Amir and Hassan

Amir and Hassan seem to have a “best friend” type relationship. The boys showed their trust for eachother by carving their names into a tree. The two boys, Hassan and Amir, are main characters in the book titled, The Kite Runner. The two boys have a relationship that is significantly different compared to most. The boys do write their names in a pomegranate tree as the “sultans of Kabul” (Kite Runner 27) but, their friendship is not strong and it is one sided. Hassan is seen as lower than human. The story is placed in Afghanistan. The relationship between the two boys is emotionally wearing and rather gloomy for the most part. The main reason for this strange relationship is the fact that Amir is Pashtun, and Hassan is Hazara. The Afghan society places Hassan lower than Amir. Hassan is Amir’s servant. The placement of Hassan in the Afghan society disenables Amir from becoming Hassan’s true friend. There are several concrete reasons as to why Amir and Hassan have such a complicated relationship. These reasons include the fact that Amir is jealous of Hassan, he thinks that he is lower than human, and Amir Amir also see Amirs lack of self-confidence throughout the novel hinders his ablity to have a true friendship with Hassan. Amir ruins the chance for friendship between himself and Hassan because he is jealous of Hassan, he thinks of Hassan as a lower human, and because Amir possesses such extreme guilt for what he has done to Hassan.

An underlying cause of the problems Amir has with his friendship pertaining to Hassan is that he is jealous of Hassan; this jealousy causes him to test Hassan, and to take advantage of Hassan’s unwavering loyalty. Amir constantly ridicules and tests Hassan; this is just to prove that Hassan is lower than he is. Amir confirms this by humiliating Hassan to himself, by taking advantage of Hassan illiteracy to amuse himself: “Well, everyone in my school knows what it means,’ I said. “Let’s see. ‘Imbecile.’ it means smart, intelligent. I’ll use it in a sentence for you. ‘When it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile’”(29). Amir is not accomplishing anything by teasing Hassan except that he is establishing that he is smarter. Amir feels that he has to prove, even to himself that he is smarter than Hassan’, he lacks acceptance from his father, so he feels that he needs to tease Hassan in order to accept himself. Amir once again has to prove to himself that he has the ultimate superiority by testing Hassan when he tells him to eat dirt. Hassan says that he would, which is all Amir needs to expand his ego and confirm that he is still above Hassan. Furthermore, Amir is also jealous because his father, whom he longs for his approval, seems to favor Hassan. Hassan is athletic and Baba has said that he associates himself with Hassan over Amir. Amir’s jealousy arose from his avid pursuit and evident failure to achieve his father’s illusive approval. Because of the lack of approval from his father, Amir finds it necessary to tear down Hassan in order to build himself up.

The friendship exemplified in The Kite Runner is very weak because Amir thinks of Hassan as his servant, which explains why he is constantly testing him and does not stand up for him as a true friend would do. Hazaras are not accepted in the Afghan society that Hassan and Amir grew up in, but Amir does not refute the biased and racist culture set out in front of him; instead, he embraces it. Even at the susceptible age of twelve, Amir is well aware of the principles of right and wrong and he chooses to do wrong. Hassan gets harassed by his peers, an example of this is when Assef bullies him by saying, “Afghanistan is the land of the Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood.....How can you talk to him, play with him, let him touch you?” (40-41). When Hassan is harassed, Amir does nothing; rather, he almost blurts out that Hassan is nothing but a servant when in fact he spends all of his free time playing like true friends play. Amir wants to be accepted by his peers, peers such as Assef, Wali, and Kamal. He wants to be accepted with such a passion that he chooses to disregard his friend in order to gain approval from these boys. Amir ends up sacrificing his morals for popularity. Another example of how Amir is a coward and only wants to be accepted by his peers and his father is when he turns his back on Hassan when Hassan desperately needs his help. Hassan gets raped by