because he knows Hassan cannot read. Overall, Amir has a complex friendship with Hassan, which is shaped by Afghanistan's socialatmosphere that prevents him from genuinely expressing his true feelings of friendship towards Hassan.

Amir and Hassan's relationship is similar to Baba and Ali's because first of all, there are obvious class differences and inequalities. Ali has spent his life being a servant of Baba, just as Hassan is a servant to Amir. Ali is uneducated and considered of lower class, whereas Baba is educated and is an important figure in his community. This parallels the academic differences between Amir, who gets a good education and Hassan, who is illiterate and uneducated. Ali and Baba are similar in age, just as Amir and Hassan. Hassan and Ali seem physically flawed in relationship to their counterparts. Hassan has a cleft lip,which makes him the subject of mocking, just as Ali's limp from polio and partial paralysis in his face make him the target of snide comments and disrespect.

Morally, Ali and Hassan seem superior to their companions, Baba and Amir. While Ali and Hassan remain loyal and moral subjects, both Baba and Amir betray their servant companions. Baba betrayed Ali by engaging an a sexual encounter with Ali's wife, and Amir betrayed Hassan and allowed his rape to occur and go unmentioned.

The author uses these parallels to display the fact that physical and social superiority does not mean a person is morally superior.

A lot of change happens throughout The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, particularly to the protagonist, Amir. His childhood friend and half-brother, Hassan, experiences few changes, but certainly both are forced to adapt to many changing circumstances in their lives.

Amir's changes are many. He grows up as a young child who longs for his father's love and approval but never feels as if he gets it from Baba. He is inexplicably jealous of Hassan's relationship with Baba, and of course later he discovers his true relationship with Hassan which explains everything. Amir's and Hassan's friendship is distinctly lopsided, with Hassan doing all the compromising and routinely accepting the abuse Amir gives him. Amir proves that he is not a friend to Hassan when he sees Hassan being horribly and violently abused by the perverted bully Assef but does nothing to stop it. He says:

I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. 

He feels guilty and ashamed of himself, but instead of dealing with those feelings openly, he harbors them and then uses the first opportunity he can find to get rid of what he sees as the source of his guilt--Hassan. 

Soon Amir and Baba are force to leave Kabul and they settle in America. As Amir matures, he begins to see his father differently and accepts him for who he is and how he raised Amir; his feelings toward Hassan also change, though his guilt and shame are a constant presence in his life. When he is offered a chance to redeem himself and atone for his past sins, he does so, though unwillingly, at first. In the end, he makes amends for both himself and Baba as he raises Hassan's son with true love and respect.

Hassan is cheerful, loyal, and loving at the beginning of the novel, and he is the same at the end of his life; however, these are the very qualities which cause him pain. He loves Amir so much that he allows himself to be abused by him in the name of friendship. He always says,

“For you, a thousand times over” 

His attempt to please and serve Amir is what puts him in the position to be abused by Assef, and his loyalty to Baba is what eventually gets him killed. He was living a peaceful life in a remote village when Rahim Khan asks Hassan to come back to Kabul to help him maintain Baba and Amir's house, and Hassan is killed while doing so. He is not perfect, and he has to work through his anger and disappointment with both his mother and with Amir, but it does not take long for him to forgive and love them unconditionally.

His last letter to Amir is full of love and respect, despite Amir's treatment of him, demonstrating that Hassan is the same character at the end of his life as he was from the beginning.

Hassan does not undergo as many changes as Amir because he does not have as many things about him that need changing. 

The word "friendship" is important concerning the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Amir can never quite bring himself to call Hassan his friend: Because of his lowly Hazara heritage, Hassan is relegated to a second-class status in Kabul, and Amir cannot get past this division of society. Instead of following his heart, he listens to the taunts of soldiers and schoolmates, who constantly remind him of Hassan's and Ali's role as servants and not equals. Part of Amir's philosophy comes from Baba.

... in none of his stories did Baba ever refer to Ali as his friend.  (Chapter Four)

And as a young child, Amir feels especially close to Hassan.

