First Impressions

“I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either…Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites… History isn't easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara.” (25) Spoke the main character of the novel "The Kite Runner" named Amir. He was speaking about his best friend Hassan. Questions rushed through my head; why does Amir not think of Hassan as his brother? What did Hassan do to be treated as the "lesser" culture between the Pashtun and the Hazara?

To start off, Hassan and Amir were the best of friends. They would go on adventures, climb trees and sometimes Amir would even read Hassan a book. The boys were raised as brother together by Amir's father Baba after the death of Hassan's father. Baba has been treating them as equals throughout their lives. Hassan unlike Baba or Amir, was a Hazara. Unfortunately, the Hazara were treated like slaves to the Pashtuns. In fact, Hassan's very own father was Baba's servant himself. This feel of inequality really started to have an affect of the way that Hassan thinks of himself as a person. Hassan began to treat himself like a slave. A slave to the way that society viewed upon him and his people. Throughout the story it is become more clear that Amir believes that Hassan and the Hazara's are the lesser race of Kabul, despite how Amir was raised. This reminds me of the Rwandan Genocide in a way. The Genocide was caused due to the discrimination against the Tutsi's during this time period. This leaves me to believe that something similar to a genocide may happen to the Hazara in this story. I believe that the author put this into the story in order to show the reader's how tough it must be to be a Hazara living in a culture that does not want to accept you. 

Besides that, Amir also has his own problems. When Amir was born his mother unfortunately died during child birth. Amir believes that his father blames this on him. This causes Amir to constantly struggle for the attention of Baba. At one point in the third chapter Hassan was given admiration by Baba, this angered Amir into saying “It’s an unusual present I know, Baba said… Hassan hadn't done anything to earn Baba’s affection” (46). Why was Baba's affection so important to Amir, why would it matter is Hassan had more affection then Amir?  Baba even said at one point states that he enjoys soccer, Amir quickly to retaliate admits that he also likes soccer. This was a lie, Amir's real hobbies include reading and writing but he is too afraid that Baba will see this as not very "manly" pursuits.  I believe that this is hinting at how Amir will do something very drastic in order to gain the respect of Baba. This seems to be Amir's main focus during these early chapters and it wouldn't surprise me if it closely relates to the incident that happened in my life where I throughout the years attempted to impress my Grandpa in order to gain his respect. I eventually found out that he did respect me despite how I acted, and I believe that Amir will eventually find this out for himself. 

In conclusion, during the beginning of the book I am left with very many questions and assumptions of what is about to come. I believe that something terrible may happen to the Hazara's due to the way that they are treated in Kabul, I believe that Amir will do something very drastic in order to gain his Father's admiration and I believe overall that Amir will eventually find himself through some realization. I assume that this realization will in turn help Hassan and the Pashtun (maybe a rebellion).