I think one of the most interesting quotes that Khaled Hosseini, has his character Baba say to his son, Amir, is one that exploded on the page for me when I started reading the novel, “The Kite Runner.” A stereotype of Islamic culture I heard quite often when I was growing up was that if a person stole in an Islamic country, they would most likely get their hand cut off. Here in the states when we see lost change or a dollar on the street, we pick it up and claim it as our own. Maybe saying, “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” We have a different definition of theft, even though we disagree with it just as much as Islamic people do.

Baba said to his son Amir very close to the beginning of the novel a quote I will never forget, and one his son surely never forgot throughout the course of his life in the novel.

“When you kill a man, you steal a life,” Baba said. “You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?” (Hosseini, 18)

Following this quote, Amir relates a story about his grandfather, Baba’s own father, who confronted a thief who had invaded his home and the thief stabbed Baba’s father in the throat, refusing to pay for his wrong doings and instead creating a domino effect of injustice that more than exemplifies the lesson in this quote.

Ironically, Amir does not seem to learn this lesson in a metaphorical manner. He learns the literal concept, but does not grasp the metaphor until years later, when a world of damage is done. He attempts to right his wrongs by assuming that Baba is merely angry at his son because his mother died in childbirth with him. It is uncertain and perhaps irrelevant if Baba even believed this, but clearly, Amir cannot see that his father did not just mean the literal, he meant the metaphorical as well.

Amir kept secrets, and lied and though most of us could probably not condemn him for being unable to save Hassan from Assef’s cruel sexual assault, Amir’s misunderstanding of his father’s lesson illustrates his failure to be moral. Morality is a choice. If we are jealous, or confused or even simply afraid, we can make decisions that cause the course of our lives to change drastically and possibly for the worse.

The interesting aspect of morality, is that even though as humans, we have a choice to be moral, if we make one wrong choice, we might think, “Oh, well that was just one thing. Things will get better. I could’ve avoided doing that wrong, but I didn’t get caught, so I’ll just make sure that I don’t run into that problem again, or I’ll just lie about it, and no one will know.”

As stupid as that may sound, a lot of people fall into that trap. They want to be moral, but they want the path to be easy, and they end up making bad choices, and Amir made some bad choices. He could have asked Hassan if he was alright and maybe got some conversation going to try and help him get through his ordeal, and then he could’ve told his father about what happened, and say, “Hey Baba, I’m worried about Hassan, I saw something bad happen to him and I’m sorry I didn’t go help him, but I didn’t know what to do. I made a mistake, I should’ve run for help, but I was scared to, but I am willing to make sure Hassan gets the help that he needs. And maybe you can talk to Assef because he respects you and might listen to you better than he would listen to me.”

I’m aware that my response to this situation is perhaps too ideal and not a typical way of approaching this type of situation in this kind of culture where honor and dignity are at stake. But if Amir felt something was wrong, and had feelings that he should’ve said something, as he often felt in the novel, is that not indication that he should’ve spoken up in ANY culture?

Also consequently, Hassan’s good nature did not allow him to be open like we are encouraged to be in America. Perhaps he would have been unable to say anything. But the fact that he was always so concerned about the welfare of his friend might’ve allowed Amir to respond in the same way. The problem I think that prevented Amir from being completely honest with Hassan was his anger that his father seemed to favor Hassan because Hassan was more like him than Amir. Baba was seemingly courageous and unafraid, and Amir was timid, afraid to fight. These differences seemed to be the base of the struggles with Amir’s immorality.

Throughout his life, Amir toils with the gravity of his mistakes consistently saying, “I should’ve done this, I should’ve done that, I should not have allowed this, I should have allowed that.” Most of those concerns relate to Hassan because Hassan did him no wrong. He did everything but hate Amir. He loved Amir more than I think Amir ever loved himself. He loved him unconditionally.

This strong character in Hassan might’ve resulted out of the fact that Hassan was at a disadvantage being a “Hazara boy” one who was “of the lower class.” He knew nothing but how to care for people, being a servant, being allowed to play with Amir, but still being humbled by chores and duties and always knowing/being reminded of the fact that Amir is above him in societal status and education.

Hassan ultimately chose morality, only doing immoral things if Amir insisted. Amir chose immorality because he was searching for acceptance by his father, and ultimately he destroys the one person who loved him with no sight for flaws or need for Amir to change.

I found it interesting that at the end of the novel, after all the ordeals Amir went through in order to not fail Hassan a second time, he becomes the Kite Runner, even having a physical resemblance to Hassan with a split up his lip, a harelip. He becomes the Kite Runner through trying to learn from his mistakes and continuing Hassan’s beautiful path of morality, love and justice by loving Hassan’s son as Hassan loved Amir.

These are just some thoughts, what do you think?