Hassan

Hassan is a character in Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel, The Kite Runner, set in Afghanistan, and made into a movie of the same name in 2007. Hassan is best friend to the novel’s protagonist, Amir, and the son of Ali, servant to Amir’s father. The boys are mocked by an evil older boy, Assef, who scorns Hassan as being of a lowly class and threatens to beat up Amir. Hassan comes to Amir’s rescue with a slingshot. Hassan is also a deft “kite-runner”, who can discern exactly where the kite Amir flies will land; one day Hassan is providing this service for Amir, and he runs into Assef. Assef attacks and brutalizes the younger boy, and Amir witnesses everything. Amir remains silent. Racked with guilt, Amir now finds the sight of Hassan unbearable, and he frames Hassan and his father with theft, to which Hassan readily, falsely, confesses. He and his father leave; Amir and his father emigrate to California. Many years later, as a married, but childless adult, Amir is recalled to Afghanistan to rescue the young son of Hassan, who has been put into an orphanage after his father’s death at the hands of the Taliban. At this time, he finds that Hassan was the illegitimate son of Amir’s father, making him Amir’s half-brother. So the course of time and history allows Amir the chance to redeem himself for his sins against Hassan. For Hassan, however, there is no more history. It is as if he has been cheated from the start – of his birthright, of his reputation, of his child, of his life. The Hassans of the world provide us with an almost sacrificial, Christ-like figure through which the Amirs are able to cleanse themselves. All well and good for the Amirs…