Kite Runner

Human beings are morally ambiguous people. We are neither purely evil nor purely good, but often a mix. And maybe that’s why many of us are attracted to literature works with morally ambiguous characters such as The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner was set in Kabul, Afghanistan, proceeds to United States during the Soviet Union invasion, and then the setting goes back to Kabul when the Taliban rises in power. In this novel, Amir, to whom the whole story of the book is centered around, is a morally ambiguous character. Amir is a Pashtun boy; he betrays his friendship with Hassan, a Hazara son of Amir’s father’s servant. Guilt haunts Amir for years even after he had left Kabul and moved to United States. Amir is a morally ambiguous character because he’s a coward, he’s selfish, he betrays his friend and lies, but he also finds courage to face what he had done wrong and finds salvation. The first part of the book The Kite Runner proves how Amir is not a purely good character. Amir often hangs out with the Hazara boy, Hassan and would tell Hassan that they are friends, but he still feels he’s above Hassan because Amir is Pashtun and Hazara people are considered below the Pashtun people. Amir wouldn’t hang out with Hassan when other Pashtun boys are with him, he also mocks the fact that Hassan can’t read, not considering the fact that Hassan doesn’t have the opportunity to get an education. Amir couldn’t stand Hassan’s intelligence: Amir had written a story about how a man’s tears turn into pearls when they fall into this magic cup, and the story ended with man’s wife dead in his arms on a mountain pile of pearls. When Hassan heard the story, he had enjoyed it, but he also raised a few questions that angered Amir, “Why did the man kill his wife? In fact, why did he ever have to be sad to shed tears? Couldn’t he have just smelled an onion?” (p. 34). Amir was angry because a mere Hazara boy who couldn’t read had taught Amir something he, an