Amir's Guilt

If I hated Amir before, I hate him even more after reading what he did- or what he didn’t do- when he saw Hassan being raped by the disgusting, corrupt, and immoral Assef. Amir gets everything he wants after what happens; his father is proud of him, he becomes closer to him, and everyone see’s him as a “hero” for having won the kite running competition. But Amir finds it hard to enjoy this attention because he is drowning in his own guilt. The worst part about it is that Amir gets all of this appreciation and attention because of Hassan, who stood by him every moment of the competition and ran for Amir’s trophy. Hassan demonstrates his unconditional love for Amir, resulting in Amir’s glory, but Amir cannot and did not do the same for Hassan. Amir deserves the unhappy life that he is destined to live due to his guilt, and I have no pity for him.

Something that caught my eye about Hassan was that he had done nothing wrong, yet he still did everything he could to rekindle his relationship with Amir and felt guilty. Amir rejects him and treats him badly, and uses Hassan, as well as other characters like Ali to let out his anger. The scene where Amir throws the pomegranates at Hassan shows just how much this guilt is haunting Amir. He feels so terrible for what he did not do that he wants to be punished for it, but Hassan refuses to fight back and walks away, which makes Amir feel even worse about what he did. When I first read that Hassan did nothing to fight back, I was frustrated because I feel as though he should grow courage and defend himself. But as I thought more deeply about it, I realized that Hassan was raised to be submissive, and it is not in his nature to harm Amir in any way; not only because he loves him, but because he sees him as a superior. Amir is a terrible person, and even when he has his father’s love and attention, he gets jealous if the slightest bit of Baba’s attention is given to Hassan. This envy and jealousy is invested in Amir and I’m not sure it will ever disappear.