1. The information about Khalid Hosseyni's life and literary activities

4. The teenager heroes Amir and Hassan in Kite runner
Amir is the narrator and protagonist of the novel and is a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim. Although not a completely sympathetic character, Amir is one for whom most readers feel compassion. Amir has conflicted feelings about his father, Baba, and his playmate, Hassan. Often, Amir is jealous of the way Baba treats Hassan, although Amir realizes that Hassan socially has a lower place in society. A conflicted character, Amir struggles between the logical and emotional sides of his being. His obsession and guilty conscience, along with his adult perspective looking back on childhood events, render him a usually reliable — yet simultaneously potentially suspect — storyteller.
Hassan is Amir's playmate and servant and is a Hazara and Shi'a Muslim. He's also the son of Ali. Hassan considers Amir his friend, although Amir never consciously considers Hassan as such. Hassan epitomizes the perfect servant who is loyal to his master, even after the master betrays him. Many critics consider Hassan's character "too good to be true," for even after he is betrayed by Amir, Hassan continues to lie for the person he considers his friend.
The Kite Runner is a novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini that takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the rise of the Taliban. It is centered on the unlikely friendship of a wealthy boy, Amir, and Hassan, the son of his father's servant Ali. Ali in The Kite Runner is the dutiful servant of Amir's father, Baba. He and his son Hassan are Hazara, which is considered a low-class minority in Afghanistan.
Baba and Amir are Pashtun, which is the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. The Pashtuns speak Pashto and are Sunni Muslims, while the Hazara are Shi'a Muslims and speak Persian. There is evident conflict between the Pashtuns and the Hazara, and the book showcases how these ethnic diversities instill a power imbalance between Amir and his father and Hassan and Ali .
Ali is a loving character, one who is kind and tolerant, despite the harassment he receives not only for his ethnicity, but also his physical appearance. Damage to one of Ali's legs makes him unable to walk without limping. Also, the lower muscles of his face are paralyzed, making him always look unhappy. Although he endures verbal abuse, he always treats others with kindness He instills this tolerance in his son, Hassan.
Ali is a noteworthy character in the novel due to his ability to remain resilient in the face of cruelty and hatred. As the children in the neighborhood make jokes about his physical limitations and his ethnic features, he remains stoic.
Being a hero is not something everyone can be. One has to make sacrifices for the better of others. If one is not willing to make sacrifices, they are not strong enough to be a hero. Specific heroes are hard to find. Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner”, revolves around characters portraying heroism. Although the story revolves around many characters showcasing the theme of heroism, the character that has been the hero throughout the story is Hassan. This is proved by the sacrifices Hassan made for Amir, Hassan accepting his mother back into his life and Hassan protecting Baba’s ho⁶use after he left to America. Firstly, Hassan is the true hero of the story because he was constantly there for Amir. Hassan was loyal and was willing to do anything for Amir: “For you a thousand times over!” . This quote specifically portrays that Hassan was willing to do anything for Amir, as he said he will do anything a thousand times over for him. This is a powerful quote because this exemplifies Hassan being heroic through his l⁷oyalty for Amir. Hassan also was willing to do anything for Amir without expecting anything back from. Hassan also proved his heroism when he stood up for Amir against Assef: “If you make a move, they’ll have to change your nickname from ‘Assef the Ear Eater’ to ‘One Eyed Assef’, because I have this rock pointed at your left eye” . This quote portrays Hassan’s heroism because Hassan stood up against Assef. Amir was being threatened by Assef and Hassan was courageous enough to point a loaded slingshot at Assef telling him to leave them alone. This is also important because Hassan is a Hazara and Assef is a Pashtun. Pashtuns are the higher class and have more authority over Hazaras. Even though Assef was older, stronger and a Pashtun, Hassan still stood up against him to protect Amir showcasing his heroism.
