Selfishness

             "I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me."

             I know that Amir ran mostly out of fear, but as he himself confirmed, he committed selfish actions because in the end it meant getting his father’s affection: "...Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price i had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba."

             Honestly, I don’t believe that I would have been able to do the same thing. I mean, Hassan has proved that he’ll stick by Amir; on the contrary his father grows colder throughout the book when Amir does something to disappoint him. Why try to win what seems like temporary affection? Amir already had Hassan, someone loyal and would forever give him that affection. Even though Amir tries to fix things, he doesn’t do it for Hassan; it’s all to get rid of the guilt. He doesn’t want his actions to keep haunting him and that’s probably the worst part. Amir saw how it affected him, but only took very little notice to how Hassan was being haunted by it and the pain it caused him. Nothing really overpowered Amir’s selfishness.