The Kite Runner

Maya Elmore

Mr. Nardone

Period 2

Central idea essay  [pic 1]

    Khaled Hosseini develops the central idea of jealousy in his novel The Kite Runner.  Amir is jealous of the way Baba treats Hassan and how he treats his own son. “Baba never missed Hassan’s birthday. For a while, he used to ask Hassan what he wanted, but he gave up doing that because Hassan was always too modest to actually suggest a present.” Amir was jealous that Baba would treat Hassan like his own son even though they were his servants. Amir told Baba that he should get rid of Ali and Hassan and get new servants. This made Baba upset because he viewed Ali and Hassan as family and told Amir that he was ashamed of him for saying that. “I’ve never laid a hand on you Amir, but if you ever say that again… “He looked away, shaking his head. “ You bring me shame. and Hassan… Hassan’s not going anywhere do you understand?”

 Amir was jealous of the way Baba treated Hassan, and this affected how he viewed and treated Hassan. Amir and Hassan were supposed to be best friends, but they were separated by class differences, Amir treated Hassan as his servant, because he was jealous. “In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was a Sunni and he was a Shi’a and nothing was ever gonna change that.” In addition, Amir was approached by Assef, the neighborhood bully and told him that Hassan was not his friend and he was only his servant. “But he’s not my friend! I almost blurted. He’s my servant.” “Why would I only play with Hassan when no one else is around?” This shows how Amir is jealous of the way he his treated by Baba so he treats Hassan as only His servant. In addition, Amir is jealous that Baba got Hassan a surgery for his cleft lip, and couldn’t understand why because he was only their servant. “I wished I too had a scar that would beget Baba’s sympathy. It wasn’t fair.”