... we were kids who had learned to crawl together, and no history, ethnicity, society or religion was going to change that either.  (Chapter Four)

Amir spends all of his free hours away from school with Hassan, telling him stories and flying kites, and the two are virtually inseparable. But peer pressure and jealousy cloud Amir's vision, and when Hassan is forced to defend Amir from Assef and his thugs, Amir wants to tell them that

... he's not my friend!... He's my servant!  (Chapter Four)

Although Hassan is Amir's servant, the Hazara boy also serves as Amir's protector, and when Amir's cowardice prevents him from coming to Hassan's aid when he is sodomized by Assef, Amir can no longer live with Hassan serving as a daily reminder of his actions. It is only many years later that he comes to realize that Hassan was more than a servant: Hassan was Amir's friend--and his brother.

Self-conscious-Amir struggles to live up to his father's expectations as a child. He wishes to please his father by joining the soccer team and acting masculine, but cannot seem to win his father's affection. Amir is stressed out and becomes jealous of Hassan because he cannot please his father.

Cowardly-As a child, Amir is afraid of Assef and watches behind a stone wall as Assef rapes Hassan.

Deceitful-Amir not only lies to Hassan about the meaning of certain words and stories, but also plants his gifts under Hassan's mattress in hopes that Baba will make him leave.

Conflicted-Amir experiences conflict in his relationship with his friend Hassan because Hassan is a Hazara. Amir also feels bad about not stopping Assef from raping Hassan. Amir eventually travels back to Kabul as an adult to save Hassan's son.

Determined-As an adult, Amir is determined to save Sohrab from Afghanistan. He goes to extreme lengths to rescue Sohrab from Assef and bring him to the United States.

Khaled Hosseini has said that Amir is "an unlikable coward" in Part 1 of The Kite Runner. Amir fails to help Hassan and, though he feels guilty for this, winning some affection from his father is ultimately more important to him than loyalty to his friend. There is some excuse for Amir's conduct, but at the very least, he is a weak character.

The Kite Runner, however, is a story of redemption. As an adult, Amir is given the chance "to be good again," as Rahim Khan puts it. In Part 3 of the book, he fights Assef, the Taliban leader who, beat and raped Hassan as a boy. Although he would not have beaten Assef without Sohrab's help, Amir at least stands up to him and then atones for his desertion of Hassan by adopting Sohrab.

It is by remembering and honoring Hassan that Amir finally breaks through the barrier of Sohrab's trauma and redeems himself. The theme of redemption in the novel is most evident in the story of Amir, the protagonist, but it is also evident in the portrayal of several other characters. These include Amir's wife Soraya and Hassan's mother Sanaubar. The latter neglected Hassan but becomes a good grandmother for Sohrab.

Amir writes from his perspective as an adult, so his reflections on his childhood behavior are colored by the maturity he has gained through his experiences. This altered perspective includes his re-visiting, over and over, the guilt he feels for deserting his friend, Hassan. Amir was deeply affected by the class, ethnic, and religious prejudices of his society. Although he loves Hassan, who is his constant playmate, he also feels superior to him because of their Pashtun/Hazara differences and because he and others see Hassan as physically unattractive. When the bullies grab Hassan and hold him down to rape him, Amir runs away.

In the end, I ran.

I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt. That’s what I told myself as I turned my back to the alley, to Hassan.

He lives with the guilt until he takes specific steps toward becoming a better person—for the sake of others, not for himself—and he can provide new reasons for his behavior. The rest of the quote, as he re-evaluates his actions, is that he believed Assef’s cynicism and sacrificed his friend in the belief that it would make his father love him more.

One very telling quote about the young Amir in The Kite Runner is the following: "I already hated all the kids he was building the orphanage for; sometimes I wished they'd all died along with their parents" (18). Amir resents his father for helping other children. Rather than feel proud or pleased that his father is building an orphanage, he only feels bitter.

Amir is formed by his jealousy for his father's love. He never feels that his father truly loves him, and he always feels that he falls short of his father in some ways. He also feels guilty that his mother died when giving birth to him, and this guilt tinges everything Amir does. He is cowardly but wants to please his father, and he also wants all of his father's attention. For this reason, he lies and blames Hassan, his friend, for a crime that Hassan did not commit. Amir's jealousy and feeling of being neglected by Baba, his father, form a great part of his personality.

This is a great question, because Amir's development as a character is central to the book. In other words, only by knowing what Amir is like can we assess how he grows. 

In the beginning of the book (chapter three, to be precise), Baba says these words to Rahim Khan about his son Amir.

