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Theft in the Kite Runner

Decent Essays

During one’s life, they will be faced with situations that can influence the people surrounding them. The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini a novel based on the life of Amir, the son of a well-off Pashtun. Amir spends the majority of his life trying to please, and receive affection from his father, Baba. Amir and Baba had two Hazara servants; Hassan, and Ali, Hassan’s father. Hassan and Amir have been friends since birth despite their different social classes. Hassan has always gained the affection of Baba with less effort than Amir has, and for that reason, Amir begins to resent Hassan. After a series of unfortunate events, Ali and Hassan made the decision to leave the company of Baba and Amir to start a new life in Hazarajat. Later …show more content…

Baba asked Hassan, “ Did you steal that money? Did you steal Amir’s watch, Hassan?” Hassan replied, “Yes.”(Hosseini 111) Even though Hassan did not steal those items from Amir, he still took the blame to protect Amir from the consequences. Hassan had told Ali about what happened to him, and on top of this incident, Ali decided that they would leave Kabul.

Assef is the antagonist in The Kite Runner. Assef was a Pashtun whose father was friends with Baba. He was very against Hazaras and Pashtuns becoming friends so he picked on and bullied Hassan and Amir for that reason. Assef had a mindset similar to Hitler’s in the sense that he wanted to eliminate a race of people: the Hazaras. Assef views the Hazara people as worthless so when he takes advantage of Hassan, he feels no guilt because he does not think of him as human. One of Assef’s friends protests that raping someone is ‘sinful’ he replies saying, “there’s nothing sinful about teaching a lesson to a disrespectful… It’s just a Hazara.”(Hosseini80). Regardless of what Assef thought, Hassan was a person, and he lost his innocence when Assef raped him. This was illustrated when Amir describes Hassan’s face when he was being advantage of as, “the look of the lamb.”(Hosseini81). Throughout the novel, he remains a character with no conscience or remorse. Assef was the type of character who needs to feel in power over and victimizes the weak links. Later on in the novel when Amir goes

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