Fear In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, a San Francisco chronicle best book of the year, gives the feel of love, honor, guilt, fear and redemption throughout the entire book. With all these emotions, fear is heavily mentioned, from the early childhood of Hassan to the rescue of his nephew. Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat (Dict.com) Assef is a person of fear. The taliban is an organization of fear. In the book, Assef and the Taliban constantly have power to enforce fear within the eyes of the people. These fears are a few of the many that only one can understand from reading the book. Assef is the antagonist, a person who actively oppresses fear

“There was a leader. A great leader. A man with a vision” (39). Hitler was a man of fear, just like Assef. Later in the story, Assef traps Hassan in the back of an alleyway and rapes him. Assef had the chance to beat him up like he said he was going to but didn't, he used rape as a power tactic to enforce fear instead. Assef now has complete control over Hassan. He used fear to take over Hassan. Assef believed that rape would be more lasting than just another beating, and he was right. The rape changed many things after. He used fear to put himself at the top, making sure everyone was below him and they were looking up at him. Assefs rape also put fear into his followers eyes, seeing that he wasn't scared to do something so horrific to Hassan, worried them that he might do the same to them. His parents were also victims of his dominating ways. During a party Assef and his parents came walking in, assef in front. When talking to other adults, Assef was the leader, and his parents were like his children, instead of the other way around. “He led them towards us, like he brought them here” (95). Some theories have crossed the air that assef even abused his parents. With no one stopping him at home, he feels