Betrayal’s Effects
By: Raymond
Betrayal is something that affects all people in all kinds of ways, whether it is
good or bad it affects and changes the course of people’s lives. Amir experiences both
sides of betrayal; each conflict affects the course of his life. There is Amir and Baba,
Amir and Sohrab and Amir and Hassan. Khaled Hosseini is the Author of The Kite
Runner and was born himself in Kabul, Afghanistan and then moved to the United
States in 1980.
This is when Amir Experiences the side of betrayal that hurts you. Baba (Amir’s
father) had said to Hassan when he was young that,” When you tell a lie, you steal
someone’s right to the truth.”[pg.18] what Baba did was he never told Amir that Hassan
was his brother. Baba had robbed Amir the right of having a brother. That is why Baba
tried to care for both of them in a somewhat equal way. One special time for Hassan
was on his birthday, having his harelip fixed. Amir is Jealous of how his Baba acts with
Hassan “... onetime at Ghargha Lake, Hassan and I were skimming stones and Hassan
made his skip eight times. The most I managed was five. Baba was there, watching,
and he patted Hassan on the back. Even put his arm around his shoulder.” [pg.13-14] in
doing this makes Amir crave the attention of Baba even more. For Amir it was all the
presents. This betrayal of being denied the truth comes as a shocking blow to Amir
when Baba dies which is revealed to him by Rahim Khan a good family friend who
always encouraged Amir to continue his writing. This also affects Hassan by not being
taken to the US along with Amir. These are things that happened before he betrayed
Hassan and Sohrab and after.
These are things that hurt Amir’s relationship with Sohrab. When Amir was going
to take Sohrab home with him he promised him he would never have to go back to the
orphanage. When Amir had called his wife Soraya to talk about their options about
having a new son, he realized there would be a delay so before Sohrab had his daily
bath Amir told Sohrab that he might have to temporarily have to go back to the
orphanage. When Amir goes back on his word Sohrab sees this as betrayal and instead
of going back to the orphanage tries to kill himself by slitting his wrist. This affects Amir
greatly because he learnt to love Sohrab seeing as Hassan was his best friend and
brother. He felt obligated to protect Sohrab now that his parents were dead and it hurt
him to see that with his near betrayal caused Sohrab to distrust him and punishes Amir
with his silence.
This is things that Amir did that betrayed and hurt other people. The fact that
Hassan is a Hazara makes it hard because in Afghanistan the racism towards Hazaras
is awful, especially with Assef the young neighbourhood bully. When Amir writes his first
story, Rahim Khan said that it was a wonderful story. So he had to go read it to Hassan.
Hassan loved it but asked something that showed Amir the plot hole of the Story. He
thought ‘what does he know, that illiterate Hazara? He’ll never be anything but a cook.
How dare he criticize you?’ This thought could have been planted by Assef in which
leads to his first betrayal of Hassan. Between the feeling of needing his Baba’s attention
and maybe the unconscious thought that Hassan is only a Hazara kicked in when he
betrayed Hassan. Just after Amir and Hassan won the Kite fighting Tournament and
Amir had told Hassan to come back with the other Blue Kite. Amir went looking for him
after he had put his kite back home. When he found him Assef gave him a choice to
give him the kite and go or he would beat him up. Hassan chooses to keep the kite for
Amir. So instead Assef beat up Hassan and raped him. Instead of Amir interfering and
possibly getting the kite taken away, which could be the one thing to get his Baba’s
attention he left his best friend Hassan there. It was the Mental Conflict between the
need he had for the affection of his father or the Best Friend he has had since birth.
Instead he betrayed Hassan for a Kite, for his father. Although now with his Father’s
affection he felt guilty for what he did “I finally had what I’d wanted all those years.
Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as an unkempt pool.... ” [pg.85]. When Hassan
had gotten better Amir threw pomegranates at him to try and provoke him “I wished he’d
give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I’d finally sleep at night.” This is what led to
the second betrayal of Hassan. Amir ended feeling so guilty he framed Hassan with a
watch and some money he had gotten on his birthday. Later Ali and Hassan left.
Throughout this novel Amir experiences both sides of betrayal. From Baba not
telling him he had a brother in Hassan, to him in wrecking his relationship with Hassan’s
son Sohrab. Maybe if Amir had done different things in these situations, it could have
shaped his life better. But it is clear that all people betray or are betrayed by someone in
a small or big way that affects the course of their life.
Works Cited
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Penguin Group, 2003.