Similar to his son, Amir’s father, Baba is plagued by guilt from the start of the novel. Baba has a clear concept of what is sin. He always says that, “there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft… When you kill a man, you steal a life. When you lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.” (19) He truly believes that every other sin is a form of theft. Towards the end of the novel, it is revealed that Baba is Hassan’s biological father. Baba becomes a thief by hiding this truth from the people he loves. From Amir, he steals the fact that he has a brother. He robs Hassan from his true identity as his son and not his servant. He takes from Ali, Hassan’s thought to be father, his honor. Baba has to live with the guilt of not only betraying …show more content…
However, guilt also encourages him to seek redemption for keeping such secrets from his whole family. Nonetheless, guilt also causes him mistreat to his legitimate son harshly. Instead of acknowledging Amir, Baba uses all his time to build an orphanage and to treat Hassan extremely well. For instance, he provides them a shelter to live in and any necessities needed for Hassan and Ali. Throughout the story, Baba acted as if the guilt is nonexistent, instead taking it out on Amir by criticizing the way Amir acted, disappointed that he was more into writing than sports. Baba’s guilt causes him to constantly act ashamed of Amir, when in all reality he was ashamed of himself. Baba claimed that there was always “something missing in [Amir]” (22) He wanted Amir to be the perfect son, so he did not have to feel remorse for giving Amir the luxurious life over his other son, Hassan. His guilt for not being able to be a father to Hassan led him to do everything he could for Hassan while still keeping up his own high class appearance with only one son. When Hassan was accused of stealing Amir’s birthday presents, even though he committed the only sin that mattered to Baba, Baba forgave