Loyalty
Even though The Kite Runner seems mostly to be a book about betrayal, the book also contains many scenes about loyalty. Of all the scenes about loyalty that appear in the book, two seem to be very important.
The first moment of loyalty happens when Asset threatens to hit Amir with brass knuckles simply because Assef hates the way that Amir is friends with a Hazara. In this moment, Hassan shows his loyalty to Amir by standing up to Assef and threatening to use a slingshot to shoot out Assef's eye.
The second moment in the book in which loyalty seems very important happens when Amir decides to run after a kite that he and Sohrab had cut down during the kite-fight at the end of the book. At this point in The Kite Runner, Sohrab has completely stopped talking, and Soraya and Amir have mostly given up hope that Sohrab would ever speak again. All this changes when Amir decides to join a kite fight at the end of the book. During the kite fight, Amir "felt a presence next" to him (Hosseini 321). Seeing Sohrab by his side, Amir lets Sohrab take the spool, and together they succeed in cutting down a green kite with what Amir calls "the old lift-and-dive" (322). When the green kite starts falling from the sky, Amir asks Sohrab if he would like for Amir to "run that kite" for him (323). Even though Sohrab says nothing, he does smile, and that is enough for Amir to say, “For you, a thousand times over," and then run the kite (323). Both of these moments focus on the importance of loyalty.
Comparing these two moments of loyalty, it appears that Hassan's loyalty to Amir was on a higher level than Amir's loyalty to Sohrab. When Amir says “For you, a thousand times over" and then runs the kite for Sohrab, Amir shows Sohrab that he will do the kinds of things for Sohrab that Hassan had once done for him. Even though this show of loyalty is very important to the book, Amir's loyalty to Sohrab in this scene comes at a time when nothing very much can go wrong. Even though Amir does a good thing when he lets Sohrab know that he will always be there for him, Amir's loyalty comes at a time in the book when everything is going well for Amir and Soraya, and nothing terrible is happening to Sohrab. None of them are living in Afghanistan, and all of them are free to do things like go to the park and fly kites. Being loyal to Sohrab at this point in the book is a pretty easy thing to do, so this moment of loyalty is on a lower level than the kinds of loyalty that Hassan shows to Amir earlier in the book. Earlier in the book, Hassan shows two kinds of loyalty to Amir, both of which are on a higher level than Amir's loyalty to Sohrab. Because Hassan is both Amir's servant and friend, he shows that he is willing to put himself in danger to help his master and his friend. By protecting his master from Assef, Hassan shows that servants will sometimes put themselves in danger to protect their masters. Another kind of loyalty happens when Hassan comes to the defense of his friend. Of these two kinds of loyalty, the kind of loyalty that happens when friends put themselves in danger in order to help a friend is the more important kind of loyalty. When Hassan came to his master's defense, he was doing what was expected of him. When Hassan came to his friends defense, he was doing what he wanted to do. By choosing to be loyal to his friend in a moment when he things could go very badly, Hassan shows that his loyalty to Amir is on the highest level.
Works Cited
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Riverhead Books, 2004, https://www.amazon.com/Kite-Runner-Khaled-Hosseini-ebook/dp/B000OCXGZA/