The Power of Friendship in The Kite Runner

By: Dan Duff

I believe the power of friendship is a key theme in The Kite Runner. I believe that Amir
and Hassan have a very complex relationship. To illustrate this friendship Amir and Hassan
were close and truthful friends before the terrible event of Hassan’s rape.

Amir did nothing to help Hassan when he was attacked. As a result he begins to act
shameful for his cowardice personality and how he couldn’t bring himself to help out his best
friend. Theirs is a complicated relationship because it came apart at the time of winter 1975;
when Hassan was raped.

Everything between Hassan and Amir changed after that. Amir avoided his once best
friend out of self-remorse and shame for his own actions. On the other hand, Hassan is
withdrawing from life and crawls into bed every chance he gets because he’s feeling bad
about what happened to him.

The once close friendship of Amir and Hassan drifted apart because of Amir’s choice to
do nothing to help his friend in that alley where Hassan’s attack occurred.

Although, Amir has proven himself a remorseful coward in his childhood, he tries to
redeem his own self-worth by rescuing Hassan’s son; Sohrob, from Assef and the Taliban by
going all the way to Afghanistan. When Rahim Khan calls Amir in his home and tells him he
should come back to Afghanistan, Amir doesn’t want to, but he knew it was important
because he thought it could be an opportunity to drown all the shame he’d felt over the years
for not standing up for Hassan. To redeem himself Amir went back to Kabul, Afghanistan. In
doing so, he risked his own life because he thought it was a second chance to bury the long
open wound between him and Hassan.

When Amir found Sohrob in the Taliban headquarters he showed great courage. Assef
violently beat Amir, although he didn’t fight back. Amir was still courageous because he knew
it was the price he had to pay in order to help Hassan and perhaps to redeem himself in the
process.

After, Amir rescued Sohrob and brought him back to America he showed his loyalty.
This act proves that Amir and Hassan’s childhood bond was so genuine that Amir would
devote a large portion of his life to help raise his half brother and friend’s son.

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 I know Amir and Hassan had a very complex relationship because Hassan was always
willing to stand up for Amir as kids. In Amir’s adulthood it was now his turn to stand for
Hassan by helping his son, at whatever cost. The cost of loyalty was Amir’s broken body. I
think Amir thought it was better to be physically in pain once than to suffer from guilt for the
rest of his life.

Amir had planted his watch under Hassan’s pillow. When Ali finds that Hassan
confesses to it, they leave almost immediately, making it impossible to find them later when
the Russians invade and war begins. If Amir never planted the watch in Hassan’s room, he
and Ali would have been with Amir and Baba when leaving to Pakistan, and eventually to
America. As a result, Amir realizes that he had to re-visit Kabul because he felt guilty for how
he likely had cost Hassan a life of his own.

The complexity of Amir and Hassan’s friendship is clearly shown by the event at the
top of the hill behind Amir’s house. Amir chucked the tomatoes at Hassan. It symbolized how
he felt about their friendship.

The splattered tomatoes on Hassan shirt represented Amir’s view on how broken his
and Hassan’s friendship had become. When Hassan refused to throw tomatoes back and
breaking a tomato on his forehead it shows he didn’t want their friendship to end. That is an
example of the complexity of Amir and Hassan friendship.

I think it’s an effective example because it shows that Amir and Hassan weren’t willing
to just say that their friendship had met its demise. They had to use symbols to show their
thoughts.

That is why I believe that Amir and Hassan’s friendship is the most complex.