Betrayal In The Kite Runner

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

how Hassan knows the kite is coming back. In which Hassan tells him that “[He’d] sooner eat dirt” (Hosseini 43) than lie to Amir. This is usually where the conversation would end, but instead Amir starts acting cruel toward Hassan. Amir becomes curious, asking “Really? You’d do that” (43). Amir is teasing Hassan and testing his loyalty at the same time. Amir finds “something fascinating--albeit in a sick way--about teasing Hassan” (44) and compares it to “[Hassan being] the ant and [him] holding the magnifying glass’ (44). Being the loyal friend that he is, Hassan would eat dirt “if [Amir] asked” (44). This makes Amir look away as “[he] finds it hard to gaze directly at people like Hassan, people who mean every word they say” (44). Amir tells Hassan that he would never ask him to do such a thing, however Amir is lying. Amir figuratively asks Hassan to ‘eat dirt’ many times throughout the novel and doesn’t even hesitate to betray him. Even though Amir knows it’s wrong, he still commits this act of betrayal against his loyal and forgiving friend, Hassan.
Betrayal progresses through the novel, in that it gets more and more severe. One of the main conflicts of the story is when the antagonist Assef, rapes Hassan. Amir had the chance to intervene, to “step into that alley, stand up for Hassan--the way [he] stood up for [him] all those times in the past--and accept whatever would happen to [him]. Or [he] could run. In the end, [he] ran.” (65). Amir justifies his actions because after all, “[Hassan] was just a Hazara, wasn’t he” (65). Later Amir realizes that “[Hassan] knew [he saw] everything in that alley, that [he] stood there and [did] nothing” (89). Although Amir betrayed him, Hassan forgives him and doesn’t hold it against him. This shows that as the acts of betrayal become more and more intense, so do the acts of forgiveness.
Hassan being raped leads up to the largest and most grave act of betrayal in the novel.

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

accompanied by the ultimate act of loyalty and forgiveness.
The themes of betrayal, forgiveness, and loyalty are are accompanied by one another. Throughout the novel they become more and more serious, but each example of betrayal has it’s own example of forgiveness and loyalty. Beginning with Amir teasing Hassan and Hassan forgiving him, all the way until Amir forces Hassan to leave.