The Betrayal of Amir 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. Amir takes advantage of Hasan because he is a Hazara and his servant. “When it comes to words Hassan is an imbecile” (29). This is when Amir first starts to belittle Hassan knowing that he is a Hazara therefore illiterate. Instead of helping his friend, Amir chooses to instead downplay him and mock Hassan. “What would you do if I hit you with this?” (92). Amir pelting Hassan with the pomegranate after he asks this question continues his betrayal because Amir knew Hassan would not do anything about it. “A loyal Hazara. Loyal as a dog” (72). Assef of all people acknowledged that Hassan was loyal to Amir. This in some ways makes Amir as disgusting as Assef but it there are worse instances of betrayal by Amir. …show more content…
When Amir decides to plant his own watch and money under Hassan’s mattress he planned on getting Hassan in trouble from Baba. When Hassan is asked if he stole the watch and money he said yes. “I flinched, like I’d been slapped” (105). In this quote Amir shows that he was not expecting Hassan to respond in the way that he did. Right here is where Amir should have seen that Hassan cares about him and acted loyal like a real friend should have. Instead Amir Betrays Hassan again by not saying a word and letting Hassan take the blame for something he did not do. Amir continuously shows that he is Hassan’s betrayer by more actions that he
One betrayal that was shown was the betrayal of emotion when Amir was talking to Rahim Khan and finding out that Ali was not Hassan's father. Amir was confused by what he said so Rahim Khan explained by saying ”I think you know who it is”(236) . It was a betrayal of emotion because the connection and bond that they had for each other was gone. Baba told amir that the greatest sin was to
In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini he uses many works of literature that contain a character, Baba, who intentionally deceives other. Baba is seen has the man who can do no wrong, he helps out people, gave people jobs and more. He always use to tell Amir to never sin and that stealing something away from someone is the worst sin you can do. He could do no wrong right? Babs past decisions of dishonesty towards Amir, Hassan, and Ali have already caused great sin. Is the result of the pressure of Afghan society to blame? In Afghan cultures a man’s honor, ethnicity, and family name are paramount. Well, it can be shown in these three areas of Baba life, Baba life in America, Amir going back to visit Rahim Khan, and
After watching Hassan be raped, Amir tries to atone for his cowardice. According to Hosseini, “‘Get up! Hit me!’ I said. Hassan did get up, but he just stood there, looking dazed like a man dragged into the ocean by a riptide when, just a moment ago, he was enjoying a nice stroll on the beach.” (Hosseini 92). Hassan still does not want to hurt Amir, so Amir did not get any chance to atone. At last, Amir decide to frame Hassan to make him angry, so that Hassan may do something bad on Amir to make Amir feels better. According to Hosseini, “Baba cam right out and asked. ‘Did you steal that money? Did you steal Amir’s watch, Hassan?’ Hassan’s reply was a single word, delivered in a thin, raspy voice: ‘Yes.’” (Hosseini 92). Amir was shocked when Hassan said that. He can not believe Hassan still chooses to protect him when he did such bad thing to Hassan. Hassan knows all the cause and effect of what Amir does. He knows if he tells Baba that Amir is framing him, Baba will believe him and start to accuse Amir. Since Ali and Hassan decided to leave, Baba may also attribute their leaving to Amir’s fault. So Hassan chooses to be the scapegoat for Amir’s mistake again. Leaving from Baba means Hassan and Ali’s fate is good to change, but Hassan still thinks about Amir at that
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
Betrayal is one of the most prominent themes in the novel The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini chose to represent this theme through the decisions and actions of the main protagonists. Both Baba and Amir chose to betray the people close to them, which resulted in major ramifications for themselves and the people around them. With their betrayals came feelings of guilt. However Amir 's guilt was exponentially more conspicuous than Baba 's. It followed him into his adult life, and the impacts were quite negative and detrimental to both his personal health and his personal relationships. Hassan, on the other hand, chose to remain loyal to those close to him, regardless of the situation or the threats placed upon him. While this resulted in major consequences, it also demonstrated his capacity for kindness, caring, and loyalty. Even though he was confronted with traumatic experiences due to his loyalty, he was able to accept it, move past it and eventually heal. In turn, although his life was short, it was filled with meaningful realizations
Hassan and Amir are best friends, or as Amir likes to look at it, Hassan is someone whose there and has his back no matter what, but they’re not friends because back then to be associated with a Hazara was like social suicide. Hassan acts as Amir’s servant, he is illiterate and because of Amir’s advantage to read and write Hassan worships him for that. When a bully comes after the two of them Hassan stands up for Amir and defends him with his slingshot. Amir however never repays Hassan for his kindness and self-sacrifice, in fact, when the town bullies return to get revenge on Hassan they physically assault him and Amir watches while it happens and does nothing. Hassan knows that Amir did nothing and because...
