Forgiveness

In the book The Kite Runner, Amir and Hassan grew up together as brothers, but come from two completely different backgrounds. Amir is the son of a rich business man while Hassanns father is Amir and his fathers servant. Because of this, Amir feels the need to belittle Hassan, because his father has always cared about Hassan a lot, maybe even more than he cares about his own son. This has fueled Amir to often belittle Hassan, and it is simply a never ending cycle.

In the book, forgiveness is something that is questioned and brought up continuously throughout the story. There are multiple occasions in which Amir does something that he feels he needs forgiveness for. Amir has never had a high-self esteem, nor has he ever stood up for himself. Growing up with Hassan, he would always constantly do things to define the line between the two. This, however, is different. It isn't the type of relationship in which you are only ashamed to be with someone in public, but in private you are friends. Amir, even when he was not in public, would always tease Hassan and belittle him. Amir would often take advantage of Hassans illiteracy and come up with whole stories to Hassan while pretending he was reading a book, and sometimes he wouldn't read to him at all. Amir needed someone that he could belittle and someone that he could take advantage of. He doesn't defend Hassan from the neighborhood boys and almost blurts out that Hassan is only his servant and not a friend.

 "Eat dirt if I told you to," I said. I knew I was being cruel, like when I'd taunt him if he didn't know some big word. But there was something fascinating – albeit in a sick way – about teasing Hassan. Kind of like when we used to play insect torture. Except now, he was the ant and I was holding the magnifying glass. (6.29-34)" said Hassan. 

In terms of the coming of age experience, I think a lot of kids can relate to this. Growing up, so much is taken away from you, and you really don't have a say in much of anything. This often causes younger people to grasp and hold onto whatever freedom they have with all that they can, as Amir did. 

I believe that Amir treats Hassan this way because it is a ever ending cycle. Hassan is raped trying to get a kite or Amir, Amir witnesses it, and then walks away without helping him. A while later, Amir becomes even more negative towards Hassan, trying to get him angry because he feels bad about what he did. This speaks into the coming of age experience because so often, there are things in life that we have done, that we don't speak about. This isn't just with teenagers, this is with adults as well. Amir, who  is upset with himself at something that he failed to do, doesn't feel as if he can talk to anyone about what he did. Because he is ashamed of what he did and upset with himself, he is even meaner to Hassan, in hopes that Hassan will get angry at him, making Amir feel better. 

Although that is what Amir thought would happen, it obviously won't. "

I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan – the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past – and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run.In the end, I ran. (7.137-139) Amir said."

 This was in the rape scene with Hassan. When he said "One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be," I believe that it was a very important message. As this event did, the things that happen in our life define who we are. It is often the things that we do in hiding that eat us up inside, no matter who we are.