Who Is Hassan's Loyalty In The Kite Runner

The novel “The Kite Runner” is about a young boy who grew up in Afghanistan during the 1970’s, and later moved to America as an adolescent: during his life’s journey, he betrayed a close childhood friend, discovered a betrayal, and was finally able to right the wrong he had done. The protagonist Amir is an eleven-year-old boy living in Kabul, Afghanistan with his father, Baba, and their Hazara servants, a man named Ali and his young son Hassan. In the year 1975, there is a kite tournament where Amir and Hassan fly a kite together. Hassan is running the kite for Amir when he is cornered in an alley and is sexually assaulted by the town bully, Assef. Because Amir witnessed the rape and did nothing he frames Hassan so his father will send

During the kite contest of 1975 Hassan and Amir flew a kite together, Hassan held the spool and would later run the kite while Amir maneuvered it. Once all the kites had been cut down Amir asked Hassan to run the kite for him and he responded: “for you a thousand times over!” (Hosseini p.67). This response that Hassan gives demonstrates how totally loyal he is to Amir, by saying he would do it a thousand times over shows that he truly devoted. After Hassan had begun to run the kite Assef and his two goons started to chase after him. They cornered Hassan in an alley and asked him for the kite but he refused to give it to them: “Amir agha won the tournament and I ran this kite for him. I ran it fairly. This is his kite.” (Hosseini p.72). Once again Hassan proves his loyalty to Amir, even in the face of danger; Assef also verifies this fact when he responds “ a loyal Hazara. Loyal as a dog” (Hosseini p.72). Assef then proceeds to attack Hassan. He rapes Hassan as his two goons hold Hassan down. Once Assef is finished assaulting Hassan, Assef and his goons run away. Hassan then gets up and finds Amir so that he can give him the kite. The loyalty that Hassan shows Amir is motivated by multiple factors. One of which is that Hassan may have felt an underlying connection to Amir due to them being brothers, another reason is that because Hassan was raised as a servant he had the mentality that he was

Baba’s betrayal makes both of Hassan and Amir’s respective loyalties and betrayals even more significant. Throughout the novel Baba never reveals to neither Hassan nor Amir that they are brothers, he also forces the ones close to him to lie to the boys so his secret would never come to light. Baba does not even admit his betrayal in his final moments of life, Amir only discovers this betrayal when he is an adult and goes to visit Rahim Khan (a close friend and business partner of Baba who knew of the betrayal). Once Amir arrives at Rahim Khan's apartment in Pakistan he tells Amir that Hassan, Hassan’s wife are dead and that their only son, Sohrab, was sent to an orphanage. Rahim Khan than asks Amir to go get Sohrab and bring him to Pakistan, Amir refuses and asks why they couldn't just pay someone to get Sohrab. Rahim Khan then begins to reveal that Ali was once married before he was married to Hassan’s mother and that he left that woman childless, but once she remarried she had three daughters. This fact implies that Ali was infertile and there was no possible way that he had fathered Hassan. Amir responded with disbelief: “He and Sanaubar had Hassan, didn’t they?” (Hosseini p.222). Amir goes to the conclusion that Baba must have fathered