"A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.” 

By examining this quote, we can see something about Amir (and Baba). Amir is a boy without courage. He is weak, as he does not have the strength to fend for himself. The one who fends for him is Hassan; he is a fearless and loyal boy. When a few boys attack Hassan and rape him, Amir just watches and does nothing. Fear grips him and he is incapacitated. 

The beauty of the novel is that Amir redeems himself by becoming a brave man. In the end, courage triumphs. 

Let me give you one more quote that build on this theme. This time Amir speaks of himself:

“I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.”

It is almost blasphemous to suggest that Amir is brave or courageous after he watches Assef rape Hassan and doesn't do anything about it. It is even harder to suggest it when he tries to frame Hassan for stealing in order to get him sent away.

The bravery and courage that Amir demonstrates come later in the story, after he has been unable to face his horrific actions as a boy. It is only when Rahim Kahn, who was aware of what happened, calls and tells him that he has a chance to redeem himself that he begins to face his fears.

He faces them with an impressive amount of courage when the time comes. When he has to go and meet with Assef and Assef is beating him so badly that he begins to assume that he will die, he begins to laugh at the relief he feels at finally standing up to him. He knew that his "body was broken... but [he] felt healed."

And he fights desperately to save Sohrab both from Assef and later from himself. He even has the courage to bring him home to his wife and to try and build a family around him despite having a clear understanding of how difficult that will be.

In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, there are significant differences between best friends Hassan and Amir, including their personalities, faiths, social status, and even experiences. In terms of social status, Amir is wealthy. He says of his home that “Everyone agreed that my father, my Baba, had built the most beautiful house in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, a new and affluent neighborhood in the northern part of Kabul.” By comparison, Hassan’s house is described as "a modest little mud hut where Hassan lived with his father."

Their religions are different. The narrator says, “Like Ali, she [Hassan’s mother] was a Shi'a Muslim and an ethnic Hazara.” In contrast, Amir is a Sunni Muslim. While Amir will go to college—Baba tells someone that “his son was going to college in the fall"—Hassan is the son of a servant, and he himself is destined to be a servant. Amir leaves Afghanistan for the United States, but Amir must stay in the war-torn country.

Amir himself describes their differences, saying,

Because history isn't easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi'a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.

Although both boys are motherless, Hassan’s mother rejects him. Amir’s “mother hemorrhaged to death during childbirth,” but “Hassan lost his less than a week after he was born. Lost her to a fate most Afghans considered far worse than death: She ran off with a clan of traveling singers and dancers.”

Hassan is sweet and good natured. For instance:

Even in birth, Hassan was true to his nature: He was incapable of hurting anyone. A few grunts, a couple of pushes, and out came Hassan. Out he came smiling.

Hassan also covers for Amir whenever they get into trouble:

Hassan...never told on me. Never told that the mirror, like shooting walnuts at the neighbor's dog, was always my idea.

On the other hand, Amir betrays Hassan when he is attacked, which is probably the most important difference between the two boys. Amir writes that he had

One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan—the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past—and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run.

In the end, I ran.

I think a case can be made that the betrayals are very different. While both Baba and Amir got away with their betrayals due to the social hierarchy in the society, their causes are different. Both betrayals do have to do with the flaws in Baba's and Amir's characters, but they are very different flaws.

Baba is a strong and self-confident person. He has a lot of power and influence and generally does not worry about what others think of him. He is not a coward, as is demonstrated when he is leaving Afghanistan with Amir and intervenes, at a great personal risk, when a Russian soldier is about to assault a woman. However, there is a line, a boundary, that he cannot allow himself to cross—he knows that there are some things his society will not accept. Having a child out of wedlock is one of those things. His pride would not allow him to risk his reputation by admitting that he fathered Hassan, betraying Ali.

Amir, on the other hand, has low self-esteem. His confidence swings widely depending on whether or not Baba seems to be pleased with him at any given moment. His friendship with Hassan suffers because Hassan demonstrates himself to be better than Amir in many ways, and this hurts Amir, as he feels he will never live up to the same standard. He cannot forgive himself for not coming to Hassan's aid when the latter was attacked, and he tries to cover up the whole incident instead of confiding in an adult. He is terrified of the judgement of the only person who should have been able to guide him through this experience—Baba—and he therefore makes some very bad choices, betraying Hassan. His character flaw is not vain pride but rather lack of self-respect. Considering that he is still a child when he betrays Hassan, he cannot be entirely blamed for it—a lot of it has to do with his circumstances and upbringing.

