Passage_K_Commentary

Analysis of “They’d both been crying… His plea, the fear”; page 91-93 “The Kite Runner” is a novel about friendship, love, guilt, betrayal, disappointments, sin and loyalty. Through out the book, we see all these various aspects in the characters of Amir, Hassan and Baba. Although Hassan is not a character that remains present throughout the book physically, he is constantly present in Amir’s mind, never straying too far from his thoughts, even though Amir had so abruptly ‘freed’ himself of Hassan when he was just 12 or 13 years old. In this particular passage, we witness a scene that contains all kinds of emotions, the scene in which Hassan leaves Amir’s life, never again to return. Throughout the novel, we see that Amir does hold a lot of power over Hassan, and most importantly, he holds Hassan’s unconditional love and unwavering loyalty. And Amir, who does love Hassan, also holds against Hassan a certain grudge, begrudging any affection that Hassan receives from Baba, because Baba never seems to approve of Amir, except for the one time when Amir wins the kite tournament… which he did only at the price of Hassan being raped. Amir is completely aware that Hassan will sacrifice anything for him, that Hassan loves him so deeply that he is willing to go through any levels of pain just so that Amir would be truly happy. This realization does not allow Amir to be happy; instead it fills him with self-loathing, guilt and anger. Amir looks at himself as a coward, and a monster, like the monster that pulls Hassan down into the lake to drown him, in Hassan’s childless, meaningless dream. Amir already feels like a great sinner, for he did not rescue Hassan, when Hassan would have rescued him, instead he left him to be raped by Assef, something for which he would never be able to forgive himself for. He knew even then that he should have rescued Hassan, that he should have been brave and stopped Assef before he hurt Hassan, but is plagued by his guilt because he did not do so. As a child, he felt that he would feel less guilty if he was rid of Hassan, but he knew that he could not dare suggest that to Baba, because of the disastrous outcome that it would surely bring. When he had first suggested, “finding new servants”, Baba had exploded into a fit of rage, the reason for which is known to us later. Baba could not control his pain or guilt any more than Amir possibly could. His love of Hassan becomes even clearer in the desperation he shows in this scene. This scene allows us to see the relationships between several characters in a whole new light. It shows us Baba begging Ali, and Ali –probably for the first time- refusing Baba’s entreaties. “Respectfully, you can’t forbid me anything, Agha sahib. We don’t work for you anymore” was Ali’s response to Baba’s attempted ferocious orders. We see the transition in Baba’s emotions- from being self-assured, and completely certain that his forgiveness would be accepted with gratefulness, to denial, to anger and then, his final resort; begging. Amir was stunned with Baba and the way “his voice was breaking”, because he had never see Baba cry before. “I’ll never forget the way Baba said that, the pain in his plea, the fear” shows us that Amir finally understood how many people he had hurt with his one act of vindictive jealousy. For him, this was one more tortured memory that would haunt him for the rest of his life, and as it actually happened, Amir had no idea why the idea of Hassan leaving had such an effect on Baba, which perhaps may even have invoked further jealousy towards Hassan: even as he left, Hassan was the one for whom Baba cried, never Amir. Amir is also stunned at the idea of Baba forgiving Hassan, even though “theft was the one unforgivable sin, the common denominator of all sins.” This shocked and hurt Amir greatly, which is shown by the way he says, “Then how could he just forgive Hassan' And if Baba could forgive that, then why couldn’t he forgive me for not being the son that he’d always wanted'” With these thoughts, we sympathize with Amir, because for him, Baba is his one God, the person he always looked up to most, and vainly attempted to imitate. Even though Baba made this statement right after Hassan had made his “final sacrifice” for Amir, he still could not help but to compare himself to Hassan, because, from he believed that Baba would have preferred to have a son like Hassan, but was ‘stuck’ with a son like him, not knowing that Baba only treated him and Hassan so because of the guilt he himself felt. Amir felt guilt too, which shows in the first paragraph of the passage “They’d both been crying; I could tell from their red, puffed- up eyes. They stood before Baba, hand in hand, and I wondered how and when I’d become capable of causing this kind of pain.” Over here, we see that Amir is plagued by guilt by the guilt he is causing. Ironically, both the beginning and the ending of the passage show Amir causing pain, both times to people he cares about very deeply. The pain he causes all 3 people, especially Hassan and Baba, causes his a great deal of pain, and aggravates his guilt even more, as he wonders how he became that a person, one who didn’t assault people physically, but did wound them mentally, using lies and betrayal. By hiding money and his watch under Hassan’s mattress, he not only lost and caused Hassan pain, he caused himself pain, a wound that would not heal in the many years that would come, a wound that would remain open and raw, and without redemption, he would never be able to close the wound and begin his life again. This was a wound he inflicted on himself, and it hurt even more deeply because of Hassan’s sacrifice. When Hassan simply stated “Yes”, instead of simply denying it, which would have been the expected, because “Hassan never lied”. When he does, Amir understands that Hassan has made the greatest sacrifice of all for him, by telling a lie, even though he has never told one before. If Hassan even commits a sin, it is only for Amir, never for himself. Therefore, throughout this whole passage, we can see that Hassan will sacrifice everything for Amir, and although Amir was young, he has repented everything since he was 12 years old.