Is discrimination the biggest reason why Amir didn’t make amend for Hassan, but attempted to drive Hassan out even if Hassan gave a thousand percent of loyalty and sacrifice to Amir?

In case you didn’t fully see the topic: Is discrimination the biggest reason why Amir didn’t make amend for Hassan, but attempted to drive Hassan out even if Hassan gave a thousand percent of loyalty and sacrifice to Amir?


Amir’s inaction indirectly led to Hassan’s misfortune. What’s more, Amir even decided to blame Hassan for stealing. The majority may consider that it is Amir’s superior attitude stops him from apologizing or making any amend for Hassan, but in my perspective, Amir’s discrimination towards Hassan is more like an excuse of Amir for not daring to sacrifice for Hassan.

After watching Hassan hit raped without doing anything to rescue the situation, Amir was sinking in guilt that he could not get over it. If he really regards Hassan as a Hazara who is at a lower status, he wouldn’t feel guilty to such a painful extent. Instead, Amir regards Hassan as a playmate, a playful companion, thus he carved “The sultans of Kabul” on the tree trunk. Besides, Amir regards him as a listener, otherwise he would not read Shahnamah to Hassan or share the joy, after receiving Rahim Khan’s praise, to him immediately.

The textual evidence proves that Amir actually does not consider Hassan to be unworthy of his apology. In fact, Amir feels himself to be unworthy of Hassan’s sacrifice. After stunned by Hassan’s reply of “Yes” when asked whether he stole the watch and the bills, Amir said “I wasn’t worthy of this sacrifice”. Likewise, he chose not to make any apology for Hassan is because he thinks himself does not deserve Hassan’s forgiveness. Even Amir could not forgive himself.

Most importantly, Amir’s personality predetermined that he prefers evasion more than confrontation. Amir is a boy lack of self-assurance, but moreover, who attempts to avoid others to see his weakness inside. He wants to hide the truth and remove the guilt at the same time, thus he asked Hassan to punish him, but in a way without letting him know the truth. However, Amir saw it impossible for Hassan to punish him, which means Amir could never find peace in Hassan’s indirect violence of “guileless devotion” that exacerbated his guilt inside. In the meanwhile, he is fed up with the mask of lies. After Amir realized Ali had been told of everything, he felt relieved: “Strangely, I was glad that someone knew me for who I really was; I was tired of pretending”. He is hoping someone to rip off his mask and see his real role, but he is afraid to do so. Furthermore, Amir is somewhat selfish to refuse to take responsibility. After finding out that the only way for him to evade Hassan is to expel him, he attempted to drive Hassan away from him. After Baba’s firm disagreement, Hassan realized Baba would never let them go, unless the trust is broke down, provided the dad deeply hates stealing. Thus he directed and acted a theft scene.as he managed to transfer his pain to Hassan and Ali. Amir simply wanted to get rid of the pain, but he then realized that he could not.

In a nutshell, it is the feeling of guilt, the fear of pain and responsibility, and the inborn character of selfishness more likely to be the reasons that hinder Amir to make amend for Hassan.

Amir's mistreat towards Hassan is greatly influenced by the discrimination towards Hazaras at the time. Amir as kid, does not have the courage to fight back the poor views of society. Therefore, even thought he think of Hassan as a brother, many times he uses Hassan's Hazara status as an excuse for his wrong doings.
However, there are still other factors that need to be considered. Amir knows he has comitted mistakes, but does not have the bravery to apologize and make up for his mistakes. His immaturity negatively contributes to his inaction towards making things right. A 12 year old is more likely to avoid painful reality at all costs than to face it.
Also, he cannot stand that a Hazara is more virtuous than him. He is afraid of the truth that the Hazara is better than him and does not want to risk his pride by admitting his faults.

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