When you pose the question in the way you do, as an either/or approach, you may miss some of the nuances. Why does it have to be either/or? What can't there be elements of both? In life, which is complex, the answer is almost always found in between. In fact, answers are messy and at times completely inconsistent. So, I would say that there are elements of master/servant dysfunctions as well as character issues. For example, if there is a strong cultural differences between master/servant, then it would be hard to see outside of this. Also in a culture based on shame, there is almost unbearable pressure to act a certain way. If you know this, then you can see the character is not the only dysfunction. Society has a role as well.

Although they all grew up together on the same property, the relationships between the two adults and two children ended quite differently in The Kite Runner. Baba had employed Ali as his servant for many years, and though they maintained a master/servant relationship, Baba always treated Ali kindly, as though he was a member of the family. Like Amir and Hassan, the two men had grown up together; Ali lived in a small hut outside Baba's fine home, and Baba did not consider Ali's Hazara heritage a roadblock in their relationship as many other Afghans did. Amir and Hassan grew up as playmates as well, and Amir shared most of his non-school hours with Hassan. However, Amir eventually grew jealous of Baba's attentions toward Hassan, and he plotted to undermine Ali's son by planting his own birthday gifts under Hassan's mattress to dishonor him. This deceitful act caused Ali and Hassan to leave Baba's home, permanently ending the relationship between the four.

For Baba, who had many friends and whose popularity in Kabul was widespread, the loss of his old friend Ali was probably not as devastating as it was to Amir. Amir had no other close friends, and he soon came to miss Hassan, though he felt his sinful actions were important to gain more attention from his father. Later in the story, we find that Baba has not been completely honorable to Ali when Rahim Khan reveals to Amir that Baba had actually fathered Hassan. Thus, both Baba and Amir committed sins against their loyal friends/servants, and both lived with the unspoken guilt for years afterward. 

While neither Amir nor Hassan is aware of the fact as they are growing up, Baba is the father of both boys. That undercurrent is likely to have been felt by both, although neither had any explanation for it. Amir does not understand why Hassan, who is a mere servant, receives Baba's unconditional approval and what seems to be and actually is love. Of course, Amir as a child is strikingly unlovable in many ways. He is an envious and cowardly child, but with intelligence and imagination that Baba does not appear to appreciate very much. The contrast in the way Baba treats the boys makes me wonder about Baba's marriage to Amir's mother and his relationship to Hassan's mother, Sanaubar.  This is sheer speculation on my part, but it is likely that, given the time and place, Baba's marriage to Sofia, Amir's mother, was an arranged one. And while Baba bragged about Sofia to Amir, it might have been a loveless match, while Baba's relationship with Sanaubar might have been one of love, not just lust. Furthermore, since Sofia died in childbirth, it is also possible that subconsciously, Baba resents Amir for having been "responsible" for her death. All of these undercurrents could have swirled around Amir and Hassan in their childhoods together, making for an uneasy relationship.

"Amir is a privileged Pastun, Hassan one of the despised minority Hazaras.  Amir is guilty of "the petty cruelties that privilege invites, the risk of these escalating into betrayals with far-reaching consequences, and the way loving devotion can become masochistic submission" is evident in the way Hassan serves Amir.  Their relationship is further strained because Hassan is a servant.  He and Amir are "friends" and play together but there are many evidences that Amir abuses this friendship and "plays" with Hassan's devotion to him.  The friendship is put into further strain when Amir observes Hassan being raped and does nothing to stop it and later does not tell anyone what he has seen.  The guilt that Amir suffers from creates an insurmountable wall between the two boys.

As a boy in Afghanistan, Amir grows up in wealth and privilege as a member of a Pashtun family, the higher social class in his country. Amir's mother is dead, and his father often seems distant and disapproving to him. Amir is physically weak and unathletic; he lives in books and fantasy, longing to be a writer. These traits do not impress Baba (his father).

