From reading chapters one to four, one of the main aspects of Amir and Hassan’s relationship is the sense of control Amir has over Hassan. It becomes apparent that Amir is the one with the most authority in their friendship when he ‘talked’ Hassan into firing walnuts at the neighbour’s one-eyed German shepherd, ‘Hassan never wanted to, but if I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me’. This highlights the way Hassan looks up to Amir and obeys him due to their religious, cultural and social differences, ‘I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a’. Nevertheless, Amir does express his sensitive side towards Hassan and feels protective over him, especially when he can see he’s upset, ‘I reached across my seat, slung my arm around him, pulled him close’, portraying a brotherly relationship. Their brotherly kinship is reinforced when Amir explains what Ali had told him, ‘there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break’ which explains that Amir and Hassan had been connected from a young age despite their differences, and the fact they had fed from the same breast creates a special bond between the two which they say is unbreakable.
Amir and Hassan had grown up together just as Ali and Baba had grown up together, ‘just like Hassan and I grew up a generation later’ which portrays how history is repeating itself as Amir and Hassan are living the replication of their relationship. However, even though Amir and Hassan are extremely close, Amir doesn’t view Hassan as his friend due to their separate cultures, ‘I never thought of Hassan and me as friends’, ‘I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that’ which indicates that Amir views their differences in the same way the rest of society does and feels their differences will not allow them to become friends, no matter how close they may be. Despite this, Baba acts as though Hassan is his child as well as