Should Amir be forgiven for his actions towards Hassan in The Kite Runner?
I would argue that Amir should be forgiven because he was young and naive when he treated Hassan so abominably. Furthermore, if we accept as a general principle that it's unfair for someone to be held accountable for the rest of their lives for something they did as a child,...
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then it's difficult not to forgive Amir.
That doesn't in any way excuse his appalling behavior. Instead of reaching out to Hassan after his terrible ordeal, instead of showing care and consideration towards someone who was supposed to be his friend, Amir conspired to have him banished from the village. No one in their right mind would ever regard such behavior as acceptable.
Yet, in order to evaluate Amir's actions properly, one needs to recognize the context in which he made his fateful decision to get Baba to send Hassan away. Amir felt, not unreasonably, that Baba was lavishing too much attention on Hassan, the kind of attention to which he, as Baba's son, was entitled. Amir genuinely felt that he was losing his father and that as long as Hassan was around, he would never have the opportunity to develop a proper relationship with him.
So although we can certainly condemn Amir for his actions, we can empathize with him at the same time. It is through such empathy that we are able to forgive him for what he's done.
Should Amir be forgiven for his actions towards Hassan in The Kite Runner?
In the novel, "The Kite Runner," we meet Amir as a young boy who is starving for the attention of his father. We see that he is a product of his upbringing. Hassan and his family were of the servant Hazara class and beneath Amir and his father in the Afghanistan culture. Hassan was Amir's servant. They became friends because they spent so much time together. Amir admits early in the novel that he encouraged Hassan to do things even though he knew it would be Hassan who would get into trouble.
However, no matter how close the boys were Amir always felt superior and acted that way. His father encouraged Amir to be more assertive and to stand up for himself. When Hassan was raped, Amir was to frightened to come forward and help.
At the end of the novel Amir overcomes his fear to rescue his nephew. Amir redeems himself and should be forgiven. God forgives all manner of sin, so who is man to deny forgiveness?
"Amir makes great sacrifices to pursue his quest to atone for past sins by rescuing his half nephew. Symbolized by the bleeding fingers of kite-fighters who cut their competitors' kites out of the sky with string embedded with glass, sacrifice is an important theme of the novel."