Amir longs for a close relationship with Baba. He desperately needs his father's approval and frequently feels jealous when Baba shows love and attention to Hassan, the servant boy who lives in their house. Amir's feelings of personal inferiority make his life miserable as he strives to win his father's approval and feel more worthy; consequently, he often abuses Hassan emotionally, even though Hassan is his only childhood friend. Amir takes advantage of Hassan's illiteracy and lack of power; sometimes he is simply cruel to Hassan, displaying an ugliness in his nature that distresses him even as he continues being cruel. Amir is most ashamed of his cowardice and disloyalty to his friend.

After Amir grows up, after making a daring and dangerous escape from Afghanistan with his father, he changes in some very significant ways. He grows close to his father, first as they struggle to survive in their new home in California and then as Amir has to deal with Baba's illness and death from cancer. Amir also finds he can be a courageous man instead of a coward. When he returns to Afghanistan to save Hassan's son, Amir finally earns his own self-respect.

Hassan, Amir's childhood friend and personal servant, is a member of the Hazara, the ethnic group in Afghanistan that is despised. Hassan, despite his excellent character and  brave and gentle nature, is a social outcast. He and his father live as servants in Amir's household. Baba considers both of them to be more than servants, treating them with love and respect. Hassan's mother ran away after his birth. As an adult, Amir learns after Hassan's death in Afghanistan that Hassan is actually his half-brother; both are Baba's sons.

As a child, Hassan is small and physically disfigured, but his spirit is loving and courageous. (He risks his life to save Amir from bullies, armed only with a slingshot.) Although he is illiterate and uneducated, Hassan is bright and curious, hanging on to every word as Amir reads to him from books he cannot understand. Hassan loves Amir and remains loyal to him always, despite Amir's frequent abuse. As a adult living under the terror of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Hassan still lives with courage and honor, protecting his family at the expense of his life. He and his wife die at the hands of the Taliban, leaving the orphaned son that Amir comes to rescue.

Amir and Baba's relationship in Khaled Hosseini's novel, The Kite Runner, becomes stronger as time goes on. Baba finds the young Amir a weak disappointment and considers his writing talents unmanly. Baba fails to find a middle ground to share with his son, and their time together usually includes other members of the extended family. Baba becomes aware of Amir's jealousy of Hassan, but the father cannot explain his own reason for showing such an interest in his servant's son. Following their move to America, Baba and Amir grow much closer, living together and combing California's flea markets for treasures to resell. Even after his marriage, Amir remains dedicated to Baba, only realizing the father's terrible secret after Baba's death.

Amir can never forget that Hassan is not his equal, and though no one is closer to him during his youth, he still treats Ali's son as a servant. The two boys grow up as brothers, playing together and living on the same property, but Amir never treats Hassan as an equal--not realizing the truth of their situation. Amir becomes increasingly jealous of Baba's strong feelings for Hassan, and eventually commits two terrible acts of betrayal against his companion. He regrets both of them for the rest of his life, but when he learns the truth about Hassan after his death, it only compounds his guilt.

Amir goes through pretty intense character development in this novel.  As a young boy, he is tormented by his father's apparent disinterest in him.  Furthermore, he grows increasingly jealous of his father's apparent interest in Hassan, one of their Hazara servants.  As Amir fights for his father's love and approval, he betrays Hassan.  This betrayal is the beginning of Amir's true character development, as it leaves him extremely guilt-ridden.  Amir carries this guilt with him throughout his adolescence and into adulthood, from Afghanistan to America.  He allows it to eat away at him, even as his relationship with his father improves.  Finally, Amir is able to seek redemption when he is given a chance "to be good again."  Amir's entire character is basically driven first by guilt (even before his betrayal of Hassan he is convinced that he was responsible for his mother's death) and then redemption, which he does ultimately receive.

As a child Amir does some dishonorable things.  He tricks Hassan into believing he is reading from his books when he is really making up stories, he pressures Hassan into doing things that he doesn't have the courage to do.  His most dishonorable action as a child is to fail to protect or at least tell someone about what happen to Hassan.  After the attack Amir feels so guilty that he takes the guilt out on Hassan and creates a situation inwhich  Hassan is driven out of his life.

This whole novel is, however, about redemption and in the end Amir becomes an honorable character.  He returns home to make things right.  Even though it is too late to reconcile with Hassan he does risk his life to save his nephew, Sohrab.  He faces his past and does what he can to make things right again.  This is honorable.

