The Lingering Impact of Guilt

Guilt: A feeling of responsibility for wrongdoing.

“The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.”
Victor Hugo


The impact of guilt is a major theme in the novel The Kite Runner. The main character, Amir, is the main victim of guilt. Amir's closest friend is a boy the same age as him, Hassan. Hassan is not only his best friend since birth, but his servant.

The first time in the novel that Amir faces guilt takes place when he and Hassan are playing in the neighborhood and are approached by Assef, a boy with a father similar in power to Amir's, and his two friends. Assef and his friends surround Amir and Hassan and begin to degrade them both. Assef asks Amir in a tone of disgust and anger why he befriends Hassan because he is in a lower caste. Embarassed, Amir almost says that Hassan is not his friend but holds back after thinking twice. It turns out that Hassan stands up for and protects Amir from Assef and his friends, who were planning to beat him. Amir is stricken with guilt when he realizes how loyal Hassan is to him, while he had thoughts of telling Assef that Hassan was nothing but his servant, which could have potentially ended up in the beating of Hassan.

The most significant sequence of events in the novel that support the theme of lingering guilt begins when Amir wins the Kite Fighting Tournament, and Hassan runs off in pursuit of Amir's trophy kite, which is flying away. Hassan is gone long enough to alarm Amir, who begins to search for him. When Amir finally locates Hassan, he discovers that he has been surrounded by Assef and his two friends in an alleyway. Assef and his followers rape and beat Hassan, while Amir just stands there and watches. He doesn't do a thing to help Hassan and runs back home before the attack on him is even over. Amir's guilty conscience is so strong that he cannot bare to even look at Hassan anymore. Amir is under the impression that if he gets Hassan out of sight, his guilt will vanish. He attempts to rid Hassan from his life by putting a large amount of money under Hassan's bed in hopes that Amir's father will discover it and banish Hassan for stealing. When Hassan is confronted about the theft, he apologizes and Amir's father forgives him and allows him to stay. Amir is in disbelief. Hassan's father Ali, Amir's father's servant, is so ashamed of Hassan's actions that he takes his son and leaves forever. Soon after, Amir's guilt is even worse, and he realizes that he made a hug mistake that will haunt him for the rest of his life.