Violence In The Kite Runner

The theme of violence and rape has been quite common in the Kite Runner, from bullies raping younger innocent children, Russian soldiers wanting to rape a woman for passage through the country, to violence being used alongside it. In the Kite Runner, Assef, who is Amir’s and Hassan’s Bully, ends up raping Hassan in an Alleyway out of a grudge when Hassan threatens Assef some time before with a slingshot. Amir becomes traumatized when he witnesses this, so he runs away, horrified by what he has seen. Even years later after Amir leaves to America and leaves his home in Afghanistan behind, he still gets flashbacks to that day when Hassan was raped by Assef. When Amir returns to Afghanistan to save Sohrab, Hassan’s son, he finds out that Sohrab has been sexually abused by Assef (who had been working with the Taliban). While Amir was being beaten to death by Assef over unresolved conflicts, Sohrab ended up using his slingshot to shoot Assef in the face and escape the abuse from Assef.

When Amir learns that Hassan died, and the only living member of Hassan’s family was Sohrab, Amir decides to be brave and rescue Sohrab from the Taliban. This was a change in his character, because it shows the contrast between Amir in the past and Amir in the present, and how he deals with issues when he gets older. Amir doesn’t run away from his problems anymore by not letting Sohrab get abused by Assef, instead, he rescues him even if it will mean he gets beat up in the process.

Turning