"Throughout the novel, the protagonist struggles to find his true purpose and to forge an identity through noble actions. Amir's failure to stand by his friend at a crucial moment shapes this defining conflict."

Some of the major themes that relate to Amir and Hassan's friendship include innocence, sacrifice, and guilt. As innocent children, Amir and Hassan enjoy going to the movies, reading together, and playing in the pomegranate tree on Baba's property. Despite their different ethnicities, the boys live carefree lives and enjoy each other's company. Hassan is depicted as an innocent, morally-upright boy, who makes several sacrifices for Amir as a child. Hassan selflessly defends Amir from Assef by pointing a slingshot directly at Assef's eye, and he also promises Amir that he will return with their opponent's blue kite at the end of the kite-fighting tournament. However, Amir does not sacrifice anything for Hassan as a child and refuses to intervene as he watches Hassan being raped by Assef.

After Hassan is raped, both boys lose their childhood innocence, and guilt negatively affects their friendship. Amir is overwhelmed with guilt and can no longer be around Hassan after he witnesses his friend's assault. Their friendship is eventually destroyed because of Amir's guilt, and Hassan leaves Baba's estate with his father. As an adult, Amir travels back to Afghanistan and atones for his past sins by saving Hassan's son, Sohrab, from a difficult life in Taliban-controlled Kabul. Amir finally frees himself of guilt by sacrificing everything in order to save and adopt Sohrab. Although Amir never had a chance to repair his friendship with Hassan, he finds redemption by sacrificing his comfortable life in America to save Hassan's son.

Amir is a fairly complex character in Hosseini's work.  The protagonist of the narrative, Amir is explored in intricate depth and shown to possess a reservoir of emotional complexity.  Amir is a character whose insecurity and depth reflects the divergent nature of Afghanistan, itself. I think that Amir is possessed a by a sense of guilt as he matures.  There is guilt for not being able to reciprocate Hassan's overwhelming loyalty, for not standing up for Hassan in a critical moment of need, and for undermining him in the attempts to win a relationship with an overidealized father.  In this light, Amir operates with guilt in tow.  His eventual understanding and recognition of his connection with Hassan and the chance to "make things right" inspires him to find and care for Sohrab.  At the same time, Amir's journey back into Afghanistan highlights his own evolution and change.  For example, when Amir places money under the bed for Farid's children to find and buy food, it marks a moment of change. More than two decades before, he had done the same thing.   The first time, however, was for a terrible purpose. This reveals how much Amir has grown and changed as a man.  The fighting of Assef reflects much of the same in that he should have challenged him when Hassan was being brutalized.  He now does so when Hassan' son, his nephew, is being threatened.

I have included the link for character analysis from enotes.  This link will give you detailed information about both characters.  Here is a short summary:

Amir is an intelligent and affectionate boy who wants his father's approval and notice.  He is ethical and wants to "do right" in life, but his jealousy of Hassan's relationship with his dad leads him to make a bad decision he will always regret.

Hassan is the son of one of the Baba's servants.  Illiterate and guillable, he is a happy, athletic, and trustworthy child.  He is easily drawn in by Amir and truly believes that Amir is always honest with him.  This sincerity makes Amir feel more shame about his betrayal.

Several heroic qualities are evident in Amir’s character.  The most overwhelming is the one that begins the entire narrative.  Amir is incapable of escaping from the need to right that which is wrong and “to be good again.”  His sense of ethical duty and responsibility, characteristics that were not as evident as an adolescent, are traits that have matured along with him.  His need to go back to Afghanistan when things in America were fine and well is representative of the heroic quality of duty and responsibility to others.  I think that the heroic quality of bravery is evident in his confrontation with Assef.  There is much here that would indicate that he should leave or flee.  His background with Assef, the fact that Assef holds power with the Taliban, and the fact that Assef has more weapons at his disposal in both a literal and figurative sense are all reasons for Amir to evade conflict.  Yet, he willingly engages in a literal battle between good and evil and suffers greatly for it.  The bravery he shows in the face of overwhelmingly negative odds represents heroism.  Finally, Amir “saves” a life in Sohrab.  There is little more heroic than his ability to give Sohrab a new life, to pray for him, to care for him, and to be his kite runner at the end of the story.  It is this role as a savior that makes Amir a hero, embodying the heroic quality of preservation of life despite overwhelming odds.

