Antagonists In The Kite Runner

The characters that are portrayed as villains in literature are called antagonists, but what happens when there isn’t a main villain within a novel? In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, there is not a central, physical antagonist. With this in mind, the main character Amir faced many trials and tribulations within his life, but the main antagonist in the novel was the guilt within himself. Throughout his life, his past haunted him no matter where he was, and defined who he was; defining him as a coward, but then growing into a strong, courageous man. The main antagonist can be seen and originates throughout Amir’s childhood. The whole plot of the story itself stems from the mistake that Amir made when he was young. The guilt comes from when his best friend, Hassan, was raped by the childhood bully, Assef, but Amir’s inability to work up the courage and help Hassan creates this sense of guilt that will torment him. This guilt is evident within chapter eight when Amir says to himself in a crowded room of sleeping people, “I watched Hassan get raped” (Hosseini 86). Amir then proceeds to comment that he became an insomniac after this night (Hosseini 86). This lays the foundation for the rest of the arc of the novel, starting Amir’s development as a character. Further succumbing to the

When going to Kabul, Amir is being driven around by a man named Farid. At some point, the two of them stop at Farid’s brother, Wahid’s house to stay the night. When given dinner, Wahid’s children seem to be staring intently at Amir’s watch, but in reality they are looking at the food he is eating. In an attempt to subdue the antagonist, Amir said to himself, “I did something I had done twenty-six years earlier: I planted a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress” (Hosseini 242). As a result, Amir’s character is slowly changing to be more thoughtful of