Loyalty In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, follows a young Afghan boy named Amir as he transforms from a passive and envious child to a responsible adult. In youth, Amir grapples with the idea of manhood and abandoning his selfish tendencies. He experiences pressure to change from his father, Baba, his friend, Hassan, and his nemesis, Assef, who actively embody traits of a real man in Afghan society. However, Hassan’s loyalty, Assef’s bravery, and Baba’s pride eventually lead to their downfalls as characters. Amir learns through the many misfortunes in the lives of Baba, Assef, and Hassan that these traits do not necessarily make the perfect person. Virtuous traits shape a man when they are moderately demonstrated, but extreme manifestations of virtuous traits have the opposite effect..
Hassan’s loyalty is seen as noble, but the level to which he takes it makes him less of a man. Although society prizes loyalty above many other traits, it is not the end-all-be-all of qualities. Hassan exhibits

Bravery prevails above any other quality in Assef; he lacks any and all fear. Due to his lack of fear, Assef disregards consequences for his actions, which makes him into less of a man. Hosseini conveys Assef’s blindness by having Assef wear “John Lennon sunglasses” (271). The sunglasses are a symbol for Assef’s tinted world view. By wearing them, Assef associates himself with a widely recognized figurehead of peace, when he is actually just a killer. Assef blinds himself so that he literally has no sight for his own wrongdoing, which allows him to commit such heinous crimes. Assef thinks himself invincible, free to let “ the bullets fly, free of any guilt or remorse” (Hosseini 277). Despite the probability of him dying in this situation, he proceeds without any caution or emotion whatsoever. This lack of fear makes him into a monster instead of a man because it enables him to execute horrible, monstrous