In many ways, Ali is a parallel character to Hassan. Both share the same social status as poor, ethnic Hazaras, both are devoted childhood friends to Baba and Amir respectively, and both have physical deformities. Most significantly, both characters deal with betrayal at the hands of their masters. Baba has sex with Ali’s wife, setting into motion all of the interpersonal betrayals that occur throughout the novel. Despite this infidelity, Ali remains a dedicated servant to Baba. Ali represents a particularly faithful, traditional Muslim perspective. None of the other characters in the novel overtly display this same level of faith, and Hosseini presents it as part of Ali’s admirable moral fortitude. Ali is also the first person to learn what happened between Hassan and Amir in the alley. Because of this knowledge, Ali allows Hassan to lie about stealing Amir’s watch and birthday money, causing Ali and Hassan’s departure from Baba’s household. In this heartbreaking and ultimately self-sacrificing act, Ali, despite his limited social power, does what he can to protect his son from Amir’s betrayal. The central character of the story as well as its narrator, Amir has a privileged upbringing. His father, Baba, is rich by Afghan standards, and as a result, Amir grows up accustomed to having what he wants. The only thing he feels deprived of is a deep emotional connection with Baba, which he blames on himself. He thinks Baba wishes Amir were more like him, and that Baba holds him responsible for killing his mother, who died during his birth. Amir, consequently, behaves jealously toward anyone receiving Baba’s affection. His relationship with Hassan only exacerbates this. Though Hassan is Amir’s best friend, Amir feels that Hassan, a Hazara servant, is beneath him. When Hassan receives Baba’s attention, Amir tries to assert himself by passive-aggressively attacking Hassan. He mocks Hassan’s ignorance, for instance, or plays tricks on him. At the same time, Amir never learns to assert himself against anyone else because Hassan always defends him. All of these factors play into his cowardice in sacrificing Hassan, his ⁸only competition for Baba’s love, in order to get the blue kite, which he thinks will bring him Baba’s approval.
In The Kite Runner, Amir is a tormented soul exhausted by his experiences of the past from which he releases. In his childhood, he fails to get the love, affection, and care he expects from his father that develop an inferiority complex, mistrust, and hypocrisy in him. His craziness to please Baba, his cowardice, and betrayal arethe nightmares that haunt him creating a guilty conscience–consciously and subconsciously he cries atonement for. Lately, his initiatives to save Sohrab, Hassan’s son, and to offer Sohrab fatherly affection redeem him from his lies and culpability. Thereby, the sense of parenthood renders endless gateways for Amir to be mature.
The novel is a good example of literary work which portray betray in human relationships and its consequences on one’s life. It reveals the human instinct which enable one to betray their close ones just for the sake of their own desires. The act of betrayal is portrayed in the characters of Baba, Ali, Hassan and Amir.The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is set in Afghanistan starting in the 1970s and follows the protagonist, Amir as he navigates growing up in the country as it falls to Soviet military action and then to the Taliban, a religious fundamentalist group that came to power in Afghanistan. Amir is a 12-year-old at the beginning of the story and he is growing up with a father who is a successful businessman and has no mother, as she died while she gave birth to him. Amir and his father, Baba, are part of the ethnic majority in Afghanistan, the Pashtuns, and they have servants, Ali and his son Hassan who are part of the ethnic minority, the Hazara.Despite the disparity in social standing, Baba treats Ali and Hassan like family, even going so far as to pay to get Hassan's cleft lip fixed as a present. The boys participate in kite fighting, a popular sport where participants have kites with strings coated in glass so they can cut the other kites flying. The actual kite runner is the one who chases the kite after it has fallen. In a bid to win his father's approval, Amir wants to win a kite tournament with Hassan as his kite runner. Hassan is known to be a great kite runner as he is able to predict where it will fall better than most others. During one such tournament, Amir does win by cutting the last kite out of the air and Hassan successfully gets the fallen kite for Amir to have as a trophy. While they are separated looking for the kite, Hassan gets cornered in an alley by a local bully, Assef, and is raped. Amir witnesses this attack and he does not say or do anything to stop it. He pretends that it never happened but the guilt for not standing up for Hassan, his best friend, and the boy who has loyally stood up for him throughout their childhood, begins to consume him. Amir convinces Baba that Hassan stole his watch to get Baba to send Hassan and Ali away.