The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini

Should Amir feel guilty for not having helped Hassan while he was being bullied and raped by Assef?

        I think that Amir should feel extremely guilty for not having stopped Assef, the bully, while he was raping and abusing Hassan because he was watching and didn't do anything about it. Assef was racist and thought himself superior to Hassan, a Hazara, and constantly bullied him. In the beginning of the novel, when Assef prepares to fight Amir, Hassan stands up to his best friend and master, and threatens to shoot out Assef's eye with a sling-shot, therefore I think that Amir should have done the same for his friend, stood up for him. When Assef was raping Hassan, Amir was watching from around the corner (see book cover), and was too scared to go and stop him. Because of that fear, Amir should feel guilty for the rest of his life. After Amir witnesses Hassan's rape, they don't speak, and Amir frames him for stealing his money, which leads to Hassan and his father being fired. Amir and his father then leave Afghanistan to move to the United States when the Russians invade, and Hassan and Amir lose contact, their friendship ends. Amir should feel guilty for the rest of his life, because later on in the novel, when Amir is an adult, he finds out that Hassan was his half-brother, and that he and his wife were killed by the Taliban. I think that it is after finding this information out that Amir should feel the most remorse because he will never see or speak to his half-brother and best-friend ever again; all this because of his fear.