Thus, it is plain to see that Amir's lack of reaction in front of his friend's sufferance is not determined solely by cowardice. Hassan is raped by Assef and his friend while trying to recuperate the kite flown by Amir in the tournament. Thus, Amir allows this tragic scene to happen before his eyes, while fixing the kite that will bring him closer to Baba's affection: "Hassan was standing at the blind end of the alley in defiant stance.... Behind him, sitting on piles of scrap and rubble, was the blue kite. My key to Baba's heart."(Hosseini, 83) Amir thus deserts his friend and unconsciously thinks that he has the right to use him for his personal interest since he is his social inferior. Amir's mixed feelings for Hassan are also influenced by the sense that somehow his father prefers his friend to him. It is obvious that he does not perceive his friend as his equal, and this is why it is difficult for him to admit to Hassan's nobility of heart and his many other talents: "That was the thing with Hassan. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him."(Hosseini, 95) Through his inactivity, Amir thus participates in the terrible and unjust discrimination against his friend.
Moreover, Amir's cowardice does not stop here. To escape the pangs of guilt that he feels when he sees Hassan, he sets him up, leaving a pile of jewelry and presents that he himself had received for his birthday on his friend's bed. Hassan and...
Although Amir sees the pain that this separation causes on everyone, including his father, he is again inactive, holding on to his secret and letting thing happen. The atonement does come but only after many years when the now mature Amir returns to his country to save Hassan's son from the hands of his old enemy, Assef. Sohrab is the abused and mistreated prisoner of Assef and to redeem for his past actions, Amir decides to save him. The truth is revealed and Amir discovers that he is moreover his nephew, given that Hassan was his half-brother. Assef agrees to relinquish Sohrab only after a mortal fight between him and Amir. The action comes full circle when Sohrab unknowingly fulfills his father's threat and injures Assef in the eye with his slingshot, thus saving Amir's life. The two of them return to the United States afterwards.
The significance of this denouement is obvious: Amir not only atones for his past mistakes by saving his friend's son, but he also actively fights political discrimination and Assef's fascist terrorism. The novel is thus structured by Amir's guilt and his secret, and by the final atonement. The relationship between him and his Hassan reflects the influence of the political on individual life and on friendship especially.
Works Cited
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003.
