has made him unappealing enough to make Mary Carson’s actions seem reasonable: the reader can understand how a woman who was cheated and abused would not only make it her mission to escape from a bad situation but could turn into a petty tyrant. The despicable aspects of Luke’s behavior include forcing his wife to have sexual relations with him. While today, this is recognized as rape, in the era of the novel, marital rape was not recognized as a crime.

Assef plays a dual function in Khaled Hosseini’s novel: he is a villain in his own right and also represents the larger evil of the Taliban. He is similar to Luke in that he commits rape, in this case of a boy, Hassan; Assef is shown as not only vicious but cowardly as he and two other boys gang up on Hassan. Assef’s negative qualities include racism and religious prejudice, which he uses in part to justify attacking Hassan. On a larger level, his love of Nazism factors into his embrace of totalitarianism, leading to his rise in the Taliban’s ranks.

Luke O'Neill is the undisputed villain of the piece in The Thorn Birds. A stingy, selfish domestic abuser, he is not likely to be winning any popularity contests anytime soon.

For O'Neill, his wife, Meggie, is nothing but a piece of property, a mere acquisition to be treated however he sees fit. No sooner has he taken her down the aisle than he's putting her out to work as a domestic skivvy and taking control of her finances. For good measure, he shows no interest whatsoever in his newborn baby.

All in all, O'Neill is a pretty unpleasant piece of work, to put it mildly. Under the circumstances, it's no wonder that Meggie loses her mind over a priest. She seeks what she sees as the goodness of Father de Bricassart over the unmitigated evil of her husband.

General Taheri in The Kite Runner, though a deeply flawed character, cannot reasonably be described as villainous. Pompous, yes, officious, definitely, but there's nothing of the villain about the General. If he has one character flaw, it's pride. Back in Afghanistan, Taheri was a big deal, a senior official in the Ministry of Defense. But since being forced to flee to the United States, he hasn't been able to find his place in a society he finds truly bewildering.

Although there's no doubt that Taheri does some genuinely bad things—such as almost killing his daughter Soraya's boyfriend—Hosseini depicts him in a much more complex, much more human way than McCullough feels able to do in relation to the thoroughly nasty Luke O'Neill in The Thorn Birds.

I'm not sure Luke O'Neill can be compared with either character from The Kite Runner, but given the choice, I would say Asef. Amir, the privileged protagonist of The KiteRunner, is essentially a good character, although plagued with a certain moral weakness. Even though he betrays his friend Hassan and lies to have him dismissed from the household, Amir feels extreme remorse and guilt for his actions (or inaction). In short, he recognizes that he is a coward, and that recognition helps redeem him in the end. Asef, on the other hand, is a brutal, egotistical sociopath, who delights in inflicting pain and crushing the weak.

Like Asef, O'Neill is brutal and calculating. His marriage to Meggie is motivated by his greed; he objectifies Meggie, cares little for the child they have together, and has no remorse or self doubt about his actions. Unlike Asef, Luke is not from a privileged background. Whereas Asef uses his status in the community to bully everyone else and ultimately gain a position of authority with the Taliban, O'Neill is a migrant worker whose ambition is to win sugar cane cutting contests. I would say that both characters are "villains," but that of the two Asef is much more malignant.