The Kite Runner: An Analysis

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The novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini discusses the life of Amir and his quest for redemption. In his early childhood, Amir forms what appears to be a strong bond with Hassan, his servant; however, Amir betrays Hassan after only seven chapters of the story which begs the question: Why does Amir allow his friendship with Hassan to fail? After some analysis, a few possible reasons for this betrayal can be deduced, but what ultimately causes the destruction of this friendship is the imbalance of power. Similarly, brothers Salim and Jamal from The Slumdog Millionaire experience this uneven distribution of power as well. Salim holds power over Jamal simply because he is the older brother and that makes him feel more entitled to power. In …show more content…
Proof that Amir holds the power in his friendship appears as early as page four in the novel when he claims that, “if I asked, really asked, he wouldn’t deny me. Hassan never denied me anything” (Hosseini 4). Amir is displaying his dominance over Hassan right away by informing the reader that Hassan is powerless to say no to any of Amir’s requests. Amir also holds power over Hassan because he is more educated, lending proof to the common phrase, “knowledge is power.” Amir mostly uses his greater knowledge to “tease [Hassan]” and “expose his ignorance” whenever they come across a large word in their reading (Hosseini 28). Salim lords his power over Jamal not because they are from different classes or because he is more educated, but he does this for the reason that he is the older brother. His authority is clearly shown at the beginning of the film when Jamal gets an autograph from the most famous man in India, Amitabh-ji. Salim vainly attempts to lock Jamal in an outside bathroom stall when Amitabh-ji arrives, and later sells Jamal's autograph as vengeance on his brother's success and as a sort of confirmation of his power and dominance over Jamal (Slumdog Millionaire). Now that is has been discovered that Amir and Salim hold the power in their …show more content…
This split happens for two reasons: Amir utilizes his power to irrevocably discard of his rapport with Hassan and Hassan learns of the true nature of his “friendship” with Amir. The first reason is that Amir, seeing himself as the higher power in his relationship with Hassan, decides not to sacrifice himself to potentially save Hassan from a terrible fate at the hands of Assef. As he runs away, Amir thinks to himself, “Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (Hosseini 77). Amir decides not to stand up for Hassan here because he views him as being disposable and unimportant. Amir has other thoughts that creep into his mind as he retreats from the alley, one of them being, “He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (Hosseini 77). This thought shows that Amir has finally accepted the idea he discussed in chapter four that religion and history are not easy to surmount; he has succumbed to the inevitable and has let society decide who his friends are going to be. The split between Salim and Jamal is also due to both brothers and the unequal distribution of authority in their kinship. In Slumdog Millionaire, after Salim murders a gangster, he kicks Jamal out of the apartment they share. Salim feels powerful working for and murdering gangsters, and decides to show this power to his younger brother and their friend, Latika. When
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