The Kite Runner

“The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” – Victor Hugo. In the novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Khaled effectively portrays guilt as being destructive to oneself and affecting others around it. The violence that the main character, Amir, experiences leads to him feeling guilty for rest of his life, which breaks up the relationships that he once had in his previous years. Amir’s guilt turns brother against brother and friend against friend. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled uses the character, Amir, to demonstrate how violence leads to betrayal, which creates guilt within oneself, and ultimate destroying relationships.
The impact of violence on Amir leads him to betray Hassan, his only friend, brother and servant by running away from helping Hassan. Amir’s first experience of violence is when Amir wins the Kite fighting Tournament, and Hassan, runs off in pursuit of Amir’s trophy. Hassan is gone long enough to alarm Amir, who begins to search for him and once he finds him, he sees Assef, a bully, raping him. Amir at first is scared of Assef but later convinces himself by says, “Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba (Amir’s Father) Was it a fair price?” (Hosseini 82). As Amir never helps Hassan, this shows that Amir will do anything to get Baba’s love and intention. Amir uses Hassan as a tool even though Hassan was his best friend from birth. Hassan’s friendship for Amir is not worth more than the blue kite, which ultimately shows Amir betraying and using Hassan for his own need.
Furthermore, Amir’s actions toward Hassan by not helping him, turns into guilt. He starts hating Hassan of the guilt that Amir possesses in him. “Every time Hassan was around, I was getting a headache” (Hosseini 93). Amir later insures that “our paths crossed as little as possible, planned my day that way” (Hosseini 94). He fall’s victim to guilt as he starts hating Hassan. He cannot help it but hate Hassan and avoid him because that was the only way not to punish himself by thinking about Hassan. For Amir it is a torture to see Hassan because he knows what he did was wrong and should not have sold his friend for some kite. Also this is the turning point for both Amir and Hassan because Amir stand Hassan and starts to plot against him.
In the end, Amir plots against Hassan, which is the turning point for Amir, Hassan, Baba and Hassan’s father, Ali. Amir puts his watch given to him by his father, Baba, under Hassan’s mattress and accuses him of stealing it. Hassan being a good friend agrees that he stole the watch and takes the blame. Ali quits for working for Baba’s family and leaves with Hassan. This ends Baba’s relationship with Ali because Baba “grew up with Ali” and says, “My father took him in, he loved Ali like his own son. Forty years Ali’s been with my family” (Hosseini 95). Baba’s friendship was very close and all this happens due to Amir’s betrayal towards Hassan. All their friendship is destroyed due to one blue kite that Amir adores more than Hassan. This breaks the bond between both friendships as Ali and Hassan leave and never come back.
Through Amir’s betrayal towards Hassan leads to breaking their relation with each other and also their both fathers. Amir makes a wrong decision by watching his best friend get raped in front of his eyes and does nothing about it. He feels that the kite is worth more than his relationship with Hassan and end up betraying him. This betrayal for Amir later turns into guilt for him as he stop talking to Hassan and does not want to be near him. Later, the same guilt that Amir obtains hurts Baba and Ali’s relationship as they leave because Amir makes a plan to get rid of Hassan as he cannot stand looking at him which creates darkness in their family.