Who Is Hassan's Identity In The Kite Runner

Baba hid Hassan's identity to protect his name because if he let everyone know that one of his sons was a Hazara, then his reputation would’ve been ruined. In the Kite Runner, Hazara’s are lower on the social ladder. For a pashtun like Baba to own a Hazara son would have shamed him and his title. The reader finds out about the history between the relationship of the Pashtun and Hazaras when Amir “read that my people, the pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras” (Hosseini, 9). For all of the book, Hazaras are oppressed, from Assef mocking them, to Hassan being executed for living inside a pashtun home. Even in the end of the book, General Sahib questions why Amir has a Hazara child in concern because he has “to deal with the community’s perception of our family” (Hosseini, 360). The fear that the General has reflects the fear that Baba had when it came to his family image.

The reader knows that because when Amir asked if they could get new servants, Baba claimed that he “grew up with Ali,” and that for “Forty years Ali’s been with my family.” (Hosseini 90). Hassan is the only thing that Ali has left because his wife left him after giving birth to Hassan and they live together in a shack as servants. To tell Ali that Hassan wasn’t really his son would be taking away a part of his life especially when “ he had found his joy, his antidote, the moment Sanaubar had given birth to Hassan” (Hosseini 10). Telling Ali would have destroyed their relationship which Baba clearly doesn’t want to do given how they’ve been lifelong