This embarrasses and frustrates Amir. This frustration is one reason for Amir to slowly but surely push Hassan out of his life. Although it is not the most obvious reason, it is an underlying one. This is a mistake on Amir’s part because Hassan does so much for Amir, being the loyal friend that he is, and for Amir to push someone of such good moral and character out of his life, is a tremendous mistake on his behalf. It is quite obvious that Hassan would give his life for Amir, but, because of where Hassan comes from, Amir struggles throughout his childhood, to find a way to accept the friendship Hassan gives him.
In The Kite Runner Amir was always rude and tried to deceive Hassan. Hassan was a Hazara and he always stayed faithful to Amir and Baba. Hassan even says to Amir, “And I dreamt that someday you will return to Kabul to revisit the land of our childhood. If you do you will find an old faithful friend waiting for you.” (Hosseini 218) After all the times Amir treated
Past experiences can affect all of us. Some more than others, but the ones that haunt us are the ones that we all have in common. After something tragic happens or something you feel you could have helped in but failed, you feel guilt. A prime example of guilt after events is in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini because the actions that Amir does afterwards that are influenced by his guilt.. It all starts with Amir not standing up for Hassan when Hassan gets bullied, then he walks away instead of backing up Hassan when he is attacked in an alley, those two events build up a lot of guilt inside him to the point where he decides to frame Hassan for stealing his watch just to get rid of Hassan. Although Amir feels regret for doing such a thing,
From the start of the novel Hassan is loyal to Amir, no matter what Amir does to him. For example, Hassan would say"For you a thousand times over,"(Housseini 55) to Amir, demonstrating his loyalty to his friend. The greatest example of
Amir throughout the novel always felt guilty for not sticking up for Hassan especially when Assef raped Hassan in the alleyway. Amir 's guilt during this time made it hard for him to even be around Hassan because he didn 't know how to feel except guilty. Amir started treating Hassan very distant from him and doing things that would eventually ruin their friendship such as stop talking to him, hitting him with pomegranates, and trying to frame him as a thief (Chapter 8). Rahim Khan who played a very important role in the lives of Hassan and Amir felt guilty for keeping the secret about how the two boys were actually half brothers ( Chapter 17) . The secret was discovered once Amir returned to Afghanistan, this was part of the reason Rahim Khan disappeared after Amir left his house to go find Sohrab. Throughout the book Amir 's actions affected how he treated and dealt with everyone else. Amir 's actions often made him feel guilty because he didn 't stick up for himself or others. Amir 's actions such as when he asked Hassan “You’d do that? Eat dirt if I told you too” especially made him feel guilty because Hassan would do anything Amir asked of him (Chapter
He feels the need to justify his actions as the right thing to do. While Hassan was being raped, Amir was debating whether to help and stand up for Hassan, or to be a bystander. In the end, he chose to protect himself instead of helping his best friend. Amir tries to justify what he did as acceptable, “In the end, I ran. I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt. That’s what I made myself believe. I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right” (77). We learn that Amir tries to blame that he did not perform an action on the fact that he was weak and did not want to get hurt both physically and emotionally. Amir has a lot of guilt from what he did not do. Consequently, he blames himself for Hassan’s rape. Amir also talks about himself as a weak person because of the choices he made. This same type of guilt can be seen later in the book when Amir is fleeing the country. Amir and Baba elude from Kabul in order to have a better life in America. “Moments later, we were pulling away...Baba loved the idea of living in America”(125). Amir left Hassan in the Alley to be raped and did not want to jeopardize his safety for someone who had done the same for him. When Amir and Baba left Kabul in order to have a life without much danger,
Amir is afraid to be Hassan’s true friend because he is different. This highlights Amir’s selfishness. In the novel, Amir often points out Hassan’s harelip, and the fact that he is a Hazara. He describes Hassan as “… a boy with a Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile (25).” Amir is not sure if he wants to be around Hassan because he is selfish and he recognizes that Hassan is in a lower social class than him. This makes the young Amir hesitant to be around Hassan because of what other people’s opinions might be. Amir is influenced heavily by this and that makes him grow afraid of becoming Hassan’s true friend. Amir is not stron...
“For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first” ( Suzanne Collins). Suzanne Collins is an American television writer and author, best known for her best selling novel, Hunger Games. Collins explains that, for betrayal to occur, there would need to be a friendship, or feeling of trust. Since Jack quickly left Ralph when he couldn’t be leader, and fear of beast rose, Jack betrays Ralph by putting his personal needs over his loyalty to him.
Amir’s father claims the worst sin is stealing. He always says that when someone lies, they steal someone’s right to the truth. Knowing this, Baba has committed the worst act of sin and betrayal in the entire story. When Amir goes back to Afghanistan as a grown man, to visit Rahim Kahn, he learns that Hassan is his half-brother; his father had been their father all along. He went back to his home country to redeem and find forgiveness for himself, but now he is faced with also redeeming his fathers’ sins. His whole childhood was spent believing that Hassan was only his servant, barely letting himself believe that he was a friend, and now he has to find out that his father lied to him and that this boy was his brother. Amir is now not only on a journey for himself, but for his dad, and Hassan, determined to prove that he “can be good again” (2).