Betrayal In Macbeth And The Kite Runner

Acts of betrayal have very large impacts on the person committing them and the people around them. Some might try to fix their mistakes they made in the past, like in Khaled Hosseini’s, The Kite Runner, others however, might just dig themselves into a deeper hole until the betrayal consumes them, like in William Shakespeare's, Macbeth. Both main characters betrayed people that they loved and cared about. In The Kite Runner, Amir betrays his friend Hassan but then he tries to fix his lack of action from when he was a child, and in Macbeth, Macbeth betrays many people including his king his best friend but doesn’t try to fix his mistakes. Amir and Macbeth had very different reasons for betraying people, but they did it to people who were important to them. Amir was a rich boy who lived in Afghanistan and Hassan was his servant but he grew up with him. Amir depended on Hassan, “Good old Hassan. Good old reliable Hassan” (Hosseini 70). The two boys have very fond childhood moments together, they “taught each other how to ride a bicycle” (Hosseini 25). They spent the summers together

When Amir grew up, he was called to Peshawar by a family friend, Rahim Khan, who told him, “there is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 1). Rahim Khan told Amir how Hassan had had a child and that Hassan and his wife had been killed so their son, Sohrab, was put into an orphanage. Afghanistan was a dangerous place and controlled by the Taliban, but Amir still went to rescue Sohrab. After getting back to Peshawar, Sohrab told Amir how Hassan had said that Amir was, “the best friend he ever had” (Hosseini 306). Amir knew that Sohrab, the spitting image of his father, was the key to forgiveness from his actions. He asked Sohrab if he, “would...like to come and live in America with [him]” (Hosseini 320). By that action, Amir had saved the boy from a horrible life in Afghanistan and he had saved himself from his