The first step in writing a five-paragraph essay is to come up with a thesis statement. If you have been given free rein in this area, here is a good way to come up with a thesis statement: first, decide on the themes you will discuss in your essay.

Will you address racism, betrayal, or redemption? How about class conflict, jealousy, or violence? After you have made your decision, it's time to come up with a thesis statement.

Let's say that you decide to address the themes of betrayal and redemption in your essay. Possible thesis statements could include:

1) Surviving betrayal is difficult but possible.

2) Redemption for an act of betrayal can only be achieved through genuine remorse.

3) Generational betrayal results in grave, extensive consequences.

After you pick your thesis statement, choose 3 examples from the novel that support your assertion. Here are considerations that may prove helpful in your search for examples:

1) When did Amir initially realize the enormity of his actions?

Then, I saw Baba do something I had never seen him do before: He cried. It scared me a little, seeing a grown man sob. Fathers weren't supposed to cry. "Please," Baba was saying, but Ali had already turned to the door, Hassan trailing him. I'll never forget the way Baba said that, the pain, in his plea, the fear.

2) Does guilt correlate to genuine remorse? Refer to Chapter 16, which highlights Rahim Khan's story about Hassan, Sanaubar, and Ali. How do you think Amir felt after listening to Rahim Khan's story? Did the truth inspire genuine remorse in Amir? Here's an important quote to consider:

It hit me again, the enormity of what I had done that winter and that following summer. The names rang in my head: Hassan, Sohrab, Ali, Farzana and Sanaubar.

3) Refer to Hassan's letter to Amir, and the latter's discovery about the manner of his former friend's death. You'll find this in Chapter 17. What was Amir's reaction when he discovers that he has been betrayed as well? Is Baba's betrayal (that of hiding Hassan's paternal heritage) worse than Amir's betrayal of Hassan?

4) What is the result of generational betrayal? Both Hassan and Baba hid the truth from each other. How does this result in Hassan's departure and eventual death at the hands of the Taliban? What about Sohrab? Does his suffering result from Baba or Amir's actions (or both)?

Once you have your thesis statement and supporting examples, you'll be able to write your five-paragraph essay. In your last paragraph, you can reiterate your thesis statement and perhaps address a counter-argument about betrayal and redemption. Let's take for example, a counter-argument: some acts of betrayal can never be forgiven. Thus, redemption is impossible.

If your thesis statement is "redemption for an act of betrayal can only be achieved through genuine remorse," you're saying that redemption is possible. What will you say to someone who argues otherwise? Addressing counter-arguments need not be a laborious process. One or two sentences will do. However, reiterating your thesis statement and addressing a counter-argument is a nice way to finish up your last paragraph.

Amir is a protagonist that would do almost anything for his father's love.  He is however not the ideal son according to his father.  Amir is a introvert.  He likes to think things through rather than talk about them.  He is a reader and a scholar.  He enjoys making up stories and sharing them with Hassan.  As an adult he continues to be a student.  He graduates from college and becomes an author.  He spends his whole life trying to live a life of which his father would be proud.  Amir also has a secret which he holds onto his whole life.  He had betrayed his friend Hassan and he can't forgive himself for that betrayal.

If this is an exam question, I will try to help you along in strategizing an answer. Amir is the protagonist of the novel, so the entire story is primarily about him. The best thing you can do is to start with what you thought of him as a person as you read. Once you've established that, you want to go back into the book and figure out what made you feel that way. Here's an example of what I mean:

I feel that Amir is portrayed as weak and pathetic. Amir makes a decision early in the book that is the basis for the story. He decides not to help his friend Hassan when he is being gang-raped by a group of boys in an alley. Given that he is very young and scared, this is somewhat understandable. I can't say that I would have done any differently. However, Amir does not take the opportunity to fix his decision, to apologize or to help Hassan through what had to be an horrific experience. When Amir is asked by Hassan's father if he knows what is wrong with him, he replies: "How should I know what's wrong with him?... Maybe he's sick... Now am I going to freeze to death or are you planning on lighting the stove today?" Not only is he lying, he's condescending to Hassan's father.

As you can see, I stated my opinion and I backed it up with support from the text.