Khaled Hosseini shows that conformity and nonconformity bring the same amount of clarity, as well as destruction. This is shown through the main character Amir. At the beginning of the book, Amir is faced with an uncomfortable situation when the main bully of Kabul, Assef, is harassing Amir’s friend Hassan for being Hazara, which is the minority ethnicity in Afghanistan. Due to Amir conforming to the ideology of the society, he does not stand up for Hassan; “I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost… I just watched,”(Hosseini 73). Amir shows conformity because he just watched as Assef and his friends were bullying Hassan. He had multiple opportunities to help Hassan, but did not. Hassan then pays the ultimate price for Amir conforming, …show more content…
Amir’s action to conforming with the other boys by not doing anything to help his friend results in Hassan’s dignity being ripped away from him. Later on in the book, years after Amir matures and is not like his childhood self, he makes his way back to Afghanistan in order to help Rahim Khan in his final months but also to redeem himself. Rahim Khan tells Amir that Hassan died by the Taliban and that his son Sohrab needed a father or a guardian to take care of him so Amir sets out to the orphanage, where he finds out that Sohrab was taken by a Taliban soldier to make way with him, so Amir tracks him down and it turns out it was Assef who was the soldier. Assef said that Amir needed to pay a price for Sohrab, “‘We have some unfinished business, you and I’... ‘All right,’ I said… wasn't about to beg.”(Hosseini 286). Amir conforms to Assef when he says that they need to finish their business because he wants to rescue Sohrab and bring him to a safe place. Amir conforming to Assef causes him to be absolutely pummeled, yet for Sohrab to be free and …show more content…
Hassan shows nonconformity when he is being harassed by Assef and the other boys, and he stands up for himself by threatening them with his slingshot saying “I’m the one holding the slingshot. If you make a move, they’ll have to change your nickname from Assef ‘the Ear Eater’ to ‘One-Eyed Assef,’”(Hosseini 42). This shows nonconformity because the text shows how Hassan is being rebellious and going against Assef and his harassment of Hazaras. The effect of this is not good at all, due to Hassan ending up being raped by Assef and lost all of his dignity which is one of the most destructive consequences. The second time Hassan shows nonconformity in when he is an older and more mature man, but he still was defiant towards the Taliban, “(Taliban) ordered him to get his family out of the house by sundown. Hassan protested… They told Hassan they would be moving in to supposedly keep it safe till I return. Hassan protested again.”(Hosseini 219). This action inevitably ended with negative consequences when, “they took him to the street...and shot them in the back of the head.”(Hosseini 219). Hassan was not conforming to the Taliban, which are the powerful majority, thus giving him the worst possible outcome;