Why does Amir constantly test Hassan's loyalty? Boys will be boys, and they are always testing the loyalty of their friends. They challenge friends to do things for them and follow their lead. In this case, Amir needed to know that his friend was loyal because his own dad wasn't loyal. He wanted Hassan to treat him like family. He sent many kites up in the air and it was Hassan's duty as a friend to fetch the kites. That is also a test of loyalty.

But the point here also is, in the absence of a nurturing, loving mother (which Amir suffered through), when one's father doesn't seem totally committed and loyal to the son, that son needs to find another male who is loyal and who will be loyal.

How bad was the relationship between Amir and his dad? In Chapter 3 Amir, the narrator, talks about his relationship with his father. "With me as the glaring exception, my father molded the world around him to his liking. The problem, of course was that Baba saw the world in black and white. And he got to decide what was black and what was white. You can't love a person who lives that way without fearing him too. Maybe even hating him a little." Maybe even hating him a little? It sounds like Amir hated the way his dad treated him when he was a little boy.

Why does Amir resent Hassan? He resents him for the reasons discussed earlier; that...

Also in Chapter 3, Amir crouches outside his father's room one night and hears a conversation between his father and Rahim Khan.
I heard the leather of Baba's seat creaking as he shifted on it. I closed my eyes, pressed my ear even harder against the door wanting to hear, not wanting to hear," Amir explains. His father says to Rahim, "Sometimes I look out the window and I see him playing on the street with the neighborhood boys. I see how they push him around, take his toys from him, and give him a shove here, a whack there. and, you know, he never fights back. Never. He just...drops his head and..." It must have been very hurtful for a young boy to hear his father saying things like that, and saying that sometimes it seems that Amir is not even his son.

What does Amir no longer want to be Hassan's friend? Partly because Amir feels ashamed that he didn't stand up for his friend. He hates the fact that he let his friend get raped and did nothing, so seeing Hassan reminds Amir of his own cowardice. Amir even lies and claims that Hassan is a thief, just to have Hassan out of his life, which hopefully will heal Amir's, hurt inside himself over not coming to his friend's aid.

Works Cited

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003.