Amir and Hassan grow up together as great buddies, spending all their free times together. Amir is Pashtun, and Hassan is Hazara. As the son of a rich Pashtun business man Amir is high in the social hierarchy. Hazaras are slaves, own nothing and make no money and have very few rights, and this is Hassan's place in society. Amir lives in the richest part of his neighborhood, gets what he wants, except his fathers approval as a worthy son. Thus he is a bit insecure. Hassan is comfortable with who he is, humble, obedient, and knows his place.
This wonderful friendship of these two kids of such different backgrounds shrivels and dies during the Kite Fighting Competition. As Amir's trusty Kite Runner, Hassan runs after the kite to secure a victory. Unfortunately, Hassan runs into the big, bad, Assef, the stories antagonist. He is a Pashtun German psychopath who carries brass knuckles and speaks admiringly of Hitler. Assef brutally assaults Hassan, physically and sexually. " He kept one hand on Hassan's back and undid his own belt buckle with his free hand. He unzipped his jeans. dropped his under wear." ... " Hassan didn't struggle." Amir watched all of it go down in vain and never did anything to disrupt it, or go to authorities to report it aftrwords. He never even told Hassan that he saw it either. His behavior is cowardly and he knows it. "In the end I ran. I ran becauseI was a coward. I was scared of Assef". He cannot live with the guilt of not defending his friend and schemes to have Hassan removed from his home so as not to see him, or have to deal with the awful episode any more. His father gave him money and a watch, and the first thing Amir did with it was hide it under Hassan's bed to frame him and accuse him of stealing. Hassan's reaction to this was true to his status as a Hazara, he just accepted the accusations and his fate.
Amir continues to live with this guilt into adulthood, while Hassan's life is cut short, murdered by Assef who becomes a general in the Taliban Government. While the two friends were never to meet again, Amir receives the chance to avenge his friend, save a life, and put his conscience at ease. In order to do this, he must go back to Afghanistan and face Assef, who not only killed Hassan and his wife, but has also imprisoned and raped Hassan's son, Sohrab. Finally an opportunity to do what is right, not be a coward and give up like he did all those years back. Amir is successful during a final battle in saving Hassan's son, though he nearly dies of a ruptured stomach and spleen and lungs, broken ribs, and many more sever injuries caused by Assef's brass knuckles, which he still carried with him.
The Kite Runner is a bitter sweet ending. Although Amir does recover Sohrab from Assef and the Taliban, and leaves Assef behind defeated, he can never bring his friend back. Amir's life is no longer a hell hole seeking a way to happiness and making things right. Now, he has found inner peace with himself kite fighting with Sohrab as he did with Hassan decades ago. From Amir to Hassan for all those years apart and finally finding each other again in a different form. He'd do anything for Sohrab, "For you, a thousand times over."
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ReplyDeleteI found it interesting how you focused on the friendship between Amir and Hassan. It was interesting to see you describe how strong their friendship was at first, but then it died during the Kite Fighting Competition, like when Amir watched what happened with Hassan and Assef, but didn't do anything to help. I like how you summarized what happened at the end of the book without giving too much away and would like to do something like this in my responses.
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