have to get his own hands dirty. Eventually, Amir understood the situation and went and saved Sohrab, but it took so much convincing it is hard to give any credit to Amir for doing it.
The final and possibly worst act of cowardliness that Amir shows is when he lets Hassan be raped by Assef.

Now yes, there are multiple excuses for why Amir did not do anything to stop it. Some of them include that he was too young, too inexperienced, and too weak but even with all of those there is no reason that Amir should have let that happen. Amir fully agrees with his cowardliness when he says “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.” This quote brings up Amir’s final major flaw. How badly he tries to make his father happy. Everything that Amir does revolves around making his father proud of him. This is easily shown by an early quote saying, “Baba and Rahim Khan were drinking tea and listening to the news crackling on the radio. Their heads turned. Then a smile played on my father's lips. He opened his arms. I put the kite down and walked into his thick hairy arms. I buried my face in the warmth of his chest and wept. Baba held me close to him, rocking me back and forth. In his arms, I forgot what I'd done. And that was good.” (pg 148) Baba’s happiness with Amir is all that Amir wants in his life and that is what dictates a lot of his decision in his young and older

life.
Amir is not a fully bad character. Amir saved Sohrab from being raped by Assef for the rest of his life, played with Hassan his whole childhood, and read stories to Hassan when he was young. Sadly, it is hard to like him throughout the book because of all the coward acts that he makes. There is one quote that shows this perfectly “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.”(pg 60) Amir demonstrated his cowardliness in multiple scenarios including when Amir made Hassan and Ali leave Baba’s house, when Amir had to choose whether or not he wants to save Hassan's child, and finally when Amir watched Hassan be raped by Assef, and because of these reasons Amir is constantly fighting with his moral values.