First 100 Pages of "The Kite Runner"

So it's official, I despise Amir.

Throughout this entire section of the book my hatred for the protagonist of the novel, Amir, has grown.  It first began when Amir states that he doesn't consider him and Hassan friends.  He only sees Hassan as a servant who's job is to always be there for him.  This is kind of like how Milkman viewed his mother while he was a child in Song of Solomon.  Then my hatred grew immensely after reading the part in the novel where Amir watches Hassan get raped by Assef and doesn't attempt to break it up or even go get help.  He just watches and then runs away.  Then lastly, Amir plants money and his watch that he received as gifts at his birthday party in Hassan's bed and frames him for stealing those items!  Amir does this to try to get Baba to fire Ali and Hassan, but Baba forgives Hassan.  However, Hassan must have explained to his father, Ali, what was going on with Amir, because Ali decides that he and Hassan need to leave.  Amir was so selfish that he made Ali have to give up his job to protect his son.

I've noticed that there is a pattern with all of these cowardly acts that Amir does to Hassan.  They all involve Amir being unsure of himself.  When Amir says that he doesn't view Hassan as his friend, he says that because he is higher up in the social structure than Hassan, so he is unsure about whether it would hurt his reputation to have a friend that is in a lower social class than himself.  When Amir watches Hassan get raped by Assef he does not get involved because he is unsure if Assef will spread around the news that Amir stood up for a Hazara, because that would hurt his reputation.  Finally, Amir frames Hassan with the money and the watch because after the raping incident, whenever Amir sees Hassan he feels really bad and becomes unsure with himself as a person.  These three cowardly acts Amir does to Hassan are examples of Amir being unsure of himself and because of that he is also selfish.

On a different note, there is one significant aspect of Hosseini's style of writing that needs to be addressed.  In each chapter of the book, Hosseini breaks up the scenes very often.  Each scene usually only lasts for two pages at most.  This follows the pattern of a more modernist way of writing.  If you look at older books, like Edgar Allen Poe books for example, you'll see that the chapter are much longer and they stay on the same scene for the most part.  However, with books that were written in the last fifty or sixty years you'll notice the chapters are broken up into more scenes, just like in The Kite Runner.  I think the reason Hosseini writes like this is to keep the readers interest by having many scenes.  This method is definitely working on me because I am very intrigued in the book and can't seem to put it down when I start reading.